happy dino-day!

Since Benny is currently loving all things dinosaur....

this is how we celebrated #2

..And since I know there are people far more creative out there, I started wandering through my fav party blogs and saving ideas in pinterest (hello rest of world for joining in on my obsession).  I didn't find any invitations & accessories that I liked enough and were cheap enough, so I just made my own.  The rest were a bunch of rip-off ideas.  ;)

This was certainly not my best sewing work (I may have caught myself falling asleep at the sewing machine a few times), but I think the kids had fun with them and they definitely looked cute in them.

see.....

:)

We had chili and pepperoni rolls for the carnivores, and veggie pizza, fruit and salad for the herbivores. -Dino (deviled) eggs and dino claws (Bugles) too.  Of course, most importantly was the sweetivores table, though I didn't do my normal spread this year (blame pregnancy) - just dino cupcakes, choc & raspberry volcano cakes, peanut butter print cookies, and candy.

The only other real thing I had planned was a dino egg hunt.  I made big eggs out of balloons and a paper/flour/sugar/water mix (thanks Beth!), filled them with little dinosaurs, and then painted them. -kind of like their own little pinatas.  It was a long process over several days and my fingers were crossed, hoping they would like them.  There were 10 kids and I had only made like 15 of them, so I also got some dinosaur-ish looking Easter eggs and filled them with more dinosaurs and candies.  Since most of the kiddos were 2 and under, we kept the hunt pretty simple and then just let them have fun cracking the eggs open and filling up bags with their goodies.

 such cuteness!

Have I mentioned how much I love these two?!

Because our house isn't huge (and was destroyed during all the party cooking/baking, despite my thorough cleaning beforehand), we decided to have the party at church and use the lounge for foods and decor and then let the kids have some freedom in the big gym.  -Not such a pretty venue but perfect for running, playing, yelling, and being a kid.  They are all so stinking adorable, my fav part was watching them!

(practicing their dinosaur roars!)

our littlest dino, snoozing through the chaos! :)

(putting this in here to document preggo week 35 - oh boy! basketball or baby? what will 5 more weeks look like?!)

We ended with cupcakes, singing (sweetly started by cousin IZ!), and presents

 We are so thankful for all our wonderful friends who showed up to celebrate this boy with us.

...especially our family who drove a long way for a quick, crazy weekend.

We are blessed by BOTH of these sweeties and all the joy they bring us.  Seeing that I didn't get any sleep the night before I delivered either of them, it only makes sense that every year I get about an hour or two of sleep the night before their parties.  ....however, here's to hoping that baby girl comes mid-afternoon, after a lovely 8hr night of sleep.  Maybe that will translate to some party sleep too?  ...probably not.

Happy 2nd birthday, my little dinosaur.  I love you to the volcano and back.