Monday, August 10, 2015

Noah's Dinosaur Themed 4th Birthday Party

Now that I've updated you about Noah's 4th year, it's time to talk about the party!! When I asked Noah what he wanted for his birthday party theme this year, he told me he wanted dinosaurs. So, away I went planning an adorable orange, lime green and turquoise dinosaur-themed party for my little guy. First on the agenda, the invitations. I love including photos of the birthday boy on the invites, and of course, it also had to include his 2 favorite dinosaurs - "hammer head," and "long neck."


I also like to add a little something to the invites to make them unique. This time, it was wiggly eyes! Yep, wiggly eyes covered the dinosaurs at this year's party! I love how they turned out.


After the invitations were mailed, I started brainstorming (aka, browsing Pinterest and Google) ideas for the party. To decorate the house, I bought some turquoise, orange, and yellow latex balloons (inflated with helium and hi-float) at the local party supply store. For this party, I also bought a silver "4" and a generic T-rex dinosaur balloon. I made a custom banner that read "Happy 4th Birthday Noah" using the same dinosaur/color theme. I also hung up fun arrow signs directing guests to the watering hole (swimming pool), feeding area (seating area), privacy bushes (bathroom/changing area), carnivores (main course), herbivores (appetizers), and sweetivores (dessert)!


Here's an example of the banner letters, close-up. I attached the pendants with mini clothes pins to a jute rope. It worked well and looked great! I also made a mini "WELCOME" version for the front door to greet guests as they arrived.

For the party favors, I bought plain kraft paper bags with handles (from Target) and added tags that said "Thank you for making my party DINO-MITE! - Noah." Inside the bag, there was a bag of "Dino Chow," which I packaged in clear, plastic bags and topped them with tags. The chow consisted of pretzel sticks, chocolate covered raisins, peanut butter chips and a gummy worm.


To complete the favor bag, I added a "Grow a Dino!" egg with instructions for hatching their own dinosaur, along with information cards about the dinosaur they might find. I purchased the Animal Planet eggs from Amazon.


This year, I made cupcakes for the party. I didn't want to attempt any elaborate decorating of the cupcakes on the day of the party, so I made cupcake toppers and wrappers to coordinate with the banner and invite elements.


I stuck these toppers in some delicious dirt cupcakes that I could quickly make the day of the party. These cupcakes probably deserve a post of their own. They were delicious! I used my mom's recipe for Texas sheet cake for the cupcakes. Noah is a chocolate man, so I knew he'd love these! ;) Then I topped them with a peanut butter frosting that I'd never tried before, but I was so glad I did. It was heavenly. You can find the recipe here!


After the frosting, I crushed up some Oreos to sprinkle on top, as the dirt part of the dirt cupcake. :) They were the perfect touch for a dinosaur-themed party.


The napkins and utensils were some that I already had. I used jute to secure the utensils in the napkins. They looked super cute in the bucket that I reused from his 2nd birthday party! ;) I bought the kraft paper straws at Target, and added some cute ROARRR straw flags to complete the look. I used the plastic dinosaur skeletons for decorating the food area. I also purchased those on Amazon.


For the dinner menu, I chose:


for the HERBIVORES:
  • DINO chips & dip (pita chips with homemade roasted red pepper hummus)
  • Veggies & DINO dip (carrot sticks with ranch dip)
  • Watermelon SPIKES
  • PB&J sandwiches (sandwiches cut out in dino shapes with this sandwich cutter)
for the CARNIVORES:

  • PTERANODON wings (chicken wings with sauces)
  • BRONTOSAURUS burgers (sliders on Hawaiian sweet rolls)
  • DINO nuggets (dino-shaped chicken nuggets - thanks, Tyson!)
for the SWEETIVORES:
  • DINO bones (yogurt-covered pretzels)
  • Dirt cupcakes (chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing and Oreo crumbles)
  • FOSSIL cookies (I had also planned to make these, but ran out of time - sugar cookies with dino footprints, sprinkled with cinnamon)
To drink, I had JURASSIC juice for the kids (Honest juice pouches), and the WATERING hole for the adults (ice water with lemon and orange slices). I wanted the food to go with the party theme, which is why I chose what I did. ;) Added bonus that Noah loves PB&J and dino nuggets!



