Throw a prehistoric birthday bash your little T-Rex will never forget with our Dinosaur Party Ideas! Read on for general party planning tips as well as great dinosaur decorating ideas, and food, game, and activity suggestions.

• Dinosaur posters
• A sand box
• Bags of sand
• Large plastic "dinosaur" eggs
• Disposable Cameras

• Put each invitation inside a large plastic egg and call it a dinosaur egg. Place the plastic egg inside a clear cellophane bag with some green Easter grass and a small toy dinosaur, tie it closed with ribbon, and deliver to your guests.
• Cut out dinosaur footprints from construction paper and write the party details on one side.
• Fold construction paper in half to create a card, and decorate the front with foam dinosaurs from the craft store. Add the party details inside.
• Thinly roll out some play dough and cut out bone shapes with a small cookie cutter. Let them dry until firm, and then glue a bone to the front of each invitation.
• Use creative wording to describe the party details. You can use our example below, or write your own:
  
  You’re Invited to a Dino-mite Party!
  Tyrannosaur-(birthday child’s name) is Turning (age)
  Come to the Dinosaur Nesting Grounds: (give party date, time, and address)
  Don’t Be Extinct! RSVP to the prehistoric parents: (phone number)
  
• Seal the envelopes with dinosaur stickers.
• For a special touch, let us print personalized invitations for you! We’ll include your child’s name and all the party details on a background design that complements your theme. You can also take a look at the blank invitations we offer, which are quick to fill in and mail.

• Make inexpensive caveman costumes for your guests to wear (no sewing required!). Just cut a hole in the center of a piece of faux fur or animal print fabric to fit a child's head. Secure the costume in place with a rope belt tied around the child's waist.
• Draw large dinosaur footprints in chalk on the pavement leading to your door.
• If you have a sand box, fill it with sand and lay out "dinosaur bones" on top and buried beneath. Later this can be an activity as your guests dig up the bones!
• Make a banner saying “Welcome to the (your last name) Dinosaur Dig” and hang it near the party entrance. See our selection of Dinosaur Banners and let us do the work for you!
• Use your child's toy dinosaurs to decorate the party area! Group them together on tables, and place some dinosaurs around the cake plate.
• Make a volcano centerpiece (see Erupting Volcano activity), and place dry ice in the center to create the effect of steam rising.
• Decorate with big rocks and ferns. You can use wide green crepe paper to cut out fern leaves if you don't have access to live ones.
• Let the kids be cave men and create their own drawings on a large cardboard box! Cut the box open so more sides are available, and set out crayons and washable markers. This could be a good way to start the party, while you wait for all the guests to arrive. Be sure to take photos of the guests in front of their creation!
• Balloons always say “Party” to children! Tie groups of helium balloons together and anchor them in place with balloon weights. For greater impact, combine dinosaur-shaped balloons with our colorful latex balloons. Tie a balloon to the back of each chair, and tie a group of five balloons to the birthday child’s chair!
• Stuff brown paper grocery bags with newspaper to create "rocks" and place three or four together in the corners of the party area.
• Hang dinosaur posters on the walls at a child’s eye level.
• Ask an older child or adult to make balloon dinosaurs for the children. Use our easy Balloon Animals Kit, which includes an instruction book, balloons, and balloon inflator.
• Hang a dinosaur piñata in the party area. We offer a selection of traditional and pull-string pinatas, but any traditional piñata can be converted to a pull-string using our easy instructions.
• Play Flintstones music or the Jarassic Park soundtrack. There is also a great children's singing duo called "Trout Fishing in America" that has some very funny dinosaur songs. Their music can be found online or at local book and music stores.

• Decorate the food table with your houseplants, dinosaur figures, and large rocks.
• Label the food with creative dinosaur-related names, like Dinosaur Bones (pretzel sticks), Dino Dogs, Tyrannosaurus Burgers, Pterodactyl Chicken Wings, and Dino Eggs (tater tots or grapes). And how about adding some Hot Lava ketchup!
• Cut sandwiches or slices of cheese using a bone or dinosaur-shaped cookie cutter.
• Dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets are often available in the frozen food section of the grocery store.
• Divide the food table into two sections. Mark one section "Herbivores" and the other "Carnivores". Place all non-meat items in the Herbivore section and all meat items in the Carnivore section.
• Make red Jell-O jigglers cut into shapes, and name them Lava Rocks.
• Serve sugar cookies made with a dinosaur cookie cutter and green frosting.
• Hide a piece of bone-shaped candy in a cup of chocolate pudding, and sprinkle crushed chocolate cookies on top as the “dirt”. Tell the guests it is a dinosaur bone stuck in the mud, and let them eat their way to the candy bones.
• Serve drinks with shaped silly straws.
• Make a dinosaur-themed cake! Here are three ideas:
  
  
  1. Make an easy Volcano Birthday Cake by laying a bundt cake on top of a 9” square cake. Completely cover the cake with chocolate frosting, and then slowly pour orange frosting around the top to resemble lava flowing out of a volcano. Orange frosting can be made by adding red and yellow food coloring to a can of white frosting.
  2. Create a Dinosaur Nesting Grounds Cake using small plastic trees, toy dinosaurs, and jelly beans. Cover a 9"x13" cake with chocolate frosting and scatter crushed cookies over the top as dirt. Place small toy dinosaurs and plastic trees on top of the cake to create the scene. Build a dinosaur nest in one area with more crushed cookies, and place jelly beans in the middle as the eggs. Add another toy dinosaur nearby as the mother guarding her nest!
  3. Make an easy Dinosaur Egg Birthday Cake from a two-layer round cake. Stack the two layers with frosting in the middle. Then use a knife to cut it in half using a zig zag pattern, to resemble an egg cracking open. Pull the two sides slightly apart and frost the cake with white icing. Place a toy dinosaur on the cake plate in the middle of the crack, as if it were hatching!