Chinese New Year -2yr- Chinese Dragon Invite

Chinese New Year Birthday Party  My daughters second birthday fell on Chinese New Year so I thought we would have a Chinese  New Year party theme.

I invited two year olds and three year olds to the party. To start off I made  simple invitations, I drew a picture of a Chinese Dragon going across the page then I folded it in  thirds with the dragons head on the front page. Then I typed up the invitation cut it out and taped it  down on the three pages. Then I photo copied the the invitation and folded them and glued gems  on the eyes and brushed some gold paint down his back. Then I hand delivered them to her friends. 

For the decorations I went to the party store and bought some Chinese New Year decorations  like dragons to put up on the wall, colored lanterns to hang up and red and gold paper plates and  napkins. I bought Chinese New Year cups and cocktail napkins to keep the theme in check. I hung  twine across my living room and tied seven paper lanterns to it. Then I ran red streamers over the  back of the cabinets facing the living room.

I went to World Market and purchased an orchid design  wine bag and placed a vase in it and got a bunch of cut orchids from Trader Joe's as the center  piece for the food table. I had koi fabric which I used as a table cloth and red phenix fabric that I  hung over the shades on the sliding door. I hung dragons in the windows and on the sliders and the  walls. I had two dragons facing each other holding a happy birthday sign. I hung good luck charms  that I bought from World Market at the front door and on the lamps in the living room. 

For the games I cut out and panted a chinese dragon head on a big piece of card board. Then I  took a roll of construction paper and panted a long dragon body. Then I taped that to the wall and  then taped the head on the body. After that I cut out scale shapes out of different color  construction paper and put a piece of looped tape on the back of each and stuck them on the wall  under the dragon body. I called this Pin the Scale on the Dragon. The kids loved this they all got to  put scales on the dragon and every one was a winner!

The dragon looked great with all the scales  on it too! I handed out chinese yo-yo's and the kids played with them a while. Then I pulled out the  pinata which I made out of a big paper lantern with cherry blossoms on it. I put a piece of white  paper on the bottom so the little ones could get the prizes out easier when they hit it. I filled it with  lucky coins, year of the dog chocolates, and rubber balls. This was fun for all!  I downloaded chinese new year parade songs and other chinese songs from movies and had them  playing in the background for a nice effect. 

For food I ordered barbecued pork buns from our local Chines restaurant and ordered a  selection of puffed chips from an online store (Eden) and rice crackers and egg rolls from the store.  I also cut up oranges for the kids.

For the cake I took an rectangle cake and cut the tips off in the shape of a lantern and iced it  white and drew a red dragon on it. I also had my daughters name on it and put an Asian pattern on  the top and bottom. I took a tassel of another lantern and stuck it in the bottom then looped some  wire on the top to be the hanger. Then I put star candles and a two candle on the cake.

Every one  wore red party hats and the birthday girl had a wand with a dragon head and little bells.

For goodie bags I purchased small yellow take out boxes and put fire cracker and dog stickers  in each. I also purchased asian prayer beads from Oriental Trading and more lucky money and a  fortune cookie. For the boys I added stretchy gold fish from World Market and for the girls I had  glitter stickers from Target. The whole party was a blast and every one had so much fun!