Big J had a wonderful birthday celebration last Saturday with twenty-five of our family friends. I am happy we went with the dinosaur theme because it made the party so very "Big J". I really do love party planning and focusing in on the little details. But most importantly I am thrilled that my boy is still telling me that he had the best dinosaur birthday party ever!
I printed out a birthday banner and mounted each card on to yellow + peacock blue cardstock. I also put up a few photographs of Big J from his "photo shoot". The dinosaur "skeleton" is from the $1 bins at Target.
The dinosaur mobile was made out of embroidery hoops, monofilament and paper dinosaurs + circles.
It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to but at this point there was no time to start over.
I always set up the favor table near the front door so people can pick up their goodies on the way out.
My "go to" favor for the adults is repackaged candy, which is funny because I never include candy in the children's favors. For these favors I just removed the Lifesaver wrappers and replaced them with new custom labels.
The children received a little take-out box filled with bubbles, playdough, dinosaur capsules [you add water and watch the dinosaurs "grow"], a dinosaur pencil and dinosaur fruit snacks.
There were a few infants attending the party so they received a little stitched up bag containing a soft board book.
The birthday cake was a simple vanilla + cream cheese frosting cake topped with a few dinosaurs.
Big J loved hearing people sing "Happy Birthday" to him and blowing out his candles [and opening up the gifts and playing with the toys he received...].
I also baked a little herd of dinosaur cupcakes. [The "cupcake holder" is actually a candle holder from Ikea. As soon as I spotted it I thought it would be perfect for holding cupcakes. The smaller version would work great as a mini cupcake holder.]
The week before his party we made some dinosaur terrariums with my friend Sumi.
Technically these are not terrariums since they are not fully enclosed, but they were so much fun [and easy] to make! [I'm eyeing this terradome to add to our collection--via SFGirlByBay.]
You can find more information on terrariums here and here and here.
We placed several terrariums on the kitchen island with the rest of the brunch spread [waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, muffins, fruit] as well as on the favor + coffee tables.
So now we're writing the last of the thank you cards and soon enough it will be time to start thinking about Baby J's birthday party in June. Oh, and Baby J has told me that he wants a dinosaur birthday party!