A puppy pawtay!

A few months back our little man turned two!  Wow, it felt like that last year went really, really fast as he was changing so much and becoming so active.  So active.  He's a real spunky sweetheart with a love for animals, especially dogs.  As such, I thought it might be fitting to throw a dog themed party - a puppy pawtay to be exact!  He loved the idea of it.  And he loved his party.

I have a lot of fun being creative with the kids birthdays, time permitting of course.  I planned ahead but kept things pretty simple.  We planned food with a play on the dog theme - having hot dogs and bonewiches, for example.  We got some black & white balloons and decorated some of them with brown, white, and black ears and sharpie puppy faces.  Those turned out to be one big hit for our son and the other little friends that attended.

We had a small, simple craft where the kids could make a puppy ear hat and decorate the ears with dots.  Little kids love glue sticks!  And instead of letting our guests depart with more sweets or little toys, we decided to fill our treat bags with a ball, rope toy, and bone for the furry friends back home.  That was quite the hit with our four legged companions who had to be alone while their families were gone!  Our son loved seeing the pictures people sent with their dogs enjoying the treats!  My husband had suggested that we ask everyone to bring their dog...but seriously, this is not a dog park and that is not a great idea!  :)  cute, but no.

When I received my order of the new Heidi Swapp September Skies collection, the colors spoke to me and I know the vibrant shades would be perfect for documenting that day of fun.  Heck, there is even a little dog as an embellishment!

 I mixed in some color magic ephemera and banners that I had in my stash and used my Silhouette to cut out a number two.  I actually cut out two of them and stacked them for an added dimensional touch.

 Above I used a clip to hold a fun fold out page with journalling and pictures of the decor.

 A hidden pull out pocket between two pages allowed me to add lots of photos of the fun!

 Couldn't resist creating a flap page for my son to pull up.  It had a picture of him and his cake...he loved that.  He also really loves cake.  To construct this I glued the photos down onto a plain, color coordinating piece of paper, then I measured a new patterned sheet to be exactly the same.  Some careful measurements are needed so you know where your photos are!  Using my craft knife I cut three sides of each flap, scored the remaining side, and then used a punch to make that notch opening.  Some stamping and ephemera really finished it off.

 Another pull out page here shows a close up shot of the kids on the trampoline.  I couldn't decide which one I liked the best so I included both!

 The birthday boy had a lot of fun running around with balloons!

 I even included the invitation right in the book.  Why not??

Finally, I used a Project Life slide out card for fun touch of my selfie with the birthday boy!

I really love how this mini turned out - it's as fun as the day itself!