Toddler Puppy Birthday Party

Is everyone excited and getting ready for Halloween? Every day my kids have different ideas about what they want to dress up as, so while I wait for them to make up their minds I thought I would post about some other things.

My daughter's fourth birthday is coming up in November. I'm not sure what I'm going to do this year, but I wanted to share what I did the past two years. I usually have to do everything by myself, so my kids' parties tend to be pretty low-key. Plus, when they're so young I don't feel like it's necessary to go all out.

For my daughter's second birthday I decided on a puppy dog theme, with light pink and lavender as the colors, since she was/is pretty much obsessed with dogs. She loves to pretend she's a dog and has done it since before she could talk.

The invitations were a simple folded cardstock with torn scrapbook paper and a simple silhouette of a dog's head on the front.

I used vinyl paw prints on the walkway and door, with balloons for a little decor outside.

Our [rental] house at the time was a cute 1940s bungalow painted white with yellow shutters.  So fun!

Inside I set up a table with some finger foods for the kids (with more balloons and vinyl paw prints for decoration). We had grapes, string cheese, carrots, cucumbers, olives, homemade graham crackers in the shape of dog bones, and homemade apple chips.

I also added vinyl paw prints to plain white cups.

The cake I made was a two-layer sheet cake (homemade, 100% whole wheat, and tasted great, by the way) that I cut into the shape of a bone and frosted white. (But I won't be posting a photo of it because when I sent my husband to the store to get whipping cream he came home with the canned variety which does NOT work for frosting a cake, just FYI. So, it turned out looking horrible and since I did the cake day of the party instead of the day before like I should have, there was no time to fix it. :)

The party favors consisted of a few dog-themed items in "doggy bags".

For activities the kids decorated the dog tags with stick-on jewels and pushed the inflatable balls around an obstacle course using the dog nose/mask. Other than that the kids just wanted to play with toys in my kids' room, and I wasn't about to fight that. :)

All in all it was a good time and my daughter loved it. That's what counts to me.

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I'll be linking up to these fabulous link parties:

Monday -  Craft o Maniac Monday -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Make it Great Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party  --  Tuesday -  Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Upcycled Awesome -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Tuesday Talent Show --  Wednesday -  Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Create and Share -- Whatever Goes Wednesday --  Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- Thursday -  Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Friday -  Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Show and Share Day -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- Pity Party -- Design Dazzle --  Saturday - Saturday Spotlight --  Sunday -  The DIY Showoff Project  Parade --  Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays