Dino-Mite Party!

I spent a lot of time planning Charlie's dinosaur birthday party and enjoyed every minute of it. We had a few bumps in the road but nothing that didn't get fixed and then turned out better than initially planned! For instance, we were going to have a cake made but when it didn't seem to be working out, I decided to make cupcakes and my friend, Nikki (From Sugar Coma Cupcakery) was gracious enough to make a delicious butter cream icing and piped all 50 of my cupcakes the morning of the party!

I found a cute idea on Tip Junkie for a cupcake stand. I changed it a little to make it have a little more dimension and decorated it to match our dino theme! The ribbon is removable so I can use it again and again...

I needed more ideas for decorating so I decided to make vanilla and chocolate dino candies...doubling as decoration and treats for the party goers, they were a hit! Peter made a paper mache volcano which he is planning on erupting with the boys (baking soda and vinegar style)....

I found a great graphic designer, Kelly Medina on etsy.com who designed the cupcake toppers, the straw embellishments, and and the food labels. All I had to do was print them and assemble.

We added green and orange balloons to greenery around the family room...with Dino Crossing signs I made on the computer...

And I made an easy Happy Birthday Charlie sign to hang...

The party bags for Charlie's friends, I took dollar store gift bags and embellished with friend's name, pic of dino, and "thanks for a dino-mite time! ...the bags included a dino balloon, a bouncy ball with dino in it, temporary tattoos, dino suckers, and ducks in dino outfits (you know how Charlie loves his ducks and dinos...they were too cute to pass up at Oriental Trading). The bags were a hit as well!!

We also decorated the walkway so guests would know where to go...

The boys helped trace and color dinosaur footprints on the sidewalk a few days before the party and since we didn't get any snow or rain they stayed nicely...

Dinosaur Crossing Sign

Birthday Boy with his Dinosaur with a Cupcake shirt...Thanks Gma! Big brother's shirt had a Brontosaurus on it but I never got a great pic of them...they were too excited!!

Quick pic of the family room (almost ready for the party)...streamers throughout with dino cutouts hanging from them...

Dining room table decorated with footprints and dinos...

Our GIANT Dino balloon!

Most of the food set up...still have dino nuggets and dino eggs (tater tots) in the oven...

Besides nuggets and eggs, we had a herbivore platter (with fruit and veggies), dino bones (pretzel rods), dino PB&Js, and mac n cheese. With Swamp Water (green tinted juice) to drink...

Fun straws...

Lava Water...

 

Dino sandwiches...

 

All of our guests also received a dinosaur mask upon arrival...

Henry trying his on...

And Charlie...

Roar...

Now just need to wait for our guests to arrive...