Yes, you read that correctly. Our ‘baby’ is TWO! And we threw a small puppy themed party to celebrate.

The Theme:

By the time you get down to your 6th party, choosing another girly theme starts to become tricky. We’ve done Minnie Mouse, Owls, and Ballet, we’ve had a Pink party and we have even done Puppies before. Tailei’s first birthday was a Puppy Party and it was such a hit. But because we had already done it I was hesitant to choose this theme again. …and then I realised that actually, Keatynn is a different child who is really also allowed to love puppies. That she wasn’t around for Tai’s first birthday and that because their personalities are so different, their parties would be too.

A little while ago the girls watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua which is really very sweet (for the first 3 times at least). Keats completely fell in love with it along with every other chihuahua she saw. And that is what set the tone for this party.

The Cake

The first thing I did was contact Jane from Peall & Scott . Jane has made the cakes for the last 3 parties we have held… and honestly, I wouldn’t trust anyone else with the job. Her craft work is out of this world (she made ballet shoes for Tai’s cake last year that looked nothing short of real). We usually go for red velvet or chocolate mud cake and both of them are equally divine. I had one guest who (jokingly) asked if we were getting another one of Jane’s cakes before rsvp’ing to our party 🙂 I’m not the most creative person so once confirming the date I jumped onto pinterest and Jane and I started throwing idea’s together.

…this was the (delicious) result

The Decor

I love that food and decor come together in parties these days. It’s so much easier to make things look pretty when the food is the decor and the decor is the food.

That said, we needed a little help pulling this one off and Melinda from Pretty Things For You had just what we needed. If you haven’t yet heard of  A Party-In-A-Box… you are about to love me (and Melinda) forever!!

Basically, pick your theme, let Melinda know all about it and your party decor is sorted. I didn’t have to think of a thing as far as decor was concerned once I had ordered ours. A party-in-a-box consists of:

• Paper plates and cups
• Serviettes
• Paper straws
• Food labels
• Popcorn boxes
• Gift boxes
• Thank you tags
• Paper Banner
• Hanging paper decorations
• Cupcake toppers / cake topper

All customised to fit your theme.

Melinda, you MADE our party! Thank you again for all the pretty.

The Food

This theme was the most fun when it came to food. We went a little crazy on the sweet stuff, but it all looked so cute.

The Entertainment

Soft Play sets are the BEST for this age. I don’t think we had even one lot of tears (and I believe this would have been very different with a jumping castle). Even the older lot enjoyed it. Set up, delivery and collection was all handled by Angelique and her team. I am very happy to supply details if you need them. 

We painted very amateur puppy dog faces

And we threw in a few tennis balls and chew toys to ‘puppify’ it all

Party Packs

These were the simplest things thanks again to Melinda and her crafty work. I refuse to give sweets as party packs but I do like to send them home with something that is relative to our theme.

This year I found a great special on Takealot. I spent less than R20 on each party pack and each child went home with one of these (each pack held a tennis ball – pink for the girls and blue for the boys)

I have never hosted such an easy party. It was easy to set up, easy to clean up and thoroughly enjoyed by all.