Miles’ Dino Dig Birthday Party

This party was inspired by my 5yr old and his love everything dinosaurs! We did a dino first birthday party for him as well but it had a completely different feel with bright colors and silhouettes. I knew that this party needed to be much more rustic. We spotted the large dino skeleton at Joann Fabrics and it became the starting point to our party. Earth tones and greenery everywhere you looked set the stage for a DINO DIG!

My wood pallet was the perfect backdrop for the party table. I created it for the camping party I did a few years ago. I created this gorgeous leaf garland using images cut on my silhouette. I was inspired by a similar banner on pinterest and knew it would give the table the color and texture it needed. Paired with the printable dino happy birthday banner they made a great impact in the space.

For the party cake I wanted something equally as rustic as the decor. Nothing too perfect. This cake was super easy to make at home. The top is crushed Chips Ahoy cookies, a chocolate ganache drizzle, and candy rocks bought on amazon. Stacking it on wood slices gave it height and added more texture and nature to the space.

For party food I tried to keep everything in greens and browns. We had green fruits and veggies (apples, cucumber, celery, and carrots), pudding dirt cups with candy rocks, dinosaur skeleton sugar cookies, and of course dino nuggets!

I saw the cookie cutter for these dinosaur skeleton sugar cookies online and knew I had to have them. I was pleasantly surprised how easy they were. I will share step by step details on them in another post. The kids loved them and they were so yummy!

Our activities for the party were a Dino Dig, scavenger hunt, and pinata! Each child received dino dig kit, binoculars, hat, and bag to take home their goodies.

These dig kits were so easy to create. The containers were purchased at my local dollar store. A sand mixture inside buried gems, rocks, and dino skeletons. I included a magnifying glass, several dig tools, and brush for their archaeological findings.

A printable dinosaur favor tag and strip of burlap added a fun touch to each box.

Inside each box were several layers of dinos and stones to dig for.

Kraft paper bags were easy to dress up with a printable centerpiece circle and favor tag. Each guest was able to collect all of their party goodies inside to take home.

As party guests arrived we helped them look the part of a paleontologist with hats and binoculars. These were such a big hit!

The main party table was so fun to create. It had so many layers of color, texture, and dinosaur elements including wood, moss, greenery and more.

A printable 2 sided centerpiece was at the very center of the table.

The table runner was created using burlap and a roll of moss found at the craft store. I loved the texture the moss brought to the table.

These awesome wood dinosaur skeleton puzzles were perfect to bring in the dinosaur bones in another way. We had 4 different dinosaurs on the table.

Each place setting included these gorgeous wood grain plates. They were one of my favorite finds for this party. I layered green napkins with wood silverware. The little dino foot was added using a rubber stamp I had in my craft collection.

Glass milk bottle are one of my favorite containers to use on a party table. They are so versatile. I wrapped them with a printable dinosaur water bottle label to match the printables throughout the party.

The greenery was all found at my local dollar store. I stuck them into a foam block with brown crinkle paper around it to mimic dirt. I used multiple containers of greenery throughout the space to add color and height anywhere I could.

You have seen several elements already that the kids took home. A hat, binoculars, and dino dig box. I also created these favor bags using a printable treat bag topper from the printable dinosaur package. Chocolate rocks were a fun addition to the bags to continue our outdoor dig theme.

After lunch we headed out for a scavenger hunt to find a dinosaur. The kids dressed up and were ready for the hunt!

I created cards that I hid around our home and neighborhood to lead them to the final prize.

They succeeded and found the dinosaur pinata.

After the hunt we went back inside to DIG! The kids LOVED this so much. I gave each kid a tray to attempt to contain some of the mess. They had so much fun finding all the treasures. I originally attempted a moon sand recipe for the boxes but out Home Depot did not have the right kind of sand. At the last minute it basically ended up being a wet sand mixture that was still fun to dig through. Pinterest has some great ideas for dig boxes containing plaster but for 5 year olds I did not want it to be hard to do. They were able to use bury their treasures again and dig over and over.

Last, but actually first was the front door that greeted guests as they came in. A neighbor had this great giant dinosaur skeleton from Halloween we were able to borrow. I cut dinosaur footprints out of cardstock leading up to the party.

A printable welcome sign was mounted on layered cardstock and hung using twine. So easy and so cute!

This cute 5 year old of mine loved his dinosaur dig party! He said it was the best party ever! haha! It is always fun to incorporate something my kids LOVE into a theme.