Sam's Dinosaur-Themed 5th Birthday at NYC's The Giant Room
/We love birthday celebrations! Sam has done a workshop and a holiday camp with The Giant Room and enjoyed both immensely. He’s also really into dinosaurs, so a dino-themed art and S.T.E.A.M. party at The Giant Room was a no-brainer!
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Dinosaur Theme
Sam is intensely interested in dinosaurs. Seriously, he regularly shares little dinosaur factoids and I have no idea where he picks them up. He wanted to be a dinosaur for Halloween and I bought him an awesome costume. When he suggested a dinosaur-themed birthday party, I was happy to oblige. It would make him happy, and would be really easy to pull off with minimal purchases.
Venue
The party was at The Giant Room, which is an innovation hub for children and families in Chelsea. It’s all about children creating something new with a community. We’ve attended eight other birthday parties in the preceding three months and they were all at a kids’ gym or bowling alley, so this was a nice change.
The staff already knew Sam from a workshop and holiday camp that he attended. They were eager to create art and activities around Sam’s interest in dinosaurs. It’s a big open space and easily accommodated our 20 kids + adults.
I was really thrilled with the venue, the kids got to create and collaborate and, most importantly, they had fun.
Mention my name (Miriam Cohen) when booking your party and receive a week of free membership (contact The Giant Room for terms and conditions). See my list of exclusive promos for other offers.
Activities
When the kids arrived they engaged in supervised play, coloring on the floor. Within a few minutes, we got started creating a dinosaur village.
Kids were pulled aside in small groups to turn their drawings into 3D pieces of art using using the laser printer.
3/4 of the way through the party, we served pizza and drinks to the kids, followed by cake. Kids continued exploring and creating after they ate and Sam handed each a goody bag at the end.
Food and Drink
We ordered pizza for the kids from Highline Pizza, which is down the block (ask them to cut pies into 16).
The kids ate on the floor around a toy camp fire so I wanted to give them drinks that they wouldn’t spill, mini Hint Kids boxes of apple flavored water were perfect (and easy to transport).
For the adults I served alcoholic and other beverages and got catering platters from a Kosher supermarket in Brooklyn. I used this ice bucket. I recommend Drizzly for delivery of ice, wine, other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and other party items like dips and chips.
The cake and truffles were both by Mini Melanie, who consistently makes delicious and gorgeous treats!
I used this set of dinosaur paper goods, displayed in an acrylic cutlery caddy. I also got extra blue napkins (available at Target or Amazon).
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Dinosaur Decor / Sweet Table
At all of our parties (I link the others below), I put my decorating efforts into one focal point. The art plastering the walls and hanging from the ceiling at The Giant Room is so fun and colorful, that I focused my decor efforts exclusively on the sweet table and didn’t even bother with my usual custom signage or balloons. I tried my best to repurpose toys and decor from past parties to limit waste.
I used an inexpensive plastic tablecloth, covered it with a simple burlap runner, placed the cake on a simple white cake stand (similar, wood would be cute too), topped the cake with a custom dinosaur topper, placed truffles from Mini Melanie in truffle holders (color pumpkin orange) on a tiered display stand.
I playfully repurposed the head from Sam’s Halloween dinosaur costume so that it was eating the cinema lightbox, which read “DON’T FEED THE DINOSAURS.” I wanted to write “DON’T FEED SAM’S DINOSAURS” but Sam didn’t like that. This is the third party for which I’m using the cinema lightbox, so it was a good investment!
I also placed around the table artificial tropical leaves, some Schleich dinosaurs and some less expensive dinosaur figurines (same ones as in the goody bags).
I’d purchased a “5” candle and misplaced it when I was setting up, so we ended up using a shabbat candle from the bodega (and Sam didn’t care at all).
I served the cake on these plates since the plates I linked above weren’t available in snack/cake size. They paired well with the blue napkins (available at Target or Amazon).
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Goody Bag
I’m always tempted to skip the goody bags, but in the end I always give out items that I think will be put to good use and can be enjoyed by a range of ages.
I used bags that I already had, labeled them with a thank you label from Mabel’s Labels (see my list of exclusive promos for a discount) and filled them with:
a custom set of name labels and a tag from Mabel’s Labels . This is my second year doing this and it’s great to see the kids using the labels on their lunch boxes and cups all year!
inexpensive dinosaur stickers
a healthful-ish treat
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You can find the thank you labels and set of name labels and a tags on the Mabel’s Labels site (see my list of exclusive promos for a discount).
Dinosaur Birthday Shirt
I typically order a custom shirt for Sam. It’s not very expensive and he wears it all year! I ordered Sam’s dino shirt here and it arrived quickly!
Photography
The Giant Room parties take place at 3:30 pm. If your party is at least partially after sunset (i.e., during the winter) or on a cloudy day, you definitely need a flash. I usually confirm with my photographers that they will bring a soft flash. This time I used a new photographer and didn’t ask about the flash, which is why the photos are pretty dark, shadowy and not crisp.
Past Birthdays
For Sam’s first and second birthday, I kept things pretty simple. For his first birthday, we had an amazing cake smash and a simple yet festive joint party for five babies and the parents. For his second birthday, we had a small family party and some cupcakes plus a frolic in the park on the actual date. For his third, I went all out with elaborate custom decor with a circus themed. For his fourth, I planned an emoji-themed pizza party that was fun for the kids but pretty traumatic for me for reasons beyond my control.
For Eliana’s first birthday, we had a cake smash and a magical spring-themed party.
