Abby's 9th birthday party

My girl turns 9 tomorrow, and we had her "friend" birthday party today. Abby loves dogs, so that was our theme (decided two days ago, seriously.) Our invitation with a closeup of a dog's nose (see image from Evite, left) but we didn't decide on actual party activities until Thursday. How does August always sneak up on me like this?

Abby invited six friends, five of whom could come. I decided on Thursday to do a puppy adoption theme, and was on the hunt yesterday for inexpensive stuffed dogs to use. I found tiny ones at the craft store and bought a variety of colors. Next, I decided what breed they looked like (labs, spaniels, beagles) and printed up a breed information sheet, with (real dog) photo and information like temperament, size, space requirements, life expectancy, etc. I laminated them (LOVE my laminator) and set them up on the porch.

When the girls arrived this afternoon, I had a foam cut-out craft for them to do, purchased months ago when I saw it at Ocean State Job Lot -- magnetic photo frames shaped like paw prints and doghouses. They did that as they arrived, and then I served hot dogs (of course) and "puppy chow" (a mixture of Cheerios, Kix, Chex, pretzels and popcorn) for lunch.

We then adjourned to the porch, where much oohing and aahing was heard (love that sound at a birthday party!) The girls quickly decided on their puppies. I then filled out an adoption certificate for each of them and took their photo with their pooch. Then I sent them off to the vet's office for a checkup (Brian and Timmy, with their toy doctor kit) and then to the grooming salon (self-serve with Abby's pet grooming toys.)

Then it was time for the girls to make collars and leashes for their puppies. I had already measured, cut and knotted beading string, so I got out the beads for them and they quickly got to work making jeweled collars and leashes for their pets. When they were all done, I suggested they go outside to the "dog park" (just our back yard) for a while, which they did readily on this beautiful day. Meanwhile, I downloaded, cropped, cut out and laminated each girl's photo with her puppy and taped them onto the picture frames they'd made.

Then it was time for cake. I had been planning on doing a dog bone-shaped cake for Abby, but then decided on pawprint cupcakes. I made them with a peppermint patty candy and three upside-down chocolate chips. The girls loved them!

After that, it was presents and goodie bag time. I like to use the paper shopping-bag style goodie bags, and had found sparkly bone stickers, so I decorated the bags with those. Inside the bags I put the girls' breed fact sheets, the adoption certificates and a Ziploc bag of "puppy chow." I had wanted to stick their frames in there, too, but they'd used glitter glue on them, which wasn't dry yet, so I left them out on paper plates for them to take home. And, of course, the girls also took home their puppies, collars and leashes.

It was a great success, very easy, quite inexpensive and a lot of fun, as you can see by the smiles on the girls' faces, below.