Throw a Dinosaur Birthday Party!

We’ve covered a lot of birthday party themes in the past six years. It’s hard to believe this is my tenth themed birthday party post! My little baby is now six! *tears* and he asked me to throw a dinosaur birthday party for his big day!

Over the years of throwing birthday parties, I’ve learned a few things. Number one is that too much activity on the day of the party stresses me out. Nothing like a stressed out mama at a party, right? So I decided to spread our party activities out over a few days. Since we currently only have family members at our birthday celebrations, and my boys are the youngest (so far!) this works out just fine.

Safari Ltd. sent me a bunch of dinosaur toys to help out with the party – they have a wide collection of dino figurines! Here’s a little bit of what we did!

Dinosaur Small World Craft

This is my boys’ first introduction to small worlds, and they’ve been talking about it ever since. It’s so the easiest craft to do with kids. I bought glass vases, rocks, and moss at the dollar store. Also found fake succulent plants there too! Perfect for a little antediluvian dinosaur world!

Using Safari Ltd. Dinos TOOB, the boys created small worlds where dinosaurs could creep among the vegetation. They have played with their small worlds for weeks now, changing out the plants and dinosaur figurines. These little globes also make perfect decorations for the cake table at the birthday party!

Make a Dinosaur Skeleton Craft

Something I found on Pinterest I’m sure. I printed out dinosaur skeleton coloring sheets. Cut up Q-tips into various lengths. Gave the boys glue – and away they went. I think next time we’ll use liquid glue instead of glue sticks though because after the glue dried, the Q-tips didn’t stick on very well. Still, the boys had fun creating their 3D skeletons!

Dinosaur Glow in the Dark T-shirts

Every year I have made the boys something wearable for their special day. It started out as bibs, and graduated to themed T-shirts. I thought maybe at six, my son would feel too old for a “party shirt” so I wasn’t going to make anything. The night before his birthday though, his eyes shone up at me from his bed, and he eagerly whispered, “Mom!! Now are you going to go downstairs and make the birthday shirt!?”

I was like, “Make the WHAT!?” Oh dear. Major mom fail, right? So we headed out the next morning to buy blank T-shirts from Walmart. I had glow-in-the-dark Black Light paint from Tulip that I’d been saving. Using freezer paper stencils, we painted in the shapes of dinosaurs for him and his brother. Voila! Easiest t-shirt craft I ever made. And I think a new birthday tradition is formed: decorating the birthday shirts together!

Dinosaur Party Decoration Ideas

I found dinosaur wall stickers at the dollar store, and bought two packs. The night before my son’s birthday, I snuck into the boys’ room, and put the dinosaur tracks on the floor leading out the room and down the stairs. Along the way I stuck some of the smaller dinosaurs, hidden by light switches, baseboards, and around corners.

I also hung streamers and balloons outside their bedroom door, so when they opened the door, following the tracks, it would be like a mini jungle effect. Seriously, it was pretty low-budget, but they enjoyed the surprise and got into the imaginative spirit.

In the dining room, I papered the wall with browns raft wrapping paper, and hung his name banner from a previous party across. (I save all my banners!). I used glue dots to “loop” green crepe streamers along the top and bottom to hide the paper edges and create a grass-like effect. I applied more wall stickers to the brown paper so it looked like Dinos hanging out! Then I hung more green streamers in loops and twirls and hanging pieces to make another jungly effect. I’m not really sure how successful I was but we all liked how it turned out.

On the cake table, I put our dinosaur small worlds, and a “nest” of dinosaur baby eggs! Yes, these are also Safari Ltd.! Aren’t they cute? Not only was it an adorable little decor spot, but they made awesome party favors! Crack open the egg to find a little dino inside! The egg can be snapped shut and is large enough to hold a few small items for kids to tote around.

Dinosaur Volcano Cake

Ha! I am not cut out to be a cake decorator, and this cake taught me that. I wanted to make one of those volcano cake. So I baked a chocolate cake mix in my Pampered Chef large measuring / mixing bowl. )(similar to when people make the Barbie doll cakes). I also baked two round yellow cakes for the base to add height.

I stacked up the cakes, with frosting in between. Then I “cut” a little crater out of the top. I should have cut down the sides for a sharper “mountain”look, but I was afraid to make the cake too small. Totally should have done that though. Chocolate frosting over all for a brown mountain effect. To achieve this easily, I heated the frosting slightly to make it smooth and spreadable, then poured it over and spread it around. It hardened into a shiny surface. Before it really had time to cooks , I poured Reese’s Pieces into the crater and down the sides to represent lava.

Green frosting pipped around the base of the volcano for the vegetation. And Toffee Candy “rocks” from Stonewall Kitchen hid the base of the cake.

Finally, my favorite part – adding the Safari Ltd. Dinos Toob  and Dinosaur Good Luck Mini figurines (tiny fingertip sized!) to give a 3D effect. I had a large T Rex dinosaur with a ferocious grin chasing the dinosaurs on the cake (because, you know, lava isn’t enough). I made “flying” pteradons by affixing them to twisted paper lips and inserting into the cake. FYI these only held for a little while but looked super cool.

This felt like the simplest party to throw, and I think it’s because I broke up the activities for the kids and didn’t try to cram them into the same day as the party. This left me free to enjoy the party with my birthday boy!

Tell me about how you manage throwing birthday parties for your kids? I’m always looking for new ideas!

Thanks to Safari Ltd. for sending products to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own. Affiliate links have been used in this post, which means any purchases made via these links will generate a small commission for me.