Here are some pics of the birthday boy enjoying his THREE parties!! :) His dinosaur shirt, featuring a "Noahsaurolophus," was made by my aunt, from the dinosaur I created for his invites. :)


The final item to take care of was the thank you notes. I made a simple flat 4" x 6" card to go with the theme.


Because who doesn't love getting something sweet in the mail instead of bills? ;) It was an adorable, fun party for a little guy who loves dinosaurs!!

Happy 4th Birthday to our little middle!












All items you see above are available for customization and purchase through my business page, kreations by kristy. You can also find me on Facebook and Etsy.

Monday, August 3, 2015

My Little Middle is FOUR!

Noah may still be tiny, but he's quite the grown up little guy now. We celebrated his fourth birthday this year with (THREE!) dinosaur-themed parties (more about those soon!) for friends and family, and on the 14th, he officially turned 4! Yes, I'm a few weeks behind here. Busy month!

The day after his birthday, I took Noah to his new pediatrician for his 4-year well-check. Everything went great and he appears to be right on track with his peers. He weighed in at 33.2 pounds (up 4.2 pounds from his 3-year check), and measured up at 40 1/4 inches (up 1.5 inches from his 3-year check). This puts him right at the 50th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight. Looking at both figures, he's now up to the 10th percentile for height-to-weight ratio, with a BMI of 14.37! He also had to get his last round of vaccinations before starting kindergarten next year. So, he received the DTap, polio, MMR and chicken pox vaccines at the visit. Just a few tears escaped before snuggles with Mommy made it all better. Hearing check went well and vision is checking out at 20/40 right now. I'm hoping that doesn't mean glasses in a couple years, but my guess is along with inheriting my baby blues, he also inherited my horrible vision. :/

Noah still sleeps around 10-11 hours a night and normally takes a nap, anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours, in the afternoon. He still shares a room with big brother, Ethan, and it works well, as they enjoy talking and laughing in their beds for hours some nights. They now go to bed by 7:30 or 8 pm during the school year, with Ethan's early school schedule (the bus comes just after 7 am!). Wake-up time is at 6:45 am on school days. For the summer, they are going to bed between 9 and 10 pm and sleeping until 8 am normally. It's a nice break from the routine. :)

Noah has a pretty good appetite and is usually willing to at least sample most foods. He'd still live on pasta and dessert alone, if we'd let him. He is a chocolate boy and normally picks that over vanilla!

Highlights of the past year:
  • Potty trained!!!!
  • Successfully made the move to a new preschool & easily made new friends
  • Completed his second year of preschool
  • Learning to swim without his Puddlejumpers
  • Took his first cruise
  • Counting to 30+
  • Knows the letters of the alphabet and colors
It's so fun watching the boys grow and their personalities develop. Noah is quite the jokester and as most 4-year-old boys do, he loves potty humor. Why are farts so hilarious?? He still sounds years older than he is when he talks most of the time. It's amazing some of the phrases that come out of that boy! He can be a bit moody as well though. No idea where he would get that from! ;) We'll be sure to remind him many years from now how his legs would often "break," and he couldn't move when we asked him to. Sigh. Hopefully he'll grow out of that one soon. He's still an amazing little cuddler, and of the three boys, he's definitely the most attached to his Mama. :) He always has "just one more hug and kiss" for me, and I can't say that I mind that one bit!!

We sure love our sweet, fun, little middle.



Like I did last year on his birthday, I asked Noah some questions that I'm going to ask every year now, to see how his responses change over the years. Here they are:
  1. What is your favorite color? green
  2. What is your favorite toy? little Legos
  3. What is your favorite fruit? strawberries
  4. What is your favorite tv show/movie? Dinosaur Train & Super Heroes
  5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? peanut butter and strawberry jam
  6. What is your favorite outfit? my dinosaur shirt
  7. What is your favorite game? Dino Meal & Candyland
  8. What is your favorite snack? bunny crackers & pretzels
  9. What is your favorite animal? a cheetah
  10. What is your favorite song? Dynamite by Taio Cruz
  11. What is your favorite book? Balto
  12. Who is your best friend? Austin
  13. What is your favorite cereal? Frosted Mini Wheats
  14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play on the playground & in the pool
  15. What is your favorite drink? apple juice
  16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
  17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? fire dog
  18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? oatmeal & pancakes
  19. What is your favorite dinner? mac 'n cheese
  20. What do you want to be when you grow up? an "army," or an engineer
Happy 4th birthday, Noah. We love you!