For Cora’s 3rd birthday, we were finally going to be in the States and I wanted to make it extra special.  On her first birthday, we had a tea party.  For her second, we had a Doc McStuffin’s theme.  This year, I was stumped for a little while on what theme would fit her best, and finally turned to Pinterest for some inspiration.  She’s always loved puppies, especially our own Bichon Frise Frenchie.  And her Lito watches the show Paw Patrol with her all the time.  It seemed to be the perfect combination of a theme she would like and enough decor/party details to satisfy my party planning itch.  I found the invitations on Etsy here, as well as a matching party package.  That’s my go-to every year because it’s always custom, printable, and you’re supporting a small business!

Puppy Paw-ty Welcome Sign

Prepare for a giant photo dump! 🙂 Every kid loves balloons, so we really went all out finding the perfect ones to coordinate with the theme.  I also found the idea on Pinterest to let each child “adopt” their own puppy as their favor, so as soon as everyone came in the door (which they were led to by giant paw prints), they immediately saw a kennel with various puppies up for adoption.  It was so cute to see each child picking out which one they wanted, with some even bringing theirs back and exchanging for a “nicer” puppy!  The stuffed animals I found on Amazon here and they were just the right size for the individual “kennels” that I found here.  Each kennel had a certificate of adoption, recipe for dog biscuits, and a bunch of stickers to decorate their new best friend’s home with!

3 2 Puppy Paw-Ty Decor

Now for the food! *stops to go get lunch* A puppy party theme obviously meant we were going to have hot dogs, and I discovered you can actually cook them in a crock pot so they’ll stay nice and warm for your guests.  I made a quick little menu with cute names for each type of hot dog dressing option, but I’m pretty sure people just did whatever they wanted. 🙂 We had a veggie tray and fruit tray named after different breeds of dogs, as well as boxer buns, “pupcorn”, and crackers with cheese cut into miniature bones.  I was completely surprised with how quickly we ran out of food, so a note to me next time to double our order!  For paper products, I found the PERFECT set of plates, cups, and napkins in both full size and dessert options on Amazon here.

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puppy party food ideasUntitled design(1)

I spent so much time figuring out what dog breed starts with “V” to have a cute name to go with our veggie tray, I really didn’t put too much thought into activities for the party.  We had the bouncy house set up (which Orlando loved because I insisted we would never use it – and it turns out we use it all the time), the kennels to decorate, and of course a pinata.  The kids ended up running around the house and playing with just about everything, so it worked out in the end.

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One hilarious misstep in our party planning process? I completely forgot to think about how or where we would hang the pinata, since we have almost zero trees in our backyard and our little ones out front wouldn’t be able to take the strain.  Leave it to my resourceful husband to find the one tiny branch that came into our yard, and an extension cord to McGyver the whole thing together.  Didn’t you know extension-cord-orange was one of the color themes?? 🙂

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Thank you so much to EVERYONE who came out and helped put the party together, picked up last minute items, and decorated til their poor little fingers were sore.  It meant so much to Orlando, Cora, and I, and we can’t wait to plan next year’s bash!  Although, at that point we’ll have two little ones running around and I may just feel like ordering a pizza and calling it a day.  We shall see. 🙂

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For additional inspiration and to find links to the majority of the ideas seen in this post, you can check out my Pinterest board here!

XO,

A

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