Rainbow Dinosaur Fossil Party: Owen’s 5th Birthday Dino Dig!

Can you dig it? I’m so excited to finally share Owen’s dinosaur fossil party for his 5th birthday last month!

The obsession with dinosaurs continues in our house, so we had to throw Owen ANOTHER dinosaur birthday party this year. But to be honest, I didn’t mind at all doing a repeat theme. I had so much fun planning Owen’s modern dinosaur party last year, and I had no trouble coming up with fresh ideas for his 5th birthday.

Owen’s one request for his party was to have a “fossil dig.” So it was actually easy to make his dinosaur party different from his 4th birthday — we made it a dinosaur FOSSIL party! It was perfect for Owen, our boy who’s number one wish is to be a paleontologist. And since Owen is the most colorful child I know, I decided his party needed to have bright, rainbow colors to go with all the dinosaur bones.

And so I present to you…

Owen’s Rainbow Dinosaur Fossil Party!

Since Owen went to school this past year and he had “real” friends to invite, we let him have a kids party. Which meant I had to think up some games. So the children played pin-the-tail on the dinosaur fossil. And then they dug for “fossils” for an hour. (If you want to keep little guests entertained for a long time at your next party, I highly recommend a dino dig!)

Setting up our dino dig was easy. I bought a couple plastic kiddie pools from Target for less than $10 each. We filled them with sand (and by “we,” I mean Richard…sand is heavy!). Then I buried rocks, toy dinosaur skeletons, and toy dinosaur fossil skulls in the sand. Also, I bought some inexpensive paint brushes and sand buckets and shovels from the dollar store for the paleontologist digging tools. It was a hit at the dinosaur fossil party!

Here are some of my other favorite parts from Owen’s dinosaur fossil celebration:

• Backdrops made from lots of paper streamers in rainbow colors
• A dinosaur skeleton banner with Owen’s name
• The indigo cake with dinosaur skeletons that I hand-piped with frosting
• Balloons that spelled out OWEN
• A rainbow spectrum wall with a T-Rex fossil made from a collage of vibrant color paper squares – such a great photo background!
• Owen’s purple t-shirt with a dinosaur skeleton made from white felt glued to the front (gotta love the many uses of hot glue)
• The colorful dinosaur fossil cookies
• Plastic spoons and forks that I dipped in bright colored paint
• Dinosaur bone decorations made from paper towel and toilet paper rolls, tape, and white spray paint
• Plastic dinosaur skeleton toys used for decorations
• The bright colored dinosaur fossil party invitation
• And, of course, Owen’s smile and excitement!

And I have to tell you about the party favors! I found silicone dinosaur molds that I used to make dinosaur-shaped crayons. I chopped up crayons, filled the molds with the tiny pieces, and then melted them in the oven at a low temperature. After they cooled, I popped them out of the mold. It was a time consuming process, but I love how the dinosaur crayons turned out. Plus, to go along with the crayons, my amazingly talented friend of Kathryn Holeman Illustration created an awesome personalized dinosaur coloring sheet for Owen’s birthday. You guys have to check out the photos of it below; it’s so impressive and fun!

For Owen’s cousins, I added a little something extra to their favor bags — containers of play-doh that I stamped with mini toy dinosaurs and bugs to look like fossils (even though play-doh and I don’t get along).

Finally, here are the photos (LOTS of photos)! Take a look at all the details of my dino-loving boy’s celebration: