As I said yesterday, Sayla requested a puppy for her birthday (I think Kead set her up to it), but we are not at a place in our lives to add a new family member so we opted for a puppy party instead. It was a fabulous success. I mean, little girls staring out the window waiting for the guests to arrive, squealing at the first sight of them, wanting everyone to experience the fun.
Guests entered our house to find “Sayla’s Puppy Emporium” and got to choose a puppy to adopt. Our IKEA shelves were perfect to transform into a mini pet store and each puppy had its own “cage”.
After completing the adoption slips, and getting a collar with their puppies name on it, the guests helped themselves to the puppy supplies. This included a leash, some “puppy food” (coco puffs), a water bowl, and some “puppy vitamins” (skittles). I also made doggy bags to hold all the puppy supplies.
After the puppies were all named and adopted the girls moved onto the “vet”. I put out all Keadryn and Sayla’s doctor supplies in their room and provided some lab coats (white button up youth shirts), surgery masks and some plastic syringes. This is the perfect age for imaginary play and the girls spent most of the party taking turns being the vet and tending to their puppies. It was so fun to watch!
After awhile we dragged the kids back into the main room for food:
The menu included: Puppy Chow, “Kibbles and Bits” (this delicious recipe for popcorn), Hot Dogs, “Fetch Sticks”(celery and carrot sticks), Tug Toy pretzels, “Raw Hides” (bacon strips), “Dog Bones” (sugar cookies), and cupcakes.
Not only was the birthday girl one happy camper, her friends were over the moon about this party (I thought it was going to be fun, but whoa!- they loved the pet adopting and vet stations way more than I pictured)!
Happy birthday girl + happy party guests = one great puppy party!