J+J Birthday Party 2013: It’s a Puppy Party!

I follow James and Julia’s wishes and organize a puppy-themed birthday party (originally suggested by Teacher Mindy from Mountain View Parent Observation Preschool). Unfortunately, I make the mistake of mentioning the possibility of a Cookie Monster-themed party early in the planning process, and after I switch to a dog party and stuff is already bought, Julia isn’t so happy. However, when I mention that she’ll get a dog bowl she’s on board.

A Julia with a dog bowl is a happy Julia.

Our guests include kids from our old Mom’s Night Out playgroup (Josh, Sam, and Ronan), kids from Mountain View Parent Observation Preschool (Lyra and Phoebe), and kids from both (Zoe and Zachary).  I actually invited four sets of twins (not including mine) but two sets couldn’t come. Julia plays in the leaves with Lyra - our first guest to arrive - and Papa greets guests from his chair on the porch.

Signs on the front door

Lyra and Julia play in the gingko leaves.

Upon arriving to the puppy party the kids visit four stations.

Adopt a Puppy

Each kid gets to pick one puppy to adopt and bring home from a box of stuffed puppies. (Unfortunately the Beanie Baby ones I bought on eBay didn’t arrive in time so I had to scramble the day before the party to buy 10 more. Of course later I have 10 Beanie Baby puppies that the twins end up getting from Santa.)

Basket of puppies to adopt

Julia with Pink Bunny and her new puppy

 

Make Collar for New Puppy

This station has foam strips for collars that the kids decorate with foam shape stickers and jewel stickers. The kids also choose names for their dogs and have grown-ups write them on dog tags. My parents graciously sit at this station and help the kids assemble their collars. James’s dog is named James Junior (J.J.) and Julia’s is Bunny Junior (B.J.).

Dog collar making station

Gaga helps string collars.

Papa helps Ronan.

One of the finished products: Lyra’s Ruffy.

Vet and Grooming

This is a place where kids can play with their new doggy with vet and doctor instruments, a vet’s lab coat (thanks, Tracy), band-aids, and grooming tools.

Phoebe gives Barkley (she calls it Coco) a check-up. My kids are prone to hiding this dog before Phoebe comes over for playdates because she loves it so much they think she’s liable to keep it.

Become a Puppy

There are headbands with dog ears (only Phoebe wears the ears for more than a minute), and a make-up kit and example dog make-up pictures so the kids could dress as dogs. The only ones to get make-up are Zachary and Zoe.

Puppy James with his dog ears (and if you look closely, Puppy Papa - or should I say "Paw-Paw"?)

Me and my puppies

And there were other activities:

Bowls

Each guest gets a dog bowl (cleaned before the party) personalized with puffy letter stickers. They are surprisingly popular. The kids eat their snacks out of them (along with pizza, Jello, and cupcakes). Phoebe really gets into character and, unprompted, eats on the floor out of her bowl with no hands. As I write this, Julia and James continue to love their bowls and play with them all the time.

All the kids get their own personalized dog bowl.

Zachary sits on Sharon’s lap while eating snacks out of his bowl.

Ronan rides around on the Plasma Car with his bowl.

Feet out of the bowl, James!

No one is as committed to being a dog as Phoebe.

Snacks

I present snacks in real dog bowls, which really help make the Cocoa Puffs look like real dog kibble. The similarity is a little disturbing. Thick pretzel twists double for rawhide chews, and graham cracker Scooby Snacks are our dog bones.

Snacks

Sam holds up kibble.

Zoe gets a closer look at the snacks.

 

Hunt for Dalmatian Spots Game

I drew a dalmatian on white foam core board with no spots and then hid black construction paper spots in the living room for the kids to find.

Ronan and Phoebe put the spots they found on my sad drawing of a dalmatian.

Lunch and Bone Jello Jigglers

Mark picked up lunch from Pizza Hut and the kids all drank from bone-shaped cups with straws. The second course is bone-shaped Jello jigglers. We made them in the hopes that the kids would eat them like a dog (a.k.a. with no hands), but Ronan is the only taker.

James with his bone cup and Jello jiggler

Jello jiggler close-up!

Zoe

Ronan

And then Ronan really digs in!

Cupcakes 

For the third year running we have mini chocolate and vanilla Whole Food cupcakes. (If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.) The vanilla ones are studded with chocolate chips and Peppermint Patties to make pawprints. We sing “Happy Birthday” to each of our kids in turn. Since James and Julia were born at 12:13 and 12:14 p.m. respectively, and the party is on their true birthday, they turn four exactly during the party.

Vanilla pawprint cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes, with and without bones

The doggy family

James’s and Julia’s candles are lit.

Julia listens to us sing Happy Birthday.

After two previous years of swiping Julia's cupcake when she didn't eat it, Ronan saunters over while the candles are still lit.

"Ronan, at least let me blow out the candles before you take my cupcake."

This picture makes it look like Julia ate her cupcake, but I’m pretty sure she barely took a nibble.

