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| Burlap banner: "Chip's Barkday" |
I started throwing Chip birthday parties in 2014 when he turned one. This year (2016) is his third birthday and I wanted to go over how I came up with some of my ideas and hopefully help you throw together your own birthday part for your dog!
Guests
Obviously since you are having a party for your dog you want to invite other dogs, but that doesn't mean you should exclude humans. In Chip's case we invite his dog relatives and friends, as well as his human relatives. You should make sure that all of the dogs know each other and are friendly toward one another before the day of the party.
Chip's guest list includes his dog mother and father, his dog brothers and sisters, and a few dog friends. It also includes his immediate human family: Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins.
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| Some of Chip's party guests. |
Invitations
I did in the past make invitations in Microsoft Word with cute clip art. This year however I simply bought two packs of 8 premade invitations at Dollar Tree and filled them out. In addition I have made a Facebook event all three years. Paper invitations may not be necessary, but I still feel that it is indeed a nice touch.
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| This year's invitations. |
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| This year's invitations. |
Menu
As you can imagine with both dogs and humans being invited to the party there must be both dog and human foods. I did search dog birthday party of Pinterest a few times and gathered some ideas from pins I saw that I liked.
Mirroring the candy bar wedding/party favor idea I decided to do a doggie bar. On the doggie bar I had Milkbone biscuits, Beggin' Strips, Exclusively Dog Cookies, Meaty Bones, Ol' Rory Jerky Strips, and Milkbone Trail Mix. This doubles as both dog snack foods for the party as well as a bar from which treats are chosen to take home in the dog's favor bags.
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| Doggie Bar overview. |
As for human foods, I decided to do sliders. I decided upon bbq pulled chicken and mini burgers with all the fixings. In addition I decided upon bowtie macaroni salad, spring salad, chips, pretzels, rice crispy teats, puppy chow, confetti cake dip with graham cracker sticks, punch, and soda.
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| I used Dollar Tree plastic dog dishes as bowls. |
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| Confetti cake dip with Scooby Doo graham cracker sticks. |
I kept as much of it dog themed as possible. I bought mini bowtie pasta for the macaroni and spring salads because Chip wears bowties a lot. The chips we are calling paw-tato chips, and the pretzels we are calling fetch sticks. The rice crispy treats were made shaped like bones and the puppy chow is self explanatory. I bought a box of Scooby Doo graham cracker sticks which are also bone shaped for the dip. The punch was be labeled toilet water.
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| Rice crispy bones. |
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| We cut the pumpernickel bread slices with a bone shaped cookie cutter. |
Cake & Ice Cream
It wouldn't be much of a birthday party without cake and ice cream. This one is no exception. In fact, we have two cakes, a dog cake and a human cake!
I am very fortunate to have an absolutely amazing cake baker and decorator in the family. Before Chip's first birthday party I purchased a paw shaped cake pan on Amazon. She has used that pan to make the dog cake for the first and second party, icing it with cream cheese, and decorating it with crushed bacon strip treats. She always uses a dog friendly recipe. This year she made pupcakes! ( I don't think she has used the same cake recipe twice yet.)
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| Pup-cakes. |
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| Human cake. |
As for the human cake, it is always a chocolate cake. Each year we search the internet for ideas on what shape to have, and each year it is different. Chip's first birthday it was paw print, his second was a sitting dog decorated to look like Chip, and this year's a dog face decorated to look like him.
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| Chip with the human cake. |
Last year I bought dog ice cream on Amazon. This year I made some using a recipe I found on Pinterest. If you are interested in that recipe you can find it on our blog. It is the featured recipe for October.
Decorations
I don't go too over board on decorations. I have already decorated my kitchen in a dachshund/dog theme. This year I was lucky enough to find Secret Life of Pets balloons at Dollar Tree. Other than those balloons I made a banner inspired by one I saw on Pinterest (as seen in the first photo in this post).
Gifts
I always stress that bringing a gift to the party is not necessary. It is not the reason we have the party. We have the party to celebrate every moment of the previous year that we got to spend with Chip. To celebrate all the wonderful memories we have had with him. I wrote in the invitations that gifts were not necessary, as well as in the Facebook event.
Despite gifts not being necessary, we as his parents do always get him a few things. I gift bag them and set the bag out in a special place with any other gifts that do show up. We do set down with Chip during the party and open them with everyone who attends. It's a great picture opportunity, as well as a good time.
Party Favors
As for favors I do both dog friendly ones as well as human friendly ones. A few things are always the same every year. We have photos taken of Chip and give one to each family, as well as treats to the dogs. In addition, last year we gave each dog a squeaky toy. This year each dog got either a handmade bowtie or a handmade flower to wear on their collar. For Chip's first birthday party, the humans got a large dachshund cookie cutter. For his second, they got the smaller dachshund cookie cutter. This year I was able to find a few dachshund shaped pens.
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| Doggie favor bags. |
Sincerely,
Chip & Jessica
Directions:
Mirroring the candy bar wedding/party favor idea I decided to do a doggie bar. On the doggie bar I had Milkbone biscuits, Beggin' Strips, Exclusively Dog Cookies, Meaty Bones, Ol' Rory Jerky Strips, and Milkbone Trail Mix. This doubles as both dog snack foods for the party as well as a bar from which treats are chosen to take home in the dog's favor bags.
As for human foods, I decided to do sliders. I decided upon bbq pulled chicken and mini burgers with all the fixings. In addition I decided upon bowtie macaroni salad, spring salad, chips, pretzels, rice crispy teats, puppy chow, confetti cake dip with graham cracker sticks, punch, and soda.
