This year my daughter turned four.
She wanted to do a Dora the Explorer theme. As most of you mom's of "Dora lovers" know, there are NO products on the market. So... we had to get very creative. Our invitations were very simple but cute as could be. We have a program that makes postcards (saves on colored ink) and will allow us to use our digital camera photos. I am a teacher so making large cut outs of things are right up my alley. I made large Dora, Boots, and Swipper characters, colored them and laminated them. I placed the characters against the wall, stood my daughter in front and took a picture. We used the photo on the front of the postcard with the saying, "We're having a party!". On the back we wrote, "To celebrate ___________'s fourth birthday!" Of course we added the place, time, date, etc. (We used these to decorate with as well.) Dora is Latino so we went with "Mexican" food for our party. Our menu was tacos, nachos, salad, and juice boxes (you won't have to buy cups!!). Downloading pictures from the Nick Jr. websight helped me to make this party more "Dora-ish". We made placemats for each child by tracing around our paper plates, adding a smaller circle in the upper right hand corner for the cup/box, and a fork and spoon outline. We placed a colored picture of Dora and her friends in the middle of the large circle. We laminated these and the children took them home to use. We bought solid colored plates, spoons, and forks at the local discount store. My daughter wanted a piņata. We thought about buying one, however, they are made of cardboard and are so hard to break, especially four year olds. So, we decided to make our own. Using a balloon and some cones (made by twisting paper into cone shapes) we made a really neat sun piņata. We taped the cones all around the outside of the balloon, taped on a string at the top and then covered the whole thing with newspaper dipped in a mixture of water and white glue. We used several layers and left a small opening at the bottom so that we could fill our piņata.( We decided to pre-fill zip-lock baggies and put them inside. One for each child!) When dry we painted it with bright colors. It was a big "hit"!! Dora wears a backpack on her explorations. So, no Dora party is complete without backpacks. We made our own backpacks out of construction paper. Yes, you can wear them!!! You will need two pieces of regular construction paper and one long piece of construction paper for each backpack. I mixed the colors for neat looking backpacks. Take one of the regular pieces of paper and turn it so that it is standing tall. Fold down the top about 5 inches and glue it down.(this is the front) Glue this piece to the other regular piece by putting glue around the edges but not across the top. You want the backpack to open. Round the edges of the back piece of paper. Using the long construction paper. You will cut two long strip (6-7 inches wide) Again, use the paper the longest way. Glue these strips to the back as the straps!! Wow! Backpacks! We put gift certificates for the local ice cream parlor in each backpack. The children loved wearing them around!! My daughters cake was also very simple to make. We made Boots the monkey. Just use a round cake for the face. Cut a cupcake in 1/2 and place on each side of the "face" for the ears. We placed the top half of a cupcake on top of the face to make the nose/mouth area. We frosted the whole thing with white icing tinted purple and added the details. Dora also gets help from Map. Map tells Dora where she must go on her adventures. We made Map as well. We used a picture (downloaded) of Map on the front and put pictures of all the activities the children would participate in on the inside. (Ex: #1 Lunch #2 Breaking the piņata, etc.) We made it look as much like a real map as possible. We rolled it up and tied it with a ribbon. Each child was given a map at the beginning of the party. The children loved this because they always knew what was going to happen next. Other activities were... 1. Breaking the piņata. 2. Designing sun-visors (plastic visors from the craft store and fabric paints) FUN!! 3. Fishing pond ( I bought new tooth brushes for all. Attached a paperclip to the top. My husband made fishing poles from wooden dowels, yarn, and horseshoe magnets.)Each child fished for the one they wanted. We had a lot of fun!!
