15342

Prehistoric Party -6yr- Egg Invitation

March 2007

Sharon in Brasilia , BRAZIL

Runner Up

My husband was recently stationed overseas here in Brazil and we all packed up to join him. This is our first overseas tour and although where we live is beautiful the kids have been having a hard time adapting to the language difference. Birthdays have always been big for us as we have a large family. We have no family here but we soon realized that parties in Brazil are even bigger then parties in Florida. So we knew we needed to do something special. Last year we had a Star Wars party (I received a runner up prize for that one) so I needed to do something just as grand as my son remembered that! Thank goodness for this site and all the great ideas. Here is what we did!  

We started planning in December as we knew we would need to buy everything on the internet or have family members send it to us. Also we went back to the States for the holidays so we made the most of it by buying what we could when we were there. (Party supplies if you can find them here in Brazil are very expensive and not the best quality) So Jacob decided on Dinosaurs but he wanted me to make caveman costumes as well. (Will talk about those later)

First off the invitation. I went with the crack egg idea I found on here. I bought card stock that you would use for scapbooking in off white and blue. I cut both in the shape of an egg. I punched a hole (you need to use the smallest size you can find or else it will be too big and the fastener will slide around) and used a scrapbook fastener to hold the two pieces together. (Fasteners were only $2 for a bag of 100 so this was very reasonable the card stock came in packages of 50 for $3 a package.  So this was a very cheap and creative way to make a bunch of invitations and I needed a bunch 45 to be exact, I then zig zag cut the top egg piece making sure to not cut all the way to the end.

The car now opened up and down. I used a black scrapbook pen to draw lines that looked like cracks on the top portion and on the bottom portion I wrote BREAKING NEWS. I printed out the inside info on the computer. I used a picture of a baby dinosaur popping out of the egg that I found on the CLIPART and then wrote: Cavemen and Dinosaurs have been spotted at Jacob's house! So stampede over to the Fuentes Cave and Quarry and join in on all the Prehistoric fun as we celebrate Jacob's 6th Birthday! You'll be sure to uncover a DINO-mite time of food, fun and games, and some dinosaurs too Don't be extinct! And then I wrote out all the party info like time and place. At the end I wrote: Please RSVP to the Prehistoric Parents and say you'll come: and then wrote our names and number. This info was printed out and glued to the inside portion of the egg. The invitations were easy to make and everyone loved them.  

Decorations: very simple used blue and green table clothes and placed all sorts of my son's dinosaurs he already had on them. I bought from ShingDiz. Com a custom banner ($14.99)that had Dinosaurs on the side and it read Welcome to the FUENTES CAVE" this was hung on the entrance gates of our house. From Oriental Trading I purchased a 4 foot by 4 foot mural ($7.95) and we hung it on the outside wall of our house. It looked like you were entering a cave. I also bought a 4ft Inflatable Dinosaur (Oriental Trading $9.95) stuck a birthday hat on him and placed him by the gate entrance with a sign that pointed out the way to go. I pulled out all my outside plants and put them around the entrance as well.

Then we made Dino footprints and placed them on the walkway that led to our backyard. Very cheap and it looked very cool. I had plain blue and green plates but purchased Dinosaur napkins. I don't like to buy a lot of decorations because most of the time you end up just throwing them out besides I would rather use that money on goodies for the kids!   Speaking of kids 28 of the 32 kids we invited (his class) showed up. We had about 40 adults as well.  IN the backyard we had 6 round tables set up. The first one held the costumes. As each child arrived they received a caveman costume. I don't sew so these were easy easy easy and looked so cute! I found adorable cavemen print fabric for $1 a yard. I was able to make two costumes out of one yard. I folded the fabric in half and then cut a V in the middle just enough to go over their heads. I then zig zag cut the bottoms to look like a Fred Flintstone style outfit. The sides of the tunics were open so I bought matching brown cording ($0.80 a yard) then tied the cord around their waist like a belt. End result instant caveman! The kids loved it!

After they received their costume they were directed to the next table which had plain brown paper bags on it. I purchased stamps (the kind that already have ink in them less mess that way) from Oriental Trading and each child decorated there own goody bag. After that they went to the next table which had a huge bowl of water on it. They each received a mini water capsule to drop into the water. These were those magic grow things. I found 12 for a $1 at the Dollar store and they grew into different kinds of dinosaurs. While they were waiting for their dinosaurs to grow they received a Dinosaur tattoo which I also got from Oriental Trading. When they were done with this table they were told to visit any of the other tables which had Dinosaur books Dinosaur play sets a dinosaur puzzle and fossil digs to play with. (All from my son's room) The kids spent about 25 minutes playing with these things and munching on the Dinosaur chicken nuggets and Brontosaurs Burgers (hamburgers). (We had crepes for the adults.)By then all the kids had arrived and we were able to start the fun.

