Excavation Party

Eli has really been into rocks and minerals this year and he asked me to have an excavation themed party for his 7th birthday.  I had a difficult time finding inspiration on Pinterest for this theme. Most of the parties related to this theme were either about dinosaurs or diggers.  I finally decided to combine rocks with dinosaurs.

THE CAKE:
I made a cake with dinosaurs hidden inside and let Eli excavate the first dinosaur. Step-by-step instructions on how to do this can be found at Instructables.

THE INVITATION:

 
THE DECOR:

GAMES:
I reused the pull-string pinata I had made for Anja's Snow Bunny party. I just took the tissue paper off the outside, repainted the pinata, refilled it, and taped the trap door back on. This time it was completely torn apart, so there will be no more reusing it.
 

Another game I had planned was "excavate the dinosaur". The plan was for the kids to go digging in the snow in the backyard for dinosaurs, but it was -25 out. Instead I hid the dinosaurs in the living room and let the kids search for the dinosaurs indoors.

The last activity we did was make fossils from the dinosaurs they found on their hunt. (I forgot to get a picture of their finished products.) Idea found at Little Bit Funky.

PARTY FAVOURS:
I made fossil cookies for each guest to take home. The recipe and instructions can be found on Martha Stewart's blog. 

...and here's a picture of our littlest one after she inhaled her cake

Anja's Bunny Party

This year I let Anja plan the theme for her 5th birthday party. She very randomly decided on "snow bunny".  I have no idea how she came up with that. She is not particularly into snow or bunnies. One day when we were discussing her party she asked me to show her how to draw a bunny. I had Pinterest open on my Ipad and was looking at a blog (The Sweetest Occasion) about a very adorable bunny party. I loved the picture of the bunny they used for their party and thought it would be a cute bunny to teach Anja to draw. I drew a bunny myself and took her through the steps of shapes to draw for her bunny. I ended up loving her version so much, I planned her whole party decor around it.

We played a game where the children had to throw a "snowball" (aka styrofoam ball) at the stuffed bunny and try to knock it over.

My lopsided carrot cake.

This is a pull string pinata I made using instructions from the blog Young House Love. I love how it turned out, but should have predicted that 5-year-olds wouldn't be able to wait and all pull their strings at one time. As soon as the first couple had their strings the Pinata was pulled open and it was all over! I don't think any of the kids cared though. The were immediately distracted by the goodies that fell out.

I filled each bag with a hairband, magnet, bracelet, hair clips, and candy and put the bags in the pinata. I also filled the pinata with snowflakes to make it look like it was snowing when the kids pulled it open.