Day of Dinosaurs

It was a dinosaur kind of day yesterday as we celebrated Carter's 3rd birthday. To share the party with you, here are just a few more pictures than you could possibly be interested in.

My goal was to throw this party for less than $100. I came pretty close. Here is the breakdown.

Invitations: We designed them ourselves in power point and had them printed as a 5x7 image at Ritz Pix for $0.99 each. They provide the envelopes for free! We mailed 5 invitations and hand delivered the rest.



Decorations: We used tissue pom poms and balloons. I used 6 packets of tissue paper at $1.98 each and 3 bags of 20 balloons each at $2.50.









The balloons add so much color and just look like fun is ready to happen!

Food: The party was in the morning so we didn't do a meal but we did have some fun snacks. There are some really great ideas for dinosaur themed party food on the internet. Here are the ones we used...



Dino melon...





Didn't Adam do a great job carving that t-rex watermelon?

I made the food place cards on the computer...





There was also a plate of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets with a sign that said "for the Carnivores" but I didn't end up with a picture of it.

And finally, some chocolate dinosaurs...



Total food costs was around $16.00.

Cake: I also found some really cute dinosaur cake options. I visited Kroger, Martins, and Sams looking for a fun dino shaped cake, but nothing grabbed me. So I ended up ordering 30 green cupcakes (half vanilla/half chocolate) from Sams for $13.48. Not too bad. Then we just used the cupcakes to make a dinosaur shape and added some extra icing for scales, eyes, and toes.



I'm not sure I would know it was a dinosaur unless I was at a dinosaur party, but it worked. And Carter loved it.

Activities: This is where I had a little too much fun. But the kids seemed to enjoy it, so I think it was worth it. Again, most of these ideas came from a simple google search.

First up? Dinosaur paths. We cut out dinosaur footprints in different colors for each of the kids and made paths all around the house. When the kids arrived, I taped the dino feet to their feet.



Or their hands...



They all started at the same spot...



And then followed their path...


(photo by Thea's mom)

until they found a surprise...



I made a shirt (found them on clearance for $1.50 each!) with their dinosaur name using my embroidery machine.

Here are a few of the finished shirts...



We also had Vanceratops, Jamesosaurus, Hannahdactyl, and Theasaurus.

Here is Thea modeling her shirt after she found it.



The next activity was to stamp the shirts with paint...



Carter slept in his shirt last night and has been wearing it all day.



The final activity was a dinosaur egg hunt. I bought a box of 72 dinosaur eggs from Oriental Trading for $6.00. Each egg even had a little dinosaur in it.







After all of that fun, it was cupcake time! (the video starts out blurry but it ends in focus.)



Favors: During our last trip to DC we found these great dinosaur grabbers at the Natural Museum of History. I think that might have been the moment when the dinosaur party theme was finalized. I found these at Oriental Trading too for $1.00 each.



Adam came up with the "It's Been Prehistoric" line.



Once I had the invitations done on the computer it was pretty simple to do the food placecards and favor tags. I just used the same font and color scheme. Plus I had lots of time at the computer while the shirts were stitching on the embroidery machine.

After the party was over it was present time!



Carter got some really fun toys - his friends know him very well! :) more dinosaurs, train tracks, books, sprinklers, bubbles, games, and animals! We have had lots of fun.



So, for the final cost breakdown:

Invitations: $12
Activities: $28
Food: $16
Cupcakes: $14
Decorations: $30
Favors: $8
TOTAL: $108

It really was a fun party!



(photo by Thea's mom)