16225

Puppy Party -2yr- Puppy Grooming First

July 2007

Valerie in Melissa, TX USA

Honorable Mention

For my daughter's 2nd birthday, we decided to throw her a puppy party because she was in love with all dogs at that time.

When the kids arrived at the party, they visited the groomer" and were given some puppy dog ears and a bandana to wear around their necks. I made the dog ears using some fur scraps which I hot glued to plastic headbands. For the bandanas I just cut out triangle shapes from checked fabric using pinking shears.

Once the kids were dressed like puppies they entered the living room through our doggie door. I had saved a large cardboard box and cut it apart and stretched it to cover the entrance into our living room. I decorated it to look like a dog house and cut a doggie door for the kids to crawl through. I also hung streamers over the doggie door.

We bought a large dog shaped helium balloon which floated above the house like the dog was sitting on top. I also posted a sign on the front of the dog house that said "Welcome to Sydney's Doghouse. Pups enter here" and another that said "Big Dogs enter here" since the adults could go through our kitchen to enter the living room.

For snacks I made grilled cheese sandwiches in the shape of dog bones and all the fruits and chips were served in dog dishes (new of course). We purchased plates and napkins with cute puppies on them and bought an adorable cake in the shape of a dog.  Since we had a few younger kids there I pulled out all my daughter's books about dogs and placed in the living room like a mini library.

For games we played a type of musical chairs. We placed one stuffed dog for each child in the middle of the kids and the kids walked around while we played the song "Bingo." When the music stopped each child grabbed a dog. Each time we took one dog away and the child who didn't get a dog sat at the side to watch the rest. At the end there was one dog and two kids and the winner was the one who grabbed the dog first.

We also played a game where the kids had to hunt for the hidden bones. I hid piles of different color paper bones throughout the room and the kids searched for the bones. At the end they used glue sticks to glue all their bones to a coloring page.   

I asked the parents not to bring gifts for my daughter this year but I instead asked them to bring a doggie toy of some kind. I cut a huge bone shape out of white posterboard and let the kids use puppy stickers to decorate it together. Then they all put their dog toys in a basket. 

After the party was over we took our daughter to the local animal shelter and let her give the dog toys and the card to the animal shelter. She really enjoyed this and getting to see all the animals there.  

For favors I found some really inexpensive plush dogs and each child chose one from a basket to adopt as their own. I gave them each a little basket to put the dog in and they got a small frisbee and a little rubber ball for the dog. I purchased round stickers for the frisbees that had a dog on them and said Thanks for coming to Sydney's party. They also each got a puppy coloring book.  

We had a great time planning this party and I hope this gives you some ideas for the puppy-lover in your family. "

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