Dino Bash!
My older son just turned 3 and he is obsessed with dinosaurs! He is also obsessed with construction so he goes absolutely nuts whenever I allow him to watch that DinoTrux show, because what 3-year-old wouldn't go nuts over a TV show that decided to combine his two favorite things in life?! Since we did a construction themed birthday last year when he turned 2, I decided to go along with dinosaurs because it really is such a fun theme!
We also decided to try and do a joint birthday party with my son's good friend, but sadly cold season hit and the friend was unable to make it to his own birthday party! I'm also a December baby, so I understand how that goes, but it was still a good reminder that no matter how much you plan and prepare, kids get sick... and if we're being honest, usually at really inconvenient times.
Although a few of the kids invited also came down with what was likely to be the same cold going around, we did have quite a few people come out and it ended up being a ton of fun! My good friend, and the mom of the little boy who got sick, still stopped by and dropped off an amazing cake, as well as cupcakes, and the biggest hit for the kids: a bounce house! If you have a friend that owns one of these, I highly recommend borrowing it. They keep the kids busy for literally hours, and any birthday party that tires children out (and how could hours of bouncing NOT?!) is a total hit with the parents. Nothing worse than getting a kid all worked up with a massive sugar high and then sending them home for bed time, right?? With that in mind, I also planned some activities to help them burn off some more energy as well, just in case the bounce house got a hole or something...
The Invitation:
So we found this great T-Rex costume.... Actually, the original idea was for my husband to get one of those inflatable T-Rex costumes you see all over the internet now and chase the boys down the street. Then we found out how much they were and laughed. The boys were more than happy to run up and down the street as many times as I needed them too yelling their heads off, pretending that they were being chased by a giant dino. Bonus points for the fun (and energy it burned off) that this photo shoot brought with it. I selected my favorite picture of the two of them running, found a T-Rex on google images and opened the two up on photoshop. I selected the T-Rex, dragged it into the boys' picture, erased where it overlapped on my sons body, and then turned the whole picture into black and white. I also spray painted a bit of a shadow under the dinosaur to make it seem like it was solidly on the ground. It was very do-able, and this is probably my favorite of the invitations I've made... but then again I've only made 5 so far, so there's really not a ton to compare it to.
The Cutout:
By far the MOST popular thing at this birthday party other than the bounce house! The kids LOVED it, and lets be honest, the parents did as well! My friend and I pooled are children together one morning and let them loose with green finger paint. Unfortunately, this specific finger paint enjoyed staining everything in sight, so the boys were in their diapers and therefore the pictures will remain on my mobile phone until black mail is needed later in life... joking, of course! Or am I? This was their final product:
I then borrowed one of my son's dinosaur books and drew the outline of a dinosaur with pencil, and then traced the final pencil markings in permanent marker. I know that I am lucky to be able to draw, so if you aren't able to draw, see if you can project an image of the dinosaur you want to draw onto the cardboard and then trace it from there (maybe cut out a small image of a dinosaur on paper and then tape it to a flash light). I used oil paints to paint the dinosaurs so that they would look bold and stand out, and then I used Tempura paint for the palm trees and volcano. I decided to add a little Pterodactyl bird in the tree and then attached the face of the baby bird with string after I cut it out so kids would be able to put their face there or have their picture taken alone. When dealing with multiple toddlers at one time, having more options will always play out well!
Bean Bag Toss:
So this thing really ended up creeping me out, more so than it did to any kid! They were all about throwing the bean bag dinosaurs into the T-Rex's mouth like he was chomping down on them and then instead of waiting for an adult to fetch them out, the kids would crawl into the mouth for the dinos and guffaw about how they were the ones being eaten now. Hey, as long as I didn't traumatize any children, I'm happy!
It was also pretty simple to make. I got an old card board box, drew the outline of the dino with an open mouth and lots of teeth, using an exacto-blade to cut around the teeth for the gaping mouth, and then painted the dinosaur. My mom ended up making the bean bag dinosaurs for the kids to throw, so I suggest guilt tripping your nearest relative into make 5 small, intricately designed bean bags that will be ruined 10 minutes after your party begins!
