Dora Explorer Party -3yr- Wooden Character Cut-Outs

Dora the Explorer for a 3 year old. My daughter wanted a Dora party for her 3rd birthday. I got several ideas from this website and used several of these ideas in combination with my own. Invitations were a picture of backpack on purple card stock. I made a little slit on the side and inserted the map. I had made a map with Dora & Boots inviting everyone to our adventure saying, "Come on! Vamanous! Everybody let's go to (Name)'s Birthday Adventure!" I had a picture of a cake with how old my child was turning, a calendar with the date & time of the party, and a drawing of our house with our address. In the bottom corner was Swiper and said,"Please R.S.V.P. so Swiper the Fox does not swipe your spot at the party."

Decorations: The party was in early September so we were able to do most activites outside on a sunny (but a little hot) day. The guests entered through the gate on the side of the house. We had a big sign that said (Name)'s Birthday Adventure. We had the inflatable Dora on top of a cake (Target), purple, pink & orange balloons, and big tissue paper flowers in purple, pink & orange. As the guests arrived I had a big table set up for them to color placemats of Dora or Diego that I printed from nickjr.com. When everyone arrived we started at Backpack Depot. It was a tent with a sign and a big wooden cut out of Backpack. There the kids, who ranged in age from 2 to 12, got a yellow beaded Dora bracelet(homemade), a straw pith hat and a backpack. These last 2 items were from Oriental Trading. I painted the "face" on the back of the backpacks and sewed a stretchy hairband on the side to put the maps I made.

Each backpack contained a pair of binoculars, Dora stickers, a flashlight, and a pack of crayons (all from OT). We started the adventure when I asked the kids "Who do we ask when we don't know which way to go?" They all yelled "The map!" I had drawn and colored the places on the map & made copies for the backpacks. Our first stop was Crocodile Lake. We used blue tarps spread out like a lake and just a little water (it was all outside). I had big inflatable crocodiles from The Dollar Store and little ducks from OT. The kids loved "saving" the ducks from the crocodiles and then everyone received a little frog toy (OT). Next we went to the Tropical Jungle. This was a tree in the back yard with several fake trees and plants and stuffed animals.

We played pin the monkey on the palm tree. The 2 closest got a Dora toy and everyone received a bottle of monkey bubbles (OT). Then they all got to pick a small stuffed monkey off the tree to put in their backpacks. Then we used our flashlights to get thru the tunnel. It was a coil Dora tunnel I purchased online from Toys R Us. The last stop was Treasure Island where we found Dora, Boots and a Pirate. Dora & Boots were large wooden cutouts my Dad made & I painted. The pirate was my husband with a patch and a hook. We had a large wooden pirate ship cut out with a treasure chest. To get to the treasure chest you had to go over the wooden bridge that went across a blue tarp that was our water.

But before we could go across the bridge Swiper showed up! This was another large wooden cut out made by my Dad & painted by me, my brother hid behind a tree and held him up. All the kids told him "Swiper, no Swiping!" 3 times. He said "Oh, Man!" and left. Then the kids had to answer 3 silly questions from the "Pirate" before they could cross the bridge to the treasure chest. I had goody bags with stickers, toys, fruit snacks and bubble gum coins and they could get a beaded necklace that was hanging on the treasure chest. Everyone received a "You Did It!" certificate (nickjr.com).

After the adventure we went inside to open gifts. Then we had tacos, taquitos, salsa, cheese dip, chips and drinks. We also had some grilled cheese for the kids who did not like tacos, like the birthday girl.

The cake was a homemade 2 layer cake with green icing. I adapted an idea from nickjr.com, Diego Rain Forest Cake. I made a jungle with large pretzel sticks for trees, melting green chocolate to make leaves and melted chocolate to make monkeys. On the side of the cake was an area with blue icing for the lake and melted green chocolate to make crocodiles. On top of the cake I used the Dora Fiesta set which had Dora & Boots with party hats, a cake and Swiper stealing a piece of the cake (Target, toy section). Hard to describe but turned out cute. Instead of cutting the cake I had cupcakes with purple & blue frosting, flower sprinkles and plastic rings with either Dora or Boots (ebay).

We used orange plastic plates and cups for the food and small Dora plates and napkins for the cupcakes. I also had little plastic cups with lids and straws for the kids(OT). Later we had the big blow up bouncy house for the kids to jump and run off some of the sugar! The rest of the yard was decorated with more of the purple, pink & orange balloons and tissue paper flowers. The tables to eat on had pink or orange tablecloths and Dora toys. Everyone had a great time. We had a range of ages and mostly boys but the theme seemed to work for everyone.

For the thank you notes I cut out a banana shape from yellow cardstock and wrote "Thanks a bunch! I loved (fill in gift)" Then I covered it with yellow felt cut in a banana shape and made slits going down so you could "peel" the banana. I found a Dora frame printable from nickjr.com that said Adventurous Amigos that I printed on card stock. I included these with a picture of each child standing by Dora from the party in the thank you cards.