Dora the Explorer -2yr- Picture Driveway

We had the best Dora the Explorer birthday party ever for my 2 yr old daughter.  This can be used for any age group that watches Dora. 

First we sent out map invitations.  I used ivory, tan linen paper that looked like map material.  Inside it read:  Hola, (daughter’s name), Dora and Boots need your help.  (Daughter’s name) is celebrating her 2nd birthday and would like you to attend.   But, OH NO!  Swiper has swiped the key to open the box to Kinsley’s birthday cake.  We can’t have a birthday without a birthday cake!!  Can you come help (Daughter’s name), Dora, and Boots find the key to (daughter’s name) birthday cake box?  You can!  Great.  All you need to do is  Mark your Calendar for (date of party),  Call (Daughter’s name)’s mom to let her know you are coming, and Bring the family to (Daughter’s name)’s house (address) and be prepared to have a blast.  (I put each of those three steps in the map like arrangement with a road leading to each step like they do on Dora)  Then on the bottom of the map I put Remember:  Mark calendar  Call (daughter’s name)’s Mom  Have a blast.  I used the computer to generate the map.  We folded the map like it looks and printed the face on the front.  I found purple envalopes that look like Dora’s back pack and for the return address I printed a colorful star and put our return address on it for the star pocket.  I like to have the parents come to the parties so they can enjoy the celebration also. 

Ahead of time I made backpacks for all of the kids.  I made these out of purple small paper bags ( you can find these in the gift bag area).  I cut the top of the bag to make it rounded like the flap of the backpack, folded it over and put a piece of Velcro to keep it down.  Then I cut out the pieces of the face of Backpack and pasted it on the bag.  I use purple ribbon to make the straps.  I put Dora stickers, bubble rings, Dora cookies and Dora fruit chews in the bag.  I did not fill it up because they needed room to put items in it during the party. 

At the party when all of the kids arrived they walked up our drive way that had the big Dora the Explorer logo bush on the drive way in sidewalk chalk, but instead I put (Daughter’s name) the explorer and outlined the driveway with stars.  Leave plenty of room on the drive way because that is where one of the stops is.  They walked to our backyard through a path of colorful pinwheels.  I gathered the children in the center of our yard, gave them their backpacks and that is where I explained that Swiper had swiped the key to (Daughter’s name) birthday cake and we needed to find the key.  I told them that we knew that Swiper hid the key in the treasure pit, but we did not know how to get to the treasure pit.  I asked Who do we ask for help when we don’t know which way to go?  They replied The Map  I pulled out the map and started singing the map song.  (I got lots of laughs from the parents by singing but the kids LOVED it)

Then I went over how to get there:  To find the key to (Daughter’s name) birthday cake first we need to go to Isa’s Garden, then to picture driveway and that is how we get to Treasure pit to find the key to (Daughter’s name) birthday cake.  We repeated the steps like they do on the show.  Then I sang the Vamenos song on our way to Isa’s garden.  For Isa’s garden I made a bunch of Big tissue paper flowers and stuck them in the ground.  I also set up a table by Isa’s garden.  I put about 10 bags of glow stars under the flowers. (the bags of glow stars are at WalMart for 88 cents)  On the table I made sugar cut out Star cookies.  I had them prefrosted in bright colors.  I also had several bowls of different candies and decorations items.  This stop the kids had to find and catch all of the glow stars.  After they had successfully found all of the stars they put them in their backpacks.  For being such good star catchers, Isa made them all a star cookie but she forgot to decorate the star so it is your job to decorate a star cookie.  Then you can eat it when you are done. 

While the kids were doing this, it is was now the parents time to get involved.  Ahead of time I hid those magnet letters in the yard that spelled my daughter’s name.  I hid 5 sets of her name and split them into teams of five.  Which ever team found all of the letters to her name was the winner.  If they found a letter that they already had they were to hide it again.  The parents had a blast with this because I did not make it easy on them.  I made one letter very hard to find, so it was challenging.  It worked out well because they finished about the same time the kids got done decorating and eating cookies.  I gathered them all back together again and said we just made it through Isa’s garden now where do we go?  Yes, Pictue drive way. 

I explained to them that picture driveway was sad.  It had been raining all day and all of the pictures on picture driveway washed away.  We needed to go help picture driveway become happy again.  Ahead of time I blew up a huge box (I used a box that a washer came in) of balloons and put pieces of paper in them with anything that had to do with Dora the Explorer. The balloons were all colors of blue.  My husband got on the roof with the big box of balloons.  As everyone ( I had the parents involved with this one also) came around the corner to our driveway, my husband dropped the balloons to represent rain.  I told everyone to go catch a raindrop to stop the rain.  Stomp on the rain drop to make the rain go away and find the paper that is inside. 

Now to make picture driveway happy again they needed to draw what was on their piece of paper on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.  Make sure you plenty of sidewalk chalk.  Everyone had a blast trying to draw their characters and things.  When they were done I told them that picture driveway was happy again it had pictures again and the sun came out.  My husband attached a huge plastic sun to the roof and dropped it down when I said that.  We made it through Isa’s garden, made picture driveway happy again now lets go to treasure pit to find the key to the birthday cake.  Sing the Vamenos song again on the way. 

For Treasure pit  I got those wire garden fences and made a big square area.  I filled it with  Easter grass, luckily my daughter’s birthday is after Easter and the grass was very very cheap.  You need a lot to fill up that kind of an area.  I decorated plastic treasure boxes with each kids name on it and hid them in the Easter grass.  I glued foam stars on the boxes and printed a piece of paper with a key on it and words that read The key to (daughter’s name) birthday cake lies inside, put on the shirt and the box will unlock.  I made each child a t-shirt that had a picture of my daughter, Dora, and Boots which read happy 2nd birthday and her name on it.  They all had to put on the t-shirts and the box would unlock.  We sang the We did it song 

The cake was made by a grocery store backery.  I didn’t like their Dora cakes, so I had them do a garden seen with a fence vines flowers and in the sky I had them put a rainbow of stars.  I printed off a picture of Dora with her hands in the air and put her under the rainbow of stars.  It looked like when she just gets one catching stars.  It also read happy 2nd birthday.  We sang and ate cake and while the kids were eating cake I again had a game for the adults.  They had a star cookie decorating contest using the items from Isa’s garden.  The winner received a wine glass that I had etched the number 2 and flowers and wired ceramic butterflies up the stem of the wine glass.  There were three winners. 

The winners of the name hiding contest earlier got an adult size t-shirt with the same logo at the children’s t-shirts.  After opening gifts we had a barbeque and enjoyed the rest of the evening.  There were all ages at her birthday party and everyone had more fun than they could imagine.  They all at one time or another told me that this was the best birthday party they had ever been to.  It was soooo much fun.  My daughter was in awe the entire time.  If you would like picture of any of the things I did.  Enjoy and Have a Blast!