Dog-Related Activities We Don’t Do

We run out of time for some dog-related activities I had planned such as having a barking contest, a freeze dance to Who Let the Dogs Out and other dog songs, and having each child introduce their puppies and tell us what makes them special. I also forgot to have our guests bark instead of sing Happy Birthday.

I don’t have gift bags but each child gets a pretty good stash of dog-themed goods including an adopted dog with collar, dog bowl, bone cup, dog ear headband, and dog balloon.

Puppy balloons at every seat that guests could bring home

Puppy balloon close-up

End of the Party

For the last 45 minutes or so the mood is comfortable and chill, and it doesn’t seem appropriate to drag everyone together for another dog-related activity. The moms chat and the kids play. Papa wrestles with James and Julia and then Josh and Sam join in to try to take him down.

Sam pulls Papa’s beard.

Julia and James watch as Josh and Sam wrestle Papa.

Papa with James and Julia and Debbie with Josh and Sam, read a book together.

After everyone leaves my kids wrestle.

Later when I ask our kids, James declares the cupcakes his favorite part and Julia says “all of it.”

Happy grandparents with their grandpuppies.

Twin Birthday 2012: Party for 3-Year-Olds with a Guest Appearance by Leaves

I strolled the aisles of Party City hoping to come up with a new theme for this year’s birthday party for James and Julia, but in the end I decided to give ‘em what they want. And what I knew they would want was more Sesame Street, since James and Julia love Cookie Monster. (James even does a mean impression.) So I basically rehashed the same birthday party for the twins this year as last year, even with the same mylar Elmo balloon. (They still loved the balloon and were quick to give it a nice pummelling.)

Hugs and kisses quickly turn to violence.

Sharon and her nanny Poonim brought Zachary and Zoe, Rachel brought Oliver, Stacy brought Ronan, and new neighbor Beth brought Laura. 

Zachary

Zoe

Oliver

Ronan

Laura

And of course the 3-year-olds of the (2) hour(s):

Sweet Girl

Sweet Boy

First everyone played with toys.

James, Julia, and FrogBoy, er... Ronan play with trains.

Holy crap! She’s going to kill me in my sleep!

Beth holds Laura who tries to take Elmo down.

Pile on Mommy!

Sharon with her twins Zoe and Zachary, and Rachel with Oliver

Stacy with Ronan

It's like the scene in Lady and the Tramp with the spaghetti.

Rachel reads to Oliver.

Ronan decorates Laura’s dress with stickers.

I provided Sesame Street crazy straws and tattoos. Zachary and Zoe have been tattooed at home many a time, so they decided to add a lot of new body art to their tummies.

James and Ronan play with their crazy straws.

"Hey baby, come here often?"

"Hitting on me when his girlfriend is in the room. As if!"

"Things are NOT like this in Minnesota!"

Zoe has a spectator while Poonim gives her a tattoo.

Ernie body art is all the rage these days.

Zachary is pretty tatted up.

Next the kids played Pin the Nose on the Elmo. This seemed like a great idea when I bought it at the store. But the reality was that 3-year-olds don’t take kindly to being blindfolded. After trying a few times and giving up on the blindfolds, the kids ended up being spun around while holding an Elmo nose and simply putting the nose exactly on top of the real nose. Not surprisingly, we ended up with about 6 Elmo nose stickers on top of each other. 

James gives Elmo some water.

I cover James’s eyes with my hand since he’s unwilling to wear a blindfold. He’s the first and last to go along with having his eyes even remotely covered.

I pointlessly turn Julia in a circle before letting her pin the nose on Elmo.

What do you know? She got the nose exactly in the right place!

Wow! Zoe did it too!

Playing "Pin the Nose on the Elmo" is pretty easy when the kids refuse to wear blindfolds. Or so one would think.

We sang the birthday song, once for each birthday girl and boy, and then chowed down on cupcakes. (They were the same Whole Foods mini cupcakes as last year, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.) In a retread of last year’s party, James inhaled his, while Julia preferred to contemplate hers. And furthering the parallel to last year’s festivities, Ronan even sauntered by, sat down next to Julia, and noticed her uneaten cupcake. Stacy and I devilishly encouraged Ronan to pilfer her cupcake for a photo op, but Ronan didn’t take the bait.

James blows out his candle.

"I bet I can eat it in one bite."

"I guess it will be two."

Meanwhile, Julia prefers to keep her cupcake around for display purposes only.

Ronan can't resist the siren song of an uneaten cupcake.

Despite what appears to be photographic evidence to the contrary, I’m not sure she actually ever took a bite.

Zoe likes her cupcake.

Our front yard is a fall leaf paradise for exactly two weeks of the year, right around the twins’ birthday, and the kids ran around outside in the leaves. Beth, our temporary Minnesota transplant marvelled that our kids were playing in fall foliage... in December... in 70 degrees.

Thanks to Stacy for so many pictures!