You know who loves dogs? Practically everyone. And if you don’t *love* them, we are willing to bet that you can agree with us, that they are pretty dang cute. We happen to be big dog people over here, so when this “raise the woof” puppy themed 5th birthday party crossed our inbox we were intrigued. The momma who planned this gorgeous party, happened to make an affair that tastefully puts a twist on a theme that often feels cliche. Using muted tones, and hand drawn puppy elements her work speaks for itself.
The mom and event planner Jackie, with Finding Lovely shares,
My Sweet Kai loves dogs. All things dogs and, after watching 101 Dalmatians when we were on a Quarantine Disney kick, declared this to be his 5th birthday party theme. And so it was: raise the woof: a puppy party for a dog-loving boy. Hence a Puppy Themed 5th Birthday party. Planning Kai’s parties are always a joy, (check out his last birthday party) but I had to rethink many aspects of party planning this time around because of COVID. No one wants communal food or a slice of breathed-on birthday cake. I also wanted to throw a festive party completely without balloons. Dessert Tables are Always my favorite to scheme up, I envisioned a Milk Bone backdrop and bought medium and large-sized Milk Bones and alternated sizes when hot glueing them onto a painted plywood backdrop.
I had to rethink the dessert table because all food needed to be packaged. Luckily there are some adorable options. Instead of a cake we boxed individual homemade “pupcakes” and decorated them with a cute bone cookies, turned pudding cups into “Pudding Pups,” and put out “lollipups” by Leccare Lollipops. What party is complete without the most gorgeous of sugar cookies made by Eileen at Honey & Lou Baking Co. Eileen is a cookie artist. They’re almost too pretty to eat. Holy cuteness! ThE Kiddo’s table was so stinkin’ adorable. I picked up flowers from The Floral Reserve and made these sweet little arrangements in shades of browns and tans. I cut out the bone-shaped placemats from the kiddos Art paper and used inexpensive navy paper dinner plates layered with a cute puppy plate on top. From the paw print table runner (just fabric cut to size) to the puppy plates & dog bone cups (I painted the lids blue), it’s all just perfect for the littles. The table was set with adorable felt dogs sourced on Etsy. All of this looked so cute under a homemade washi tape garland hanging over head. (I bought washi tape online and folded 3-6″ strips over a piece of white cotton twine). Easy, inexpensive but time consuming.
The Boxed lunches were easy to prep ahead of time and gave party goers more peace of mind in these odd times. We’re all craving normalcy and fellowship but we want to do it safely. For the adults we pre-made sandwiches and skipped catering (more work clearly but we felt like the best route at that time). We bought frozen croissants and baguettes that we baked the morning of, prepackaged salad in jars and portioned out individual bags of chips tied up with the cutest ribbon. No plastic with Cardboard fruit cups and wooden cutlery yet a whole lot of cuteness. For the “Little Pups” lunches We filled them with kid-approved yogurt squeezies, fresh berries, string cheese and then gave the kiddos the option of PB+J bones or a mini Turkey and Cheese croissant. Tied with velvet ribbon and a cute wooden dog bone label. Everything feels more marvelous with velvet ribbon. We had Your standard dog piñata (a stick per kid), a DIY “Pin the tail on the pup” game (individual tails for each kiddo), and bean bag toss game into dog bowls. But the big hit was just letting them run wild with inflatable balls. Overall it was a beautiful day to celebrate kai turning 5 with is school pod.
