Okay, I am one of those parents that go WAY overboard...
My son's 7th Birthday in June was a Dinosaur Dig, I will give you all the info and hopefully something will help you.
Invitations~ I cut two eggs for each one, one green and one a natural color. I cut the natural one in a jagged, broken way through the middle and anchored it on one side with a metal brad so that the two peices split apart like a cracked egg to reveal the green egg inside. I hope that makes sense
One the outside I wrote... BREAKING NEWS and on the inside I put the party info and a clip-art dinosaur.
Decorations~ I used several shades of green and orange.
These vines are a really cool effect but I ran out of time to make enough of them...
http://www.coolest-kid-birthday-parties.com/dinosaur-party.html (scroll down to the picture of the dinosaurs and vines)
Mostly I used balloons ribbons and streamers but I made several signs... such as "Welcome to ______ Dinosaur party!" and "enter the jungle through dinosaur cave" Plus signs for each station.
Activities~ as the guests arrived they were directed to the
RESEARCH STATION where they decorated lunch bags for their goodies (I was originally going to make paper mache dinosaur eggs for the goody bags but ran out of time). at this station I had all our dinosaur books, games and mazes out. PLUS a real chunk of fossilized dinosaur bones.
the next station was the
DIG SITE (our sandbox) where they each got to dig up a fossilized dinosaur egg. We made these with coffee ground dough that we molded around small dinosaur toys and baked until hard.
They took their eggs to the
HATCHING TENT which was a board covered with an old army style blanket. I had small hammers, safety glasses, dishpans of water, paintbrushes and paper towel. each guest got to put on the glasses and break open the eggs with a hammer and then wash their dinosaurs off using paintbrushes and paper towel.
Next was the
CASTING STATION where they made an impression of their dinosaur along with leaves and little shells by pressing them into foil tart pans filled with clay
Most of the guests went through the stations 3-4 times!
Next we played a couple of
GAMES~ such as musical dinosaur tracks and my favorite... the stegosaurus stomp where we tied balloons to the children's ankles and they had to stomp on each other's balloons without getting their own stomped.
TABLE DECOR~ I covered the table with a green cloth and used orange dishes and napkins. I had a silk ivy garland that I placed in the center of the table and then sprinkled the table with candy eggs and strips of curl ribbon
FOOD~ We served Dinosaur Calzones (homemade pizza pops with head, feet, tail, and spikes)/Dinosaur Hatchlings (chicken nuggets)/Stegosaurus Bony Plates (doritos)/Velociraptor Nests (baby carrots and dip)/ and Punch
After opening gifts we had cake and icecream...
THE CAKE~ I baked two 9X13 rectangular cakes and layered them. In one corner, I built up a Volcano using little cakes I baked in a small baking bowl and custard cup. I covered the whole thing with chocolate frosting and then oreo crumbs. then I decorated it with dinosaur figurines, red , orange and yellow lava and a blue lake.
I can't remember what all we put in the Goodie Bags but I know they took home several dinos and the castings that they made as well as candy eggs.
Anyway, I hope this helps...
Ramona and the Belly Bean
