Noah turned 5 this year, and we celebrated with an easy and simple dinosaur birthday party. Birthday parties in our house are always somewhere in between “Pinterest Perfect” and “Minimalist Fun.”

I want our parties to have fun decorations, but I don’t want them to take a lot of time or cost a lot of money. For more cheap birthday inspiration, check out the links at the end of this post.

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Easy and Simply Dinosaur Birthday Party

For Noah’s party, I spent some time browsing Pinterest for inspiration. I found some great ideas here and here. Then I went shopping at Dollar Tree and Walmart, gathered items I already had around the house, did minimal prep, and decorated the day of the party.

Snacks:

dino claws – bugles chips
dino scales – potato chips
dino bones – pretzel sticks
swamp juice – chocolate milk
Instead of taking the time to design and print labels, I handmade some. They weren’t fancy, but they got the job done.

Food Decorations:

green plastic forks & spoons
dinosaur plates, napkins, and cups from Walmart
snack bowls were lined with blue and brown napkins

Table Centerpiece:

I made hats for Noah’s dinosaurs out of construction paper and pom poms.
I taped the “cone” part of the hats together, and then glued the pom poms.
I taped the hats to the dinosaurs.
The table was covered with a blue plastic table cloth from Walmart and bamboo placemats I already owned.
The stones were from Dollar Tree.

Livingroom Decorations:

Dinosaur themed birthday banner from Walmart
The windows were lined with “grass” hula skirts from Dollar Tree.
The gift table had a wooden vase and sticks that I already owned.
On the end tables, I added dinosaurs in wooden bowls with moss and stones from Dollar Tree.