Abby had been counting down for months to her birthday. She also had several party ideas that she has been planning since her last birthday, but finally about 2 weeks before the big day, she decided she wanted to have a puppy party. Everything seems to revolve around puppies and dogs since Annie came along. She even wanted a puppy in a purse for her birthday. She is one of those kids who once she likes something, she wants everything with the same theme. Dogs it is.
Here was the highlight of gifts from mom and dad. It even moves and makes noises, so of course we all love it as much as her?!
She also saw a newborn cabbage patch baby who was inside a cabbage and once you took it out, you could see if the baby was a boy or girl and then came with a little outfit based on gender. She wanted to buy the toy with her birthday money but made it VERY clear by throwing an unnecessary fit in the store, that she would not play with it if it wasn't a girl. So, standing there in the store, knowing these dolls were made mostly for girls who probably want girls, I had to open the packaging and peak knowing it would lead to disaster if I didn't. We chose well, and she has loved it since because she got her girl.
I thought I would just make invitations because the party was a little more last minute this year and I couldn't find any that fit her party theme, that is until after I spent 2 1/2 nights using a cricut to make them. Gee I wish I would have gone to the dollar store first, but oh well, Abby was excited.
We used the pampered chef can opener to open several cans (yes we ate taco soup for a week) withouth sharp edges, then filled them with puppy chow (muddy buddies) and then sealed with hot glue. The sealed can idea I stole from my sister-in-law who used them for teacher gifts. I thought it would be hard to plan activities with her theme choice, but I only had to spend an hour online to discover it wasn't hard at all. All my other ideas were pretty much stolen from people who are much more creative than me and who actually post their creativity on the internet! Thanks!
Party included: doggie bags to take home (with a ball and puppy chow), puppy chow and scooby doo graham cracker bones, a frisbee and dog toys for game prizes, colars for the kids and their new found friend, and of course a puppy cake.
Abby didn't want Annie left out either, so she got a party hat.
The kids played Puppy says (simon says) and then had to go on a dog hunt to find the lost puppies who needed a good home.
The kids went through a 'doggie park' obstacle course to find these furry friends.
Then they had 'corndogs' for a light lunch and of course ended with cake.
This was my first attempt at using fondant. It took a while to find the right supplies and I watched a few videos on youtube because I hear fondant is hard to work with. It was definitely a long project, but something new to try. I had a lot of fun with it until the end when I spent two hours trying to make my own dogs out of fondant, needless to say it failed and since by then it was almost 11pm I thought the cake had failed, fortunately, David suggested using littlest pet shops my kids already had. GENIOUS! The funny thing is, the little dog house and animals unintentionally matched the cake perfectly and the cake was saved...had I just used those in the first place, the cake would have been done much sooner!
Abby was walking around in one sock so I asked her why. She informed me that one sock got wet so she took it off, but wanted the other one on still. That's my little problem solver.
And of course all the fun girlie gifts. I must admit it was probably the most fun of the birthday parties I have thrown. Surprisingly, it went really smoothly even though I had to tackle it myself because David had a busy day at work.
