Featured Vendor: Rebecca Watkins Photography

For me, having a photographer that you can count on to capture the details of an event is key. On the day of the party, there's just no time to take pictures when you're greeting and entertaining guests, setting up the food and beverage area, and putting the finishing touches on the dessert table. Ever since Rebecca Watkins photographed my nephew's DinoFOUR birthday party, I've been able to focus on what I love best -- hosting joyful parties for children. Having Rebecca there means I can relax and grab a piece of birthday cake without missing a picture-perfect moment.

1. Children's Alopecia Project Thanksgiving Potluck
2. DinoFOUR Birthday Party
3. TransFOURmers Birthday Party
4. Gingham Easter Party

This past weekend, Rebecca was gracious enough to donate her time to the Children's Alopecia Project (CAP) hair drive and fundraiser. I'll be sharing those pictures soon. Thanks, Rebecca!

Dinosaur Birthday Party

Situated on six acres with a running creek, tall trees and a natural sand pit, my brother's home in McLean, VA was the perfect location for an outdoor dinosaur theme birthday party. Even with a newborn, my sister-in-law and brother managed to pull off this amazing party for their son, Phoenix. I helped out by focusing on the custom elements and DIY projects.

For the first time, I decided to hire a professional photographer to capture all of the little details that I seem to miss when I'm busy running around. These beautiful photos were taken by Rebecca Watkins.

The bright red and aqua blue birthday banner, signs, cupcake toppers, and party favors were inspired by the "Dinosaur Roar" invitations from Sassy Photo Creations.

Believe it or not, the wooden t-rex, stegosaurus, and pterodactyl skeletons were constructed by my brother. He actually jigsawed each piece and assembled them by hand.

Before setting off on their Jurassic adventure, the kids munched on sandwiches with pterodactyl-shaped cheese.

Carrying their personalized pails, they went hunting for dinosaur eggs.

Then the young paleontologist (even the ones in party dresses and tutus) headed to the sand pit to dig for dinosaur fossils.

To cap off their dino-mite adventure, the kids took a tour of Phoenix's Jurassic Park and encountered some friendly dinosaurs.

The chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake were topped with my fondant dinosaurs, and placed on a cupcake tower that was custom-made to coordinate with the Jurassic cookie pop stand.

At the end of the party, each guest took home a dinosaur cookie pop favor, which was baked and decorated locally by Sugar Cookie Creations.

As Seen On: Catch My Party / Kara's Party Ideas / Spaceships & Laser Beams / Stylish Children's Parties / The Indie Tot / Ucreate Parties / Under the Table and Dreaming

Sassy Photo Creations

This afternoon I picked up the printed birthday banner and signs that were custom designed by Agnes at Sassy Photo Creations. I love her "Dinosaur Roar!" designs, with the vivid red background and aqua blue dinosaur silhouettes. Geoff at Brick Wall Printing & Graphics in Chantilly also did such a great job with the printing and lamination. Everything turned out beautifully.

Dinosaur Cupcake Toppers

I followed the tutorial from A Baked Creation, www.abakedcreation.com, and sculpted a t-rex and stegosaurus out of Duff Goldman's buttercream fondant. Although the fondant was a little bit too soft to make figures, they turned out better than I had expected. Hey, not bad for my first time. Two dinos down, thirty more to go...

Tutorial: Jurassic Cookie Pop Stand

For the DINOfour party favors, I'm ordering cookie pops from Michelle at Sugar Cookie Creations. So yesterday, I started working on one of the DIY projects for the party -- a Jurassic cookie pop stand.

For this project, you'll need stryofoam, cardboard, green construction paper, black cardstock, red felt, and brown crinkle confetti.

1. Glue a 19 1/2" W x 17" H x 1" D sheet of styrofoam onto a piece of cardboard that's the same size.

2. Cut green construction paper into 2" H strips, then cut zig zags along the top to resemble grass.

3. Glue the paper to the bottom edge of the styrofoam/cardboard.

4. Cut a 15" W x 12 1/2" H x 1" D styrofoam sheet, glue it on top of the other styrofoam sheet, and repeat steps 2 and 3.

5. Curl the grass with a pencil, then scatter brown crinkle confetti over the bottom styrofoam sheet.

6. To make the volcano, form a cone with black cardstock.

7. Cut pieces of red felt to resemble lava and glue to the opening of the volcano.

8. Lastly, glue the base of the volcano to the top stryofoam sheet and cover with confetti.

Work In Progress: Dinosaur Birthday Party

I'm thrilled to be planning my nephew, Phoenix's fourth birthday party. We're going with an outdoor Jurassic dinosaur theme party using a red and aqua blue color scheme.

Top Left: Sassy Photo Creations' Etsy Shop; Center: The Celebration Shoppe; Top Right and Bottom Left: Hip Hip Hooray Blog; Bottom Right: Little Lovely