Graham's Hot Diggity Dog party

Graham had his 3rd birthday party last week.  We kept going back and forth between dog and Mickey Mouse, but a dog party was easier, so that is what we went with.  Luckily he loved them both equally as much.  

So, I based the whole party around this invitation.  It was all about hotdogs and fancy dogs with their bow ties.  I didn't get a picture of it, but I attached this invitation with a big red ribbon to a dog rope toy I got at the Dollar store that matched my color scheme.

When the guest first walked up to the door they were greeted with very large doggie prints.

And then they opened the door and saw this.  

One of my favorite decorations about this party was the giant size dog house and dog to greet the kids.  How cute is that dog.  I bought him years ago from Costco and he has just sat around not doing much until the party and then he was the showcase piece of the party (well, of course besides my little graham).

We started out the kids with a coloring activity.  Here is how I decorated the tables.  I saw the cute dog balloon idea on Martha Stewart so I used their template.  Note: the ears were too heavy (started to make the balloons fall) so I just cut the ears shorter and the seemed to work).  

Also, I made doggie medallions for each chair.  I had 4 different dogs represented, again the different dog templates were found on Martha Stewart, I just added a hot dog in each dog's mouth to go with my theme. 

I got the paw print paper at the dollar store.  it is just a roll of wrapping paper.  So easy and it adds so much.  I bought the scalloped placemats at Part City and traced some coloring pages onto it for the kids to color.  That was their first activity - coloring.  What 3 years old don't like to color, right.

I made the cute bowtie utensil holders from this tutorial.  I loved how they tied (no pun intended) into my whole theme.  

Next item of business was lunch.  Of course we had hot dogs, but we had a fun more fun items to go with out puppy theme.  

On the menu were some fun items.  Like dipped doggie bones (scooby doo graham cracker bones), paw-tato chips and paw-sta salad.  

  

And the hot dog menu was as follows, but as you can guess not one 3 year old looked at this thing.  They all just wanted to eat.

I got these adorable doggie bone sippy cups at Oriental Trading Company (I just love that place) and added some coordinating paper to the middle.

And the cupcakes were these cute little doggies made out of mini milanos from Pepperidge Farms, m&ms for the noses and eyes from Wilton and some black frosting gel.  Seriously so easy, but yet so cute.  

After the food, we turned the little boys and girls into puppies.  They were able to each pick out some dog ears, a bow tie and we drew a nose and dots on their faces.   Again, I got the ears from OTC and I made the bowties.  

Here are just a few of our little puppies.

And the whole dog pound!

 Some of the games we played were:

Obedience School - Simon Says

Dog Chase - Relay Races - timed them to see who was the fastest dog.

Catch the Cat - Dad was the cat and the kids had to chase him and when he was caught he had to freeze and throw out candy while the kids were distracted he could "escape" and they had to catch him again.  A nice alternative to a piñata.  The kids loved this came by the way!

and Best Bark.

For the prizes, they got a box of Scooby Doo Graham Cracker Bones.

We sang happy birthday and had cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents.

As the friends left, they got to stop by the adoption center and adopt a puppy.  

They got to choose their own dog (notice the bow ties on each of the adopted dogs :-)  

Then they put their new pets into the boxes and got to name them.

 They also got a certificate that made it all official!

 Then they got to pick a puppy pop for the road.

And some last little details:

I made the garland using my silhouette machine.

I made this banner years ago for Jake's dog party, glad I kept it!

And these cute dog signs.  I loved these two.  I just used foam core from the Dollar Store and taped the edges and used vinyl for the silhouette portion, painted the whole thing and took the tape and vinyl off and wa-laa!

So, there you have it. Graham's Hot Diggity Dog party.