Reena's Dino-mite birthday party

Every birthday party I find myself super busy and never the time to take pictures of the things I did. Whatever pictures Dan took at the party is all I have and then I give him a hard time for not taking pictures of this and that. Sorry honey. This time I took pictures as I go along. I had a little too much fun taking these pics. During the party my friend Aryn took some pics for me. Thanks Aryn! Happy 5th birthday to my beautiful girl. We love you.

My sister gave Reena dinosaur stamps for her birthday. I peaked, saw it and thought it was perfect for some cupcake toppers so Reena and I stamped away. Cupcakes and dino sugar cookies.
Each kid gets a cute straw bottle with their dinosaur name tag so no mixing up!

I made 6 pom poms. Super easy to make and fun decorations. Thanks Martha Stewart!
We made a pinata dinosaur eggs. Thanks to Reena, Debrie, Dan and Mike for helping out with the dirty work of dipping newspapers into flour mix.
I made a banner with dinosaur cut outs glued on each spike. I saw a roll of this patterned paper from Michael's and thought it would be perfect for table and banners.
Picture of Reena M&M's, Happy 5th Birthday Reena Dao Stevens, Triceratops M&M's from Aunt Thuyen.


The cake--The cake was probably the coolest thing for everyone. Friends and fb and people at the park saw it and gave a lot of compliments. It took me nearly 10 hours to make! My third time with fondant, second time with marshmallow fondant. I think I'm getting better at it. Thanks Natalie Cook Gunter for helping me mix and dye the fondant and for letting borrow your tools!

Each kid gets a dinosaur name closest to the real dinosaur name and then get to talk to a paleontologist about that dinosaur.

I put my hubby to work and he made this and helped me decorate the pinatas. He also did most of the food shopping.

Goodie stuff for the kids to take home. They each got to decorate a dinosaur with my craft stuff and take it home.

I have wonderful friends who were so willing to help make it fun. I got to hang out with 2 friends while making party stuff. They know I love parties so they got excited with me! I got together with my friend Nguyet and she taught me how to make these hot steamed buns. I call them the flower bun. They are perfect for an omninore's diet because they have pork, eggs, carrots, onions, cabbage, mushrooms and a few other vegetable inside.
The hardest thing about having an outdoor party is hauling everything out. Husband put up the decor. We had the party under a beautiful big dome with a forestry background at a park that is most popular in Redmond. We were lucky to be able to have it here and that it was available.
The kids started the party with chalk on the concrete. Everyone drew dinosaurs.
Each got to discuss their dinosaur name with the paleontologist and find out if they're an herbivore, carnivore, omnivore. We try to encourage all to be omnivores not just sweetivores since that's on default.

My handsome and very knowledgeable paleontologist. Dan was the best person for the job. He was very much into dinosaurs when he was young and having a daughter who is into dinosaurs rekindled that light. The kids loved the paleontologist. He also did story time with them

There were 12 dinosaur fossils and as each one were found they discussed each one with the paleontologist.

The craft table




The food table. This here has about 20 hours of work put towards it. The first signs that's turned the other way is actually a carnivore sign :) The fun thing about having a party at the park is you get strangers coming over complimenting you on your work and asking you if you have a blog or have a business doing this. It was fun. A business? That's too much work for not that much pay.
4 sections of food at the party. Carnivore. herbivore, omnivore, and sweetivore.




We worked hard making these pinata eggs so instead of smacking them we did the dino egg game...which one has the treats? It took them several tries to guess the right one.

Love this picture of Brie showing off the pteranodon Reena made with trio blocks.

This was a very fun party. Reena drew over 30 dinosaurs for her party. She loved it so much that at the end of the party she said "mamma, I want to have a dinosaur birthday party again next year!" Well, at least the next time around it would be easy. She had a great time. I had a great time and I'm glad I took pictures ahead of time before the party. It was all very fun. Here are all the pics. Enjoy!