Throw a Fabulous Rockin' Dinosaur First Birthday Party

It has been a little while since I posted one of our parties (don't worry, I will share them all as soon as I get a chance)!  Even though this was the most recent of our birthday's it is one I really want to share as it was my youngest's first birthday!

You all haven't heard much about my little dinosaur (that was her nickname while I was pregnant because she made me CRABBY), but she is a music lover through and through. In the early weeks with her home the only way to get her to sleep at night was to play her music. To this day she loves all things musical. She loves to dance and sing even though she doesn't know the words; her favorite song is "If you're happy and you know it" which we all sing on request now. Because of this love of music I chose to throw her a Rockin' Dinosaur Birthday Party! Yeah, I know, that's not a thing, so I made it a thing!

The Invitation

To start with, I went over the top with invite. I made a movie of pictures from her first year set to music from Jurassic Park (I love that soundtrack). Made cute little labels and sent them out on DVDs.

The Decorations

I was pretty much on my own for ideas; like I said, rockin' dinosaur isn't a popular party theme! So I went with several bright colors for decorations. I used bright colored ribbons to hang pictures from her first year along our sliding glass door.

I hung CD's and colorful streamers (which apparently were missed by the camera), and my husband made some cute balloon dinosaurs for the kids to play with. I also gathered all the kids stuffed dinosaurs which I distributed around the living room. We also scattered toy instruments and plastic dinosaurs on the food tables.

I even decorated her with a hot pink shirt that said Alexasaurus Rex in black sparkles and a colorful music bow (which I am now selling remakes of in my etsy shop). 

The Food

I was going to go with piano sandwiches until we realized the birthday girl loved pizza. So pizza it was! To keep with the theme, I used brown craft paper to make a big guitar and cello to sit the pizzas on. I used black licorice to add the look of strings (and it did not leave behind any of the icky flavor). We also had music note veggies, and bugles in record bowls!

 I found this adorable xylosaurus cake, and despite the good instructions, mine looked like a Pinterest fail! It probably didn't help that I was doing it micro sized for a smash cake! She didn't care how it looked, but she loved how it tasted! 

For everyone else, I had chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and a chocolate covered pretzel to turn them into music notes. They were all organized on a giant musical staff to play the song "Happy Birthday." We also had some blue raspberry jello popcorn wrapped in sheet music, colorful dinosaur sugar cookies, and of course, ice cream.

Party Fun

She loved opening all of her gifts, and it is hard to say which was her favorite. We didn't have any organized activities since it was her first birthday. All the kids just had a good time playing!

All the kids were sent home with little plastic jars full of treats (dinosaur gummis and "eggs" for the older kids and mini Oreos for the babies). I had hot glued plastic dinosaurs to the top of the jar lids and spray painted in bright pink (the birthday girls favorite) and aqua. The kids loved picking their favorite dinosaur!

We finished the evening by shooting off the last of the fireworks left from us announcing her pregnancy (fun ways to announce pregnancies)! She really enjoyed it too!

As usual I had tons of ideas that didn't get used (because as a procrastinator, I always run out of time), but I think the Rockin' Dinosaur Party merged music and dinosaurs perfectly for a fun first birthday!