The Puppy Paw-ty!

Since they share a birthday and Jackson is still pretty little to know what a birthday party is, we let Ellie pick the party theme this year and she chose a Puppy Party. I think she mostly chose that because she wanted to have a party for Puppy Girl (favorite stuffed animal) but as the party neared she started asking if we were going to get her a real puppy for her birthday. She is one smart girl, but the answer always lead to no.

The party was held on the Saturday following their actual birthday on the 14th which was still a bit confusing for Ellie. She wanted her friends to come over for her birthday — and they did, just not until Saturday. On the day of their birthday, we celebrated with birthday donuts and hats, a birthday picnic in the park and a birthday dinner at the restaurant of choice, Pizza Ranch. Then we had to wait for the rest of the week to go by and get ready for the Paw-ty.

The Paw-ty Happenings

The Paw-ty Details

It all started with the invites which were backed with a hounds tooth pattern that carried throughout the party. Since I knew we would not be getting a puppy, and Ellie complains about having to much stuff to keep picked up, we thought it might be nice to help out other puppies that don’t have homes. So we added a little note on to the invitation to ask everyone to bring a box of treats to donate to the humane society in place of bringing a gift.

I was given a super cute sundress pattern from one of my sewing friends who convinced me that the pattern would be adorable in black and white hounds tooth fabric — and it is! Ellie loves the dress and it was a fairly easy pattern to follow. It did however leave one big problem, what does Jackson get to wear? So, my other sewing friends suggested I make a vest front and sew it into the seams of a white t-shirt, and just like that we had one handsome little boy to go along side of our cute little girl.

The cakes were made from scratch, super red velvet, layered with vanilla bean icecream and topped with our favorite frosting. I decorated them with puppy paw prints and chocolate dipped dog bone graham crackers to match the theme. You can also see the birthday banner with the puppy from the invites and each kiddo had a dog house with their year in it. The rest of the decorations and food followed the them and included Hot Dogs, Duke’s Beans (the dog from Bushes Baked Beans), Paw-tato Chips, Ruff-age, Puppy Chow, Bury A Bone, Water Your Dog and Doggy Bags filled with Puppy Chow and graham cracker bones to send home with party guests. By far the cutest was the dog ear party hats and face paint to transform Ellie and her friends into puppies.

We definitely had a Dog-gone great time celebrating Ellie’s 6th and Jackson’s 2nd birthdays. One of the better memories was when Ellie was opening her presents and Brian disappeared downstairs to “retrieve” — the cupcakes — from the freezer (they did have ice cream on them). He did however have my mother and sister thinking that he was bringing up a puppy. Unfortunately, the closest they got to a real puppy was at the shelter.

It was really good for the kids to take the 24lbs of dog treats and 40lbs of food down to the humane society and see all of the puppies that will get to enjoy them. I lost count of all of the times they asked if we could take one home and it’s was really hard trying to explain to them that it just isn’t the best time for us to be getting a dog. The compromise was that when they are older, we would go down and donate our time to help the shelter, and then….maybe, just maybe, we would get a dog later (much later) down the road.

Sit & Stay – There’s More Pictures

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Often times we can’t believe where the last six years has gone, let alone the last two, but when we look in their eyes, and see their smiles, we know that every last minute has been counted — and the clock is not slowing down. We can’t say thank you enough to the friends and family who helped celebrate another year and showered us all with your love. It is a true blessing to have all of you in our lives!