Plan a party any dinosaur fan will love. This prehistoric birthday celebration includes a dinosaur “digâ€, a search for dino eggs and a make-your-own souvenir t-shirt activity.
Invitations
Purchase or make your own dinosaur shaped invitations for your event. Include the date, time, location, phone number, and whether a meal will be served; if you plan messy activities like a dig, let people know to wear play clothes.
Decorations
Create dinosaur footprints out of construction paper to lead from your front door to the room or rooms in which the party will be held. Hang green and white streamers and group white helium-filled balloons around the room. Purchase or draw posters of different dinosaur species to hang on the walls. For a centerpiece sure to excite your guests, build a homemade volcano and have it erupt once everyone sits down to eat.
Inflatable dinosaurs are also available at party and toy stores. Scatter them around the room with groupings of houseplants for a prehistoric feel.
Food and Drinks
Easy finger food is perfect for a dinosaur fete. Serve cut up raw vegetables and fruit with dips; ranch dip is usually popular for kids for the vegetables and let them dip fruit in whipped cream cheese blended with strawberry preserves. Offer breaded chicken pieces – one manufacturer even sells chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs – French fries and string cheese and crackers.
For dessert, serve volcano shaped cupcakes. Make cupcakes in any flavor; allow them to cool completely. To make a volcano, remove the cupcake from the pan or liner. Slice across the top of the cupcake to make it flat instead of rounded; turn the cupcake over so the narrower portion is on top and place it on a small plate. Frost the cupcake, building the icing to a peak at the top; place an indent at the top of the volcano and fill with red icing or raspberry jam, allowing a little to drip over the edge and down the side. Place a plastic dinosaur at the base of the volcano.
As an alternative, make a dinosaur shaped cake to serve.
Games and Activities
To keep guests occupied while waiting for everyone to arrive, start the party with a craft. Making dinosaur t-shirts gives everyone a fun souvenir to take home from the party.
Dino attire: Before the event, purchase plain white t-shirts, slightly oversized for all of the attendees. Use a stencil and a permanent fabric marker to outline a dinosaur on the front of each shirt. At the party, let the children use fabric crayons, markers or paint to color in their dinosaurs. If you plan to use paint, make sure to conduct the craft in an area suitable for messes – outdoors is great – and set aside a place for the shirts to dry. Since the paint will not be completely dry by the end of the party, consider sending a slip of paper printed with any shirt washing or care instructions for the parents. It is also a good idea to have at least one spare shirt set aside in case of disastrous spills or unexpected sibling tagalongs.
Dinosaur dig: Plan an archeological dig in your very own yard. Use a sandbox or a small wading pool filled with sand, dirt or wood chips. Place small plastic dinosaurs or other toys in the sand box and have each child, with a shovel or hands, dig until they find 2 prizes. If you must have the party indoors, use Styrofoam packing peanuts instead of the sand or dirt.
Dino egg hunt: Use over-sized Easter eggs, filled with candy or small toys, to hide in the yard or house. Allow the children to hunt for the dinosaur eggs and collect the prizes. To ensure each child gets an equal number, consider color-coding the eggs and assigning each child a color to hunt for.
Pin-the-tail on the T-Rex: Create a prehistoric version of the classic party game with a drawing of a Tyrannosaurus Rex on poster board and a collection of paper tails for guests to try to attach while blindfolded.
Goody Bags
Finish off your dinosaur party by sending everyone home with some extra dinosaur surprises. Since the shirt will function as the big “goody†simply fill the goody bags with small dinosaur items such as stickers, dinosaur-topped pencils and candy.
