DinoLand

Welcome to Grayden's DinoLand! 

My nephew, Grayden, is going through a stage where he is obsessed with everything dinosaurs. So naturally, that's what my sister-in-law, Lyndsay, wanted to make the theme of his 4th birthday party. She consulted Pinterest to get ideas and then we made a trip to Party City. The following pictures are from her own vision of "DinoLand".

These decorations were an idea from Kara's Party Ideas. Instead of using a more sheer fabric, we used plastic table covers from Party City, which were able to be cut into fours. We opened the fluffy decorations and tacked them to the wall. Then, we cut the tablecloths, (light green, brown, and two dark green strands) and hung them right under the fluffy decoration. 

 
Each child that came to the party received a Pith Helmet and goodie bag filled with dinosaur tattoos and stickers, candy, and bubbles.

The Dino Dig was inspired by the Fossil Dig from Catch My Party. For the Dino Dig, Lyndsay purchased six bags of tan brown basket shred to empty into a medium sized box. 45 dinosaurs were hidden in the shred for the nine children invited. Each child was given 20 seconds to find their five dinosaurs.  

To keep with the dinosaur theme, Pin the Tail on the Donkey was replaced with "Feed the Dinosaur a Leaf". The backdrop was purchased from Party City and the leaves were purchased from our local craft store and duct tape was placed on the back of each leaf. Each child took a leaf, was spun around, and had to get the leaf as close as they could to "feed" the dinosaur.

The food area was so much fun to put together. My brother-in-law made fun of me a couple of years ago for wanting to theme the food for a Halloween party. I still can't live down "boo-falo chicken dip", so this was refreshing since it was acceptable to theme food for a 4-year-old's birthday party. 

   Dino Teeth = tortilla chips         Lava Dip = buffalo chicken dip

Dino Eggs = Peanut M&Ms; Tree Branches = soft pretzel rods; 

Dino Toe Nails = Bugles

Herbivores: vegetable tray, fruit bowl, apple slices

Carnivores: crescent hot dogs, meat and cheese tray, hoagies

Watering Hole = water and soda   Lava Juice = Kool-Aid Jammers

The cupcakes were my contribution and I had so much fun making them! I wanted the green icing to turn out more like grass, but the consistency was not cooperating. The green iced cupcakes are from How Sweet It Is. The recipe called for dark cocoa powder, but I only had regular cocoa powder. I also left out the hot fudge, so they turned out to be just a pain chocolate cupcake with green tinted peanut butter icing. The other cupcakes were supposed to resemble desert rocks. They are Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake. They were both absolutely delicious and I highly recommend you try them for your next party!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Grayden, Happy Birthday to you!

At the end of the day, the decorations, the food, and the games didn't compare to the amount of laughter from the kids and the memories that were made on Grayden's 4th Birthday. 

"Dinosaurs may be extinct from the face of the planet, but they are alive and well in our imaginations." - Steve Miller