Clifford Big Red Dog -7th- Doggie Lunch Bags

My son loves Clifford The Big Red Dog. So for his seventh birthday party, everything was with that theme. Everything was pre-cut and made.

As the guests arrived, they were fitted with their party hats. I had cut strips of red paper and cut out red doggy ears. Then we sat at the "doggy table". I had taken a white plastic table cloth and taped it to our large coffee table. I had cut out large black circles, small black circles and taped them onto the white plastic table cloth like paw prints.

After being seated, everyone received a "dog tag". I put their names on red paper with yarn through them to put around their neck. We had red plates, red cups, red balloons, and strawberry lemonade that was red. The meal came in "doggie bags." I had taken brown lunch bags and colored a black paw and written their names on the bags in red.

Upon folding the top of the bags over, I hole punched two times in the top of the bag. I put their straw in the hole to hold it together. Everything they needed was in the bag. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese doodles, and strawberry (red) applesauce.

After our "doggy picnic", we played some "doggy games". I assigned each child a number and in each game we played, they were always the same number. This cut down on the confusion of when their turn was to be.  We played "Doggie, Doggie who's got your bone?" with a real dog bone under the chair. I used a small plastic bottle with the top cut off for the next came.

At each child's turn, they put their knees in the chair, the chair being backwards, lended over the chair and dropped real doggy bones in the bottle to see how many they could get in the bottle.

We played a version of follow the leader, except ours was "follow the doggie." Each child had a turn being the leader and each had to think of a doggie trick. What ever doggie trick they did, the others followed. Then, you give each "doggie" a "treat". We played a version of "Duck, Duck, Goose". Our version was "Puppy, Puppy, Dog", applying the same rules of "Duck, Duck, Goose". Our most popular game was "Pin the tail on Clifford". I took a large piece of red poster board and drew Clifford on it. We covered their eyes and tried to put his tail on.

We did the cake and ice cream closer to the end of the party to avoid a sugar rush during the games. We had a chocolate cake trimmed in red with a large paw print on the top. On the cake was also a small Clifford and the number candle.

Before each child went home, they were given a party treat. I had taken red plastic cups and made them to look like a dog. I used a black marker for eyes, a nose and mouth. I cut out red, floppy ears and taped at the top of the cups. In each cup was red strips of paper, a red box of raisins, Clifford gummies, Clifford coloring paper, two crayons, a slide whistle and a crazy straw.

Having things organized before hand had made the party a success and one my son will not ever forget.