So for those of you who don’t know me I am the epitome of a ‘girly girl’. So when my almost three year old requested a dinosaur themed birthday party, my mind immediately went to ‘What?!?!’ No princesses, no tiaras, no pink castles…how in the world can I make a dinosaur themed party perfect for my almost three year old princess?

After searching the internet, looking at different ideas, it finally came to me: Dinosaurs in tutus! Tutus are one of the easiest, cheap, and fantastic crafts out there. AND then put them on a dinosaur, genius.

Pre-Party Prep

Before birthdays I have started a tradition including a themed outfit, pictures, and then invitations. I absolutely love Etsy. It is a great site for finding the perfect themed party additions.

I bought Guin’s birthday outfit from DesignsByManon. Here is the link to the shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DesignsByManon

After received Guin’s invitation I set up professional photos with my favorite photographer, Theresa Young with Clementine and Clove Photography. If you live in the area here is a link to here Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/clementineandclovetheresayoung/

Finally I found the perfect invitations from Etsy. I used PeaDots – they were easy to work with, customized the color, and very affordable. Here is their link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Peadots

It is important to consider starting this process two months before the scheduled party in order to receive the outfit on time, have the pictures completed, and then finish the invitations in order to put them in the mail one month before party time.

The Décor

Next I picked colors to tie in the theme. I love the idea of lime green and hot pink for this party. The green helped bring in dinosaurs and trees, while the pink ensured we would keep it girly.

I also felt like the dinosaurs needed an extra something, so one snowy day I crafted party hats for the dinosaurs out of some abandoned scrapbook paper and poms. We ended up hot gluing the hats directly on the dinosaurs. The glue held on the hats for the party and peeled off easily afterwards.

Cuteness overload, each dinosaur had a tutu, party hat, and balloon to help celebrate the day. These were the main decoration for the party and the best part is there was very little cost since I already had the dinosaurs.

Keeping up with the dinosaur theme, I found amazing FREE templates to create dinosaur balloons. I added googley eyes to the balloons. I created 5 of each dinosaur to hang from our main room. The trickiest part was getting the dinosaur parts firm enough to remain the correct shape once on the balloon. I glued the printed template on a firmer paper and then cut it out. Here is the link to get the templates: http://flickerandflock.com/dinosaur-balloons/

I absolutely love dollar stores when it comes to throwing a great party. I found a basic glitter theme banner and added dinosaur stickers to the banner. The outcome was adorable and the best part was it cost a total of $3.

The Food

I like to keep a party in a theme, so all the food was crafted with dinosaurs in mind, as well as the pink and green.

For the cake, Guin was very excited about turning three so my mother-in-law made a three shaped cake. I picked out chocolate candies at the party store in the correlating theme color. MIL created a poke dot pattern on the cake and then placed new dinosaurs around the cake for effect.

Guin also loves cake pops, so I created a dinosaur shaped head for the pop, added spikes, google eyes, and a smile of course. I used my Basic Cake Pop Recipe.

What three year old doesn’t love jigglers? For this treat I made simple jigglers, then cut them out with dinosaur shaped cookie cutters. Here is a recipe for Jello Jigglers.

Guin fell in love with the idea of ‘spike’ cupcakes. I found a great recipe on a blog and went for it. The spikes were tricky to create, but after a few tries I got it right. Since I had so many ideas for the party I sent the cupcakes for her daycare treat. Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.twosisterscrafting.com/dinosaur-cupcakes/

Growing up one of my favorite treats was ‘Kansas Dirt Dessert’. I made the basic recipe and then put dinosaurs in the dirt cup and the results were adorable.

My crafty husband carved a t-rex head out of a watermelon for our fruit tray. We added a variety of cut up fruit and googley eyes to the dinosaur for effect.

For veggies my sister created a brontosaur out of cucumbers. We surrounded the ‘long neck’ with the other vegetables creating a dinosaur theme.

I made my never fail punch recipe and then added green food coloring for a little extra fun.

The Activities

It is so crucial to have activities for a party full of toddlers. Thankfully I have a crazy talented husband who can free hand draw. We took some left over Christmas wrapping paper, put it white side up on our table, and Scott drew a mural for the kids to color during the party. I also found a dinosaur coloring book at the dollar store (SCORE), cut out the pages, and laid those out as well. Finally, I added some foam dinosaur stickers that I bought at Hobby Lobby.

Next, I wanted to have a second activity to add a girly touch. What three year old doesn’t love candy? I created a ‘Make Your Own Candy Necklace Station’. I bought a few bags of candy that would work for this activity, some string, and cereal. The kids had a blast at this station and it kept their hands busy!

The Swag

For the baggies to hand out I included dinosaur sticker sheets that you could color, dinosaur crayons, dinosaur gummy treats, dinosaur tattoos, and dinosaur stamps. To find out how to create the crayons click here.

I struggled to find dinosaur goodie bags that weren’t seriously overpriced, so once again I visited my local dollar store and grabbed the rainbow ones pictured.