Donovan’s Dinosaur Birthday!
When I asked him his favorite thing about his birthday party, he told me he had ten favorite things! First, breaking the ice. Number two: whacking the pinata. Number three: Doing the volcano. Number four: digging for bones. Number five: digging for eggs. Number six: eating dinosaur donuts. Number seven: eating his cake. Number eight: lining up the dinosaurs in a row (after he broke them out of the ice, he made a very nice, organized line. Number 9: breaking the ice =) The number line broke down about then and he started repeating himself, but he clearly enjoyed his party =)
When Donovan woke up and came downstairs with Daddy, Eric took him to the door to see the garden and he said, “My dinosaurs are ready for the party!” when he saw the dino garden with the dinos in hats. He was so excited and he pointed out his favorite dinos to Daddy and told him all about how to play with the dinosaurs. Then he checked out the rest of his party stuff. He found the dinosaur grabbers and said, “I chomp you!!!” playing chompers with Daddy. They had to test out all the different dinosaurs.
I got him dressed for the day and took a picture of him out on the rocks in front. He looks so big! My three year old boy =)
The party was so much fun! We started with the volcano when everyone had arrived. Donovan poured orange vinegar into the volcano and it worked perfectly! Plenty of orange color. This was so much fun. I was worried that maybe my nieces and nephews were starting to outgrow the parties I was planning, but they loved it too. Vinegar and baking soda experiments are just plain fun. =) I turned Casey loose with the last half gallon of vinegar and another box of baking soda and the kids turned the dino garden back into a swamp! =)
I had buried dog bones and dinosaur eggs in the sandbox. I got new sand for the summer just before the party. Serenity and Donovan found all the bones and eggs before the other kids got there, but they were ok with burying them again so others could have fun digging and brushing the bones off with the paint brushes I’d put out. Then Casey and Barrett found them all and buried them yet again, except for a few bones they took home to Forrest.
Ice Age dinosaurs was the other big activity. My dad froze dinosaurs in muffin tins and cool whip tubs and the kids got to break them out! I provided hammers, butter knives, kosher salt and warm water. They loved this activity! Barrett broke into his right away, he’s really good with a hammer. Raegan took the methodical way with a lot of salt and warm water. Donovan loved using all the tools and then lining up all his dinos in a very adorably neat row. And I saved one ice cube for Eric, and he threw his against the fence repeatedly to break it so of course the kids wanted to try it too.
Donovan started asking for a pinata after we attended Evan’s third birthday, so of course I had to get one for his dinosaur party. Then I bought a second pinata as backup when I got worried that everyone wouldn’t get a turn before the first pinata broke. Good thing I did, it was a lot of fun! All the kids got a hit in on the first pinata, but it was hanging by a thread after Raegan’s hit so the last two kids just finished it off. Eric had fun with the second pinata, attaching it to a rope and letting the adults have a go at it. Eric liked his job as Andrew the pinata holder. Playing keep the pinata away from the adults was a lot of fun! =) Raegan gave the knockout hit on both pinatas =) Barrett was the first to put pinata remains on his head but all the other kids soon wanted a turn. =)
Fishing was great fun. Barrett loved the crime scene tape I found, and Serenity ended up with the rainbow streamer. We had enough prizes for everyone to fish twice, and the second time Donovan got the ninja turtle puzzle and handed it to his Daddy saying, “This is for you Daddy.”
Jen’s triple chocolate cake was amazing, as usual. Dinosaur donuts completed our sugar shock. I cut dinosaur shapes out of watermelon and we just had fruit, veggies, cheese and crackers.
Everyone was so cute in the dinosaur tails. =) Even the big kids wore them!
Categories: Uncategorized