Pink Dinosaur Party

For my daughter’s 5th birthday, she wanted a pink dinosaur party.  Not your common theme…dinosaurs, yes… pink ones, no!  Dollar store and spray paint to the rescue!  I found 7 good sized plastic dinosaurs at the Dollar Tree and spray painted them bright pink. You can find similar dinosaurs here and then use this spray paint that bonds to plastic. I used card stock in several shades of pink to create most of the other decorations.  Did you know that you can sew paper?  I discovered this recently, and have been making the cutest and most cost effective decorations even since.  I used my Cricut machine to cut circles and flower shapes in the various colors and then sat in front of my sewing machine with little stacks of these cut outs.  In no time at all,  I had 6 paper garlands to hang as the backdrop for the food table.    I also used larger flower shapes cut from my Cricut in shades of pink and patterned scrapbooking paper to create a festive birthday banner for my girl.  I found the pink dinosaur by googling “pink dinosaur” images online.  Pink ribbon tied into bows held each individual letter together. #CommissionsEarned

Edible cupcake toppers are one of my favorite things to create.  You can pretty much make a topper for any theme simply by printing a silhouette of it from the internet.   I used Wilton’s candy melts in pink for the dinosaur silhouette toppers and for the pink marshmallow pops as well.  Check out my blogpost on My Little Pony (Rainbow Dash) Marshmallow Pops for an edible cupcake topper tutorial.  

My daughter wanted to do some dinosaur activities at her party.  Her number one request was “pin the horn on the dinosaur.”  I used a projector to trace a cute pink dinosaur onto a piece of poster board.  I colored it pink and cut out a stack of horns for the kids to pin on.  I also set up a water table outside with a bunch of plastic dinosaurs floating inside.  Water play is always a big hit with preschoolers.  Our picnic table became the craft table.  I cut large dinosaur shapes out of card stock and put out glue, sequins, plastic beads, and googly eyes for the kids to decorate.  My favorite activity of all was “make the dinosaur hatch.”  A couple of days before the party, I filled water balloons with plastic dinosaurs and water. I tied them off and froze them.  I brought out these frozen “dinosaur eggs” and handed one to each child.  I gave them each a medicine dropper, added food coloring to cups of water and had the kids make their dinosaur hatch.  They peeled the balloon off of the “ice egg” (some needed a little help from parents with this part).  Then they took the colored water and squirted it over their egg until their little plastic dinos hatched out. #CommissionsEarned

Once again, the dollar store came through for the “thank you for coming” gifts.  I was able to buy dinosaur eggs with a mini plastic dinosaur surrounded by pink and blue slime.  To make them coordinate with our theme, I covered the back with a rectangle of pink card stock and made a front cover with the little pink dinosaur image and the words, “thank you for coming to my party.”  My 5 year old girl was absolutely thrilled with her pink dinosaur party, and so was I.  You can find a similar dinosaur egg party favor here.IMG_9512IMG_9483IMG_9516IMG_9531IMG_9514IMG_8857IMG_8853IMG_8887IMG_9542IMG_9478IMG_8863IMG_8861IMG_8858IMG_9534

For more kid friendly birthday party ideas check out some of my other blogposts:

Moana Birthday Party

Dolphin Birthday Party

Wings of Fire Birthday Party

Warriors Birthday Party

Art Themed (Zoom) Birthday Party

Dolphin Birthday Party

My daughter, Karis,  fell in love with dolphins after watching the Dolphin Tale movies last year.  The day after her 5th birthday party she declared that for her 6th birthday she wanted to have a dolphin party.  This was so much fun to plan!  With the help of the dollar store and Michael’s,  I was able to create all of the under the sea decor for under $20.   I used paper lanterns cut in half and ribbon to make 3 jellyfish. Crepe paper in two shades of green worked perfectly as seaweed.  White balloons in various sizes and thumb tacked to the wall formed a line of bubbles.  The net held several stuffed dolphins that my kids had won years ago at Circus Circus in Reno, NV.  The hula hoop and blow up dolphin were the perfect addition.  For the dolphin garlands I used card stock in several shades of blue and gray.  I cut these dolphins out by hand and then sewed them with a regular needle and thread.  These hanging dolphin garlands created a dramatic entry into our underwater experience.  I reused some circle and square garlands left over from my son’s birthday party the previous year because they looked a bit like floating bubbles.  I love when I get to reuse decorations from past events!   I decided to do mini cupcakes and marshmallow pops for dessert, and to go along with our dolphin theme, I created mini dolphins out of Wilton’s bright white candy melts.  I used Celebration Sixlets as pearls and Wilton’s white sugar pearl sprinkles as bubbles on the marshmallow pops.  I lined my round of styrofoam with a blue and white polka dotted ribbon and pinned on a sparkly blue dolphin.  I also glued a blue dolphin to a flat toothpick to place on top of the cupcakes.

Because the party was in June, and because we have a pool, the main event for Karis’ party was swimming.  I found 2 huge blow up dolphins for the kids to swim with, and although my daughter was hoping she would get to swim with a real dolphin, she was pretty happy with her two dolphin friends.  The kids had a blast and my big 6 year old girl was all smiles!  As the party was coming to an end, I brought out a crate of bubbles with a “thank you for coming to my party” note attached to each.  I would have to say that Karis’ dolphin swim party was a huge success! #CommissionsEarned

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For more fun birthday party ideas check out some of my other blogposts:

Moana Birthday Party

Adopt a Pet (Beanie Boo Cats & Dogs) Birthday Party

Art Themed (Zoom) Birthday Party

Science Experiment Party

Monogrammed Marshmallow Pops (Stirring Anniversary)

My husband is the Venue Manager at our church and occasionally he asks me to make a special dessert to pass out on a Sunday morning.  One year ago, we launched the Stirring Coffeehouse. First anniversary of the grand opening…now that’s something to celebrate!  200 marshmallow pops coming right up! For these pops, I used Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows, Lollipop sticks, bright white Wilton’s candy melts for the “S” logos, dark cocoa Wilton’s candy melts, Nestle’s mini chocolate chips, a Wilton’s squeeze bottle, and wax paper.

Check out my marshmallow pop tutorials to learn the basics of how to make amazing marshmallow pops.

Valentine Marshmallow Pops

Trolls (Poppy & Branch) Marshmallow Pops

3 Simple St. Patrick’s Day Treats

Halloween Marshmallow Pops

To create the monogrammed letters, simply print out a template with the letter of your choice, in your preferred font.  You can copy and paste the same letter several times on one sheet, or spell out a name or word.  Place wax paper over the top of your template and tape the wax paper down.  Use Wilton’s Candy Melts in a squeeze bottle to trace the monogrammed letters onto the wax paper.  Let them set, carefully peel off, and place them onto your dipped mallow pops.

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