Puppy Party -6yr- Puppy Ears & Collars

For my daughter's 6th birthday, she wanted to have a puppy party.  We invited her whole kindergarten class, as well as two additional friends to our house.  We ended up with 19 kids.  

For invitations, I downloaded a puppy love clipart from djinkers.com for $1.95 and used the puppy on it with red cardstock to make the invites.  The outside said, COME!  SIT! STAY!  It's a puppy party"  On the inside we wrote "We'd LOVE to see you at Annie's birthday party"...along with the party info.  I used ideas from this site as well as some of my own twists to plan the party. 

The kids arrived and got to "be a puppy."  I ordered puppy ears from Oriental Trading (was going to make them and ran out of time plus needed a lot) got body art crayons to give each kid a puppy nose and muzzle then they could pick a tattoo that I had an 8th grade friend put on them. I also made collars out of 1.5 inch ribbon I wanted to have their actual names because I don't know their names perfectly.  I made the dog tag with their name out of foam  I just cut a circle and printed their name with a marker. I connected the circle to the ribbon using a pipecleaner and I made sure I turned the edges so it wouldn't scratch the kids.  My sister took their pictures which we uploaded and printed so that they would each get a copy of themselves.  The plan was to give the pictures to them before the end of the party but we ended up sending them in the thank you notes 

We played games.  We started with a barking contest. I premade paper award ribbons with a dog sticker (oriental trading) that said "DOGGONE GOOD" on the round upper part.  On the hanging down ribbon part I wrote what the award was for "Loudest Bark Quietest Bark Most realistic bark"  Expecting over 20 kids it was really important to do this beforehand.  I ended up using all sorts of positives "Goofiest Bark Silliest Bark Bow Wowiest Bark..." I had planned on writing the kids' names on the ribbons but it was important to keep it moving and they were pretty much all barking so I just gave them out with double stick tape so they could wear them. 

Then we played  Freeze Dance doggy style...we used lots of doggie songs (searched dog and puppy on itunes)..we used Who Let the Dogs Out How much is that doggie in the window Puppy Song from Ralph's World Walk the Dog Puppy Love.  I also saw that there is a music CD in the new Space Buddies DVD.  I got prizes from the dollar store as well as looking in the clearance section of Target The Disney Store Michaels.  There are lots of dog and puppy crafts and stickers.  Then we played Pass the Puppy (like Hot Potato). 

Each kid got to make a foam doggie frame into which they can put their doggie pictures. I ordered the kits from oriental trading and separated them so that each kid got all the foam pieces for their puppy frame. I put the pieces in ziploc storage bags and also had their names on the bags so they were easy to put away once they finished.  So as she kid got caught with the puppy during the game they were "out" but instead of just sitting we had them pick a doggie bracelet/dog collar made of jibbitz-type dogs and rubber bracelets (from lordsandladies.com) and go over and make their frame. 

Once everyone was done with their frames we had our puppy rescue obstacle course.  I hung paw prints from the ceiling and the kids had to climb up a picnic table and reach one.  Then they needed to crawl through a tunnel dig in a rubbermade bin of rice for a rawhide bone and finally enter my kids playhouse (we have a Step two playhouse in our basement but you could easily use a tent or other enclosed space) in which we "hid" puppies (I got them at Target on clearance for $1.50 each) under balloons we blew up.  I made little "time cards" for the kids on which I wrote "I did the puppy obstacle course and rescued my puppy in___ seconds"  I put their names and the time (I used a stopwatch..you could also just count or have the other kids count.) The kids cheered each other on. 

Once each kid finished and got their time card they got to go and get the crate for their newly rescued puppy. I got the crates at the dollar store and I wrote "kid's name's puppy" on them before the party.  I got a bunch of stickers at the dollar store so they could decorate their crates while the other kids were completing the obstacle course.  I also bought baby blankets for them to pick out so that they could wrap their new little puppy up in a "blankie."  They were just thrilled that they could keep the puppies. Next was a paw print scavenger hunt.  I gave each kid a card with two colors on it.  They had to search the basement for dog paws in matching colors.  I numbered the paws and they traded in their paws for a prize. I wrapped all the prizes and numbered them. The kids each took home two "presents".  I encouraged them to open them at home.  They also thought this was especially cool. 

We didn't get to play the following games with so many kids I ended up overplanning...but we used these games the next day at our family birthday.  Musical puppies (instead of musical chairs) we got all the stuffed animal puppies in the house and put them in a line then the kids walked around them instead of chairs and they had to each grab a puppy when the music stopped.  We also had a pin the tail on the puppy game and we used that the next day.   

For food we had mini bagel dogs (from market day) and fruit and baby carrots. We gave each kid a little dixie cup with ranch dressing to dip the carrots.  I had gotten adorable dog bowls from the dollar store big ones for serving dishes and smaller ones that the kids could get their cake in.  They each took one home so they could "feed" their newly rescued puppies. 

After cake and ice cream (I ended up ordering the cake just ran out of time to make it) we watched a Scooby Doo episode and the kids gathered up their things. I had made doggie bags for them out of little white shopping bags that my daughter stamped with paw prints and I wrote "Name's doggie bag"  We put Scooby Doo fruit snacks and Scooby Doo graham crackers in them. My daughter really wanted to give the kids' bubbles but I couldn't find any puppy bubbles so we bought bubbles 3 for a dollar at the dollar store and I made labels that I laminated with the same love puppy clipart and put "Puppy Party Bubbles LOVE to pop them" on the labels. 

The kids gathered up their belongings (in retrospect I wish I would have gotten bigger plain shopping bags so their puppies and crates along with all their prizes etc. would have fit in them but they did well with all the little stuff.) and found their coats and shoes/boots. When they were dressed they got a puppy bookmark (oriental trading). 

We also didn't get to decorate cookies.  I make sugar cookies shaped like bones and like dogs and bone shaped sprinkles (cookie cutters and sprinkles from gooddogexpress.com) and got different colored sugars and sprinkles.  My kids and I ended up decorating them for our family party the next day.  They were a big hit. 

Decorations:  We had lots of different colored paws cut out and hung all over the house. We also got out all the stuffed puppies to put around.  We had lots of balloons both helium and non helium for decorations as well.  The big poster for the pin the tail on the puppy was also up on the wall. 

Fun fun party..I really did the work in about a month because that was when my daughter decided she wanted a puppy party and I found this awesome website to inspire me to have this party at home!  The kids had an awesome time which is the very best part!"