A Dinosaur Birthday Party!

This weekend we had a wonderful celebration in honor of Little Guy's 3rd birthday!  Since he has been enjoying the dinosaurs at the zoo so much, his party had a dinosaur theme!  I have been collecting ideas for this for about a month, and I'll admit that I had fun at the party!  Warning- there are a LOT of pictures in this post!

I made Little Guy's cake, in the shape of a dinosaur, of course!

To go along with the cake, we had cupcakes (iced with green) with cute little cupcake toppers. 

Other food at the party included Dinosaur Juice (Capri Suns), Dinosaur Nails (Bugles), and Herbivore Treats (a veggie tray).  The party was from 10-noon, so we also had chips and ordered sandwiches.

To lead the families to the parties, I cut out green dinosaur footprints and taped them on the sidewalk.  They were a fun touch!

 To keep these children entertained (10 children aged 3 and under, plus 2 helpers), I planned several games.  The first game we forgot to take pictures of:-(  We froze dinosaurs (from the dollar store) in red plastic cups.  As the children arrived, they got to choose a dinosaur, pull it out of the cup (in a block of ice) and add it to a kiddy pool.  Once the ice melted, they could get their dinosaur!  This was a huge hit.  Daddy found this game here.

 The next game was also great!  I ordered these little dinosaurs, no taller than 25 inches.  I buried them in sand boxes (plastic tubs about 2 feet by 3 feet).  The children needed to dig in the sand to find the dinosaurs.  Each child could find 6 dinosaurs.  I provided some plastic shovels and cultivators to help them dig.  We also passed out the goody bags, to help collect their dinosaurs.  Little Guy had used a dinosaur shaped cookie cutter to stamp dinosaurs onto the white paper sacks.
The children had a great time digging in the sand!  One little girl was so excited every time she found another dinosaur.  Some kids kept burying the ones they had found so they could find them again.  Another little girl stayed at the sand for almost the entire party!

 After digging in the sand, the children could choose a dinosaur mask.  There were 6 different masks to choose from.  These were hit or miss.  Some of the children loved the masks, and wore them for a while, while others put them on and took them right back off.

 The next game was pin the horn on the triceratops.  This was probably the least successful game, but it was still fun!

 After that we passed out little tubs of playdough and magnifying glasses.  The children could examine their dinosaurs with the magnifying glasses and make footprints in the playdough.

 After that it was time for food!  After gobbling up some yummy sandwiches, it was time for cake!  (Little Guy had been asking for at least half an hour when he could have some of the cake!)  Daddy lit the three candles and everyone sang "Happy Birthday!"  While we were singing, Little Guy had the biggest smile on his face!  He blew out his candles and had a yummy piece of the dinosaur!

 As we were giving out cake or cupcakes, I loved how some of the children chose which cupcake they would eat based one the dinosaur on the cake topper, not the cupcake itself!

Before we had cake, I asked Little Guy what he liked the best.  He said pin the horn on the triceratops.  I asked again after the cake, and he replied "The cake!"

 This was a really fun party!  We were so glad that many friends were able to come and help us celebrate!