Caelan's Dyno-mite Party

Well, my original idea of not having to clean the house or cook a lot of food for my second son's 2nd birthday was quite successful. I had to do neither. The temptation, though, to not go overboard was too irresistible and for my little two year old, what started out as a simple birthday party for his friends, turned out to be this:


Where did all these people come from? Just kidding. Since our venue was free--Dinosaur Park in Ashburn, we decided to invite Caelan's friends and all their siblings, too. Well, I guess we forgot in our planning, that our friends have like three kids now, so we had quite the crowd. But you know what? I loved every minute of it. It was a beautiful day in the park to celebrate.

So, here are some highlights of the party:
(there are a lot of pictures to enjoy, the scary
thing is.... these are only like a few of them!)

We had kids of all ages.

and sizes.

This is me on the right--above--wearing a dinosaur like shirt.  It's fun to add to the theme!

And for the creative part....Soryda's Party in a Box. The adults got a gourmet boxed lunch with turkey and provolone focaccia sandwiches, sun chips, fresh fruit and a brownie square. Everything was homemade, and it was yummy! I'll give a way a little secret: I went to the Giant food store salad bar and smiled nicely at the Manager and asked him if I could have 30 plastic containers each of the large and small. He gave me that, along with 35 mustard and mayonnaise packs for a whopping $4.00. Score! Coffee filter for the chips and a cupcake holder for the homemade bite size brownie.  Orange napkins and green cutlery tie the colors together.


The kids...well, what a treat! They got turkey and cheddar sandwiches, but not just ANY sandwich, they got a dyno-mite one! William Sonoma sells these cute dinosaur sandwich cutters, which I also used to make the cookies.  Giant food deli bar provided the little plastic salad containers and I matched a foam dinosaur stick-on (Michaels Craft store) with the same color cupcake paper holder for the fruit. 


Everyone got dinosaur spine cupcakes, which Patrick made and I frosted, in neon orange and green. Another tip: I asked the Target bakery section for two 24 cupcake containers. They gave it to me for free.



The birthday boy got a special dinosaur cake made from two cupcakes (cut a head and a tail out of one cupcake, the body is another cupcake, and frost them together and add a lot of chocolate chips!)

And for favors, everyone got a dinosaur cookie to go!

Yes, I know. I don't know when to stop. It was very fun for me. And Patrick and my mom helped out tremendously. If I hadn't said it before, I'll say it again: my husband is amazing. To end our day, the kids went on a dinosaur egg hunt, and that was REALLY fun. Even the birthday boy managed to find some treats!  I ordered the big dinosaur egg shells from Orientaltrading.com but you can probably find a lot at the Dollar Store around Easter.


Caelan even had a dino sweatshirt on. :) The kids had a great time because they just ran around in the park, and the parents got a chance to hang out and talk. I couldn't have asked for a better party. We hope your dinosaur birthday was special for you, Caelan. I know you won't remember it, but after having seen these pictures and CLICK HERE for all the pictures, I'm certain you'll enjoy these later in life! Also, here's a little video clip of you singing Happy Birthday to yourself. I couldn't resist!