Rainbow Dinosaur Birthday Party

My girl turned 4 yesterday, yall.

F.O.U.R.

I seriously can not believe it.  It has gone by entirely too fast.

When she turned one, we had a You Are My Sunshine theme for her birthday party.

When she turned two, we did a Fiesta Before You Siesta taco/outdoor play party.

When she turned three, we had an outdoor bubble party theme.

All of those were chosen by me.

But this year I asked my girl what she wanted to do for her party since she has had so many different interests this past year.  Including: coloring/rainbows, Octonauts, animals, sea creatures, and dinosaurs just to name a few.

She chose a "Rainbow Dinosaur Party!"

No joke.

Rainbow Dinosaur. 

But believe it or not, Pinterest has some ideas for that and so do I!  

(At the bottom of the post I will have all my links!)

Thanks to Mother Goose Time, our preschool curriculum, my girl became dino obsessed when we received our Dinosaur Dig box back in January.  You can read my posts about our dino unit here.

Honestly, I never thought to show her dinosaurs, and I am so thankful that MGT sent that box.  

So I basically created a colorful dinosaur party.  Crepe paper is the best!

 

It's HOOOOOT in Texas right now- like triple digits and it's still 90+ degrees after 8pm.  

The party needed to be outdoors, because.... they're preschoolers.

Messes and destruction is the name of their game.

So water play was an absolute must, but we tied in some super fun dino activities!

Like a dinosaur dig!

Avaleigh and I made Dinosaur Eggs and Dino fossils a week ago. I dug up some sandy dirt from my backyard and put it in a busted baby pool.  I then hid our fossils and dinosaur eggs in said dirt.  The kids loved this station!  They used a wooden hammer to bust open the eggs and found dinos inside.

I also made 3 dinosaur paper mache eggs (pinatas) and filled them with dinosaur paraphernalia from Oriental Trading.  I used a blown up balloon, newsprint that I had from my art teaching days, and made a paste out of flour and water.  Put 2-3 coats of paper over the balloon and leave a small opening to put in toys or candy once it is dry.  Use more paper mache to cover up the hole and then paint when dry.  Because it is so hot here, this took 3 days, but you would need a longer period of time depending on the heat.  Avaleigh and I painted them on Friday for her party on Saturday. 

 I only spent money on the filler! Everything else I had at home.

I hid the Pinata Dinosaur Eggs in the yard and after about 45 minutes of guests arriving and playing, I gathered all the kids and challenged them to find the dino eggs and bring them to me.  I then let the kids take turns bashing them open and revealing all the dinosaur goodies inside!  They loved this.

Then is was time for more water play.  

For three years now, we have used this tarp for a water slide in our yard.  This might have been it's last year, but the kids have LOVED it EVERY year!  It never gets old.

A sprinkler and some baby soap to make it slick is all you need.

Bubbles are still a great hit!  Partnered with a fan, you never get tired of "blowing" them!

And don't forget the baby pool(s)!  Throw a couple of dinosaurs in there and even 

the babies love them!

The carnivores ate dino nuggets and grape jelly meatballs.

Our herbivores ate red, orange, and yellow sliced bell peppers and grapes.

We also had dino scales (chips) and claws (bugles) to munch on.

Simple food is the best.

I ordered white cupcakes with white frosting from Walmart, because it was cheap, easy, and they taste good.  I added rainbow sprinkles and a small dinosaur toy.  They were so cute. Sorry this is the best pic I have. 

I am so grateful we received that Dinosaur Dig box 6 months ago from MGT.

It has instilled a love in my girl for something I KNOW I would not have shown her yet.

So thank you Mother Goose Time, for helping me create lasting and unexpected memories.

