Puppy Party -11yr- Fetch Puppy Game

I just finished another party for my sister in law's, by marriage, niece who turned eleven.  She love dogs, so we did a puppy/dog theme with light blue, lime green, and light purple color scheme.   Invitiation: We used word of mouth since a lot of her family doesn't have email.

Decorations/Set Up: We used the front formal room at her parent's house for the party room which you entered as soon as you entered the house.  We set up 3 folding card tables and 8 folding chairs in front of the formal dining set to mark off the kids area and the adult area. On the tables I placed a turquoise plastic table cover to make it look like one long table.  I put a piece of lime green cardstock at each place setting to act like the placemat.  I placed a small blue Styrofoam cake plate on top of the placemat.  We should of drew or cut out purple paw prints to put on the placemats, but did not think about it until afterward. 

We found cups and napkins in the puppy theme that were blue, white, and green and pictures of puppy dogs on them.  We put a napkin inside the cup and the cup on top of the cake plate In the center of the table I used a square piece of birthday wrapping paper that had Labrador retrievers with party hats and blowouts all over it.  I placed extra napkins, cups, and cake plates on this wrapping paper.  On either side of this we placed copies of puppy coloring and activity pages to keep the kids busy when they arrived until most of the guests were there to start playing games.  I placed several colored pencils in white plastic cups down the center of the table for the kids to use as well. 

I blew up 10 balloons in light blue, light purple, and lime green manually.  I tied purple ribbon to the green balloons, blue to the purple balloons, and green to the blue balloons.  I taped these sporadically to the ceiling above the table and over the play area. The colors were very pretty and the hanging balloons made the room come alive.  We had 5 of each color blew up with helium and tied with similar ribbons at Wal-Mart.  Unfortunately, the store popped one purple, and one more purple and one green popped on the way home, so we had an uneven amount of balloons.

I placed the Happy Birthday Banner across the bay window tightly that a small loveseat was placed so she could open birthday gifts later in the evening and guest could sit with her and take picture.  I took 1 of each color of the helium balloons tied 1 group on either side of the center window to flank the birthday girl as she sat there and opened her presents. 

Her parents own a wedding business so they had some of their decoration column rentals in this room we could not move, so we used them in the theme.  On the right of the loveseat we made an area for the gifts to be placed by using a 3 foot white plastic balcony piece at an angle.  I placed a number of her stuffed puppies and dogs on it and tied one of each color of the helium filled balloons to for height.  On the walls behind this piece I placed 3 metallic spiral decorations in silver, green, and blue that each had a round cardboard picture of a puppy hanging on the end.  I also had some foam puppy face cut outs I purchased for a baby shower a few years back that I used between each of these spiral decorations. 

We cut out paw prints out of blue cardstock and spelled out GIFTS on each paw print.  In order to make the paw print, I used a lily pad shaped place card I had on hand for the paw and for the toes I used a quarter.  These were taped to the front of the wedding fixture.  On the left side of loveseat was the main wall which had 2 large column and arch sets that I used to house a few games.  We hung lei garlands in blue, green, and white that also had round cardboard pictures of puppies hanging from it about 6 inches apart from the columns.  In the first arch/column set it had another one of those fake balcony fixtures that we put more stuffed puppies and dogs on and in between the spindles. 

On top of the balcony fixture I placed the pin the bone on the dog poster I made.  I also placed the constellation prizes and some of the items for the other games. I also used the same foam puppy face cut outs on the top part of the wall inside second set of columns and arch that did not have the balcony fixture.  Then taped bone cut outs from cardstock in dark pink, lime green, and bright blue on the bottom half that was to be used for another game.

Games/Prizes:  We had 5 games to play after the kids had arrived, eaten, and finished coloring.  I will explain in the order we played.  Of course what party would be a party with out a good old fashion game of hot potato that we used a dog toy to pass around.  This was quite funny since the fake newspaper was a squeak toy.  The kids wanted to play this several times. 

Second on the list was a individual race between 2 guests that I called FETCH.  We purchased 2 plastic dog bone squeak toys that I put at one end of the room and each person had to start from the other end, walk like a dog down to the toy, put it under their chin(instead of their mouths since we had to do this race several times) and crawl back. We stopped here for some ice cream cake and sing Happy Birthday. 

Third game was a relay race between 3 , 2 kids on each team.  The object was to collect the paper bone cut outs in their assigned color off the wall that I mentioned earlier.  They had to crawl like puppies to the wall, grab the cut out and then crawled back.  Once that person returned, the next person left to grab another bone and return to the finish line.  This continued until all the bones were collected from the wall and the first team to complete this task won a prize.  I named this one the Bone Collectors.  We only had to play this once since it tired them out so much. 

Fourth game was Give a Dog a Bone which is a version of pin the tail on the donkey.  We found a wall sticker of a puppy from the Littlest Pet Shop line that I stuck to a foam poster board, drew puppy paw prints around it, and stuck blue felt stickers on it.  The stickers said Where did my bone go to, Can you find it.  We used the same cardstock colored bone cut outs with a little tape.  We blinded folded the older kids, but let the younger ones just have a turn for fun.  Of course the one closest to the dog's mouth won a prize. 

The last game was Pass the Parcel which if you have not played this game is like Hot Potato with one major difference.  When the music stop the guest holding the package gets to unwrap one layer of wrapping paper from a package that is wrapped several times.  On the wrapping paper I placed WINNER or SORRY on it. The guest to unwrap the last layer won the grand prize.  It is very important to use different types of wrapping paper for each layer on this game.

For the prizes the bday girl and mom went to a novelty discount shop and found several dog themed toys that we placed in brown paper lunch sacks with a paw print drawn on them.  We put these in between the game sections on the wall and put a sign up that said DOGGIE BAGS.  Each winner of a game could choose one bag from this area and each guest that did not win got a constellation prize.  The prize inventory was Dalmatian Beach Balls, Dog shaped Bubble/Whistle combo, Dog paddle and ball catch sets, and wind up dog toys.  The also got these air force airplanes that did not have a puppy theme to them. 

The constellation prizes were Scooby graham cracker treats that were placed in a doggie bowl that read GOOD PUPPY TREATS, Scooby gummie candy packets, or of course more bubbles.  The Grand Prize Winner of the Pass the Parcel game received a bag full of each one of the prizes including the disposable camera that was inside the wrapped box.

Party Favors:  In addition to winning all these great prizes, the kids were given party favor bags.  The bags were clear cello bags with puppy dog pictures printed on them filled with pastel M&Ms, blue and white Cadbury robin eggs, and a sugar cookie that I used M&Ms to make a paw print or put a Scooby Snack in the middle of the cookie.  In order to make the paw print, you use one peanut M&M and 3 to 4 regular M&Ms.  We put these party favor bags inside their cups on the table at their place settings.

Food/Drink: We served what else, but HOT DOGS and chips.  Other items to serve are corn dogs, mini corn dogs and mac n cheese.  We kept our menu simple so we could focus on the games.  The food was served when they first arrived.  The cake was a standard ice cream cake from a local grocery.