Dinosaur Birthday Party

 
 

 As each child arrived, we painted a dinosaur footprint onto each child's face.



Dinosaur Cake from Family Fun
Dinosaur Cake from Bright Ideas
 

Cover the party table with a white sheet and paper dinosaur foot prints. Scatter the table top with rock candy and dinosaur fruit snacks.  We taped dinosaur footprints on the walls and floor.

Make earth in a cup.  You'll need: chocolate cookie crumbs, chocolate pudding, gummy worms, rock candy "dino eggs", clear plastic cups.  To make it, spoon a layer of pudding into clear plastic cups. Add a few gummy worms and then a layer of cookie crumbs. Repeat this process and top with some worms and dinosaur eggs.

Volcano Punch - make this with red or orange fruit drink, in a punch bowl.
Place a piece of dry ice in a sealed plastic container. Punch or cut holes in the container lid. Before serving drop the container into the punch bowl.  It's pretty awesome!  Be very careful when using dry ice! Handle only with tongs or heavy gloves! Do not put the dry ice directly in the punch or touch it with bare skin, it can burn and should NOT be ingested.
 

Bowling Bones - Use empty 2 liter bottles and tape a picture of a bone upright on each bottle.  Use a ball and let them bowl.  It might be helpful to fill the 2 liter bottles with a little bit of water.
Dino Relay - I got this neat idea from Family Fun's Website.  What we did was save four cereal boxes to make two pairs of dinosaur feet for a team relay.  Divide the kids into two teams and set a chair across from each group at the far end of the racing area. Have the first person from both teams put on dinosaur feet, then hand each of them a wooden spoon with a plastic egg (a rubber ball will do in a pinch) balanced on it. On cue, they must quickly stomp around their respective team chairs and back to hand off the spoon and then the shoes to the next runners. If a child drops the egg en route, she must retrieve it before going on. The first team whose players have all successfully completed the course win the relay.
Fill a small kiddie pool with dirt or sand to create the excavation site.  Or use construction tape to designate a dig area in your yard.  Bury any these items before the party: Real or plastic bones, popsicle sticks, small dinosaur toys, or old coins. Provide each child with a small shovel or spoon and a paint brush to clean their finds.
Hatching Eggs - Blow up a whole bunch of balloons.  Before we blew up each balloon, we put in one piece of candy (we used Starburst) inside.  Then each team had to pop (or hatch) their eggs.
Pin the horn on the stegosaurus




Make your own fossils - We made these for each of the children to take home as part of their goodie bags.  (Lots of fun for them and no mess for me....yeah!)
Choose from the following favors, which can be taken home in the pail and shovel from the Dinosaur Dig game: tiny rubber or plastic dinosaurs, dinosaur skeletons, and cavemen; jelly beans (dinosaur eggs); dinosaurs in jelly capsules and dinosaurs that grow (Gro Beasts, which expand 600 percent in water, cost $.95 each). Prizes can be larger plastic dinosaurs, dinosaur coloring books, stamps, bookmarks, mini-puzzles and bone headbands (try Bonehead by Accoutrements, $3.95). Real fossils are a big hit, too; trilobites and baculites are usually less than $3 a piece.
Dino Soap Craft
Paper Mache Eggs - place all the goodies inside of a paper mache egg.  I stretched out the opening of the balloon and put in tons of goodies...candies, dinosaur related goodies, fruit snacks, even pencils.  After all the goodies were in the balloon, I blew them up and then paper mached each balloon.  Make sure to get at least two or three layers on the balloon or it will collapse (speaking from experience).  After letting them dry completely, we popped the balloons and pulled them out.  We spray painted each one red with yellow polka dots.  The kids LOVED them.  They were so excited to take them home and open them up!

   



I found a dinosaur template online and had him cut out a dinosaur for each invitation.  He wrote the information for his party on each dinosaur.  Then he folded each one and placed it into a plastic Easter egg with some rock candy.  I put "Don't be extinct! Come to ______  dino-mite dinosaur birthday party!" along with the party details.