Huge T-Rex Balloon:
This thing is absolutely amazing. I mean, its a 7-foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex!!! This was so worth the money spent at Party City and the blind drive home because it took up the entire back of our SUV (with all the seats folded down), but the screams from children as they ran around the yard being "chased" by it made the whole thing entirely worth it. It was a little windy the day of the party so the T-Rex kept floating back and forth in the backyard making it look as if it were running after kids all on its own, awesomeness! Please note, in a BIG way, that the weights that came with it were NOT enough. As shown below, the dinosaur floated up into our neighbor's tree after one of the stronger gusts of wind came and my husband had to fetch it by climbing the tree and wrapping an electrical cord around its neck:
"Oh! My Hero!" ~Me
The kids got a complete kick out of it, and more wooden weights were added to the dino with duck tape. Alas, while my husband and I were distracted with explaining to our wee 3-year-old why it's important to share the bubble gun with friends, an even larger gust of wind came and swept our T-Rex out of the yard and up into the air! It was last seen floating down our street, and then it was out of sight... Sometimes I wonder who got the bejesus scared out of them by having a giant T-Rex hit them out of nowhere!
Excavating Sand Box:
I found these amazing little dinosaurs on Amazon for a great price (look around Amazon first because the same set of dinos differed in price), so I filled up a little plastic box with sand and put some dinosaurs and other "treasures" from Dollar Tree in there for the kids to find. I also bought little plastic bags to put their goodies in and then promptly forgot them on top of our washing machine (which apparently was my "special place" to not forget them).
Dino Eggs:
I found a great idea on Pinterest for making dinosaur eggs. I was super excited because my son would be able to help me make them and then we could hide them around the yard together and have the kids find them! It was just baking soda, water, and food coloring/coffee grounds, plus those little plastic dinosaurs I got off of Amazon earlier. It all went really well, until I took them outside to dry in the sun. I went to move them while they were on the chair drying aaaand this happened:
It was a sad sad day, but not really because the birthday party was still complete since no one knew what they were missing out on. I tried to find plastic Easter eggs and just put the dinosaurs in them, but absolutely NO ONE sells Easter eggs in December! Oh well, live and learn. And also, the combination of the baking soda and the coffee grounds made me really nauseous, so I suggest using dye instead!
Table Decor:
The dino balloons were so much fun! I blew up the balloons and cut out the head, legs, tails, and wings out of construction paper and then taped them onto the balloons. I used white thread attached with tape to hang them, and unless you have a birthday party on a super windy day, they look really cute hanging above the table!
We kept the food really simple this time, almost all finger foods. We had four bowls with different kind of fruit in them, croissant sandwiches with cheese, salami, and lettuce, or the "herbivore" version of cheese, more cheese, and lettuce. We had a variety of drinks and my husband made these delicious deviled eggs... because why not?? It made for easy clean up and we got to enjoy our visitors without trying to bbq at the same time.
My friend made this truly beautiful cake and matching cupcakes! We saved her family the volcano so that her little one wouldn't feel so left out after being sick (we also gave her sweetie a dino tail and dinos!). She used a cupcake to make the volcano and then frosted accordingly, it must've taken a little while but WOW does it look yummy!
And here are the cupcakes:
Amazing! AmIright?!
Dino Tails!:
Is there anything cuter than a pint-sized dinosaur cooking in an outdoor kitchen?? Not in my opinion. I ended up sewing 13 dinosaur tails as the take-home gift instead of making goodie bags, and it was a great decision! I am going to be honest with you, they took forever to sew... but seeing so many children running around the backyard with their dinosaur tails wiggling behind them was without a doubt the most satisfying part of this party for me. They wore them everywhere: the bounce house, the swing set, to the bathroom! But you have been forewarned: this was a large undertaking. But please enjoy these other gems I was able to capture throughout the party, apparently the kids weren't the only ones who enjoyed the tails:
True Confessions:
-Anyone who went to the party wouldn't have been able to tell you what the banners and balloons above the table looked like, because nothing was actually there. The truth is, my husband's delicious deviled eggs put us a little bit behind schedule and (unfortunately for us) there were all these guests who arrived ON TIME!!! I was so sad about putting all the time into making the balloon dinosaurs and banners that my super sweet husband gave me the next morning to myself to reconstruct the birthday table in the way it was supposed to look! Yeah, major bonus points to hubby!
-I ran out of green felt for the last two dino tails so I had to make them purple... and everyone fought over the two purple ones. Of course.
-The day the kids finger painted the cardboard, the paint stained them a permanent shade of green. It took a fair amount of scrubbing and two baths to fade it... I guess I know now that I need to invest in a better type of finger paint!
