Yummy treats.
Popcorn and pretzels for a snack.
By chance we had some left over wood from our home office remodel to make this dog house facade!
My dear neighbor helped the kids with adopting their puppies!
Water balloon toss is always a highlight.
It's a blurry photo but the kids look so animated!
Mark kept throwing balloons "to" my handsome twin bro.
Best game of the day, who can pick up the most water balloon pieces.
Puppy Chow Cake!
One of the fews ddays that there will be an overload of sweets in our house!
So many adorable toothless grins.
Most of the kids at the party and their adopted puppies.
In lieu of gifts Presley asked for toys and supplies for dogs in the shelter.
Every year Presley has three different birthday party's, it sounds excessive but let me explain. I like to have one party for her and her cousins, another for family friends and a party for her school friends. This way I feel she and her guests get to spend time together and it's more enjoyable for all. We tend to do the same stuff each year at each party.
We don't tend to make any of the parties big elaborate events. The cousin's party is dinner and cake, family friends is a sleep over with four friends (this year they went to free event at ASU) and school party is at our home. The school party is always a bigger party because there are a lot more kids than any other of her parties.
This is the first year we had a theme, Presley's Puppy Paw-ty. We had stuffed puppies available for adoption as the kids arrived. We had a dog house for the kids to take a photo with them and their puppy. We served hot dogs and all sorts of puppy desserts. The desserts were shaped as puppies, some were dog bones and we had puppy chow cake and cupcakes. I thought about making some of this myself but the gal we had do them was priced so well (and tasty) I decided to let the professional do it.
Like the previous year we played traditional party games, pin the tail on the donkey (this year it was on the puppy), a water balloon toss and we had a pinata. I was tickled when one of the boys that attended the party both years ran up to me and said, "when are we going to decorate cookies?". As you may have guessed last year we decorated cookies as the guests arrived.
One game that we added was darts! When I first started to ask Presley what type of party she wanted to have she asked if they could play darts. Her summer cousins father have a dartboard in their garage, Presley apparently thought it would be a great party game! I was not really on board until I spoke to a friend and found out there is such a thing as magnetic dart boards... With so many kids we could not play a full game of darts so we had them line up and throw two darts at a time trying to get the best score. I can only imagine what some of the parents thought when the kids went home to tell them they played darts. One of the little boys cousin apparently lost his eye playing darts...
Presley asked me when we were in the planning stage of her party if we could ask guests to bring toys for needy kids. Then as we discussed the party and theme the idea of gifts for dogs in a dog shelter seemed like a better fit! As the day approached I was worried Presley would regret not asking for gifts for herself. But thankfully she did not, she enjoyed opening the gifts for the dogs. And with the few gifts mixed in from us, my parents, uncles and some friends she seemed quite happy.