Our Jack-a-saurus Rex Is 3!!!

My beautiful baby boy turned 3 on May 25th.  We celebrated with a dinosaur party-his request.

We gave him a huge mylar dinosaur balloon (Pary City) when he woke up.  Then, I let him open his "3" shirt I made for him, so that he could wear it for his birthday.  I started this tradition for each kid last year. Then, it was party time!  Thanks to our house being all packed up and in disarray, our family of 5 made up the party guest list.  

The table was decorated with large dinosaur footprints (cut from bright colored green and orange poster board) and Jackson's 4 large plastic dinosaur toys.  We hung the T-Rex pinata (Party City) over the table.  

The party hats were dinosaur visors (Michael's) and they were a big hit!  The kids each got an orange mini tote filled with a plastic shovel, dinosaur stickers (all 3 from Michael's) and Yogos, which were baby dino eggs.  They each decorated their tote with the dinosaur stickers, and then the games began.

First, we dropped capsules (Dollar Tree) into cups to grow dinosaur sponges.  These grew while we played the games.  First, we had a fossil dig (Dollar Tree)  for dinosaur bones that could be put together as a dinosaur model.  Then, we had a dinosaur bone dig (dog bones-Dollar Tree) in dry oatmeal.  The kids got to use their new shovel.  

Then we got down from the table and played the game "How far can you jump?" on the dinosaur footprints (from the table).  We used  the same footprints and played "Musical Dino prints" while "We are the dinosaurs" (we downloaded from iTunes) played in the background. After the musical dino prints, we had a dinosaur egg hunt (wiffle balls-Dollar Tree) that the kids used their totes for, and got to keep the wiffle ball as another party favor.  We ended the games with a T-Rex pinata.   I got all of these ideas off of the internet.

Then it was time for cake!  I found Jackson's dino (may have actually been a dragon, but...) cupcake cakes at Wal Mart.  We used dinosaur plates, napkins, and plastic dinosaur cups (all 3 Party City) that the kid could keep as another party favor.

After cake was present time!  Jackson got a walking/roaring dinosaur, Thomas the Train take- along track with 3 trains, a remote control Lightening McQueen, and a football.  Papa and Gigi mailed McDonald's gift cards and big boy CARS underwear, Uncle Kyle mailed a NASCAR color-by-number art set, Aunt Belle and Nana mailed cards with money, and Grandpa and Grandma have a balloon bouquet delivered every year.  

We had a great time and Jackson loved his party.

Another idea I liked from the internet was to serve dino shaped chicken nuggets.  But, Jackson is not a big fan of meat, so we went with his favorite, cheese pizza for lunch.  You could also freeze mini dino figures in ice cubes-something I did with spiders for Kennedy's 2nd birthday party (yep, she wanted Spider Man!)-but, passed on.  Also, couldn't find dinosaur fruit sancks. Lots of neat ideas out there.

We all had a great time.  The games were fun.  Jordan enjoyed the fossil dig as much, if not more, than the kids!  

I cannot believe my baby boy is 3!  He has been nothing but joy to us and we are so thankful God's plans included him being a part of our family.

I hope these ideas can be helpful for any of you who would like to use them for your dinosaur party!