Pet Adoption Themed Birthday Party
I tend to be that Mom that throws herself into the planning of a kid's birthday party. My daughter Delilah is a total animal lover and wanted to have an animal themed birthday party for the BIG 8th! We tossed around some ideas and did some online research (that simply means I wasted a ton of time on Pinterest!) and settled on the "Animal Adoption Theme"...and we totally ran with it. And when I say ran with it, everything I did is doable and affordable! All it took some trips to the Dollar Store, some online shopping, a favour from a vinyl making friend and a few crafty nights in front of the TV!
I had the idea of every child being able to "Adopt a Pet" at the party. I also wanted them each to be able to bring their new pets home with them in a special pet crate and a few other pet necessities. I made a list of things I could DIY and came up with a food bowl, blanket, a toy, pet vitamins and training treats! I had to first figure out what kind of stuffed animals we were going to get because then I could find the right size basket to use as a crate! I didn't want to spend too much on the stuffies themselves because I had about fifteen kids that would be adopting these cuties. I found some TY Beanie Boos on sale online and after some trips to a couple stores in the city and enlisting a friend to grab some in her town, I managed to gather quite an assortment of these cuties around three bucks a piece. These were a great score because they were normally around eight dollars each. Once the animals were bought, I set out to find the perfect "crate" for them! Off to the Dollar Store I went with a couple of the stuffies to use for size reference.
It was my lucky day at the Dollar Store because I found perfect little baskets that would make excellent pet crates. I also found some melamine ashtrays that would become food bowls! I saw some really cute Rae Dunn bowls for pets at Winner's and I wanted to copy those. A sweet friend made the words for me on vinyl and I just had to peel and stick onto the ashtrays. Thanks Ashley!! That project was pretty simple!
I had some fabric samples that were the perfect size to make little pet blankets out of. All I had to do with those was roll them up and tie them with some ribbon. The pet blankets were ready to roll. Literally! I used little two ounce containers with lids and skittles to become "Pet Vitamins" and mini Kit Kat bars as "Training Treats". Finally, some red licorice cut up and tied together became "Chew Sticks". I picked up a few little balls and cat toys at the dollar store for the "Pet Toys" that each animal would get in their crate.The ideas were super cute and simple to do! Delilah was loving the fun things we were coming up with.
I lined each of the baskets with some drawer contact paper to give it the look of an actual tray in a crate. I bought some little wooden plates and painted them with chalboard paint and hot glued them onto the front of the crate to be a little name plate. The finished crates looked awesome! The last little part to make the adoptions official of course were the Pet Adoption Certificates. I designed these on the computer and had them printed on cardstock at the local office supply store. Each child would get to pick out their pets, all the accessories and fill out their own certificate.
The day of the party arrived and I was ready for the shrieks and giggles of a bunch of little girls!! Izzy made a sweet sign to welcome everyone to the party! We were having our front steps rebuilt and there was no way into our front door, so we had to clearly indicate for everyone to enter through the side door. The Birthday Girl was so proud of her very official looking sign!
So these party favours are all well and good...but I still have to entertain these kids at the party right!? I had to come up with some animal themed games that a bunch of little 8 year old girls would love. Let's see, there is my spin on Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I printed off a bunch of the poop emoji on cardstock and stuck magnets on the back. I enlisted my older daughter Izzy to use her awesome drawing skills and she drew a little backyard with a dog pooping in it. The kids had to pin the poop! They thought it was hilarious!
Another pet poop themed game was pretty simple and silly but again, the girls loved it. I bought a box of Rice Krispies, a cat litter scoop and a bag of tootsie rolls. This game was called Scoop the Kitty Litter. We poured the cereal into a baking pan and put the tootsie rolls in it and gave each kid the litter scoop. We let them scoop for 20 seconds each and whoever scooped the most pieces of poop in their 20 seconds was the winner! Oh...did I mention the kids were blindfolded?! This was a messy but fun game. I was stepping on and vacuuming up Rice Krispies for a week!
The final two games were a simple "Guess How Many Whales" were in a jar. That was a nice quiet game. Mommy liked that one. The winner got to keep the jar full of gummy whales! And Izzy facilitated a ball throw game with a mini tennis ball and some buckets on the stairs.
Delilah wanted to donate a little bit of money to an Animal Rescue organization to honour her birthday, so she asked for very small presents and a little cash to raise money to donate. I used to live in the Dominican Republic and one animal organization that I was familiar with was called Cocomutt Shak Animal Rescue. They do so much good for the animals in Sosua, the town I lived in. A kind supporter of the organization found out that we were doing this and she offered to match our donation, dollar for dollar! We set a goal to raise $250 and with the help of Delilah's friends and family, she did it! A total donation of $500 went such a long way for this organization and Delilah was so proud to raise this money. A couple days after the party, a mama rescue dog went into labour and gave birth to two puppies while at the Cocomutt Shak. A girl and a boy. They named the girl puppy Delilah.
The party took a lot of time, energy and was a labour of love. But Delilah was the absolute star of the show as all Birthday Girls should be and she loved every minute of it. Our cake was made by our fantastic cake lady (Dragon Lady Cakes) and was decorated with Delilah's favourite animal, a tiger of course! I took a photo of each child with their adopted animal and they were all so excited to introduce their parents to their newly adopted animal. I sent home some extra animals and crates for little brothers and sisters so they wouldn't feel left out! More than a couple parents mentioned that they needed to step up their birthday party games after their child attending this one! I even had a couple ask me to organize their child's next party. Haha. As much fun as that sounds, my two kids keep me pretty busy at birthday time. My goal was to create a "Pinterest Worthy" Pet Adoption party! Mission Accomplished!
Brooke
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