Dora the Explorer Birthday Party - THE DECORATIONS

Here are the decorations from Ellison's 2nd birthday party:

 We used this cute Dora theme for her 2nd birthday party. Here is the wrapping paper that matched everything else. I am a sucker for matching stuff, lol!

The plates and napkins were of this print too! I have them photographed on my Dora party post about the food. It is here!

I got this cute sign that you can add on the age to it: Sorry for the bad camera work, "Appy Birthday" LOL!

This also matched the theme and was just too cute! It was a photo backdrop! Here is Ellison in front of it:

I also purchased a banner for my fireplace:

I made some cute little signs by doing a google search for "free Dora clipart" and here is what I made:

I also made water bottle labels for the party:

By far, Ellie's favorite was her "Big Dora." She asked for "Dora cake" and "Dora balloons" for her party. This is an airwalker balloon that was almost twice the size of Ellie!

You can see how big she is next to the normal balloons:

Notice they match too ;-)

A big hug for "Big Dora"

Carrying around her big Dora & pin the tail on Swiper during her party!

Dora the Explorer Birthday Party - THE GAMES AND ACTIVITES

For Ellison's 2nd Birthday we invited friends with many different ages of children. Because of the varying ages, I think we had kids ages 2-13 here, I tried to pick an activity everyone would enjoy:

SCAVENGER HUNT!

I created a scavenger hunt map that looked like what Map shows Dora on Dora the Explorer. I put the map face on the outside and rolled it up to look like Map. 

For the inside I used free clip art or my own pictures and made the three locations the kids had to go to get their goodie bag items back. 

It said, "Oh no! Swiper has swiped the treat bags from Ellie's house and stolen all your goodies! Map says to get them back , take an empty treat bag, look behind troll bridge, at the chocolate tree and crocodile lake. Then, enjoy the bounce castle! YOU DID IT!"

Here is where the kids started their scavenger hunt. The first picture on their map was the empty goodie bags.


Here is a couple pictures of the birthday girl:

Heading out to the hunt with her Godmother

"Reading" her scavenger hunt map!

For the second stop, they had to go look behind troll bridge:




I had a bag that had Dora tattoos in one pocket and Dora goodies in the other pocket behind troll bridge:


After troll bridge, they went to the chocolate tree. I used the printable found at nickjr, enlarged it, colored it, and laminated it. Then I hung it on the tree to make it look like the ones in the Dora show.

 I think they were excited for this one:

Here they are running to the chocolate tree!

I had strung M&M packets and the kids each got to get their own packet off the tree:

Their next stop was Crocodile Lake. I used our little Dora pool and put laminated crocodiles in it. I didn't add water, but it would have been cute to do that! I had more goodies for them there including necklaces and bracelets, laminated Dora bracelets from the nickjr website: here is that link , and a coloring book which was also from nickjr. Click here for coloring book.

 Here they are climbing the "mountain" to Crocodile Lake:


Their final stop was the entertainment for the party: we rented a bounce house for Ellie's birthday fiesta:
THE BOUNCE CASTLE:

Ellie was too scared to get in with the big kids!

 It had to be shut down only about an hour into the party as rain was approaching, so I took her outside and booted the big kids and she got in with big sister Zoe and bounced for a little bit. She LOVED it! Grrr rain! I almost sang the Dora, "Rain, Rain, Go Away" song! Major bummer! Here are a few cute pictures from her time in the bounce house:

The big kids had a lot of fun playing with their friends in their rooms so we didn't even get to our last game: Pin the Tail on Swiper the Fox. It is also a cute printable from nickjr.com

 Overall, a super fun day with great friends and family and one super adorable 2 year old Dora fanatic. 

Dora the Explorer Birthday Party- THE FOOD

Here are some super fun foods I made for Ellison's Dora the Explorer themed 2nd Birthday party:

I got the idea for food cards from lots of great websites and blogs I found through Pinterest. Too many to note here, so instead see them and follow me on my Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/gczmom/dora-party/

This is the menu I created and the food place cards I made for the Dora themed menu:

Guests started off getting Dora plates and their utensils here. The sign near the plates said, "Watch out for Swiper! He'll try to swipe your plate." 

I had a couple stations for the main. Here is Tico's Taco Bar:

I also had a Pulled Pork sandwiches station:

For the little kiddos, I had Stars' PBJ's:

The sides:

My mom's recipe for Fruit Salad. Get it? Abuela's? Nanny's? 

And just for fun...

And of course...... CAKE!!!!

I wish I could take credit for this one, but it is a store bought cake. :-)