In one area of my yard I put up a tent and placed a kiddy pool under it. I filled the pool with sand and then used yellow caution tape to tape off the area. I buried 3 dozen Dinosaur Skeletons that I got from Oriental Trading ($7.95 a dozen). I told the kids that while they were digging up our yard to do some work they found Dinosaur bones. The kids thought this was cool. They each had a chance to dig for a bone. After they got one they were given a brush to clean it off and then they looked in our Dinosaur Encyclopedia to figure out what Dinosaur they had. All the kids loved this. The older kids (we had kids from 3 years to 9 years) helped the little kids.

Then since they were all sitting down I passed out wipes to take the sand off and told them that since they were so good at digging how about digging some more. This time it was EDIBLE dirt and sand. Ahead of time I did this. SO EASY!!! I placed candy bones (Oriental Trading) in 8oz plastic cups. I then prepared chocolate pudding according to package directions. (Instant pudding is easiest) I dished this pudding into each of the cups on top of candy bones. Then in a zip lock bag I crushed Oreo cookies (My kids had a blast doing this. I just gave them a rolling pin and they went to town) Afterwards I sprinkled the Oreo crumbs on top of each pudding. Refrigerate - it looks like cups of dirt. For sand (for those that prefer vanilla) we did the same thing but with Vanilla pudding and Vanilla Wafers. The kids loved this! 

After our snack it was time for some games. We played Pin the Horn on the Triceratops (Got game on EBAY it came with only 20 horn pieces but I just cut out more from construction paper simple enough.) The winner Received a Land Before Times 100 piece puzzle that I got from the Dollar store. After that we played pass the T-Rex Bone. I bought a huge plastic caveman bone from the costume shop for $3. the kids thought it was funny. Of course we played EVERYONE DO The DINOSAUR to this. When the music stopped the child with the bone came over to me and got a Dinosaur sticker (Oriental Trading) and they became the Music person who got to tell me when to stop. This worked great and no one cried when they got out. The last person in the game got a puzzle.

The next game was Dinosaur EXTINCTION which was an OPERATION type game but with Dinosaur parts instead of people parts. The person who could remove the most Dinosaur bones without making the Dinosaur roar was the winner. (I got this game at TARGET in the Clearance isle for $3.95) The kids actually sat in a circle and waited their turn. They thought it was so cool. While this was going on I got another adult to hid plastic eggs in the front yard. Ahead of time I had speckled plain plastic easter eggs that I got from the dollar store for 59 cents a dozen to make them look like Dinosaur eggs. I filled them with gummy dinosaurs. 3 eggs were special eggs with just a piece of paper in them that said PRIZE. When the EXTINCTION game was over I told the kids that Our front yard had become a Dinosaur nesting ground and tons of eggs had been found. I told them there were enough eggs for everyone and that each of them could find 5 eggs. The little kids went first and they found the easy ones laying on the ground. Then the bigger kids went in. The kids had so much fun. The 3 special egg finders received a dinosaur egg fossil kit that I got at the dollar store.

Then it was time for the cake. Cakes here in Brazil are very fancy and filled with lots of different fillings and my son does not like them at all. He begged me to make a plain yellow cake. We had my family send me some cake mixes and icing and I made his cake. It turned out so cute that the Brazilian Parents wanted to know where I purchased it from. It was easy too. I simple made a rectangle cake and the a square one.(I used one cake mix per a pan) I used green food coloring to die the vanilla icing and iced the entire rectangle cake then placed the square cake on top right hand side of the cake and iced it with the green frosting as well. I purchased from Shindiz.com a cake topper in the shape of a volcano for $5.95. It was so cute. You place a tea light candle in the top and that is what the birthday child blows out! This volcano I placed in the middle of the square cake. Behind it I placed one of the trees from my son's Dinosaur play sets and a T-Rex figurine.

On the rectangle (bottom cake ) I made a tiny lake by dying the vanilla frosting blue. In side I placed two gold fish crackers and I placed a bunch of mini Dinosaurs around it as well as more trees. Then I sprinkled the leftover Vanilla Waffer crumbs all around to look like sand. My son said the Cake looked like Dinosaur Island!  After Jacob blew out his pretend Volcano and the kids ate,  we went into the middle of the yard and we brought out the volcano I had made ahead of time. Simple -  I balled up newspaper into a volcano type shape and then used brown modeling clay (the kind that hardens) over it. I placed this volcano on a throw away tin tray which I had sprayed painted green. Ahead of time I also had put red food coloring into vinegar bottles. I had the small Cuban coffee cups and each child got one. They took turns filling the cups with baking soda. Then one by one they got to explode the Volcano. They could have done this for hours!

While the last of the kids were exploding the volcano I had Jacob pass out his Thank you cards which I made by taking a picture of him with a pretend Dinosaur in Jurrassic Park at Universal Studios and then I made them into cards (19 cents each at Walgreens) and printed on them Thanks for making my Birthday DINO-mite! Love, Jacob Everyone thought they were great. The party was 3 hours long front 2pm to 5pm but the kids did not want to leave -  finally after they saw us cleaning up they got the hint! Everyone had fun and because I did most of the work ahead of time I was actually able to enjoy myself too! The party was 2 weeks ago and Parents are still telling me how their kids are still talking about it and how they are wearing their caveman outfit around the house! I guess that makes it a success! I know my little caveman had fun!  "

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