Dinosaur

My baby girl turn three today! She’s certainly not a baby anymore. . .not even really a toddler. I can’t believe how much she’s grown this year, both in her knowledge and literally her height. We’ve hit some big learning milestones this year and this was also the first year she has done an ‘extra-curricular’ activity – gymnastics class! It’s been really successful, and I’m amazed to see how much her gross motor skills have improved from day one. In January she is ready to move up to the next level of class too – she’s really excited! It’s been a big year full of so many wonderful things, and her party this past weekend was just another thing on that list.

Cookie favors for the guests.

She requested a ‘pink dinosaur’ theme this year (she loves dinosaurs!) and then amended that to ‘pink and purple dinosaur’ theme, so that’s what she got! I decided to go the route of making all (or as many as possible) of the decorations myself this year and I am SO glad I did!

The full spread. . .before the food was out.

I think the two food signs were my favorite decorations!

I made her invitations, banner, cupcake toppers, dinosaur danglies, and table signs in Photoshop and printed them out. The only things I spent money on were some plastic dinosaurs and the balloons and streamers – all in all it cost me $10.00. I’ll take that!

Every year for her party I put out a photo with her name, age, and her favorite things! It’s nice to be able to look back and see the changes as she grows. This year’s favorite things:

Pink Blankie (her special blankie she got for Christmas when she was just one week old – it’s been with her ever since!)
Dinosaurs
PB&J Sandwiches
Taking walks
Coloring and Painting
Berenstain Bears books
Making ‘Line-Ups’ (she takes her toys and builds them in lines across the house – see this post for an example!)
Littlest Pet Shop toys
Playing with her cousins
Gymnastics
Sleeping over Mimi’s house
Sunday Brunch at Grandma’s house

A terrifying T-Rex cousin, and her new tutu (which had to be worn immediately!).

The party was great – lots of family and friends, laughter and food! Just how a party should be. She got an army of new books, half of which are ALL dinosaur books (of which we are thrilled – both my husband and I adore reading and have already passed that on to our miss; she loves books!!) and at least 15 new puzzles!! She’s on a huge puzzle kick lately so she was a happy camper. Also, one of my favorite presents she received:

This pink dinosaur stuffy HANDMADE by my best friend!! It is so fabulous. And handmade?? How can you go wrong?! Yet another toy for her to treasure.

Three already. . .

Being swept up in party hosting, friends, family, laughter and food, I totally forgot to take a picture of her cupcakes I made. Whoops! But you can see one here. . .just picture ones with purple frosting too and there you have it.

CHOMP! True dinosaur style.

After the party that night our best friends stayed overnight (we were snowed in!) so we spent the night playing board games, laughing, and drinking cocoa. Is there a better way to spend a weekend?

Connect With Me

My daughter has a big love for dinosaurs right now. We have LOTS of little plastic dinosaurs, and she loves to take them on different adventures. She especially loves bringing them in the tub to play in the water. So we decided to build her dinosaur a boat out of recyclables and sail them in the stream!

The original inspiration for this project actually came from Parents magazine – the article for their DIY can be found here. And while theirs is prettier, mine is much simpler and takes far less time and effort, making it far more suitable for my two and half year old!

What You’ll Need:

Some form of empty carton (we used an OJ carton)
A straight(ish) stick (the mast)
An egg carton (more specifically, cut out one of the egg holders so you have a little ‘cup’)
Cardstock (for the sail)
Exacto knife
Hot glue
Single hole punch

After all your supplies are gathered, it just take a few cuts and glue spots and you’re ready to hit the high seas!! Or, the babbling brook as the case may be.

First I cut a small rectangle in the top side of the carton – this will be where the dinosaurs ride. I also dug out a tiny hole near the front – this is where the mast will go in. *Just an FYI, I ended up gluing down two halves of a toothpaste box in the bottom for the dinos to stand on – they were too small otherwise and just fell loose into the carton.*

Then I cut out a vaguely sail-shaped piece of cardstock, hole-punched it on each end, and stuck the stick through it. Voila, my mast and sail! I put some hot glue around each of the hole punches to attach it to the stick, just to ensure it wouldn’t slide down.

Then I stuck the mast in the boat, and glued it down at both the bottom of the boat and the hole so it was really secure.

Lastly, I cut a hole in the bottom of the egg carton cup and glued it to the top of the mast – an instant crows nest! I think that was my favorite part.

Then we loaded it up with dinosaurs and headed to the stream.

It did end up tipping over a couple times, but that was no big deal. The cardstock sail and egg cart crows nest do get a little droopy when wet, but still managed to hold their shape pretty well.

Eventually my miss got tired of sailing her dinosaurs and docked the boat so they could play in the mud!

I think this has been one of my favorite things to make with her. I love taking what would normally be useless items and making something fun to play with out of them! Plus it was free and took all of twenty minutes to through together. And she had a blast. I hope you enjoy it too!

Until next time,

Connect With Me

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