Cat & Dog Party

When Story turned 6 and River turned 8, we wanted to throw them the perfect pawty to celebrate! Their birthdays are one month apart, so we decided to throw them a joint party with family only, as each of them wanted separate parties with their school friends this year as well. Story absolutely adores cats (and unicorns and rainbows) and River LOVES dogs, so it made pawfect sense to throw them a cat and dog bash.

Here’s a little background about me. I grew up in the countryside with a house full of cats and dogs, as well as other more exotic pets (frogs, a snake, hamsters, pet mice, a rabbit, horses and more). Our 4 legged friends were the best companions, and our house always felt so full. At one point we had two cat litters at the same time, which gave us a grand total of 11 cats living under one roof. Some of those cats found homes, and others stayed for the long hall. Despite what you might think, It wasn’t a case out Hoarding Buried Alive, as each cat was well taken care of and well loved with plenty of room to spread about. It was a cat paradise and each cat was near and dear to our hearts and a member of the family. Funny enough, when I first met my now husband Jeff I soon learned that his family hated cats and were absolutely terrified of them. So, when we introduced our parents for the first time we had to lock up all the cats in our bedrooms. Thankfully, over the years we were all able to put aside our differences, and our families get along smashingly. I have settled for a cat-free way of life, and things are tickety boo. Wilfred, our King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and Sparkle, our Siberian Hamster have filled our home with lots and lots of love. The only thing missing is the soothing sound of a purring cat sleeping next to me at night, which Jeff’s Sleep Apnea more than makes up for LOL. However, once in a while Story begs us for a kitten and Jeff has an interesting way of changing the subject. I have a feeling that I may one day be a cat Grandma though, which would be a wonderful full circle moment for me. Anyways, I digress…

Story and River’s party was a hot doggin’ success, and put everyone in the dog house. So go fetch yourself a treat, and I’ll tell you all about it.

Decorations:

The couches and tabletops were crowded with walking cat and dog foil balloons alongside family members. It definitely brought me back to my early childhood days where room on the couch was hard to come by with four-legged friends on all sides. I picked up these adorable balloons from Amazon Prime. The kitchen table was covered in lime green plastic tablecloth to resemble grass, and I used our wonderful Cricut machine to cut out detailed cat and dog shapes to scatter around the tabletop. I made Bone shaped tags to label treats with fun little sayings, such as Bone A Petit! I also piled up balls of yarn into a bowl for a cute little touch, and raided my kids toys to find any cat and dog figurines I could get my hands on to decorate with.

Food:

We served none other than hotdogs for lunch on the day of the party. We had a hotdog station with your choice of Bratwurst, Cheese Dog or Regular, with plenty of fixings to jazz them up (pickles, onions, pico de gallo, banana peppers, condiments etc.). We also had a beautiful charcuterie board that I assembled for guests to snack on before lunch was served. We had watermelon wedges, a variety of salads, and Buffalo Chicken Dip with Tortilla Chips. We had a bowl full of fish crackers labelled “Cat Snacks” as well as breadsticks called “Fetch” sticks for the kiddos to nibble on while they waited for their hotdogs.

Dessert:

For dessert we put together a spread of cookies, cupcakes and other yummy sweets. We made blue jello into “Water Bowls,” and had a bowl full of chocolate Maltesers or as we like to call them, Kibbles N Bits. I made Cinnamon Sugar Cookies into the shape of bones, and Confetti Sugar Cookies using dog-shaped cookie cutters of various breeds.

I used store bought Little Debbie Swiss Rolls to make Miniature Dachshunds. To shape the head, feet and tails I used Modeling Chocolate, and for the eyes I used Wilton Candy Eyeballs that I adhered with Clear Corn Syrup.

I made two separate cakes for each of the girls. For Story, I made her a three layer Vanilla Bean Cat Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. I made the ears, whiskers and other details out of rolled Fondant.

For River, I made her a Dachshund cake out of cupcakes that I lined up for the body and a head, feet and tail that I shaped out of the remaining Modeling Chocolate and Fondant from our other desserts. I used our Cricut to print out “Happy Birthday” using scripted font onto purple card stock, and added a purple bow on top of the pup out of ribbon to match.

Craft Table:

We put together a fun little craft table for the kids. We had paper cat and dog cutouts that we snagged from Dollarama for the kids to bedazzle with markers, glitter, pom poms, buttons and stickers. We also had little foam dog tags so that the kids could name their pets and make little collars out of pipe cleaners.

After what was a “ruff” day, we had a special guest show up. One of Jeff’s cousins wore a Siberian Husky costume, and he committed to his costume for the entire party. The kids had a ball, and were so excited to snap photos with their fury friend. For loot bags, we picked up tin buckets from Amazon and loaded them with treats and topped them off with ty plush cat and dog toys for the kids to adopt.

All and all it was a “Dog Gone” great party! When the party wrapped up, we all needed a catnap. We all slept like dogs, and reminisced about about the purrrrfect day.

Gift Ideas: