So my Coco Bear is turning three… THREE?!?! I cannot believe how time has just flown by. It seems like just yesterday that I was watching him on the teeter-totter with Gavin at his first birthday party.

This year I was really torn. I considered having his party at Chuck E. Cheese but I decided to hold off for one more year, when he can actually reach the games without standing on his tippee-toes. I kept hearing about this dinosaur venue located in the Laguna Hills Mall, so I did some research. Not only was it age appropriate but what little boy doesn’t LOVE dinosaurs?

Wonder of Dinosaurs (www.wonderofdinosaurs.com) had a ton of things to do. They had a dinosaur exhibit (which was laid out pretty well and was more informative than I expected), dinosaur themed bounce houses, mini golf, a dinosaur ride (where you got to sit on the back of a HUGE dinosaur while it ROARED loudly), dinosaur mazes,  coloring areas with crayons and coloring pages, and a zoomer (which was basically a stuffed dinosaur motorized scooter). We even got to uncover some fossils! The price wasn’t too bad (at $10 a person, with a 20 person minimum) and the party area was perfect. The only thing that wasn’t there was food, which a couple big Costco pizzas and snacks quickly fixed.

 

Here’s a little clip from the dinosaur ride… sorry my Asian genes failed me and I’m not the best videographer.

I found these great dinosaur tails and hats from oriental trading company – both adults and kids enjoyed them. I also ordered some huge dinosaur balloons from Canada (which were only $3 a piece), and Jeremy had a friend that had a helium tank that we borrowed. They were a hit and everyone got to take a balloon home with them at the end of the party.

This party didn’t require any entertaining. Everyone ran around and had a great time. It was big enough for a good amount of bouncers, but also small enough to walk around and grab everyone for the birthday song (which I thankfully remembered to do this year).

My mom had been practicing the birthday song with Keaton for weeks (singing and blowing out the candles at the appropriate time) but when it was finally time, he just sat there… taking it all in, with his tongue hanging out and eyes big with amazement. When the song ended he just sat there until someone screamed “blow out your candles!!” in which he forgot that cake was soft and mushy, and placed his hands right into it to leverage himself up to get to the candles.  Then he tried to put the fire out by grabbing them, while people gasped and screamed “NOOOO!!! Don’t touch the candles!”  It was quite a sight and made for a great video. (Note* for whatever reason this video doesn’t work in Internet Explorer – try Google Chrome!)

The only thing that I would change would be that I’d bring a boy or a big moving dolly. My poor mom and I set everything up by ourselves without one… (until my mom got creative and stole a cart from a janitors storage area ( don’t worry we gave it back!). Also, carrying 8 ginormous balloons (during a massive southern California wind storm) wasn’t the easiest of tasks, but luckily they all of them made it upstairs.

The party was a blast. Keaton keeps asking if we can “go back to my dinosaur party…”. I think this was a perfect place for a three year old party. It provided just enough entertainment for a couple hours and I’m pretty sure every kid that attended slept on the way home. It was such a great day…. Coco’s gonna be three in a couple days. I’m still in shock!

Oh ya… and last minute I made some shirts to match the one that I ordered Coco off of Etsy. Of course they didn’t come out half as good as his, but they were cute regardless.