Dalmatian Party -4yr- Doggy Cake & Snack Bowls

For my son's 4th birthday, we did a Dalmatian theme birthday party.  

For invitations, we passed out a note wrapped around a bone shaped dog biscuit that reads like a "Lost Puppy" ad. (If anyone knows of his whereabouts, please come to our house on Saturday at 2 PM)   

We had the party outside, so we decorated with Dalmatian puppy pictures pasted over cardboard and cut out.  We glued a stand onto the back and stood them on the table around the cake.  We also had black and white balloons and streamers and puppy (squeaky) toys.   

I made puppy ears with dollar store head bands and white felt, with black spots painted on with fabric paint. When the guests arrived, I gave them each a headband and painted a spot around one eye and the tip of their nose with black face paint.   

I let each guest, with the help of his "Handler" (his mom), make a dog collar out of felt and puppy stickers and added "dog tags" made out of the plastic tops of milk containers. 

Each guest got to pick out a dog name (My son was Bouncer) and we wrote them on the tag with permanent marker. Then the "Handlers" safety pinned them onto the boys (Loosely of course).   

I have a pop-up play set with two houses and two tunnels, so we labeled the houses "Puppies Only" and connected them with the tunnels.  The boys thought the tunnel was the greatest part of the whole day.    

After playing a little bit, we called the "puppies" over for cake and presents.

For the cake, we baked a round cake and four cupcakes and served a paw-print (each of the 4-year-olds got a cupcake).  We frosted them white and decorated them with licorice "spots".   We served the cake and "Puppy Chow" (trail mix) in Dog bowls, and had more dog bowls on the table filled with M&Ms and nuts, as well as having paw print and dog bone shaped cookies.  

For games, we played Pin the Spot on the Dalmatian, "Handler Says", and "Dog, Dog, Cat".  After we had played the games, we let the boys pretend to be puppies for a little while longer, then I had "Bouncer" hand each of his friends a "Doggy Bag" (A goody bag filled with a baggy of "Puppy Chow", a squeaky toy, and a small Dalmatian figurine.) 

After the party, I had my son make a thank you card for each of his guests and included a picture of the "puppies" in each one so they would have something to remember the day by.  The boys had so much fun that one of my friends called to tell me that she caught her son trying to paint a spot on his face with her eye-makeup.