Mikey decided the
day after his 4th birthday that he wanted a Dinosaur party for this 5th.
Of course, throughout the year I would ask him if that's still what he
wanted and he stuck with it, so, lucky for me, I had most of a year to plan
this one out (and to make purchases). The invitations were a dinosaur egg
that opened. I used a large Easter egg cookie cutter to trace the shape.
The back was one full piece, for the two front pieces, I cut two eggs out
of cardboard and then cut a bottom and a top separately so they would overlap,
and then used those two pieces as my pattern. I have a dot hole puncher
that I used to cut a bunch of colored circles and then hot glued those down.
For decorations, i kept it simple to green streamers, some balloons, some footprints up the front walk, and my birthday wreathe.
The activities I chose were:
1. Make
fossil necklaces. I used a recipe for "Play Clay" at http://www.angelfire.com/dc/childsplay/craftrecipes3.htm.
It turned out ok....I did forget to eventually give the children their necklaces
because they weren't totally dried, but that's beside the point, right?
2. Hunt for
dinosaur eggs. About 3 weeks beforehand, I got some water balloons
because they would be the right size and a bunch of newspaper. I found a
really great paper mache recipe at http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/best-papier-mache-recipe-708645/.
In total I did 4 layers of paper, but only 2 at a time to give them the
best chance at drying all the way through. When they were totally dry and
hard, which took about 2 weeks since I don't have that much time all at once so
I did them on consecutive Saturdays, I painted them with plain old acrylics.
When that was dry, I took an exacto knife, cut a slit and stuffed them
with small dinosaur toys.
3. Dig for
dinosaur bones. As you know, you can find almost anything on Amazon.com.
So that's where I turned for dinosaur bones. I ended up with some
pretty great products, but I did take my time in reading reviews and hunting
for the best value. We buried them in the sandy pit behind our house
where our pool usually sits. I gave each kid a paint brush so they could
'properly' clean their bones.
4. Breaking
Geodes. Now, this didn't go well. The idea was there and it could
have been great, but no such luck. This was another item I thought I had
researched well, but out of 20 geodes only 2 had any kind of noticeable
formations in them and then those were that clear white color and not purplish
in the slightest. The kids did enjoy hitting stuff with the mallet,
though. Well, to be honest, some of them did. I hit most of them
just to get through it. We still gave each kid a baggie with their pieces.
5. Dinosaur
tattoos. The least imaginative item. I ordered them and my sister
and friend applied them. We did this at the same time as the geodes so
that only half the kids were outside hitting things at once.
For the food, I
didn't get too involved. I did buy way way way too much, but nothing spectacular.
"Dino" Dogs and "Pterodactyl" Bites. Veggies,
chips, spinach dip.
For the cake, I
attempted a truly original idea, but I didn't execute it well. The
concept was a dirt cake, green grass icing, and then dinosaur footprints
through the grass.........below was the result. Maybe someone else would
have better luck with this one.
In the goody
bags, I included magnets, dinosaur fact cards, and reusable dinosaur stickers
and then they got their eggs, the dinosaurs, and the skeletons they dug up.
All of the dinosaur stuff I found for the goody bags came from keeping an
eye on the $1 bins at target and Wal-Mart. You never know what they'll
have in those bins! I hope I have been able to give you some ideas and if
you attempt that cake, please show me your results!!
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