Last Saturday we threw Cal a puppy party for his first birthday! My husband and I have been debating getting Cal an actual puppy, but haven't been able to pull the trigger yet. He loves puppies and so we decided to go all out with the puppy theme for his birthday.
In Utah, there is a business called Puppies for Rent that used to actually let you rent a puppy for a day, or rent several puppies for a party. My plan was to do that, but the company either shut down, or just stopped renting puppies temporarily right before Cal's party! I was desperately looking for at least one puppy to have at the party (haha), so I put an add on KSL (similar to Craigslist) asking if anyone would lend us their puppy for my cute son's birthday party. I got a ton of responses and decided to borrow a family's cute little boxer puppy for the day. It was perfect!
If you search "puppy party" on Pinterest, there are a ton of really cute decoration ideas, invitations, and food, but I thought I'd share all my favorites and what we ended up using for the party.
First of all, I knew I wanted Cal's cake to be from Sweet Tooth Fairy. Their cakes taste amazing, and they will customize any of their cakes to go with any party theme! I just told them we were doing a black and white puppy theme, then gave them free reign, and they created the CUTEST puppy cake and mini cake for Cal's "cake smash" (you know that's a must at any first birthday party).
I honestly couldn't be happier with how cute (and yummy) the cakes turned out!
Pictures of all the details of the party are below, and at the very bottom of the post I'll share our menu, the recipe for the puppy chow (which was a huge hit and super easy), and a couple of how-to's!
OUR MENU
"Pup-eroni Pizza"
- ordered from Dominos haha but who doesn't love pizza?!
"Dogs in a Blanket"
- the kids LOVED these
"Fruity Kibble"
- we did watermelon and cantaloupe balls, strawberries, raspberries, and grapes
"Puppy Chow"
- easiest recipe ever (below)
"Bones"
- made sugar cookies using these cookie cutters
"Paw-tato Chips"
- self explanatory ;)
Then we just had a basket of mini water bottles and juice boxes for the kids for drinks
Puppy Chow Recipe:
9 Cups of Corn Chex
1/2 Cup of Peanut Butter
1/4 Cup of Butter or Margarine
1 Cup of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 tsp of Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups of Powdered Sugar
Directions:
1. In a large bowl place your 9 cups of Chex cereal and set aside.
2. In a medium size saucepan, melt the chocolate chips, butter and peanut butter on low heat until completely melted and smooth. Stir frequently to prevent the mixture from sticking. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
3. Pour the chocolate mixture over the dry cereal and stir carefully until it is completely coated.
4. In a large ziplock bag pour the cereal mixture inside and then slowly add the powdered sugar. Seal the bag and shake well until all of the cereal is coated.
5. Spread the mixture out on waxed paper until the Puppy Chow is completely cool and dry. Seal in an airtight container and place it in the fridge (if it lasts that long!)
Paw print balloons -
Invitations found
Tassel banners on table & high chair found at
Signs for the food were just printed on regular paper, and we used leftover invitations to glue the paper with the menu item to the puppy print on the back.
The mini stuffed animal dogs I found at Target! It was a lucky find and I can't even find them online. They were like $4 each and the perfect little party favors for the kids to take home.
Mini Party Hats
- I made these using this tutorial. I used the print on the back of the invitations and printed it on to cardstock, then used the template to make the little hats. They were so cute and pretty easy. The kids all looked so cute in them!
All in all this party was pretty simple to put together (thank you Pinterest) and turned out so cute! Happy Birthday Cal! You are such a joy and bring light in to my life!
