It is no secret that Miss M loves dinosaurs #littledinosauraficionado. Naturally, we were not at all surprised when she decided that she wanted a dinosaur birthday party. Not just any dinosaur birthday party: a rainbow dinosaur birthday party. But how do you throw a dinosaur-themed birthday party for a girl? Here’s how – our “RAWR! I’m turning four!” dino-themed party!
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Ideas and time were limited
There is very little to find online about throwing a dinosaur birthday for a girl. In fact, there is very few dinosaur-themed clothing or gifts for girls. This season’s H&M kids range has 11 dinosaur hats, pyjamas, bags and T-shirts for boys, even one with sequins, but only one for older girls. This is common. So, instead, we had to make it up as we went along.
The lack of availability of dinosaur-themed party goods in pink or turquoise (Miss M’s current favourite colours) was exacerbated by the fact that Miss M only decided on the theme a few days before her birthday. We were away in Amsterdam most of the week before her birthday. Between the trip and work commitments, we had very little time to prepare. Therefore, we kept things simple and used a lot of things that we already had.
Not a typical kids birthday party
This was also not a typical birthday party with lots of kids. Instead, it was a small party with the German side of our family (all of whom are adults), our neighbours and some close family friends. Altogether there were four kids, including the birthday girl, and more than double the number of adults. Things were kid-friendly, but not excessively so.
The invitations
Truth: we sent electronic messages via whatsApp and Messenger. These contained the basics, but nothing about a theme.
If we had had more time (at least the 20 minutes it took for this design), we would have at least sent prettier invites electronically. Something like these.
Get your FREE copy – with blank spaces at the bottom to fill out your own party details.
If I knew more in advance, I probably would have had some invitations made – most likely on etsy. I like these bright birthday invitations, or these for more subdued invitations. I might even keep these in mind for next year – I love the bones on the reverse side – could also be used as envelope liners. Of course, I would have to get some other matching stuff, like the dinosaur welcome sign, party favour labels and thank you cards.
If I had a little more time and Miss M had chosen the theme a few weeks in advance, I may have made individualised invites. The first thought would be to make them out of
The decorations
We kept the decorations simple, partly because of our time constraints and partly because it was not a typical kids birthday party. Miss M is not a typical dinosaur aficionado anyway.
The lightbox
We changed our lightbox to read “RAWR! I’m turning four!”. We already owned a little dino image for the lightbox. Next time I will make our own (instructions coming soon).
The banner
Fortunately, I found a brand new ‘Happy Birthday’ banner in the cupboard. We strung it up between two plant hangers on our terrace and called it a day. A simple rainbow-coloured banner would have worked well too.
If I hadn’t been lucky enough to find one in the cupboard, I would have made one just for the day. Perhaps I would even use this FREEBIE!
Just click to download the file. Print out each flag and then attach to some string to hang. I find hot glueing each flag to the string works well. Otherwise, fold each flag along the top white border and use the fold to hang the flag over the string, securing by sticking the flap down on the back of each flag.
The RAWR! I’m turning four! DINOs
The dinos were the stars of our dinosaur-themed birthday party for our little girl (apart from Miss M, of course). They were also a happy coincidence.
On one of the hottest days in the year (so far), Miss M and I went shopping, primarily to spend the afternoon in air-conditioned comfort. While we were there, we went to the craft store to find a holiday project for Miss M. Unsurprisingly, she chose a ‘baby’ paper mâché Brachiosaurus.
With everything else happening, we hadn’t had a chance to paint the Brachiosaurus yet. Remembering that there were a few other dinosaurs to choose from, Miss M and I raced back to the store (the day before the party, mind you) to purchase the other stars. She chose a T-Rex, a Stegosaurus and a Triceratops to complete the group.
We also bought some mini pompoms and some motif paper, as well as some paint (some of our colours were running low).
When we got home (and I had the baking under control), we set to painting the dinosaurs. Miss M chose the colours and I am glad she chose bright ones as it suited our theme well.
Two – in some cases, three – coats later (and cakes all made) and the dinosaurs were ready for eyes and spots.
