Bionicle Birthday Party  I threw a Bionicle birthday party for my son who is turning 7 and his friends (mostly boys) who are so enamoured of this Lego toy.  We sent out invitations decorated with his drawings of the Toa and containing a secret message on the back ("We would love to have you") written in the Bionicle alphabet.  We included the alphabet (downloaded from a fan site) on a slip of paper in the invitation so kids could decipher the message.  It seems that this is a good activity for kids who are still developing their reading/decoding skills.  We decorated the party room with Toa pictures downloaded from Bionicle fan sites and printed on a color printer.  We used my son's Bionicle figures as decorations too, putting Onua (Toa of Earth) underneath the furniture, Red Rahkshi (red is the fire power) in the fireplace, and the Toa of air hanging from the ceiling.  By the way, Takanuva, Toa of Light, looks pretty good standing on a windowsill with the daylight shining through his amber eyes. My son had fun with these preparations.  When the kids arrived, they came into the kitchen where a poster of Bioncle mask styles had been posted. They were given a half an English muffin, a squeeze bottle of pizza sauce, lots of topping choices and a dull knife. They were encouraged to make their own mini pizzas and use the toppings to make a mask-like design.  Outside, games included Tahu's lava jump challenge (used a red plastic table cloth folded into varying widths that the kids had to jump over), Gali's water challenge (kids divided into 2 teams and carried water by spoon from a bucket to a bowl - the team that filled the bowl best won), Onua's Lego dig (buried Lego in a sandbox), Lewa's rope swing (kid's swung across a  ditch on a rope we tied up), the Toa Kaita challenge (3 kids at a time had to run an obstacle course while "combined" by all hanging onto the same hula hoop, and Kopaka's knowledge challenge (taking a brief Bionicle knowledge quiz I created from the movie and comic book stories). For each activity completed, the kids got a "kanoka disk" token (just a cardboard token I created in the color of each Toa).  The tokens were redeemable at the end of the party for a small Lego favor.  Because the Toa each have an elemental power associated with them (air, water, fire, etc.) the game possibilities are many.  When competition got heated, I reminded the kids that the Toa were only effective when they worked together ("unity, duty, destiny").  Everyone got a disk for every activity.  Back inside, the kids made their own "masks of light."  I bought craft foam and my son made a mask pattern. We made a foam mask for each child and allowed them to decorate with paint, markers, glitter, sequins, etc. They seemed to really enjoy this.  While they were mask-making, I slipped the mini pizzas into the oven.  They were ready in 10 minutes.  The kids ate their pizza, got some BLOX candy (shaped like Lego blocks) snacked on strawberries, grapes and blueberries arranged on a circular tray (like the island of Mata Nui) and marked with flags saying "Le-Koro" (green grapes),Ta-Koro (red strawberries), and Ga-Koro (blueberries).  I heard one kid exclaim "cool!" when he read the flags.  They had cake and the birthday boy opened gifts, then the kids got to redeem their tokens for a Lego toy and the party ended. As a parent who has been subjected to hours of reading Bionicle comics with my son and hours of watching the movie over and over again, I found the Bionicle story full of fun party ideas and "cool!" was the reaction I was aiming for.