Cake made from 2-9 inch round cakes. The eyes are one marshmallow cut in half. Pupils and nostrils are chocolate chips. Orange slice claws and eyebrows and chocolate covered grahams cut in half for spines. I found the directions on Pinterest.

Posterboad Dino cutouts, paper mache volcano, and felt dino beanbag toss, all made by my mother. She made the volcano base from and oatmeal carton with crumpled paper around to build shape. This was displayed in the entry with green streamers hung at the doorways like moss. And a dinosaur sound effect clip playing in the background.

Cousins getting ready to compete in the beanbag toss.

The birthday boy, hunting for dinosaur eggs. Those crazy dinosaurs will lay eggs anywhere!

My nephew, Sean, showing me his “only 2 left!” Face. This was a cousin only party, per Brandon’s request.

Dino helium balloons, inspiration from Family Fun Magazine.
We also played hatch the dinosaur. I placed small rubbery dinos inside balloons and the kids had to pop them as fast as they could to get the dinosaurs out.

And we played musical foodprints– marching around paper dino tracks to the tune of “We are the dinoaurs.” When the children were “out” I gave them a dinosaur sticker scene craft to work on as their prize.

We also planned a dino egg (water balloon toss) and a dino dig in the sand pit out back, but we ran out of time. I just passed out coloring books and squirty dino head prizes instead.

Enjoying the grub. I missed getting a picture of the buffet. I hope my mom took one. We served Dinosaur Meat Chili (Tastes like beef.) Dino Bites (Tastes like chicken,) Dinosaur Teeth (sliced green apples,) Dinosaur claws (bugles,) Prehistoric trees (steamed broccoli,) and mixed swamp ferns (gourmet salad blend.)

Grant preferred the chocolate covered grahams to the cake or icecream. He’s my chocolate lover 🙂

Happy 5th Birthday, Brandon!