A TWO-rannosauraus & Dino-FOUR Celebration
Jenn’s boys just turned 2 and 4 this week!
I honestly don’t know where the time goes. I feel like I was just planning James’ 1st and Logan’s 3rd Construction Theme birthday! Anyways, their birthdays are only a week apart so I like to do one party to celebrate both birthdays. We chose to celebrate their birthday’s last night so that it wouldn't interfere with anyone's long weekend plans.
We chose a dinosaur theme because it's a common like between the boys and me and the boys love pretending to be ferocious dinos as we run around the kitchen island.
The Set-up
A backyard BBQ is usually how we celebrate the boys' birthdays since it's in the heat of Summer, but with the current gathering restrictions we had even more reason to host outdoors. Because of that, we wanted to have a tent set-up in the backyard for a reprieve from the sun but also in case it rained since an indoor party was not really an option. We set up various seating areas around the backyard so that guests would be able to spread out. We also chose to have less than 25 guests (far fewer than the 100 guests currently allowed for outdoor gatherings here).
The Menu
The menu consisted of typical BBQ food - homemade burgers with all the toppings and a variety of salads - including my favorite Avocado Corn Salad and my Mother-in-law's crowd-pleasing Macaroni Salad. I made sure that each menu item had its own serving fork with holder and that sanitizer was on the food table so that guests could use it before and after making their plates.
Whenever we host a party, we always have a mix of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages for our guests. It’s so important to provide options and having a fully stocked self-serve beverage station makes it easier for your guests to find something that suits their preferences.
I ordered custom individual cakes for the boys to smash, dinosaur sugar cookies and simple vanilla cupcakes from Dolce Bake Shop, one of my local favorites!
Decor
Decor is always my favorite part to plan - I went back and forth on whether I wanted cartoon-y dinos or more realistic dinos. In the end, I decided to do a mix of the two. I felt it actually flowed well because neither was over-done or extravagant. I kept the colours to more muted tones – burnt orange, dark green and brown, with some pops of gold. The centerpieces were made from Dollar Store finds – brown lanterns and topiary balls. I love balloons so we of course had a balloon arch around the beverage station but jazzed it up with a streamer backdrop.
Games
My boys LOVE the sandbox in our backyard and could spend hours digging and moving the sand. So, I thought we could do a Dino Dig with the kids. I got dino bones and eggs from Dollarama and buried them in the sand. I put out a bunch of rakes, shovels, and paint brushes to dig and sweep away the sand to uncover the dinosaurs! The kids loved it!! And multi-purpose since they got to keep the dino eggs they uncovered which had toys inside as part of their goodie bags.
I always try to put together as much of my décor as possible before a party so that my time is freed up for other things – like preparing the meal the day-of! Jenna and I had a couple crafty nights leading up to the party, and we are thrilled with how everything turned out.
The boys had a blast at the “TWO-Rannosaurus James’ & Dino-FOUR Logan’s Birthday Party!” and so did we!
Is there any step or detail you want to learn more about?