Puppy-themed Party

My sister recently adopted a puppy. To help her welcome her pup home, we threw a “puppy shower”. Like the traditional baby shower for a mama-to-be, we gathered to share in her excitement at bringing home a new addition.
Since my sis would already have her puppy by the party, we nixed the idea of a big gathering where the puppy might get overwhelmed. It worked out well, and I think everyone enjoyed the fun puppy-theme.
For games, my mom printed off a couple of famous dog trivia games that she found online. Unfortunately, I came up with another game after the shower was already over…wha wha whaaaa. We had graham crackers that looked like dog treats, and it hit me how fun it would have been to use those in a game…too bad it hit me about four hrs too late! Anyway, I thought maybe the game could be one where guests try to see how long they can balance one of the graham cracker “dog treats” on their nose, like I’ve seen dogs trained to do. Then the game could either be about seeing who can balance it the longest or see who could balance the graham on their nose and then catch it in their mouth. I think either way, it would be a fun game that would get guests laughing and create some funny photo opportunities!

I kept the decor simple, opting for just a table cloth (a twin flat sheet actually), a disposable plastic table cover as a backdrop, and some paw prints made from card stock and hung from paper streamers.

The food was a fun way to incorporate the puppy theme. Nabisco makes Scooby-Doo cereal and graham crackers that were perfect for this party. And dog bone-shaped cookie cutters came in handy too!

“Kibble & Bits” snack mix made from Scooby-Doo cereal, peanuts, pretzel sticks, and chocolate candies

Here’s where the bone-shaped cookie cutters came into play:  meat and cheese cut with cookie cutters and served with crackers. My mom also found these little salami snacks that we thought totally looked like some sort of dog treat, so we set those out too.

“Puppy Chow Dip” (cake batter dip… recipe here: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/01/skinny-funfetti-cake-batter-dip-recipe.html)

Served in a CLEAN and UNUSED dog dish with Scooby-Doo graham cracker sticks (available in cinnamon or honey flavor… we couldn’t find the honey flavor ones. The cinnamon grahams would probably pair better with a different dip, but they weren’t bad with the cake batter dip.)

“Go Fetch” pretzel rods dipped in candy melts and sprinkled with colored sugar sprinkles. I used some of the chocolate candies left over from the snack mix as filler in the bottom of the vase. Then I tied a satin ribbon around the vase and attached a label with a glue stick. (On a side note, I have a new found respect for glue sticks! I normally use rubber cement or spray adhesive or double stick tape and avoid glue sticks, but I was all out of my usual go-to adhesives. The glue from the glue sticks worked really well, and actually held up much better than I expected!)

Bottled water labeled as toilet water… this got some good laughs 🙂

Label reads, “Flushwasser Toilet water from only the finest porcelain bowls”. Haha!

I’d say that the party was a success! Everyone seemed to have a good time, and little Riley here, wore herself out playing with her new toys! Awwwww!