Webkinz Puppy Party -9yr- Mr. Birdiez Adoption

My kids want a puppy but since mom isn't ready yet my daughter elected to have a Webkinz Puppy Party for her 9th birthday.  

INVITATION: I scouted stores for ideas and found blank cards with little dogs in purses on the cover. We embellished the purse by adding a the W logo for Webkinz and glued another smaller W to the puppy's collar (along with some bling). Inside, we said Rebeccaz 9th Birthday" to capitalize on the Webkinz spelling!  

DECORATIONZ:We decorated the house with all of our Webkinz pets and I used puppy themed plastic tableware. For each game we used the Webkinz images from the on-line games found at Google images. I amended each one in Photo shop to have my daughter's name and party theme in the instruction or score area. My daughter wore her Webkinz puppy shirt from Justice for girls.   I like to set the theme before you enter our home. I handmade a mini-flag with the W logo and hung that at the walkway. Then I decorated our front door with a large poster board that had a W logo Webkinz puppy pictures and streamers in Webkinz colors. It said "Welcome to Webkinz World"!  

ACTIVITY: Just inside our entry we decorated our lemonade stand to look like Mrs. Birdiez Adoption Center. I found some little floral zippered bags at Michael's and we placed a Webkinz lil' kinz puppy into each bag (this was the main party favor). As the children arrived they adopted their new puppy. I printed a copy of the adoption sheet from Google images and had the children name their pet and decide if it was a girl or boy.  

GAMEZ: Since the games are so much of the Webkinz experience we decided to choose our favorites and make variations that we could do at home- (without having to build a bunch of stuff!). I used games that could be done individually and ones that were group particpation… that way no one was bored and waiting for the next event! 

1. Operation Gumball: Super easy! I have a large tabletop gumball machine and filled it. I printed a sheet of paper by cutting and pasting images of Operation Gumball and let the kids write in their guess. The child closest to the actual amount won. As a prize I found a mini-gumball machine at a dollar store. Children could do this when they wanted and I eventually called out last chance and announced a winner. 

2. Zingoz Bounce: Easy! Not exactly like the on-line version but super fun. I bought and blew-up latex balloons with puppy paw prints on them. Kids had to toss the balloon into the air and count how many times they could hit it back up without it falling to the ground. I had 2 children do it at a time-- the other children helped keep count and the child with the most won a prize bubble solution! 

3. Candy Bash: We used a puppy shaped pinata and I added a W to it's collar to go with the theme. It was filled with candy erasers shaped like candy (99 cent store) and puppy-shaped silly bands. Each child got a dog-themed plastic bag to collect their treasures and got a chance to hit the pinata! 

4. Chef Gazpacho's Challenge: You could choose to do many things with this! We decorated "Puppy Pizza Cookies". I used 3 different colored icings and found puppy paw shapes dog bone shapes and rainbow shaped/colored candies at a cake deco store. They got to top them with edible glitter then displayed their cookies and were supposed to vote for a winner-- but everyone decided that all the puppy pizza cookies were cute! 

5. Crafty Critterz: I bought decorative beads and alphabet beads to string onto metallic pipecleaner-- these became dog collars for the new puppies. I set this up on a table and let the kids make the collars whenevr they wanted although most elected to do it after the adoption. 

6. Gem Hunt: We have a sand box in the backyard (but you could easliy use one at the park or a small kids pool filled with sand). I hid over 300 colored jewels and glass stones (multi-packs found at dollar stores) and gave each of the kids a collection bag. They had 1 minute to dig up as many treasures as they could find! Afterwards we counted each bag and the winner got a foam treasure craft kit and everyone got to keep the jewels they found! 

7. Lily Padz: I used a blue plastic tablecloth and bunched it up on the floor. I cut out 5 lily pad shapes (various sizes)from green construction paper (each had a point amount) and marked a line on the floor using colored tape. The children tried to toss small plastic frogs and have them land on the lily pads. Each child had to keep track of their score (52050 75 and 100 point chances). It was fun listening to them add too! The winner got a package of plastic frogs. 

PARTY SNACK: We called it Picnic (like the game)! I ordered pizza and served a fruit salad. Not too creatve but my child is picky and another had food allergies… sometimes it needs to be simple! We decorated our patio tables with puppy picnic cloths and everyone sat outside to eat.  

CAKE: The cakes were the best part. Fry's/Kroger makes rolled fondant single layer cakes that look like a dog. I took in pictures of my daughter's favorite Webkinz puppies- the Pink Poodle and the Cheeky Dog. The bakery reproduced the cakes to look exactly like the Webkinz pics and I had them add dog collars with the W logo and rainbow edible glitter.  

FAVORZ: The newly adopted lil' kinz Webkinz Puppy Pizza cookies Gem Hunt jewels and Candy Bash prizes were the party favors. Everyone left with their hands full and something to do later!   Good timez… "