Welcome to Louis’ World 🦕🦖
What did you do?
Jurassic World themed Lockdown Birthday Surprise that “beats a party any day!”
My name is Jessica I’m turning 30 in July and I’m a single mother to the most amazing little boy Louis who was 11 on the 29th May.
Louis has Autism and his special interest in dinosaurs is still going strong. He has been fascinated by them since 2 years old so you can imagine we’ve accumulated lots of Dino related toys over the years! Louis doesn’t sleep well so getting all of his toys and posters out of his room without waking him was a mission in itself.
Being a primary school teacher, I have lots of experience making classroom displays and inviting themed book corners so I actually raided the garage and already had things that fitted perfectly with the Jurassic World theme. (The log cushions, foliage, wooden crate/baskets and a camo sleeping Bag which I laid over the storage shed as a table cloth).
I was lucky enough to find the JW cardboard cutouts on Facebook Marketplace a few years ago and used them to decorate his bedroom (More things I had to sneak out in the middle of the night). They had been used in toys r us for a toy display and in my opinion, completed the vision I was going for. I have seen that you can buy cardboard cutouts online, I thought about getting a few more but I wanted to keep costs to a minimum so I stapled his poster on to some card instead!
I was getting rid of an old desktop but Instead gave it a new lease of life by nailing an artificial grass off cut (that I was given) to It.
I then glued the personalised Louis’ world wooden sign (ordered from someone on fb market place) to the grass and voila!
I had so many more ideas to add to it.. but decided it would be more fun to let him get involved. Plus it was 5:20am and I couldn’t physically do anymore!
I’ve had so many people asking me to create a set up for their child’s birthday that I’m now considering a change of career!
Louis was in his element and was so grateful for all the effort I had put in. It was totally worth it to see the look on his face.
Has the Housebound with Kids community helped?
I’ve loved scrolling through the housebound with kids page and seeing other people’s ideas and creations. Planning and putting it all together has definitely given me something to keep busy with during lockdown (not that there’s not always something to do).
The thing I loved the most about this idea was that it was outside and it encouraged my son to unglue his eyes from screens without any complaints! (Our biggest battle)
