Keeping up with the Manssons: A Frozen and Pink Dinosaur Birthday Party

Let it ROAR!!

This year for Jillian's birthday, she has been stuck on a Pink Dinosaur and Frozen. I have no idea where the dinosaur is coming from...seeing how she has very little interest in dinosaurs, but everytime I asked, that is what she said. So, we did a "Let it Roar" party. It was lots of fun. I tried to do the party half and half. But it ended up where most of the big group projects were dinosaur (Volcano, Pinata Eggs, Dino Tails) where most of the crafts were Frozen. But there was lots of fun stuff to do. So lets see...I got the idea from a website where it was a boy and girl's party. The boy wanted dinosaurs and the girl wanted frozen so they did the Let it Roar. I was able to modify the idea with a pink dinosaur (which is actually a printable coloring sheet) and a copy of a picture of Elsa. I used what I created for invites, thank yous and a shirt for Jillian.

Olaf Stikcers and the Dot marker sheets

Things to do: Dinosaurs in the snow - I purchased plastic dinos and Snow in Seconds (which is a polymer that expands when water is added and it feels like snow - sort of- It is cold to the touch due to evaporation and looks like snow, but has a slightly sticky texture. Very cool nonetheless). Bingo dot marker dinosaur sheets. Build Olaf using stickers. Decorate Sven antlers/Elsa crowns with stickers/jewels. Dress up in Dino tails (this was part of their take home item. I got the pattern online and modified it a little to have less waste fabric, but very simple to make), Pinata eggs (this was a PROJECT. It took forever. Paper mache water balloons, cut open fill with candy bags, seal them back up, paint and make a paper mache nest and paint that. Took almost as long as the tails! I swore I would not do them again they were so labor intensive, but the kids absolutely LOVED them...so I may do something like that again.), Volcano with a Diet Coke/Mentos explosion (which was almost a disaster. I poured the coke into a bucket thinking it would shoot out...but it didn't. It needed the spout of the bottle to build up pressure to explode. Luckily I had an extra bottle. )

Food: We had Troll Balls (which were meatballs in the crockpot), "We finish each others PB and J Sandwiches" (Uncrustables), and Dinosaur shaped Chicken nuggets. We had fruit and a "Dino Egg fruit bowl" (watermelon cut like cracked egg), Frozen Snowballs (White cheese poof balls), Dinosaur Toenails (Bugles), Olaf Arms (pretzels), Ice Wands (Pretzels dipped in chocolate), Rice Crispy Eggs. Plus, a pink dinosaur cake and chocolate cupcakes with Frozen wrappers.

Birthday girl

The pink Dino Cake saga...well, Jillian really wanted a pink dinosaur cake. So, after looking at the pictures online, I decided to go with the Wilton T-rex pan. Mostly because she wanted a t-rex, not a herbivore. So, I found the pan and ordered. When I ordered it, if I paid for shipping (which I hate doing) there was a week long range of when it would be delivered before the party. I had been ordering stuff for Christmas and they were usually delivered towards the beginning of the time frame. I order..time go by..I check the status...nothing...a little more time goes by...nothing...then it finally ships - AFTER the first day it could have been delivered. Thinking that since I paid for shipping it would be 'express shipped' but nope, got the tracking info and it was coming through USPS. So, I start to panic. The last day in the delivery window is the day before the party, and I usually make a practice cake...so I wait for the pan to be delivered. It seems to have been misplaced in the Kentucky post office because it sat there for two days before shipping to phoenix. So at this point, I am pretty much resigned that I am going to have to do a different cake for the party. On the night before, on a whim, I went to Hobby Lobby (the only craft store nearby that I didn't check to see if they had the pan) and they had the pan! So I purchased it and made the cake the night before and frosted it right before the party. STRESSFUL. You will be happy to know that the pan I ordered was delivered right after the party ended. I am still in the process of getting a refund which I was told by the people at this company "would be easy and processed upon receipt of the returned box." But two weeks after they recieved it, still NOTHING! So frustrating. But my own fault for not checking hobby lobby to begin with.

Overall, I think the party was a success! It was lots of fun for me to do all the projects. The kids seemed to enjoy it too.