Jurassic World Dinosaur Party!

Hey party peeps!  This past December, we celebrated my son’s 4th birthday 5 days before Christmas! If any of you have kids with birthdays around a holiday, you know first-hand how tough it can be to plan a party right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season! It was a whirlwind party planning process for sure, but I pulled it off with my sanity using some of my signature GIRLFRIEND TIPS I’d love to share with you! You can use these tips if you are trying to plan a party quickly.

SET THE SCENE FOR A JURASSIC WORLD DINOSAUR PARTY!

GIRLFRIEND TIP #1: Choose a theme that you can buy party supplies for quickly!

My son LOVES dinosaurs right now! We had a Jurassic World family movie night at our house when the movie released on DVD and my son was hooked. Birthday Express has an entire collection of Jurassic World party supplies that I could order quickly which made the process a lot easier and stress-free. I just went online, ordered everything for the party and was ready to go when it arrived on my doorstep. I was able to set up the party quickly with store-bought Jurassic World Party supplies like these plates, cups and napkins for the dinning table. For a custom touch, I covered the top of the table with a reptile print wrapping paper and created this cool centerpiece with an LED light riser that was in my son’s room already and lit it up blue for water and placed the Mosasaurus water dinosaur on top of it with dinosaur toys standing on the bottom of it. The kids LOVED THIS!

GIRLFRIEND TIP #2: Use your child’s gifts as party decor!

Most of my son’s birthday presents were Jurassic World toys, so instead of wrapping them all up, I used some of them to decorate the party space. I also used some of the dinosaur toys he already had and had him go on a scavenger hunt before his guests arrived to find all of his new toys. He LOVED doing that!

GIRLFRIEND TIP #3: Re-purpose party supplies!

To add a touch of creativity to the party I like to repurpose party supplies in cool ways. Here, instead of using the Jurassic World plastic tablecloth on a table, I draped it over our ottoman and used it as a play mat to create a Jurassic World play area full of dinosaurs. I also used the Jurassic World party hats to decorate the play area instead of using them as party hats.

GIRLFRIEND TIP #4: Display party favors instead of putting them in goodie bags!

I love to set up favor bars instead of putting all the favors inside a favor bag and just giving each guest a bag at the end of the party. Instead, I like to make it fun for the kids and add a wow-factor to the party space by displaying all the favors on a decorated table which is easy to do with this huge T-Rex cardboard standup. Birthday Express has a variety of Jurassic World party favors that were perfect for the party like tattoos, cups, bouncy balls, blowouts, toys and more! Once I was done displaying all the favors, it looked like a Jurassic World toy store! Give each guest a favor bag and let them each visit the table and fill their bag with one of each party favor. Trust me, this is a hit with kids every time!

GIRLFRIEND TIP #5: Decorate a store-bought cake with a matching cake topper!

I admit, I didn’t have the time or energy to bake a homemade cake, so I went to my local grocery store and picked out a cake that matched a dinosaur theme. I topped it with the Jurassic World cake topper set from Birthday Express and then got creative in how I displayed the cake. I placed the sheet cake on a large acrylic tray and then filled the tray with green Sixlets candy and created a dinosaur scene by placing some dinosaurs around it. Be sure to sterilize any toy that you plan to put near or on your cake. My son particularly got a kick out of the raptor that had met his demise!

GIRLFRIEND TIP #6: Make homemade desserts!

I LOVE ordering custom desserts for my parties, but during the holiday rush, it’s sometimes hard to get in on some of my vendor’s schedules, so in a pinch, make your own quick and easy homemade desserts! I tried to make cake pops for the first time ever and OH BOY! I know why I leave these to the professionals! They came out crazy looking but, like the rock star mom I am, I simply called them Dino Poop Balls on a stick and my kids thought that was the best thing ever! Oh yeah! I also had been seeing these cool dinosaur footprint sugar cookies on Pinterest and when I saw how easy there were to make with store-bought sugar cookie dough, I baked up a batch with my kids before the party, and I must say, this was such a fun way to have the kids get in on the party prep action. I may make this a party tradition…making AT LEAST ONE homemade dessert with them for their parties. The rest…I will leave to the pros!

Well, that’s it! Remember, if you are planning a party in a rush, you can still have a fabulous & fun party and still have energy to actually enjoy it!

Cheers!
Tonya

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– Styling & Photography: Soiree Event Design