Dino-ROAR Party!

ROARRRR! Learn how to throw an awe-inspiring dinosaur themed party here!

Invites:

You can create your own funny invites with a little help from photo shop!

Traditional dino invites.

Decorations: 

Green streamers can be used to create the jungle theme hanging from doorways. Dinosaur prints can be made with black construction paper. 

There are many ways to make the Dinosaur theme your own. Printable leaves and dinosaur footprints are creative ways to make chair backs pop. Balloons and blow up dinosaurs can be centerpieces. 

Create your own activity section for the party! Set up little tables and chairs for the kids to play games. Secure foam dinosaur face cut outs to each chair. 

Games:

For dinosaur bingo print out cards with names and pictures of various dinosaurs and the kids can use different stones/rocks to cover up the squares they have. 

Build your own terrarium! This is a creative activity for your dino lovers. The kids all get their own clear, plastic bowl. Set up a table with fake grass, leaves, rocks, stones and plastic dinosaurs and party go-ers can have their own terrarium to take home. 

A fun party game is the Dino Dig! Set up different plastic sand boxes filled with sand. Give children "excavating tools" aka sand box toys and have them go to each sand box and try to find a specific hidden plastic dinosaur. Whoever finds the dinosaur first, wins! 

Glacier Excavating! 

Freeze small plastic dinosaurs in ice cubes and give each kid their own. They have to smash open the "glacier" to get their dinosaur prize!

Party Food:

An awesome way to incorporate the theme into a party table is to have one area labeled "Carnivores" and one area labeled "Herbivores." The Carnivore table will have snacks with meat like meatballs, dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and meat sandwiches. The Herbivore area will have fruit and cups of ranch with celery and carrot sticks.

Dinosaur cupcakes can be created with chocolate cupcake mix and chocolate icing. Place tiny plastic dinosaurs on top!

Label your drink area Drinkasaurus!

Dinosaur fossil cookies: Make sugar cookies and use dinosaur plastic toy footprints to create the "fossil" look on each cookie.

Lava Cakes: Make your favorite chocolate cake recipe and use orange and red candy melts to create the lava on each cake.

Dino Bones: Cover a pretzel stick and two pieces of popcorn at each end with white chocolate to create the perfect dinosaur bones. 

Individual brownies are now Prehistoric Stones!

How awesome is this Stegosaurus Cake?!

ROAR! This cake is dino-mite!

Party Favors: 

Label bubbles "Dino Repellant" as a fun party favor for guests!

Credits:

Dinosaur cupcake: Crafts by Courtney
Dino Dig: Nicoles
Terranium: While the girls are sleeping
Dino Bingo: Hostess with the Mostess
Lava Cakes: Top Party Ideas
Dino Bubbles: Etsy
Excavating Dinos: The happier homemaker
Invites: Catch my party
Invites: Minimoz
Drinks: Etsy
Decorations: Learn with play at home
More Decorations: Catch My Party

Giggle Bean specializes in children's parties, showers and events of all kinds in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. 

A Super Sweet Candyland Birthday Celebration

Candyland is such a classic family board game and candy is almost every child's favorite food so throw your little one a sweet Candyland birthday party.  They may be sticky and jumping off the walls by the end of the party but it will be worth it when you see how much fun they are having.  For some, your little one might not be so little anymore.  That's alright because this theme makes a sweet 16 party a little more sweeter.  Candyland is so versatile, I've seen it for baby showers, prom themes and end of school parties.  Here are some ideas that will have your guests singing,  "Goodie Goodie Gum Drops."

Invitations

If you are able to hand deliver the invitations, I love the gum drop cut out idea.  I would clear or colored cellophane wrapper over it and throw in a few pieces of real candy.  Invitations that need to be mailed can also have candy added, like a lollipop, with a cute colorful bow.  This gives your guests a little taste of the fun that's to come.

 

Edible Sweets

(photo courtesy of Beauty Tutorials)

Rainbow layered cakes are all the rage right now. This cake design embodies candy, obviously because its made of sugar, but also because of its bright and vibrant colors.

