Jackson’s & Warren’s Dinosaur Birthday Party
We had the BEST time celebrating Jackson and Warren at our Dinosaur Birthday Party last weekend!
Our sweet boys turn 3 and 5 this month. Since sharing about the party on Instagram, I’ve gotten so many follow up questions, I decided to pull a few answers together for you in a quick post.
It was a WILD party, and we had a ROARING good time!
From snacks to decorations and my view on birthday cake–you’ll find it all here!
Dinosaur Birthday Party: Snacks
Dino Egg Nests
- You could easily make these with your regular rice crispy treat recipe OR use the healthy homemade chewy granola bar recipe and form into “nests” rather than bars. All you’ll need to do is lightly spray a muffin tin and form your nests by pressing the granola or rice crispy treats into the rounded muffin tins. Be sure to leave room on top of the next for the dinosaur eggs (aka speckled jelly beans)!
Carnivores
- For all our little carnivores, I made simple turkey and cheese roll ups. I stuck these dinosaur toppers in for fun, and the kids loved them.
Herbivores
- We did a super simple veggie tray with ranch dip, but you could use any veggie dip of your choice. If you haven’t tried it yet, this healthy homemade ranch dip is a hit with kids!
Prehistoric Dirt
- The basic idea of the “dirt cup” is so simple: chocolate or vanilla pudding with crushed oreo cookies on top. I added the tiny trees and dinosaurs to fit into our theme. You could easily swap traditional pudding for sugar free pudding mix, or even make your own at home using this recipe for avocado chocolate pudding. Instead of oreos, you could use a crumbled-up chocolate cookie of your choice (great ideas include: chocolate protein cookies, or any of the 15 healthy cookie or brownie recipes found here).
Fossils
- The fossil cookies were another super easy treat! Mix up the cookie dough of your choice (great using sugar cookie dough or this gluten free peanut butter cookie dough) and bake until they’re almost golden brown. Remove just a minute early, stamp with a dinosaur foot, let cool and enjoy!
Dino Bones
- White chocolate-covered pretzels broken into “bones.” Yep, they were that easy! I used store bought white chocolate pretzels for this, but you could easily make your own. For the homemade “white chocolate” you’ll simply melt 8 ounces raw cacao butter, 1/2 cup Swerve or powdered erythritol, 1/4 cup vanilla protein powder, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla liquid stevia. Dip your pretzels, let them cook and then break into “dinosaur bones!” Bonus fun: let kids scoop the bones out with a shovel!
Dino Cake and Cookies
- Keep reading for my view on birthday cake. It may surprise you. And in line with my birthday cake views, we also had dinosaur cookies. You could certainly make your own healthier versions or go for the real deal, and enjoy in moderation!
Dinosaur Birthday Party: Decorations
I ordered most of our dinosaur birthday party decorations (including the Dinosaur Birthday Banner that everyone loved) from Amazon. You’ll find all of them here: [show_shopthepost_widget id=”2817703″]
Dinosaur Birthday Party: Location
We had our dinosaur birthday party at a local gymnastics facility, so before enjoying our dinosaur-themed snacks and treats, all of our preschool friends played games and got to have fun being active together. It was a blast! Kids need both structured exercise/activity as well as free play as part of their daily routine. One thing I’ve found helpful is to make it FUN. See this post for more ideas on how to get your kids active!
AND . . . I told you I’d let you know how I feel about birthday cake because I’m always being asked, do I let my kids eat cake? Do I eat birthday cake?
The answer is . . . YES! I see nothing wrong with an occasional treat from time to time, so you better believe both my boys and I enjoyed a slice of “regular” cake (a.k.a not made with hidden protein or sugar substitutes like these fat loss friendly cupcakes or this sugar free chocolate cake) in moderation.
Did I stuff myself silly until I felt sick? No.
Did I “pay” for the cake calories with extra cardio? No.
Did I beat myself up after eating it? No.
Did I “throw in the towel” after having the cake and then pig out on ice cream, cookies & anything else I could get my hands on? Nope.
I enjoyed the celebration, felt satisfied after a few bites and continued on with my BeyondFit Life as normal.
So that’s how the @beyondfitkids and I party! Hope you enjoyed the recap of our celebration too!
Life is a celebration! If you’d like to ditch the yo-yo diets & crave/binge cycles and learn how to #dofitnessbetter and how to live a BeyondFit Life, come join us!
