Red & Blonde Tangles: Dinosaur 4th birthday party

My daughter turns 4 tomorrow, but, we had her party this past Sunday. She was really into dinosaurs this past year thanks to Dino Dan, so, that is the theme we went with this year.

I had footprints going up the driveway as you will see in later pictures. I found this idea just recently and not sure where it is from, but, once again, I didn't save it because it was easy to remember. (I'm bad!). I just sprayed the cement with a water bottle and then used my flour sifter. I had cut out a footprint to use as a template.

My mom is the artist! She can draw like there's no tomorrow. Me, not so much. Ok, not at all! She drew these dinosaurs for us to hang around the party.

Next, are the centerpieces I made. I fell in love with this idea A LOT, as you can see by the many pictures. When I saw the trees/forest, I thought it was perfect for a dino party.

Of course I had empty soup cans available on hand. My husband and the kids went to the park and collected the sticks for me. You put a rubber band around the can and then you stick in your sticks. I then tied it with the brown rope. Placed a few dino's around the can to set the scene and I think they turned out super cute!

We had a few tables set up in the garage. I just used brown kraft paper for the covering and traced a dinosaur in each corner. Nothing to fancy.

We did do a craft which you will see in later pictures.

I had one big table in the garage that held the treat bags/pith hat/dino masks and a huge blow up dinosaur. I hung green streamers in the back to give it some extra oomph!

You can't really see in these pictures, but, I found these huge plastic leaves and just hung them on the front of the table. I would of loved more of these leaves(they came 5 to a pack), but, the store only had one pack left.

Here again are the footprints. I debated cutting out footprints from cardstock and then taping them to the driveway, but, this seemed faster and different and I wanted to give it a try.

Yes, I know, not the best photography, you can see my shadow.

Believe it or not, almost 3 days later with some rain, they are still on our driveway. I think you may have to hose them off. My husband is not worried, so, I'm not either. haha

Next up was a dinosaur hunt for fossils, bones and dinosaur skeletons. I saw the fossil making idea here. I ended up with 46 fossils and I placed them in the front and backyard. I didn't really hide them, they were just laying in the grass or by trees,etc. FYI; it did rain a little bit before the party, so, by then, the fossils were a little wet and gooey. No biggie though. They were still hard and held their shape.

They wore their hats during the hunt. They were adorable!

I had buried the dino skeletons in the sandbox along with some other small plastic dinosaurs.

These were the dino bones. They were just dog bones spray painted white.

A few dino skeletons collected in the buckets.

The birthday girl having a GREAT time!

Sisters!

I didn't go wackadoodle on the cake this year. Just plain and simple. A two layer cake with frosting and I just piped on the lettering. On the side of the cake which you can't see, is dino footprints. {Kinda like a V with a line down the middle.}

My great idea instead of candles was to have this sparkler that I found. I had it in the cake at first and then before I lit it, I wasn't sure how it would affect the cake, so, I made her hold it. She has held sparklers before. Didn't realize that it would make my dining room smoky. You could see the smoke. It was kinda funny! The smoke alarm didn't even go off. So, after that was all done with, she wanted candles!