operation: dino birthday

Plans for Parker's second birthday party are already in full swing! Last year, I started planning when he was like five months old, so this year, I actually held off a bit longer. We don't do over the top, super expensive parties. I just like to make almost everything myself, and I like to have tons of little details to make the parties extra special. I like for people to come to the party, have fun, and remember it!

I sort of stumbled onto this year's theme, when a friend bought me these:

Dinosaur sprinkles! My first thought when I seen them was, "this is the second birthday theme." Since then, I've went back and forth on it. I was afraid it was too bright, or that the pink & purple were too girly. But after much thought, and reassurance from the husband, I've committed to this theme. We figure, the bright colors will be fun in gloomy January, and toddlers love all colors!

The first thing I did was make a trip to Hobby Lobby to find paper to match the sprinkle colors. I found the perfect colors and bought a few sheets of each. I already have a cricut cartridge that has the dino shapes, so I got to work cutting them out and seeing what color combos I liked.

Adorable, right?

I'm going to sew a bunch of these together (in a ton of different color combinations) and use them as streamers! I'm also thinking of making some cupcake toppers (still haven't decided if I want to do cupcakes or a sheet cake). I'm going to pick one T-Rex that I like the best to use on the invites (in a bigger size of course!), and also make the banner out of this paper as well.

For the goodie bags, I found these crayons, and I'm going to make some coloring sheets based on the cricut shapes. I'd love to find some sort of theme appropriate candy, and maybe get some of those dinosaurs that expand when you put them in water. Also, dinosaur stickers would be fun (Parker LOVES stickers!).

More fun things I'm considering:

Pin the tail on the dinosaur
Finding dinosaur themed music (land before time soundtracks?)

Dino themed menu
A hat like this for Parker

Dinosaur shaped cookies (I need to use up those sprinkles!)

That's all I have for now! I'm sure right now there are things I haven't even though about, but I have plenty of time! I would love to hear suggestions from everyone!