Dog Birthday Party!

Tucker turned 7 years old!

On his 1st birthday, 05/05/06, I made him a poncho and sombrero as his birthday outfit because I figured it was fitting since he was born on Cinco de Mayo, 05/05/05.

This last Saturday my little boy turned seven years old. And since my long time friend (who owns 2 dogs) moved into my apartment complex 2 months ago, I decided to seize this opportunity to throw a doggie birthday party.

So, I searched the web for ideas and ended up doing this:

I bought a pack of colorful polka dot/gingham papers from Michaels and made many pennant flag banners to decorate the apartment and dog party hats. I bought pom poms and tacky glued them onto the top of the hats and bought stretchy 1mm clear bead & jewelry cord. I also bought some scrapbooking paper and stickers to create a party door sign.

I also went to Party City to pick up a few items. I wanted to do a photo shoot with all the dogs so I bought a light blue flannel-backed vinyl table cloth to use as a backdrop (durable enough for dog feet), a pack of multi-colored bows, a few colorful bead necklaces, a pack of colorful blowout noisemakers, a pack of multi-colored balloons, and a tool to quickly blow up balloons. I partially blew up the balloons and scattered these items on the backdrop.

I bought the ingredients following this recipe to make a dog cake. I baked the cake in two 5" springform pans I had, spread softened fat free cream cheese as frosting, sprinkled unsweetened carob chips on top of the cake, and put 7 granulated rawhide sticks as "candles". I bought square plastic plates from Party City to use as dog dessert plates.

 

I made Muddy Buddies (a.k.a. puppy food) for a snack for humans (it's Chex cereal covered with peanut butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar.). I served this in large plastic dog bowls purchased from The Dollar Tree.

I also invited my other long time friend and her dog. She thoughtfully brought a cake for all of us, humans, to eat as well. Although after munching on Muddy Buddies  and having cake was a bit of a sugar overload, having another food option was great. 

I wanted to play 101 Dalmatians on the living room tv, (the party was in the living room - I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with my boyfriend), but apparently Netflix no longer has Disney movies. So, my wonderful boyfriend helped me find dog themed movie: Beethoven!

 

At the end of the party, I handed out party favors for my four-legged guests: doggie bags! I went to Petco and bought an assortment of treats and chews, put them in plain brown coffee bags I found at Michaels (which have a plastic film lining), and decorated the bags with dog themed stickers from the scrapbooking aisle.

Here's a quick list to refer to if you'd like to use my party ideas to plan your own dog party :o)

Dog Party To Do List:

- dog invitations

- dog hats

- dog photo shoot

- dog themed movie

- doggie bag party favors

- dog cake

- people food