Dora the Explorer

11:26 AM Angela Haythorpe 1 Comments
For my daughter's 2nd birthday we did a Dora the Explorer Theme. Now, at the time, Dora was REALLY big in America but really new in Australia so there were very few Dora Party Supplies. My main resource was NickJr.com and the few Dora videos I had. This is what I came up with... enjoy.





THE INVITATION:

The main idea for my invitation I used from a free printable. I just adjusted it to personalize it.


I found a picture of the map online and I pasted a picture of the balloons and used one of my favorite pictures of my daughter to personalize the invite.  With my daughter's picture I used the Adobe Photoshop to get more of a cartoonish look on her picture. In Photoshop, you go to FILTER>SKETCH>STAMP and then adjust how you like.




THE DECOR:

According to the invitation, First you come from home... Then you go through Balloon Forest before you get to Joy's Fiesta. I bought a helium tank and made an archway and path up to our verandah. I focused on using bright colors to draw in the children. Our house, at the time, didn't have a walk way so I used foam floor mats to create a pathway through Balloon Forest.



It was summer time in the tropics so I had the party out on our front verandah. I hung streamers like colorful vines and we used the party table and Dora play hut we got as a birthday gift as the main focal point for the decor. I also bought a Dora Balloon and 1 pack of Dora Party Napkins online.


It was SUPER hot so yes, we had fans!


I also printed out a few coloring sheets and let my daughter color them and displayed them. Simple but she felt special that her art was featured. I also printed a few legal/A3 sized posters (pic1,pic2,pic3) for decor as well.




THE FAVORS:

For the Party Hats, I went to our local Burger King/Hungry Jacks and asked them if I could have a handful of crowns. I found a picture online that I like for the crowns and printed a page of them out and glued them on the inside of the crown so it would be a white crown with a picture on the front. I think the total cost was less than $1.

 
For the Goodie Bag I made a no-sew backpack out of left over purple fabric I had, ribbon and fabric paint. I also added a Map Thank You note that I tied on the side and googly eyes.

Inside the Backpacks I gave out  crayons, Dora bracelets, and a bag of chips. 

The table setting was simple. We had coloring sheets for place mats, Dora Party Napkins, the Backpack Goodie Bag, the crown, and a bottle of juice.  

 
 






THE FOOD:

We had a bit of fruit and some juice boxes but it was mainly the cake that was the food item. But there are PLENTY of ideas for Recipes on NickJr.com!



THE CAKE:

Well, this was the year that we learned that cake icing and the tropics do not go hand in hand. This was quite a failed attempt. However cake is cake and kids are kids... and they love cake. We bought an edible cake art online and we also bought Dora Cupcake Rings online as additional favors for the children. Needless to say, because it was a huge FAIL, we then decided to go a new route and not do the classic cakes ever again while in the tropics. ;)





GAMES:

Because it was mainly 3 year olds and under, we had a lot of coloring and we also had the parents help the kids with Pin the Boot on Boots. I also saw that they had Pin the Tail on Swiper too!


So, that was our Dora the Explorer Party... Happy Partying to you!


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