My son is fascinated with dogs so for his 2nd birthday we had a Doggie Theme birthday party at our house. I wanted it to be HIS day, not to be overshadowed by his big brother's friends, so we invited only the few of our family friends who have younger children his age and then used it as a great excuse to invite a host of neighbors over as well. We ended up with over 50 guests in attendance, about half of whom were children of varying ages from a few months to age 12 or so.      INVITATIONS: I made the invitations out of construction paper folded to look like a dog's head.  (Just fold the top right corner to the left side of the paper making a triangle, cut off the excess at the bottom, then fold each corner of the long edge down across the front and just shy of center to make ears. Cut off the pointed chin about an inch so the dog will fit into a regular half-fold greeting card sized envelope.) For the face I added craft store googly eyes, a round sticker for the nose, and drew in the mouth.  I printed the details separately and stapled them inside which including the intro Dogs everywhere are spreading the news that their favorite little boy is turning two!  Join us for the birthday celebration..."      DECORATIONS: The party decorations were pretty low key. I found a bright kids dog-shaped pop-up laundry hamper on sale for a few bucks at Dollar General that along with helium filled dog-themed balloons greeted guests at our mailbox. To the front lawn I added simple homemade signs with messages like "No cats allowed!" and "Pawsitively the best party in town!" on them and I spray painted large paw prints on the grass with temporary party hair color.  (Marking paint would have shown better but I wanted something assuredly more temporary than that.)  I found easy directions online for making dog-shaped twisted balloons and placed those conspicuously around the house.  I didn't bother to get themed plates napkins and the like since I don't think kids pay attention to those anyway.        ACTIVITIES:  Because of the large number of people I designed the activities outdoors in stations and printed directions at each so parents and kids could do them at will. One table had materials to make and decorate doggie newspaper hats. (With a double paged newspaper sheet spread open fold the upper right corner diagonally to the bottom left corner for an imperfect fit then starting with that creased edge at the bottom make 1in rolls for the band until about 6 inches from the top. Size to fit around head tucking or taping the band ends together and decorate the front with a construction paper attached doggie face.)  Another activity invited the kids to do an Extreme Home Makeover by painting and coloring the otherwise plain dog houses I'd made of large cardboard boxes. (Make sure you use washable paints and markers as the kids may end up just as painted as the houses!)  The dog houses were already placed in position as part of a doggie obstacle course which included jumping through a hoola hoop crawling through the dog house circling the fire hydrant (clip art enlarged to poster size) fetching the newspaper and eating a snack-sized Ziplock bag of Kibbles 'n Bits (generic Cocoa Puffs cereal).  I made two identical lanes of the obstacle course side-by-side so the older kids could race one another while the younger ones could stop and play at each task. I also had a Pin the Tail on the Puppy game found at a local dollar store. We don't have dogs of our own so the neighbors offered to bring over their dogs for a short doggie tricks demonstration. (I regret that we opted at the last minute not to do this for several reasons.) The obstacle course especially was a big hit! One mom wondered aloud if the Kibbles 'n Bits really Kibbles 'n Bits since her kids kept doing the course to get more but then decided they were having so much fun it didn't matter anyway.    FOOD:  Our clearly labeled "Clifford and Blues Doggie Deli" served a variety of humanly edible doggie treats.  We had grilled hot dogs slaw dog food (meatballs) bone-shaped sliced cheese (cookie cutter) with club crackers rawhide twists (pretzels) bone-shaped brownies dog biscuits (chips and salsa) and lemonade. Most of the foods were served from large red and blue dog bowl containers.  The cakes were homemade (from a mix) to look like a round white frosted dalmatian face spotted with chocolate frosting and mini-Oreos plus two matching round paw cakes with chocolate cupcake claws. (I modified the idea from examples on the internet.) The birthday boy got to sit on his doggie throne (a dog-faced kids lawn chair from Dollar General) while guests sang the traditional Happy Birthday song peppered with barks between each phrase.       GOODIES: Along with the doggie hats and dog twist balloons each child got of course a doggie bag to take home. I used over-sized brown paper lunch bags on which I spray painted a dog face using an index card stencil I made.  (I would have preferred hand drawing each with markers if the numbers of kids had been fewer and available time greater.)  I frayed the tops of the bags with 1-2 inch random cuts for hair and folded it down on all four sides to align with the face. Inside each I put a whistle mini-frisbee a plastic ball (big enough not to be swallowed by little tykes) a miniature dog figurine Scooby Snacks bone-shaped graham crackers a Nathan's Hot Dog gummy candy and lollipops.  (The items I didn't find at a dollar store or grocery I ordered from www.centurynovelty.com and I spent just over a dollar per bag in all.)  The lollipops were covered with a print out I taped to them of a photo with my son riding a doggie apparatus at a park on one side and a "Thanks for making my birthday special!" on the other.  Later I found cute dog pre-printed thank you notes and envelopes at Walmart that I helped my son sign added my own handwritten thank you and a url to our party pictures online and we hand delivered most of the cards.       WRAP-UP:  It was three weeks worth of planning and preparation the party lasted the planned 2 hours and a great time was had by all. My son was actually hard to slow down long enough to eat and then again to cut the cake.  (After trying all of the activities he and a buddy invented their own dump truck derby game and had a blast.)  Other parents graciously helped with both set up and clean up so the day wasn't overwhelming and because most of it was homemade neither was the cost. The only thing I had forgotten to do and wished I had was to request no gifts or a gift alternative (e.g. a donation towards a dog shelter or the like). It took a good while post-party to open the wonderful gifts he did get and he'll be playing with new toys books and using gift cards until his next birthday. (Wayyyy too much for a 2 year old or any year old for that matter! :-)) "