Kinley's Puppy Paw-ty

Guys!

I have a few things to blog about from last week that happened before Kinley's birthday party...but, I just could not focus on anything else but the party last week. I pretty much neglected every other role and duty I had. I am not proud of it but, I am so excited to post the puppy party pictures!

There are so many good ones. I seriously cut these down from 518 pictures. It was just so much fun. I knew I wanted to have the party in my parents backyard because:

1) it's huge

2) it's beautiful

3) so some real doggies could come join us

The anticipation for the party has been building for a while around our house and last week was full of projects...starting with her dog house entrance! I wanted to make a big entrance to the gate so I took a note from Allison and stalked Lowe's for a couple days to get a refrigerator box and cut it up into a dog house facade. It was really so easy and this entire thing was free! Free fridge box, free extra cans of red and white paint in the attic, extra black chalkboard paint, and black paper letters cut out from my silhouette. Kinley LOVED her dog house / dog park entrance.

We definitely ran with the dog theme even finding a scooby doo dog bounce house. It was perfect and I love how you can see his face and tail over the entrance in this pic.

How cute are these pretend puppies posing under the dog house. It was pretty big.

The food was primarily where I went crazy with the dog theme. Turns out there are so many options for dog-themed food out there. We had hot dogs, pupcakes, pawpcorn, scooby snacks, and puppy chow.

I also made these water bottle labels and put them in the water bowl.

That fantastic dog in the middle of the table is made out of rolled up newspaper and it is Mendy & Alex's Christmas present courtesy of Aunt Deb. How perfect is it!?

I also made some ruffled streamers and used the cutout from the invitations to make dog bone garland for the table backdrop.

and of course with lots of potty training toddlers we had to point the way to the bathroom...

I am sick I did not get a picture of the cupcakes (or pupcakes if you will...) on the table. I was waiting to put them out very last because it was SO hot outside and I didn't want them to melt. But, they turned out amazing! I ordered a dog bone candy mold from Stuff Galore and made those a couple days ahead of time and that is literally all I did for the cupcakes. Mendy and Katie did all the rest the night before. They mixed, baked, iced and decorated almost 50 cupcakes. And they were all gone and delicious! Thank you!

The doggie bags were a hit too. Mendy created a paw print image on her Yudu for us to screen print on paper sacks. I don't have a pic of what was inside them but, I filled them with stuffed puppies, dog stickers, scooby doo fruit snacks, and these amazing dog bone filled with dog bone crayons from birthday express.

We also had some real doggies attend the party. Don't you love Cooper's outfit Lauryn made him!? (not sure why there are no pics of Brinkley!?)

Our puppy activities, in addition to the bounce house, were make your own dog tags and a dog grooming and puppy portraits station.

Kids could get their face painted, hand stamped, add some glitter and put on some puppy ears and then get their picture made with a red picture frame. I cut out the face paint stencils on blank stencil paper with my silhouette. I made the puppy ears at home out of felt and headbands.

I love how all these pictures turned out. There were literally hundreds of these!

Other than that there was just a lot of playing around the backyard on a gorgeous day. There was some sandbox playing....

lots of bouncing....

wagon rides were a big hit...Landon and Bob were troopers

and then Sassy gave it a good try.

lots of feet splashing in the pool

It was so fun to have so many of Kinley's friends from school come! She was so, so excited. She is the youngest one in her class and the only one with a birthday in the spring so I think they talked it up in class for a week or so in advance. I think she had 12 friends from school come. Yay!

Thanks to our friends and family who came to celebrate a 3 year old birthday party too!

One of the best moments of the day was when someone decided we should have a puppy pyramid.

After most of the kids left, the adults just sat around the kid tables and talked and relaxed. Alex & Kinley might have gotten into a cupcake fight and Mendy and I took a turn in the bounce house.

It was SUCH a fun and actually a relaxing day. I am so, so thankful for all who came out to Kinley's party. We are blessed beyond belief with such supportive friends and family. Happy Birthday Sweet Angel Kinley...(actually 3 more days till your real birthday). We love YOU!