dinosaur

Sophie’s Dinosaur Birthday Party

Dinosaur Birthday Party
Dinosaur Birthday Cake
Our smiley, funny, inquisitive, compassionate, friendly little girl just turned two. A lot of moms get sad when their kids have a Birthday because it indicates they’re growing older and the day that they leave the nest is growing nearer. I am excited and happy about Sophie’s Birthdays! I love seeing everything that she’s learned and accomplished over the past year. I love watching how she’s grown and all of the new friendships she’s made. She is such a joy to have in our lives that I wish everyone could know Sophie.

‘DinoRAWR’ was the theme of her big day. We celebrated with close friends and family who care more deeply for her than I could ever hope for. Loads of sugar, bubbles and presents kept Sophie and her cousins very entertained. I spent a lot of time but not a lot of money on the decorations for Sophie’s Dinosaur Birthday Party. I was inspired by my event planner friend Misty at Frosted Events for the table set up. She helped me out by making custom pink and green printables to go along with our color theme. I based the pink and green scheme around the dinosaur party hats. I’d found the pink polka dot hats at Target and thought the green dino scales would be a perfect addition. I simply cut zig zags out of green card stock and attached them using glue dots

Dinosaur Birthday

Dinosaur Birthday Party
I wanted the food to be both dinosaur themed and toddler friendly. I had fun thinking of ways to name the snacks and recruited my family to help with the ideas. Sophie’s Grandma made a fruit tray (Dinosaur Nest) with all of Sophie’s favorite fruits. There were dinosaurs on top that were cut out of a sandwich cutter. We also had pretzel rods (Dino Bones) and Jelly Beans (Dino Eggs). The party favorite was the easiest to make! Layered Chocolate Parfait (Dig Site) using chocolate fudge pudding and crushed oreos. I topped them off with a dinosaur that the kids could take home as a party favor. 

Dinosaur Birthday Party
We also had rock candy, raspberry lemonade (Lava Juice), personal veggie sticks (for the Herbivores) and BBQ turkey meatballs (for the Carnivores). The cake was by far my favorite though. I had Jeffrey drill a hole in the top of a triceratops toy for the candle. It was secured using a glue dot because it was constantly falling down into the hollow dinosaur. Using the Cricut Explore, I made dinosaur straw toppers and dinosaur garland for the front of the table. I found free svg files of the dinosaur silhouettes and cut them on pink and green card stock.

Dinosaur Birthday Party

Dinosaur Birthday Cake Candle

Dinosaur Birthday Party

Birthday Cake Eating

Dinosaur Birthday Party


I don’t think we could have done anything different to make her Birthday more perfect for her. Dinosaurs, bubbles, sugar and most of her favorite people all in one place. She didn’t stop smiling the entire day. The only thing I would change for future Birthdays is to figure out how to slow down time so I can enjoy it longer. It was a whirlwind of fun.
Bubble Machine for Toddlers

Dinosaur_Birthday_Table2 (1 of 1)
Every day after school Sophie comes home and says ‘beans’ and I only just figured out yesterday that she’s referring to the jelly beans from her party! I’m so thankful we were able to have a small celebration for her. I know there will be years where Sophie wants 30 best friends over or to take everyone laser tagging, so I’m happy to do chill parties for now. What is your go-to party food that everyone seems to request? I might have to do that pudding cups every year from now on!

Roadtrippin’ With Baby

Howdy ya’ll! You’ll never hear those words out of my mouth but we recently returned from Oklahoma and I felt it appropriate. ๐Ÿ˜‰ We took our 9mo baby girl with us on a road trip to visit our family in Tulsa two weeks ago. Now that things have settled down, I thought it would be helpful, to other brave souls who may try road tripping with their lil ones, to put together a little post on what things worked and didn’t work on our trip.

roadtrippin'

The most important thing we learned while vacationing with our little bean is to not worry. Don’t be afraid to go places. If things don’t work out you can always go back to the car or hotel for food or a nap. We made sure to max out this vacation with ‘firsts’ for Sophie. We drove on a Saturday thinking it would take 8 hours…it took 12. Of those 12 hours, only two were bad though so I think it was extremely successful! We had a few spots mapped out to stop in case she was awake. She was awake for the safari but missed out on the fire breathing dragon so Mommy and Daddy ran out to take a quick pic. It’s ok though, giraffes and dragons are pretty much the same. ๐Ÿ˜‰

dragon-giraffeAnother thing we learned fairly quickly is to take it easy at rest spots. When we let Sophie out of the car to look around in the gas station, watch the kids play on the swing set or pretend to drive, she did a much better job of eating and going back to sleep when we got back on the road. When we rushed her stops, she couldn’t be consoled and we’d just end up stopping again soon. Sometimes she was happy pretending to be George Washington by playing with random stuff in the car (does she not look like GW with the diaper on her head?!) other times she’d need to be thrown really high outside with Daddy. She LOVED captaining her ship with her cape too (we were listening to The Princess Bride and she thought she was Dread Pirate Sophie.) I wish we would have taken a blanket to lay on the grass so she could crawl around a bit at rest stops. Next time!

reststop1

reststop2One thing that we did very successfully was her diaper bag. We packed a ridiculous amount of crap stuff for her when we should have just bought all of her diapers, wipes and food once we got there. The diaper bag was clutch though. It had a gallon ziplock bag for ‘wardrobe change accidents’, wipes, two extra pairs of comfy driving clothes, tons of toys, (book, teethers, rattles, stuffed animals etc.) ready-made Enfamils, baby food jars, and TONS of diapers and bibs. We were extremely thankful we laid a towel down on the back seat next to her car seat in case she had a bad accident and we weren’t near an exit (we’ve learned from experience.)

feeding

We also made sure she got enough sleep but we didn’t plan our vacation around her naps. She got good naps in the morning and at night but we tried to keep her awake a bit longer during the middle of the day to do something fun and she was completely fine. Did not cry once from hunger or being tired. She LOVED watching every person, animal and dinosaur we saw! We took her to the Driller’s baseball game, Tulsa Zoo, Oklahoma Aquarium, City Museum in St. Louis and the 4th of July Festival to see the fireworks. She seriously loved every single thing and we loved watching her. We were only about 15 min. from home/hotel from all of these places so we knew if she was too tired or scared we could easily take her back.

baseball1

zoo

aquarium

funI was worried before we left that our ‘quiet, relaxing, peaceful trip to visit our family’ would end up being a ‘cryfest, headache filled, sleep deprived’ trip. I was very wrong. We couldn’t have had a better time and I’m so thankful our family let us come visit them and showed us a wonderful time in OK! We won’t be afraid to travel with her again until she’s in her terrible two’s. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Have any of you taken a road trip with a little one? What did you learn that you want passed on to other parents to keep their vacations a happy memory? Mmmm that funnel cake was amazing by the way.

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