Dinosaur Party -5yr- Stegosaurus Stomp

To celebrate my son's 5th birthday we decided on a dinosaur theme. A wide variety of things can be done with this theme (as you can tell from reading other entries on this site), but we tried to keep plans simple.

Invitations:  I made my own invitations using white card stock overlaying green card stock, cut in the shape of an egg, with the two layers connected with two brad fasteners (one on the left lower side and on the right lower side). On the white egg I outlined in black marker a jagged line down the center for the crack and cut along this. The wording on the white egg said Breaking news! When you cracked open the egg and pulled apart the two halves of the white egg, it revealed the green egg, which read Dinosaurs have been spotted at Daniel’s house! Join the discovery as we celebrate Daniel’s 5th birthday, along with the party details. I also stamped the envelope flaps with colored dinosaur stamps.

Decorations:  We had various colored dinosaur tracks drawn on the driveway in chalk to welcome guests and also use for one of our activities. I cut out dinosaur tracks from green paper plates and taped those all around the living room walls. Plus we hung green streamers throughout the house for a pseudo-jungle feel. The kitchen table was covered with a colorful plastic dinosaur tablecloth that was purchased on clearance at a party store, and we had coordinating balloons, cake plates and cups. Also, the birthday boy placed all his dinosaur toys in the living room for decoration.

Activities/games:  The first activity was a dinosaur egg hunt. I saved large plastic eggs from Easter and filled them with dinosaur notepads, dinosaur stampers, pills that turn into dinosaur-shaped sponges, and a few plastic dinosaurs, and hid the eggs in the yard. On the driveway I had drawn various colored dinosaur tracks with sidewalk chalk in colors that coordinated with the eggs. Each guest chose a color and then had to follow their tracks to the edge of the driveway and go from there into the yard to find their egg.

The next activity was a game of stegosaurus stomp. I blew up balloons and tied one to each guest’s ankle with ribbon. The object of the game was to stomp others’ balloons without getting yours stomped, and the last person with an unpopped balloon won.

Following that was a game of pin the horn on the triceratops. (I bought our game from a party store, but one could also be made. A similar game would be pin the teeth on the tyranosaurus.)

The game winners got to choose their prize of a dinosaur keychain/flashlight, 3D dinosaur puzzle, wooden mix-and-match dinosaur puzzle, and dinosaur/egg sidewalk chalk. The guests chose to open gifts next and then played for a while with the gifts and dinosaurs, during which time I prepared lunch. After lunch we went outside to the picnic table on the deck for the next activity dinosaur dig. Using a tool, they had to dig through the egg-shaped hardened sand to find a dinosaur. (I purchased these from Birthday Party Express, but similar ones can be made at home.)

Next was cake and ice cream. And the final activity was a volcano eruption using baking soda, water, and vinegar (and red food coloring). (There are variations on making a volcano and include paper mache' and clay, but our volcano was simply a Dixie cup taped to a paper plate and covered with foil, with a hole cut over the top of the cup.) We did the eruption (outdoors) a couple of times. And then it was playtime until everyone was ready to go home. We had a Dinosaurs DVD available to watch, but the kids preferred to play.

Food:  Lunch was served on green paper plates, with purple napkins (which matched the colorful dinosaur table covering), and included dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets (from Tyson), yogurt with a picture of a dinosaur on the container (from Danimals), cheese slices cut in the shape of a bone (using a cookie cutter), dinosaur-shaped crackers (from Ritz), and Lavaburst flavored juice boxes (from Hi-C) to drink. (Another lunch option is to serve dinosaur-shaped spaghetti.) Also, as part of the lunch and part of the table display was a nest of dinosaur eggs. The nest was simply matchstick carrots and the eggs were made with lime jello, vanilla pudding mix, and cinnamon (to give a speckled appearance), using Jello egg molds.

The dessert was lime sherbet with dinosaur sprinkles, which I had dipped the night before the party into cupcake liners to save scooping time at the party. And the cake (served on dinosaur-themed plates) was a sheet cake iced with green icing and topped with a plastic volcano, plastic palm trees, plastic dinosaurs, and chocolate rocks. As an added touch, I put red icing on top of the volcano that oozed down the side like lava.

Treat bags:  Dinosaur treat bags were purchased at a party store and contained dinosaur egg oatmeal, dinosaur fruit snacks, dinosaur crackers, and malted milk dinosaur egg candy. The guests also got to take home the dinosaur from their dig as well as the plastic egg from the egg hunt activity.

Thank you cards:  Thank you cards were preprinted with a dinosaur on them and were purchased at a party supply store. The cards said Dear __________, Thanks for the ______________. It’s dino-mite! I also stamped the envelopes with dinosaurs. To top off this special dinosaur birthday, we will be taking our son to a children's museum with a great dinosaur exhibit.

Best wishes to everyone with their planning!