3579

Dinosaur Party -5yr- Extinction Walk (Cake Walk)

March 2002

Sally in Beachwood Ohio

Special Mention

When I first adopted my son I wanted his birthday to be very special. He was going to be five and obsessed with dinosaurs! I recruited my best friend and we were off!  

INVITATIONS made invitations by cutting eggs out of construction paper, I cut the eggs in half(sort of zig-zagged) on the lower eggs back I glued little dinosaurs I cut out. I then fastened the eggs together with those little gold fasteners so the egg could open and close. 

GAMES: I went with a "carnival" type atmosphere. Kids could go play whatever game they wanted for 35 minutes and each game had "cheap" prizes that they kept in their "goody bag"   

EXTINCTION: think of the cake walk! I used carpet squares (the local store donated them) I Velcro-ed pictures of dinosaurs on each one. The kids walked around and one dinosaur became "extinct" (I took a rug away) when the music (dinosaur music) stopped whoever could not find a square to sit on was out.    

FEED THE DINOSAUR: I took a piece of cardboard and had my friend draw a t-rex face on it (with the mouth open) I sewed up some simple bean bags,,, cave men and woman, bones, little dinosaurs, etc..... ) and had a bean bag toss   

DINO RACE: we set up a simple obstacle course and had the kids try to "escape" from the MEAT EATER. basically the kids had to find their way over couches, chairs, and bean bags before the "babysitter I hired to be a dinosaur" ( I did not rent a costume from a store,, but used a Halloween mask I had) caught them (she was instructed to get REALLY close to "getting them" but let them win)   

BALLOON GAME: I put little dinosaurs in balloons and tied them around the kids ankles (one on each ankle) all the kids tried to step on everyone else balloon. the child with the last balloon, not popped was the big winner (but each child got to keep the dinosaurs in their balloon) Be sure to buy "good balloons" (like the kind meant for helium and are thicker so the toys don't break the balloons)      

FACE PAINTING: I am not very artistic so I called it face painting, but actually I just used those tattoos   

EGG HUNT: fortunately my son's birthday is after Easter,, all those plastic eggs are on clearance! I bought a ton and hid them along with....  

FIND THE DINO: I had my son find anything he could with dinosaurs on it,,, books, stuffed animals, games, stickers, and we hid them all over our den. the kids were instructed to find them. The child with the most dinosaurs won! (this was NOT in the same room as the "carnival" and all kids got to keep what was in their eggs   

GOODY BAGS: I bought colored paper bags and taped cut out dinosaurs on them (left over from the invites) added each kids name as they showed up. THIS was a great idea because they had a place to store their prizes and I could see who each child was when they came up to me)

FOOD: I am fortunate enough to have a very creative cake decorator for my best friend! She took a t-rex cake pan from a craft store placed it on top of a large rectangle cake. (she decorated it soooo cute!) next to that she had an oval cake cut zig zagged to be a dino egg. 

For ice cream I have an ice cream maker. I made vanilla ice cream and mixed in some dino cake decorations (the sprinkle kind) the rest of the food was sort of "buffet" style, set out mostly for the parents,, I had appetizers of french bread pizza cut in strips, Of course deviled eggs,,, and several other finger food.  I also made punch with fruit punch, ginger ale, and sherbet. (I had diet drinks also) 

DECORATIONS   Mostly I had pictures from magazines on the walls and a couple posters I had of dinosaurs. I did put up some streamers and balloons. For a table cloth,, I bought a white paper one (the kind that comes in a roll) I rolled it out on my tables (I borrowed from the church) I put a coloring book under it in several places and traced the outline of dinosaurs  (be sure to use SIMPLE coloring books so there is not to much detail!) I wrote dinosaur "jokes" all over. I left crayons out so the kids could color when they were "forced" to wait for food and while he opened his presents.  I also put a poster board up that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY THOMAS" and hung markers from it.. I asked all the kids to sign it (with help if needed) so he could keep it! HAVE FUN

• Kids Party Home
• Kids by Category
• Kids by A to Z
• Teen Party Ideas
• Adult Party Ideas
• Holiday Party Ideas
• Nutcracker Ballet