For a dinosaur lover, having a dinosaur birthday party is a BIG deal. As the mom of a dinosaur lover, having an easy and simple dinosaur birthday party is also a BIG deal.
Here are some fun ways we we went big, and big on the easy and simple, for this party that turned out to be giant hit! And for the record, this was while we were in the USA over the holidays with the added fun of cousins, second cousins and friends to help us celebrate!
This post is in partnership with Oriental Trading who provided some of the items. The ideas and opinions are all my own.
Dino Food:
Since most dinosaurs are either meat eaters or vegetarians, we accommodated both. We offered our hungry crowd a dino-approved meal of pizza (pepperoni meat) and potato chips (dino scales) for the meat eaters, and steamed broccoli (trees) for the veggie loving crowd. Surprisingly, none of the kids fought eating “trees”.
Our cake was store-bought (so easy!) and we topped it with these cute plastic dinosaurs, which we also gave out liberally as party favors. And for the gluten free kiddos and adults, we had gluten free pizza and cake on hand.
Party Favors Fit for a Dinosaur:
The kids were way more interested in the party favors than the cake anyway. We gave out paper sacks (so simple and they come from plants, a nod to our plant-eating dinos) filled with:
- More plastic dinosaurs
- Dino gliders
- Bible verse coins
- Dinosaur pencils
- Dinosaur erasers – I had stashed away in my surprise box from a Dollar Tree trip
- Pencil sharpeners – also a Dollar Tree find
- Gluten free candies
The party supplies were easy too. Just disposable green plates from the store with our Dino napkins from Oriental Trading to compliment them, and Dino to-go boxes for leftovers.
Dino Sized Entertainment:
Kids love stories, so we entertained with a read aloud of “How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Birthday?” by Jane Tolen (find book lists by topic for your party here) and then we followed it up by flying glider dinosaurs, and playing keep away with the giant red one.
So, we did it all very easily, thanks to a box from Oriental Trading and a trip to the grocery store. And it was very simple to set up and clean up after too. Kids don't require extreme amounts of money or stuff to have fun, just enough to make it “special”. With a bit of creativity you can have an easy and simple birthday party on any theme!
Here are some other themed parties we've done:
- Golden Tea
- Valentine's Day
- Chinese New Year
- St. Patrick's Day
- Christmas in July
- Snowman party
- Gingerbread party
- Christmas Party