Puppy Party!

Sarah let slip sometime in the beginning of June that she wanted a friend birthday party before we went to America for the summer.  I had been counting on just having a cousin party in Utah, and not doing anything here.  But when my kid wants a birthday party, I give them a birthday party.  And so the frantic crafting, idea-searching, game making frenzy began.

I really wish I had gotten a shot of the invites, they were soooo cute!  I made Dalmation puppies using several of my paper punches, a dog house for them to live in, and some grass they were walking on.  Then I said that Sarah was turning 53 (in dog years) and was invited everyone to come teach her some new tricks! haha.  She said when she passed them out at school, some of the kids didn’t get it.  They were confused as to how old Sarah really was, and if they needed to bring actual dogs to the party!

Since Sarah and her friends are now older, I wasn’t sure how many party games they were still going to want to play, so I needed a good back up plan.  Many of the party planning websites I was trolling for dog party ideas suggested picking up inexpensive stuffed dogs for the girls to adopt at the party.  Then for a craft you could make matching collars and necklaces for the dogs and new owners to wear.  But we live in Switzerland, a place where the dollar spot at Target doesn’t exist.  So I had to sew some stuffed dogs myself, creating a pattern for one, I might add, and leave the actual stuffing for the girls to do as their craft.  Once I messed up a few times, I was able to whip them up pretty quickly.  Good thing, cuz now I have set the precedent for Sophie’s puppy party in August!

The day of the actual party, we set up all the stuffed dogs we owned for part of the decorations.  Sophie and Nick were huge helps in this area.  After they had gotten this done, and the obstacle course set up, Nick took Alexandra and Noah upstairs where they “made no noise and pretended they didn’t exist”.  🙂

I had the girls start stuffing their puppies as they walked in the door.  That way they were all occupied while waiting for everyone to arrive, and I could be sure we would have enough time to finish them.We spent about 30 minutes on this activity, and then I had the girls leave their dogs on the table so we could go outside and play some games.

Our neighbor boy and his friend were playing soccer on the communal grass, but graciously agreed to let us take over for a few minutes.  So nice!  I had painted this little guy,and baked gingerbread cut out with dog bone cookie cutters.  The girls tried to throw the dog bone cookies into the dog’s open mouth.  Only three of nine girls managed to get one cookie through the hole.  Then we had those three each try again to determine a winner.  I was afraid I had made the hole too big, and the game would be too easy, but apparently that wasn’t the case.  They had fun trying, though.

The second game they liked so much, we ended up playing it three times in a row.  Out of cardboard I had cut several large dog bone shapes, painted them white, and written the name of each girl on them.  I passed these bones out, but gave each girl someone else’s bone.  They didn’t say whose bone they had, and at my signal, they all went through the garden, hiding the bones.  They came back to me when they were done, and then I sent them all back out into the garden, but this time they had to look for the bone with their name on it.  They had so much fun thinking up crazy hiding places for those bones!  Some girls had to look really hard to find theirs, and still others had to finally ask for hints, it was hidden so well.  After the third round, though, they were a bit hot and definitely thirsty, so we packed it all up and went back inside.

Where I gave them all water in these cups. I got struck for the inspiration for these late one night, while I was working on something else for the party.  I looked at three different stores and never found solid white paper cups, though.  The white plastic ones were just too thin to hold up all the cardstock needed for the face and ears.  But I couldn’t get the image of how cute they would be out of my head.  So you know what crazy, insane, time consuming thing I did?  I took the blue paper cups I found at the store, traced a pattern and cut out white cardstock to fit the cups.  Then I glued them on.  It took forever!  But don’t they look so adorable?  I think it was totally worth it.  And only one name tag fell off the whole party.  Hurray for cheap Migros glue stick!

After they had quenched their thirst, they were ready for more games.  Here they are playing “Dog Trainer Says”, but in German.  They also really liked the doggy obstacle course, although crawling on the hardwood floor hurt their knees a tad.  And carrying a newspaper under your chin, or in your teeth is really hard.  They kept dropping it, but I didn’t make them start over, that would have been cruel. 🙂  They just had to pick it back up and keep going.  When they were all worn out from doing  their doggy tricks, it was time for presents.

Alexandra snuck down for this, but since she was quiet and kept out of the way, we let her stay. This present was the second one Sarah received from her best friend, Melike.  She kept unwrapping it, and unwrapping it, only to discover yet another layer of newspaper that needed to e opened.  The thing started out about the size of a large book.  Everyone was so excited to see what was under all that paper. This is Melike, who was laughing like crazy every time Sarah discovered more paper.  Finally, finally, Sarah got to what was inside.A postcard of a cute dog, and on the back was Melike’s special birthday message for Sarah.  What a cute, fun way to give a card.  We will have to remember that when it’s Melike’s birthday. 🙂

When the girls had first come into the party, they decided that the pupcakes were too cute to be eaten.They did really turn out rather good, I think.  Especially considering I had almost none of the recommended American candy to make them.  Thank goodness I had a bag of jellybeans leftover from Easter, or I seriously don’t know what I would have done.My piping skills weren’t up to the time crunch I put them under, but you can still tell it’s supposed to be fur.  And of course, I had no brown food coloring for the bulldogs.  Still, the red, yellow, green combination I used ended up matching the Swiss caramels better anyway. The pink tongues were definitely my favorite, though.  They just upped the cuteness factor a thousand times.  They were also the easiest to make.

  The dalmation tablecloth was another late night inspiration.  And inside the dog bowls is human puppy chow, which looks disturbingly close to real dog food, but smells and tastes much, much better!

Anyway, when it came time to have cake, the girls decided they could eat the pupcakes after all. I was shocked that they actually ate the crazy blue colored ones.  Swiss kids usually shy away from any frosting that isn’t simply melted chocolate.  But they all ended up eating two cupcakes each.  Maybe it was the marshmallow noses that convinced them to try it? Whatever the reason, they were a total hit and definitely worth the effort.  Sarah was one happy birthday girl, and that’s the real goal anyway.

After cake, the girls finished up their dogs and collars while waiting for the parents to come.  I think they turned out awesome. As each girl left we handed them their goody bag, complete with dog stickers, gingerbread dog bones, and a pencil I had covered in paw print paper.  Well, first I stamped the paw prints, then I heat embossed them, then I cut the strips of paper to fit the pencils and glued them on.  They turned out super cute, I just wish I had found dog erasers to go on top. The paw print goody bags came from a baking supply store in England I found online.  It’s also where I bought the dog bone cookie cutters, in several sizes.  The party would have been much more work without them.  And much less cute.

One of the mothers asked me, only slightly joking, if I was available for hire.  I firmly told her no.  I did this party out of love.  You couldn’t pay me enough to go to all that trouble for someone else’s kid. 🙂 But it was all worth it for my own.  Love you, Sarah!