Dalmatian Party - Dog Bowl Cake with Name

My daughter loves dogs so a Dalmatian party was perfect. We chose to have it at a local kids’ gym.

The gym is decorated mostly in red with bright yellow and royal blue. We took the red, added black and white and ran with it. The gym furnished the invitations, but we added 102 Dalmatian stickers along with black spots as we ran them through the computer. The finishing touch was a paw print on the address label. They were great.

As the children arrived, a Disney’s Dalmatian video was playing in the gym lobby. We decorated with black and white spotted balloons that I purchased from Birthday Express. They were absolutely the perfect touch.

There was a sea of red, white and black as you entered. The coaches leading the party were given the heads up to the theme and did a fantastic job preparing dog themed games and activities. The kids did a warm-up exercise pretending to be puppies, crawling around to "Who Let the Dogs Out". I downloaded dog music from the Internet and included songs like How Much is That Doggie in the Window? and BINGO. There are numerous songs out there! 

While playing the kids could choose from a variety of puppy snacks: Cocoa Puffs, Mini- Oreos, Chex Mix, and a little hot dog like treat. I found 102 Dalmatian cups at Party City and chose to use solid plates and napkins in red, black and white.

For the cake we used small solid colored plates and added the 102 Dalmatian napkins. I took a plastic tablecloth and painted big black spots on it for the table.  The cake was the hit of the party. It was a red dog bowl with my daughter’s name written across the front. In the dog bowl were 30 cookies shaped like dog bones. Each dog bone had a child’s name pressed into it in black. The 25 cupcakes were put out around the cake and were red with a white chocolate dog bone on the top. Red juice was the perfect touch. 

The kids sat down for cake wearing their dog tags made from white foamies cut into the shape of a bone with their name on it. It tied around their necks with a red or black plastic string. They also wore dog-ears made from the white foamies and hot clued onto headbands. I painted the black dots on the ears. They were the cutest bunch of puppies you have ever seen! 

After cake and ice cream (Cookies and Cream, of course!) the kids went back into the gym for the Dalmatian piñata. When the piñata finally broke the kids put all of the candy into a large bowl then we separated it out evenly. With such a wide range of kids, this was the only fair thing to do.

We put the candy, ears, dog tags and Dalmatian cups all in white party bags that were also painted with black spots. It was truly a party to remember. Everyone received a picture donned in his or her puppy attire with his or her thank you. It took some time to prepare but it was well worth it. My now 2 year old still wears her ears and talks about her Dalmatian Party! 

Thanks for giving me a springboard to be creative!