For her 3rd birthday, my daughter wanted a Dora the Explorer party. We invited 17 kids--12 big kids and 5 baby siblings. We had all of the food on the table when the kids and parents arrived for the noon party. We went with a Mexican theme:  chips/salsa/guacamole, mini chicken tacos (Costco-Don Miguel's brand), tamales (from a local restaurant, chicken empanadas (recipe from the Nick Jr website), Mexican rice (Allrecipes.com), pinto beans, a shrimp tray, and pizza for the kids, Cheetos, pretzels, grapes, and gummies. For a fun centerpiece, I covered a sombrero with plastic wrap and filled the brim with cut-up vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, grape tomatoes, carrots, celery, mini carrots). For decorations, we used fuschia and orange streamers and some Dora party banners. A few nights before the party I cut out a life size Dora out of construcion paper. I am not that artistic, but it was easy to do and you could do it, too--just don't wait until the night before!  I attached it to poster board and hung it on the wall with a caption of Dora saying "Feliz Cumpleanos Megan!".  So when the guests arrived, we had a table set up for the kids to make binoculars (2 empty toilet paper tubes stapled in the center, holes punched in sides and tied with a yellow ribbon to hang on the neck.  I put felt pens and stickers on the tables and the kids loved decorating their special binoculars. I had printed out some coloring pages from the Nick Jr website, so the kids who finished early would have something to do. While the kids worked on that, the parents had a chance to dig into the hot food. After everyone arrived and made their binoculars, we headed out to the backyard for our adventure. I told the kids that we were going on an adventure to find the baby dinosaurs, and after each task they would get a prize.  Then I asked them what Dora always has with her to help her on her adventures? The kids yelled "Backpack!". Then I handed each child a backpack (Oriental Trading neon non-woven drawstring bags, painted with fabric paints) to wear and collect their prizes in. I had a boom box in hand, and backpack of my own in hand to carry everything.  I then played the Backpack Song (Best of Nick Jr cd) to get the kids ready. Then I asked them who we can ask for help when we don't know we are going and the kids yelled, "Map!". Then I played the map song from the Nick Jr cd. We set up 3 tasks in our backyard, similar to what they do on the show, the kids went across Snake River (rubber and stuffed snakes around the 11 stepping stones in our lawn), then they got an animal koosh ball (Oriental Trading), then they went to the Creeky Fort (climbed up our play structure), and at that point my husband put on a goofy hat he had hidden under the slide and shouted that he was the Grumpy Ole Troll and he said, "Solve my riddle and you can't be wrong, do you know the Happy Birthday Song?" So the kids sang, then went down the slide and then he gave them a rainbow lollipop (Oriental Trading).  I had made a little Swiper the Sneaky Fox from a cutout I found on the Nick Jr website--glued the pieces to a toilet paper roll.  So after they got their lollipops, my husband became Swiper and said, "Pss, pss, gimme those lollipops" while I reminded them to say, "Swiper no swiping" 3 times to make him say, "Oh, man!" and go away. Then we went over to the sandbox for the Dinosaur Dig. We had hidden plastic Easter eggs with little plastic dinosaurs (15 cents each from the party store--I think Oriental Trading sells the same ones) inside. So as they found their eggs I played the We Did It! Dora song from the Nick Jr cd, and the kids all had huge smiles on their faces. They loved it. After some play time, we went inside and had cake and ice cream. Albertson's and Safeway both had the same Dora kit for cakes--a little car with Dora and Boots that went around a track.  I made goody bags out of neon paper lunch bags.  Wrote each child's name on the bag in black pen, then die cut some bright flowers out of construction paper and glued them on. I filled them with water yo-yos (Oriental Trading), Dora gummies, a coloring book I downloaded from the Nick Jr website and tied with yellow ribbon and drew a Map face on, a little pack of crayons. For the parents, I found clear Dora bags at Michael's, and put Hershey's miniatures with personalized labels (from the Trevor's Treasures store on eBay) that had a picture of Dora and said Thank You for Coming to Megan's 3rd Birthday Party and the date.  Throughout the day, I took a photo of each child next to the Dora poster, and was able to include that in thier Thank You note.  If you have a Polaroid camera, you could write the Thank You note on the back of the photo and slip it in the goody bag and be done with your notes. Everyone had so much fun, even the parents.  It was a lot of effort, but anyone could do it if I could. Have fun!