Eden's Dino-mite Birthday Party

Eden’s Dino-Mite Birthday

How cute is this shirt?  Thanks Pau-pau!

We celebrated Eden’s 2^nd birthday with a dino-mite dino dig birthday party!  The inspiration is simply that he loves dinosaurs. 

This party was… frantic for me with 2 very busy months leading up to it; it was pushed aside for the next weekend... and the next.  Plus that pesky 9-5!  (Just kidding)  With a week to go, I had only sorted the goodie bags (the important stuff) and was a bit panicked.  I spent every lunch at the local shopping centre picking up decoration and various items.  I hadn’t decided on a cake until Friday night (taking a poll from my co-workers) and still wasn’t sure if that’s the one I wanted.  I was more than relieved when our guests said it was just “amazing” as usual (whew!  I’m not slipping!)

The Invitation

e Tu Designs

The Decorations

While I usually DIY most of the decorations for the birthday party, I found the Meri Meri Roarrrrrr Dinosaur Party too cute to resist.  I purchased them from Zuilly, but it will probably be my first and last purchase due to the shipping costs!

ROARRR!  A button on the side made this dinosaur roar!

I based the colour-scheme on the Meri Meri garland and centrepiece, and kept it simple using paper lanterns and pompoms in orange, yellow, blue and green.  I also made larger paper lanterns into dinosaurs.  And of course, plastic dinosaurs anywhere there was empty space.

My dinosaur lanterns

One of my favourite features and DIY project was the dinosaur terrariums.  We had fun putting it together and I love that it will hopefully be around for a while (I don’t exactly have a green thumb).      

We made 2 terrariums!

Eden loved a set of inflatable dinosaurs from Oriental Trading Co.  He tried to take a few to bed with him!

Dino Dig!

After a very wet June (wettest in 6 years) we spent much of July hoping for sunny weather for his party.  I also made sure we had plan B just in case!  Luckily it wasn’t needed.  It was a cold but sunny day (but not as cold as they were predicting).

Our little explorers searched for pre-hidden dinosaur skeletons (Oriental Trading Co) and eggs.  I was all set to make my own hidden dinosaur eggs out of baking soda, water and black food colouring but then on a pre-party trip to Kmart, I found them in the dollar bins for $2! 

Tools of the trade: shovels, brushes, sifts

Other activities, Dino Golf, the trampoline and the best thing we ever purchased the jumping castle.

The Food

The Herbivores

The Carnivores

The Cake and Chocolate “Lava” Fountain

The Cake

The inside was chocolate cake with coloured polka dots
(not pictured)

And for our Sweetivores, dipping options included: strawberries and marshmallow skewers, The Natural Confectionary Co Dinosaur gummy skewers, cream puffs, and rice crispie treat and assorted cake “bites”.  Mr H also carved a T Rex watermelon… but it never made it out on the table.  It happens every time that we forget to put something out!  This time it was the fruit salad and cream puffs for dipping.

We’re Saur-y to See You Go!

Our guests were treated to adorable goodie bags containing a dinosaur grabber, hidden dinosaur colouring book with crayons, a dinosaur stamp, and sweet treats (Natural Confectionary Co Dinosaurs gummies and Smarties).  They also got to take their dino dig discoveries home!  

Meri Meri ROARRR goodie bags

Thank you!

A big thank you to my lovely sister-in-law’s that arrived early and pitched in to help with sandwich making, cutting of vegetables and tempering chocolate.

And of course a thank you to our lovely family and friends who spent the day with us and were so generous with their gifts.  Eden is one happy two year-old with his new toys!

"Oh wow!  Trucks!"

CRASHED!  It's hard being the birthday boy!

Additional photos can be seen at the following link:
http://s1357.photobucket.com/user/r_shamilton/library/July%20blog/Eden%20Birthday%20Party

Until January…

MissE is already planning her 5th birthday party… and inviting half her pre-school class!