We decided on a dinosaur theme for Søren’s first birthday.  Dinosaurs are fun, and Søren is quite fond of them!  We went with a green, orange and blue colour scheme, since it was bright and happy……

The cake was a white chocolate buttermilk layer cake with buttercream icing and a fondant dinosaur topper.  We consider making a large 3D fondant covered dinosaur but with modest cake decorating skills our cake was a much more realistic option.  I tasked Anto with making the dinosaur. Luckily he knows not to argue with his wife, and he produced Deano the dinosaur after only 2 attempts. The first dinosaur was a little on the flat side but we got there in the end!  He looked pretty magnificent on the cake and is still looking good a week later.

It was a win for Deano, since everyone identified him as a dinosaur and Astrid thought he was the cutest thing ever!

To decorate our party space we had a selection of blue, orange and green balloons and some ‘Happy 1st Birthday Soren’ bunting in the dining room and above our bi-fold doors.  It was a beautiful Spring day and once we opened up all the doors it looked very festive indeed! We also had cute dino food labels printed for the table, lots of themed straw flags and they definitely added the dinosaur touch……..

For our younger guests to take home we had little bags of reptiles (jelly dinosaurs and snakes) and a lolly tube filled with orange, blue or green choc beans.  The big kids didn’t miss out either – the adults all got a chocolate with a custom wrapper as a thank you gift.

 Then there was the food…… It was lunch time and it was a party, so there was never going to be any shortage of tasty treats!

For the carnivores we had:
* Meat balls
* Dinosaur wings (chicken wings)
* Frankfurts
* Sausage Rolls

You can never have too many frankfurts with little (and big kids) around and they proved extremely popular. Along with all the other meaty treats. Anto was manning the oven all afternoon and constantly refilling the carnivore section of the party table

The herbivores didn’t miss out either, for the non-carnivorous among us (and those that wanted a break from all the meat) there was:

*Spinach and fetta filos
* Dinosaur eggs
* A fruit-a-saurus fruit platter
* Hommus with crunch

As always the spinach and fetta filos flew off the table and the dinosaur eggs proved to be immensely popular. They did look pretty cool and tasted yummy too!

For the sweet-toothed dinosaurs, the sweet-a-saurus section of the table had plenty to offer:
* Dinosaur cupcakes (vanilla with orange flavoured icing)
* Dinosaur jelly cups
* Brownies
* Oreo cake pops
* Choc beans
* Dinosaur track cookies
* Fairy bread

We stuck with the orange, blue and green them and it was certainly festive.  The little kids always love any excuse to eat chocolate and fairy bread, and the the cake pops and jelly didn’t last long either!

……. and the birthday boy? He was in his element, balloons, cuddles and food, food, food!  More about the celebrations in the Part 2, but for now here is a pic of the Søren-o-saurus enjoying his frankfurts. That face cracks me up!

A big shout-out to all those who helped us put together a fabulous dinosaur celebration. My in-laws for their help with setting up, baby wrangling and a delicious fruit platter.  My lovely friend Jade for her delicious cake pops (that were one of the hits of the party), and my very talented friend Rachelle who runs Easy Invitations, who designed the printables for the party (bunting, straw flags, lolly tubes, chocolate wrappers, food labels).