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Dinosaur Dig Party -5yr- Dino Ice Cream Sundaes

January 2008

Judy in Dillon, SC USA

Special Mention

My son loves dinosaurs, and he wanted a dinosaur party for his fifth birthday.

I purchased online at (kreatedbykelli) the most amazing dinosaur invitation. I dressed my son in his favorite dinosaur t-shirt and shorts with his crocs, binoculars, and pith hat and emailed it to her. The results are incredible. It looks like he's riding a real T-Rex in the woods. I borrowed a line that I saw on another site Dinosaurs are coming alive 'cause ________ is turning five." At the bottom we put "We'll be digging for dinos in the sand." On one of the tree trunks and when I sent out the invitations on the envelope I placed a self adhesive dino and wrote each kids' name in bright marker with sprigs of grass. (I purchased a large bucket of these self adhesive dinos and used them on the invitations hats buckets even inside the pinatas.)

Inside the invitation I placed a maginifying glass (about 2.95 for 12 @ oriental trading)for the kids to search for his initials on the invitation (I ran off notes on address labels that told the kids to use their magnifying glass to find my son's initials hidden in the picture and stuck these to the bag that the magnifying glass came in.) Lots of parents commented on how much fun it was to help find the initials. 

For the decorations I used lots of balloons red lime blue and yellow. My mom and I air inflated latex balloons and made balloon columns using 11 in. balloons and in the center at the top of each column we used the long balloons that are used to make balloon animals. These hung out of the top kinda like a tree top. We also helium inflated several bunches in tall bouquets and placed them on the gift and food tables. We used my son's largest and heaviest dinos to hold the balloon bouquets.

I purchased party ware called dinosaur friends which shows a dinosaur wearing a pith hat and holding a magnifying glass. The table cloths and cake plates etc. have dinosaur bones on them so that was the inspiration for some of our other party décor. We purchased a magnifying glass pinata bone pinata and T-rex pinata from Birthday Express. Bone cups from Shindigz on sale for .49 each (they came with regular straw but we took those out and added a silly straw.) CUTE! Also purchased a few dinosaur hatching from egg cups. We used red and blue Solo cups for the adults. We had sodas and punch for drinks. Also did a large party tub of Yoohoo drinks and "Lava" juices in cartons.

For the food we did chicken salad with dino Ritz crackers chicken "dino" nuggets purchased at a Sam's Club Brontosaurus eggs on brownies (M&M's candies on brownies)Stegasaurus sandwiches (pineapple cream cheese sandwiches-used food coloring to tint the filling.) We saw an idea for dino deviled eggs using food coloring and boiled cracked eggs. These were really cool. We had cupcakes-chocolate icing for ground with green grass icing and placed colorful plasic dinos on top.

The cake kit I bought online (Ebay) The dinosaur eyes light up and he roars when he detects motion. It uses a cupcake turned upside down at the back of the cake for a volcano.I purchased sparkling candles and placed five around the volcano area. Looked great when it was time to sing happy birthday around the cake. On the wall I placed a dino mural as a backdrop and large plastic inflatable Brontasaurus on the cake table. I had coconut cups from a luau party I used these to hold the spoons and forks.  Candy bones were included with the cake kit which worked well with our theme.

I sat up an ice cream sundae station dino dirt (crushed Oreo cookies) dinosaur sprinkles gummies and M&M's three flavors of syrups and vanilla or chocolate ice cream. We dipped the icecream ahead of time and put in freezer that morning. BIG HIT with the kids and adults. It's always cold for his birthday so we are usually inside our garage. We inflated plastic pools and filled with sand (about 6 or 7 inches) in which we hid little plastic dinosaurs and dinosaur skeletons. We hid plastic eggs for each child to find five eggs with prizes inside but the kids couldn't wait and some filled their buckets before we got started. 

I had a large round table covered with a lime green piece of scrap fabric. On that I placed a 4ft. Orange T-rex (Oriental Trading) and put the guests' sand buckets with shovels (bought at Walgreen's end of Summer for .25 each) binoculars (Birthday Express) and pith hats with self stick Dinos stuck to front of each hat. I placed a few permanent markers on the table and asked parents to help the children pick out their buckets hats and binoculars as they arrived and write their names on them.

They used the buckets to hold their dinos as they dug them up and to hold their eggs from the dino egg hunt also for the pinata prizes at the end of the party. I found at a dollar store little wash cloths that you place in water and they turn out to be regular size that the kids can use over and over at bath time (with dinos on them). They took all these things home at the end of the party. We had a small area on the table dedicated to tattoos. Almost every kid had on a dino tattoo.

About an hour before the party the sun came out and it was warm enough outside that we opened up the middle garage door and put two bounce houses on one side of the entrance. We used more of the long balloons and made swords for the kids to play with inside the bounce houses. My son and I hurried and drew dinosaur foot prints coming up the driveway leading to the bouncers and to the entrance to the party. I've found if you plan several months in advance and buy items ON SALE at the end of each season which will fit your theme you can have a really nice party for your child but not have to spend so much money. This website is really helpful when trying to come up with ideas. Hope some of these ideas will help someone else who may be planning a DINO DIG PARTY! "

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