Birthday Bash

I happen to be one of those Mom's who generally do the "BIG" Birthday Party for my kids. Now, I don't go TOTALLY overboard with bounce house rentals, hired professional clowns, and extravagant gift bags for all the children. I do, however, generally have a large gathering of adults as well as children, mostly family, who I believe to be an important part of my kids lives. I always have a theme and try to make everything go along with it, including the hand made invitations, goodie bags cake, and decorations. Of course, the older my kids get, the more activities we do. My daughters 2nd Birthday Party is tomorrow and her "theme" is Tinkerbell! I know I am going to want to blog about, but first, I wanted to tell you about Cordel's 4th Birthday we had back in September. He had a Dinosaur Party and all the kids got to be paleontologists for the day! The invitation read "Don't be extinct!! Please join Cordel and other expert paleontologists for a dinosaur birthday expedition on (date) at the Howell Cave and Quarry located at (address) Excavation begins at (time) R.S.V.P Cordel's extinct parents at (phone #) You'll be sure to uncover a DINO-MITE time! I told them that dinosaur bones had been found recently in our backyard and we were going to try to find some more! We had a "DINO DIG" where the kids dug for fossils (which I made by making impressions of plastic dinos into coffee ground play-doh) and I told them briefly about why we find dino bones and fossils, and why dinos are no longer on Earth. Of course, one of the "theories" is a massive volcanic eruption, right? So, we had our own volcanic eruption right there in the back yard!! The kids thought it was so great! Then we matched up the fossils they found with the plastic dinos that had made the fossil. The party was a total success!! We had a great time! Here are some pictures...