{real party} Milesasaurus' Dino-Mite Shindig!

ROAR!  That is a word (or noise) I hear frequently in my house, so what better theme for a birthday party?  To say Miles is obsessed with dinosaurs would be an understatement.  He eats and sleeps dinosaurs.  No, really... he does.  He eats all things dinosaur shaped and sleeps with approximately 6 dinosaurs each night.

 

The party printables were originally inspired by this party, but made by myself and will be in my Etsy shop soon if you're interested in your very own customized set.  Anywho, let's get onto the party details.

 The Decor-- balloons threaded onto embroidery floss and pinned to the wall with a thumb tack.  Fast, easy, and cheap.  Idea originally seen here.

 

The Party Printables-- made by muah and printed at Staples for $12.  That's right, twelve dollars!  Highly recommend Staples for printing.

 Dinosaur Chocolate Lollipops--I had some left over white chocolate wafers from Christmas time and used some blue gel paste.  I bought this lollipop mold for $2.50 and I just KNOW I will be using it again in the future.

Dinosaur Foot Prints-- Thanks to my cute hubby for cutting these prints out.  My little boy absolutely LOVED this idea and kept looking out the window at them through-out the day.

The Food

Carnivore Food:  Ceratops Chili, Dinosaur Shaped Chicken Nuggets

Sweetivore Food: Dinosaur Fruit Snacks, Tyranosaurus Rex Track Cookies, Velociraptor Vanilla Cupcakes, and Blue Chocolate Dino-Pops

Herbivore Food: Rhondadon Rolls and Stegasaurus Salad

That triceratops is looking rather thin and hungry-- look at him drooling over those t-rex foot print cookies.  The footprint cookies are made from a simple sugar cookie recipe, then stamped with one of my son's dinosaur's fooprints, sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar, and baked.  Easy peasy.

 I got these wooden dinosaur skeleton statues at Harbor & Frieght, believe it or not. $2/set= $6 total for all three-- not a bad deal and my husband loved putting them together for the party.

To Drink: Volcanic Lava Juice (Capri Suns) and water for the adults

 The Fun-- nothing says more fun than banging around a stick at a dinosaur pinata.

 The Party Favors-- Dinosaur straw cups, dino-crayons, dino-bubbles, slinkies, and magnetic dino-buddies

All in all, it was one fun night!  Miles walked away with some new dinosaur toys and I walked away 5 lbs heavier from all the yummy cupcakes.

 THE COST

I'm a strong believer that parties can be done classy, but on the cheap.  However, I understand that doing it cheaply is only doable if you have some of the basics already at home. So let's add up where the money was spent:

Printables--$12 (from Staples-- I think they quoted me at $.49/page with me providing my own paper)

Wooden Dinosaur Skeletons-- $6.00 (from Harbor & Frieght)

Party Favor Bags (10 bags & loot inside)-- 

                 $2.50(Brown bags from Michaels)

                 $15(Dinosaur Straw Cups from Albertsons)

                 $5(Slinkies half -off at Michaels)

                 $3.50(Dinosaur Crayons from Party City)

                 $4.5 (Dinosaur Balloons from Party City)

                 $8(Plush Magnetic Dinosaur Buddies from Michaels at 75% off)

        Total: $38.50 ($3.85/party favor bag)

Balloons & Brown Table Covering--$4

Pinata--$12

Lolli-Pop Mold--$2.50

Food--(this is the list of what I had to buy at the store-- everything else needed for our dinner I had already at home just laying around)

                  $1.49 (Capri Suns)

                  $3.99 (Water)

                  $2.99 (1lb Ground Beef)

                  $3.99 (1lb Ground Maple Sausage)

                  $1.5 (Sour Cream) 

                  $4.99 (Tomato Juice)

                  $.80x4 (Beans-- Pinto, Kidney, Black)

                  $5.00 (Rolls-- I was going to do homemade, but ran out of time)

                  $1.50 (Romaine Lettuce Bag)

                  $.75 (Iceburg Lettuce Head)

                  $1.50 (Cream Cheese)

                  $2.50 (Slivered Almonds)

                  $5.99 (Candy Bag for Pinata)

                  $5.50 (Frozen Dino-Nuggets)

                  $3.00 (Dinosaur Fruit Snacks)

                  $2.50 (Unsalted Butter)

                  $1.50 (Powdered Sugar)

         Total: $51.89 to feed 7 adults, 2 tweeners, and 9 kids ($2.88/person)

TOTAL of the WHOLE PARTY-- $126.89

Not a bad price-tag!  The bank was not broke, the kids had a blast, and mommy is now going to take a nap.  Phew!