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Well friends, it happened.
My first baby turned three in the blink of an eye. I swear I thought he was just turning two (okay, okay, we’ve heard it before, kids grow up!)…and literally as soon as it happened so did the nonstop chatter. Like, does he even stop to take a breath!?
As Lo’s birthday was fast-approaching I was having major mom guilt for not planning a big bash. We only have my mom and stepdad local and D’s mom was in from Boston so I was planning to just do cake at home for him.
I’m so happy that just over a week before his big day I changed my mind and decided to throw together a little party for him. It turned out to be a great day and we had a lot of fun with our little family and friends!
One of my favorite things about Florida is the abundance of parks with covered shelters available for rent. I’ve always been skeptical of renting one in the heat of August in Florida but by chance our nearby park (and Lo’s favorite) had one available on the lake which turned out to have a nice breeze in the afternoon. It was also the PERFECT setting for a dinosaur party!
Once our park shelter was booked it was on to Pinterest for decor and cake ideas. We picked up most of the paper goods from Dollar Tree – table cloths, paper plates, napkins, cups and cutlery in shades of green and gold. We also grabbed plenty of streamers and pom poms. We also ordered this super cute Happy Birthday sign from Amazon – it does have to be assembled but it was definitely worth the little extra work. (The glare from the lake made it a little challenging to get a good photo)
I decided to go ahead and pre-assemble a little streamer backdrop for photos. It definitely saved us some time during set up on the day of. First I cut different colored streamers to length – I figured about a couple feet taller than me. Then, using a strip of cardboard I arranged the streamers and attached them with packing tape in batches. Then, all I had to do was roll the whole thing up and bring it to the party! Once we were there we simply taped the cardboard part up on the rafter and added some poms!
Lo already owned a pretty respectable collection of dinosaurs – but they can easily be found at Dollar Tree – here are some that we used – or Walmart for $1 each. My MIL crafted some teeny tiny party hats for them using cardstock cut into circles and pom poms. It’s amazing what can be achieved with some hot glue! The dinosaurs also make great party favors – in a little basket with an “Adopt a Dino” sign.
Since we used Lo’s personal collection of dinosaurs for decorations we found a great alternative party favor – a goodie bag filled with yogurt pretzels and chocolate rocks makes a perfect bag of dinosaur bones!
A close friend volunteered to make snickerdoodle cookies for the party. I thought these would be the perfect cookie to use for some fossils and she did not disappoint!
Her advice: use your toy dinosaurs feet to stomp footprints AFTER baking but before the cookies have started to cool. If you try to do them before baking your fossils will lose shape. She used one of Lo’s t-rex toys for the footprints but you could also make some cool fossils with these dinosaur skeleton toys.
And then, of course, my favorite part of all birthdays – THE CAKE. I opted for a cookie dough cake since it would be easiest to decorate for a dinosaur theme – and it’s my personal favorite. I generally do an 8” cake but I was feeling ambitious and worried it would be too small (it wouldn’t have been, but that’s okay).
I made a 10” three layer chocolate chip cake with cookie dough buttercream filling and frosted it with store-bought chocolate fudge frosting. The outside was decorated with Pirouline cookies for a prehistoric looking fence and crumbled chocolate chip cookies and chocolate rocks for a rockslide! Holy-chocolate-overload-batman! But it was certainly enjoyed by all – and also provided us with cake for breakfast for days to come…
Here are a few of my favorite tips for turning boxed cake mix into an over-the-top creation:
Replace the oil with butter – use double the amount called for for oil (so if the box calls for 1/4 cup oil use 1/2 cup butter) and use melted, cooled butter.
Replace the water with whole milk or buttermilk
Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract – I find it really kicks up the flavor
Make either the filling or the frosting – the other can be store bought. You can make them both if you like, but try not to use store bought for both.
Choose over the top flavors – my favorite combos are chocolate and peanut butter and cookie dough but we have also tried (and LOVED) chicken and waffles and cookies and cream. You can also try lemon cake with fruit fillings or even classic carrot cake or red velvet paired with cream cheese and chocolate or nuts.
Add some crunch – this may not be for everyone but I love a surprise crunch to break up the textures, especially in a big, sweet cake. Use crumbled cookies, candy bars, nuts, chocolate chips or sprinkles to add some texture between layers or as decoration.
Go BIG – nothing makes jaws drop like a cake that is borderline too big (I mean, I don’t think there is such a thing but some people may). I usually make a two layer cake with a nice helping of filling and then build it nice and high with toppings and decor. For Lo’s dinosaur cake I made three layers and kept the toppings relatively simple. Your toppings can be edible or inedible and the sky is literally the limit. Scour IG and Pinterest and you’re bound to be filled with ideas.
And most of all – just go for it! Nothing says love like home made goodies. If you’re feeling less ambitious or short on time you can certainly order your cake – there is NO shame whatsoever in that. Bakeries obviously do a fantastic job and charge accordingly. For me – this all started when trying to save money and has become my favorite part of our birthday celebrations!
Planning parties is something I really enjoy and I personally loved the little challenge of throwing one together in a couple weeks time. It turned out to be a fun day had by all and definitely fit the budget.
Oh yes, D the Dinosaur also made an appearance! (This dinosaur costume is one of my favorite things ever – and the kids loved it too!)