Miss M decided that all of the dinosaurs should have spots. After a little trial and error, we discovered that it was easier for Miss M to point to where she wanted a spot and for me to actually paint the spots. Her spots tended to be too big for the dinos and looked more like cow flecks. The lighter colours, such as the yellow spots on the Stegosaurus, needed a few coats.
And their party hats
For our RAWR! I’m turning
Miss M did not know about the hats –
I tried making a party hat the night before, but the universal glue did not hold well. Unfortunately, my glue pen was upstairs and I didn’t want to risk waking my MIL, so I had to wait until the next morning.
I used the instructions and template provided by Christie at This heart of mine, which can be found here. Christie made her party hats for zoo animals, but the template and instructions worked well for our dinos, too. It is also easy to scale if needed.
Apart from the Triceratops (who had horns to help), the dinosaurs had difficulty keeping the hats on. I quickly added some string (a dot of glue on each side of the hat) and tied them under the chins and the hats were fine.
Then it was just a case of finding spots for the dinos so that they had the most impact for our dinosaur-themed birthday party!
The practical bits
Rainbow colours are a great help when throwing a dinosaur-themed birthday party for a girl.
As you have probably seen from various recipe photos, we already had a table cloth with the rainbow coloured polka dots. We coupled those with some IKEA plastic plates and cups, which we also already owned. You can find a similar plastic dinnerware set here.
For safety, we added some bright striped straws to the mix We have a lot of wasps around at the moment. To avoid anyone
The food
There are a lot of food ideas for dinosaur-themed birthday parties and it doesn’t matter whether the guest of honour is a girl or boy. We went with what we had already arranged (cake and barbeque) and made up appropriate names for some of the foods. We had:
- Herbivore snacks – vegetable sticks (capsicum, carrots, cucumber and snow peas)
- Coprolite dip – date, bacon and pecan dip
- Mushed plants – guacamole
- T-Rex ribs – barbeque spare ribs
- Swamp & Algae water – apple and blueberry drinks (in bottles)
- Lava cake – homemade blood peach tart
- Chocolate dino-nest cupcakes – vegan chocolate cupcakes with chocolate eggs. I actually wanted to use jelly beans for the eggs, but couldn’t find any at our local supermarket.
We also had some bratwurst and steaks (Carnivore treats), some hard-boiled eggs (fossil eggs) and some salads that were mostly for the adults and didn’t need labels. Other ideas that we considered include:
- baby Pterodactyl legs or wings – chicken wings and legs
- dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets
- dino track biscuits – cookies with dinosaur footprints in them (made using toy dinos) and
- mud or slime cups (chocolate pudding or green jelly cups).
The food labels
After working out what we were eating, I made some simple labels with our ‘dino’ names. Originally, the labels were in German, but you can download the English version here.
The birthday cake
The birthday cake was a stroke of genius if I do say so myself. You will have to
The pool
As it was a warm day, the kids had fun playing in the pool. And jumping on the new trampoline. And playing soccer. And playing with Barbies and toy dinosaurs.
The dino pool was a hit and it suited the rainbow dinosaur birthday party theme perfectly. It got lots of use throughout the summer.
The party favours
I only thought about party favours on the day of the party when all the shops were closed. I managed to find some rainbow-coloured cupcake cups in my baking stash and some Haribo with dinosaurs in it. I put some dinosaurs in one cup and some balloons and a bouncy rubber ball in another.
Before:
With more time and forethought, I would have done things differently. Had I known what a hit they would be, I would have gotten some extra paper mâché dinos for the guests to decorate at home. Add some paint and a paintbrush and the sweets and balloons that I already had and the party favours would have been perfect. Our party favours would have looked more like this.
After:
Our guests are receiving dinos, paint, a paintbrush, some confetti and some more balloons. The gifts are wrapped and ready to be delivered tomorrow.
Planning your own dinosaur-themed birthday party for a girl?
If you have a little dinosaur aficionado who is turning four, have your own RAWR! I’m turning 4! birthday party. I know first-hand how difficult it can be to find dinosaur-themed birthday party ideas for girls, so use some of ours! Rainbows work well, and not everything has to be on theme, especially if you have adult guests as well.
What do you think? Is there something here that you would use for your own dinosaur-themed birthday party for a girl? Or are you looking to hold a RAWR, I’m turning four-party?
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