 

LINKS

Mother Goose Time Preschool Curriculum

Dinosaur Happy Birthday Banner -- this is not the exact one as above, but close.  I couldn't find the                                                               one we used anymore :( 

Oriental Trading Dinosaur Pinata Filler bag

Box of 72 Dinosaurs for Cupcake toppers and Dinosaur Eggs

Large Dinosaurs for decoration and play 

Dinosaur Masks (take home gift)

144 Rainbow Lollipops for $6.99!! Used in Paper Mache Egg and take home gift bags.

HOW TO:

Salt dough dino fossils 

Dinosaur Eggs for dino dig

Paper Mache Dino Egg Pinata

My favorite Dinosaur Party Post I found on Pinterest.

Fiesta Birthday: Maraca Making

I don't know where the time went, but Sweet Pea turns 2 on Friday.... tomorrow.  Time is so precious, so fleeting.  I only get 16 more years.  It's not enough time.  So, I am going to relish each and every moment I can... well try to at least.  

We are hosting a little FIESTA themed birthday party for Sweet Pea on Saturday, and this past week, I have worked on her decorations and favors a little bit each day.  As I was looking at my to-do list, I realized there were things Sweet Pea could help with and making maracas was perfect!

I found these directions on Pinterest...where else?!  Perfect activity for kids to decorate at the birthday party, and a perfect thing for Sweet Pea to help create.

Break out the rice sensory bin, be sure to include all the farm creatures to add as an element of distraction :)  

Let your little one scoop some rice into the cups.  Great coordination and fine motor skills. 

Let your tot take control. "Momma I can." Look at that face! It just reads "Look at what I can do!"

Fill how ever many cups you need.  We did 25.

Hot glue another cup on top while your tot plays  with the animals and people in the rice sensory bin, and wrap some fun washi tape around the hot glue (not pictured).

Keep going until you have all your basic maracas made. 

Now all these shakers need is the touch of a child's artwork.  We will break out the permanent markers and crayons this Saturday, and I will take pics and post the finished ones in this post.

Have fun building memories making maracas! (love that alliteration!)

This post is linked to 1+1+1=1 a delightful site to gather ideas of things you can do with your tot. 

Getting Ready for a FIESTA: Invitations

Pinterest made me do it.  Do any of your sentences start out that way too? Well, Pinterest is helping me plan my little Sweet Pea's 2nd birthday... we are having an all out Fiesta before we Siesta!

So you have to start with cute invites for a party and I found this image on Pinterest...

I love the little fringe on the top and bottom right.  Super cute, right? and totally says Fiesta!
So I made some... not entirely as cute as the above pictures, but I love them and am proud of them... plus I used a sewing machine to sew on paper, and it cost me NADA since I had everything on hand! All you need is carstock, a printer, tissue paper, and a sewing machine with thread.  Here's how I made these:

 The front of the finished invitation.  I printed 2 invitations on 1 piece of 8.5x11 white carstock, and then trimmed them down to fit in an envelope I already had.

 The back of the invitation.  It was just too plain without the little fringe.  Yes, there is such a thing as too much fringe in my opinion, but not on these :)

 So here is how to attach the fringe.  Get some tissue paper colors you like- I used pink, orange, yellow, and blue to match the donkey pinata I found at Hobby Lobby.  One strip was about an inch wide, and the other was about 3 inches.  I did not do any specific measurements... no rulers on this one.

 Use a paper clip to keep the tissue paper in place.  Do you see what plagues me?! And I didn't even notice it until I started putting the invites into envelopes.... I didn't have the number 2 placed in the top of the invitation. Ugh.... that's what happens when you have an idea, change it, but forgot you already made some before the change...I digress....

 Borrow your BFF's sewing machine for over a year and then take it out of storage to make these invites.  I guess you could use glue, but I seriously think it would take longer and not look as good.  Maybe if you used a glue runner...definitely not white school glue.  Anyway, I used matching pink thread because that was what was in my machine. Praise the Lord!  I didn't know what I was going to do if I had to re-thread that bobbin. YouTube it, I guess.

 I even back-stitched at the top and bottom.  It just adds a little more security.  Then use your scissors, make little snips down the sides, and ruffle them up with your fingers.  So cute! And nothing says FIESTA like FRINGE!

 The finished product... I'm totally digging these :)

 Hope this helps you have a HAPPY FIESTA!