Our Five Ring Circus: A Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

Monday, August 15, 2016

A Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

Puppy & Kitty Birthday Party

Lily and Liam's birthdays are only 2 weeks apart so we always host a combined birthday party for them. Most of the time the themes just don't coordinate. We end up doing one party with two different themes. This was the first year that the themes coordinated! Lily wanted to have a kitty party and since Liam loves dogs, we decided to have a Puppy and Kitty themed Birthday Party fort their 5th and 3rd Birthdays! 


Let me just say, it was the easiest birthday party to plan. But perhaps the theme should have been It's Raining Cats and Dogs because it stormed half the time! We had to move everything into the garage, which pretty much destroyed the decor. The wind blew off the tassels and banners, wrecked the balloons and the table centerpieces kept getting knocked off.

That's real life. Thankfully, I learned a while back not to expect perfection. Things are going to happen, so I just go with the flow. And guess what? Despite the storms and the intense heat and humidity, everybody had a great time!


Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

FAVORS & CRAFT

The favors were the hit of the party!

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

I filled a wicker basket with stuffed puppies and put an "Adopt Me" chalkboard sign in front of it. Each child got to pick a puppy to take home with them!

I set up a table with beads and pipe cleaners so each child could make a collar for their puppy before taking it home.

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party
Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

I did print out adoption certificates for the kids to take home with their puppy, but I sat them aside when it started to rain and forgot all about them. This was probably my favorite birthday party favor ever and all the kids loved the puppies!

Stuffed Puppies - Walmart ($3 each)
Chalkboard Sign - Target Dollar Spot
Wicker Basket - TJ Maxx

FOOD
  
It was so much fun to prepare the food for this party!

Goldfish Bowl

I filled a glass fish bowl with Goldfish crackers and added a small fish net to use as a scoop!
Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

Mice & Cheese 

After cutting up some cheese, I added a few toy mice to the plate. It was such a cute touch. The cracker plate had some mice on it, too!

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

Kitty Litter Pudding

This one is a disgusting concept, but the pudding is so good. It's just a traditional Dirt Pudding Recipe served inside a litter box (or in this case, a dishpan). Use a kitty litter scoop as a serving spoon. Skip the tootsie roll turds, though, because that makes it a bit TOO realistic!

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

"Dog Bone" Treat Jars

Fill some treat jars with Scooby Doo cereal or Scooby Doo Graham crackers and place them on the tables!

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

Puppy Chow

It wouldn't be a party without this addictive snack! 

Recipe:
  1. Pour 10 cups of corn or rice Chex into an extra large bowl. 
  2. In a separate bowl, melt 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter and 1/4 cup butter in the microwave for 1-2 minutes.
  3. Pour in 1 tsp vanilla extract and stir until everything is melted and blended together.
  4. Pour chocolate mixture over Chex cereal and stir gently to coat evenly. 
  5. Pour 2 cups powdered sugar into a large bag, then add some cereal to the bag. Seal and shake until all the cereal is coated, then transfer to an airtight container. 
  6. Repeat until all the cereal is coated with the sugar.

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

Dog (or cat) Chip Bowls

Instead of regular bowls, use dog or cat food bowls to serve chips!

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

Glass Betta Bowl - Petsmart 
Fish Net + Scoop + Mice - Walmart
Dishpan + Treat Jars + Dog Bowls - Dollar Tree

 DINNER

We always used to have regular picnic food for our outdoor birthday parties. Last year we had a Pasta Bar because pasta is Liam's favorite food. It's definitely my new favorite party meal idea because it's simple and requires minimal preparation!

I cook several pounds of pasta then transfer the pasta to a large Crockpot set on warm. In smaller Crockpots, I cook a marinara sauce, an alfredo sauce and a cheese sauce. The pasta is served with  salad and garlic bread.

It's such an easy meal idea and everybody seems to love it!

 The Lucky Few
Nothing Down About It


GAMES/ACTIVITIES

I rarely plan organized games because I'm just not a fan. Usually only half of the kids want to participate.  I prefer to sit out some items and let the kids do their own thing. Balls, bubbles, balloons, a baby pool, badminton, ride on toys, wagons and sidewalk chalk are perfect items to keep kids busy!

