You're Turning 30

"Animal Crossing: Julian's Birthday Party"

170 pieces  |  LEGO: 77046 (retired)

Assembled by Jade Garcia, December 2024

Interaction Rating: 4 / 5 (interaction with the set encouraged, but use extra care)

December 13, 2024

For Hunter's thirtieth birthday, Sarah couldn't let such an auspicious occasion pass by without throwing Hunter the biggest birthday party of his life. They decided on a Mad Tea Party theme, loosely based on the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, largely because Hunter loves tea and had no other ideas. Sarah handled all the planning, and when the big day arrived, she spent most of it running around in a frenzy, trying to pull everything together before their friends arrived for the celebration. There was a delicious spread of hors d'oeuvres and desserts, and all the party guests came in their finest, silliest hats. Their friends, Vanessa and Mike, brought a huge selection of party games to choose from, and the group opted to play "Trial by Trolley." The game creates horrible ethical dilemmas (do you run over a kiddie pool full of babies or the scientist who will one day cure cancer?) that everyone must face in turn. It prompted some interesting debate, and also made Sarah and Hunter look at their friends with new, suspicious eyes. They stopped the game in the middle to listen to Bo Burnham's "Turning 30," which was Hunter's official birthday anthem. They took their friends on a tour to see the brick sets that they'd already assembled that were hidden in plain sight all over the house (even in those early days, but the Lego takeover of the house was only beginning). At the end of the night, Sarah low-key forced their friends to take home brick sets to help the couple put together the growing pile they'd acquired for the museum exhibit. No one objected. That set in motion a key part of what made the museum possible, which was abundant help from their loved ones.

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