If you don't know, I'm a lover of tiered themed cakes.  I use them as a focal point for my dessert table.

(photo courtesy of Make Bake Celebrate)

The game pieces from Candyland are very easy to make and have such an impact. A gingerbread man cookie cutter can help create these colorful characters to give the kids something to snack on during the celebration.

Decorative Sweets

(photo courtesy of Indulgy)

A bundle of lollipops is always a plus. A large lollipop bouquet can be used as a centerpiece for the table or smaller ones can be generously given to the guests in their goody-bags 

This tablescape is so awesome! It's big, bright, and beautiful. You can totally make these giant lollipop centerpieces.  Check out Spoonful's tutorial here.

(photo courtesy of U Create Parties)

These hard candy decorations are easier to make than they look. Fold a few sheets of paper like you were making paper fans and then just tape them together. You might have to trim the edges to make a perfect circle. I would totally use these as a backdrop for a food table or photo booth.  I have  more DIY decorations, check out on my Pinterest board to see them. 

Entertaining Sweets

(photo courtesy of Life In The Green House)

If the party is during the summer you can have the gumball lake with some water in it to help the kids cool off but if not, just fill the entire pool with plastic balls.

(photo courtesy of Crafty Engineering)

If you have a large enough space you can even make a life-sized version of the Candyland game! The kids will be amazed and entertained for hours.

Sweet Favors

After the kids have OD on candy and sweets, it would be so fabulous as a part of their favor to give a toothbrush.  How stinking cute is that?!  The parents might be appreciative too.

Vendor Credits

Candy Cut-out Invite - LeeLaaLoo on Etsy

Candyland tiered cake - Cakes with Love

Party Favor - Party Love

I'd love to see and hear about a sweets party you have done.  Comment or link your pics below.

March Madness Party!

With March Madness beginning in the next week, basketball is on everyone's mind! You can throw your own March Madness party or even a basketball themed birthday party with a little help from our blog.

Invites:

Examples of several different invites for either a March Madness Party or a Basketball Birthday Party!

A fun way to invite party-goers to a birthday party is to design the invitations to look like tickets to a game.

Two variations of March Madness invitations. You can design your invite to don the color of your favorite team on the jersey invite above.

Party Food: 

Basketball Burgers: Make your own mini sliders with basketball branded cheese.

Basketball themed plates, cups and napkins.

No sports party is complete without buffalo chicken dip.
Here's how to make your own:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine one 8 oz. package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot Buffalo sauce, 1/2 cup of ranch, 2 cups shredded cooked chicken and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese in a 1-quart baking dish
3. Bake 20 min. Stir and serve with crackers

Get creative with something as simple as cheese and crackers. Draw lines of a basketball on your round pieces of cheese with  food coloring pen and top on round crackers.

Serve ranch with carrots or other veggies with a sign that says, "Dunk it!"

Serve apple turnovers with a sign that says, "Turnovers" to keep with the basketball theme.

Cute cake and can be made for college basketball as well for March Madness. Put your favorite college team's logo on the middle basketball cake and then make cupcakes to surround the cake. You can make fondant jerseys of your favorite players for each cupcake.

Serve M&M's that are your favorite team's colors in a dish for your March Madness snack table.

Decorations:

Create balloon pillars to outline your front door of your party!

Create a march Madness party table by using a lot of orange colors to stick with the basketball theme. Using food sold at sporting events works as well. For example: Pizza, hot dogs, wings, burgers and fries.

Black and orange balloons can be transformed into a basketball entrance for your party.

Giggle Bean specializes in children's parties, showers and events of all kinds in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.

Credits: 

Ticket Invites: Etsy

Plates, napkins, cups: Birthday In A Box

Buffalo chicken dip: Tammileetips

Dunk it veggies: Michellepaigeblog

Basketball crackers: Hungry Happenings

Invitation: Purple Trail

M&M's: Our Best Bites

Balloon pillar decorations: Above the Rest Designs

Bball burgers: Hungry happenings

Balloon doorway: balloonutopia