Birthday Party
Birthday Party
Birthday Party
 Bubbles
Bubbles
Nothing Down About It
The Lucky Few

The only game I could think of was a litter box relay, but my tootsie rolls ended up getting too sticky from the humidity. EWWWW!

The concept is easy: Fill 2 kitty litter boxes and place 5-10 unwrapped tootsie rolls (one for each kid) in them. Place them side by side at one end of the playing area. At the other end, place two small buckets. Divide the kids into 2 teams, line them up behind each bucket and hand the first kid in each line a kitty litter scoop. The kids must race against each other. They have to race across to the litter box, scoop out a tootsie roll turn and race it back to the starting line. They dump it in the "trash" and hand the scoop to the next kid in line. The first team to clean out the litter box wins!

CAKE

This was the first year the kids could share a cake! We embellished a sheet cake with a stuffed kitty, a stuffed dog, a toy mouse and a tennis ball. It was easy and the kids thought it was really cute! Keeping the toys on the cake are just an extra birthday party perk.

 Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party
 Puppy and Kitty Themed Cake

We also served a dozen pudding-filled cupcakes covered in dog bone sprinkles, too!

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

Because it's a combined party, we sing Happy Birthday twice. One song for each kid!

Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party
Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party
Puppy and Kitty Birthday Party

GIFTS

Lily and Liam each get a turn to open all their gifts so they have the chance to feel like the only person of honor!

Birthday Party
Lily's Birthday Gifts
Liam's Birthday Gifts
Birthday Party

There are ALWAYS helpers!

Birthday Party
Birthday Party
Birthday Party

By the end of the day, everybody was exhausted!

Grandparents
Grandparents

The Puppy and Kitty Themed Birthday Party may not have gone exactly as planned, but it was still a very special day spent celebrating our sweet Lily and Liam. (And we're totally missing a kid in the family picture!) The exhaustion we all felt at the end of the day was only a sign of all the fun we had!


Family

What was your favorite birthday party theme?

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Puppy & Kitty Birthday Party

21 comments:

  1. I absolutely love it. All of the details are the best. The favors are my favorite part I think.

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  2. So cute! This looks like such a fun party , I wish I was there!!

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  3. Oh goodness I think this turned out so cute. That adopt me basket, love it! Happy getting ready for vacation week friend. I am sure you have A LOT to do this week.

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  4. What an adorable theme!! I love everything you did, the pasta bar is genius and the adopt a pet and make a collar is so fun!! I am doing my first combined party for my girls this weekend and I'm excited :)

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  5. What a cute birthday party! I love the “adopt me” puppy basket. And the dog collar making is just genius. The food was perfect too! Bummer that the weather didn’t get the memo that you were trying to have a birthday party, but I think it still turned out pretty great! You got so many adorable pictures!!

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  6. May have to steal this idea for Emmy's party!

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  7. So cute! I am dying to have a puppy party!!

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  8. We are having the same idea for favors for Simon's party on Wednesday!

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  9. I love all of the details, Stefanie! Everything turned out so cute!

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  10. Oh my gosh I can't even with the litter box! So funny!

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  11. This is so stinking adorable! Such a cute theme!

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  12. I love this party idea! We just had my daughter's party this weekend, and she would have LOVED the puppy them. Those favors are perfect - great job. I know they had a blast!

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  13. Oh my gosh Stefanie, this is THE cutest dual party! I love all the little details. That kitty litter idea is awesome! And the adoption of the stuffed animals is such a clever idea. So fun!!

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  14. Such a cute shared theme. Keira & Kendalls birthdays are a month apart so they celebrate together, this year they are thinking flamingo or kitty party

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  15. This party is so cute!! My little girl would love it! And the kitty litter is hilarious!

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  16. What an incredible party! I love all the ideas--from the fish bowl, to the "adopt me" stuffed animals, to the dog food bowls, to the making their own collars, etc. Wow! This will definitely be a party for them to remember! Happy belated birthday to Lily and Liam!

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  17. This is awesome and I absolutely LOVE all the details! You are so creative!!

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  18. I love this theme and all the things you came up with. So cute. I love the adopt a puppy favor too. Totally thinking of doing this for my girls' 2nd birthday!

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  19. Happy birthday to your kids. Looks like they had a great time. I absolutely love the theme, especially the doggie party favors. Such cute pics of Liam with the pasta!

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