Last updated on October 1st, 2024 at 04:28 am
My daughter turned two, and there wasn’t a simpler idea that came to my mind to celebrate her, other than: puppies.
She loves puppies. She talks about them constantly, waves indiscriminately to all passing puppies in the neighborhood and cares for her precious stock of stuffed animal dogs.
With our canine theme selected, it was time to get to work on the party!
Keeping It Simple: Deciding on the Theme Based on What Was Available
Another reason we selected the puppy theme was because we spotted some cute and colorful decorations at Target! No reason to recreate the wheel, here.
Months before my daughter’s birthday, we noticed these adorable puppy plates and matching napkins. I snagged them up immediately. This simplicity and ease, along with my daughter’s passion for puppies, helped me decide on the party theme!
With the party grounded on a few key decorations, we were well on our way.
A Delicious Spotted Cake to Impress
I love to bake layer cakes, so outsourcing this party detail was not on my mind. (See the fabulous ice cream-themed cake I baked up for my daughter’s first birthday party in this post!)
Instead, I asked myself: Which cake flavor would go well with the puppy theme? And also: Which cake flavor do people love to eat?
There was a clear answer to both of those questions: Cookies and cream cake!
Who doesn’t like a good cookies and cream theme?
The delicious nostalgia of sandwich cookies combined with the black-and-white-speckled appearance that can resemble doggy fur made this an easy choice.
For the cake, I used my tried-and-true chocolate cake recipe with one minor tweak: I subbed in 1/4 C of black cocoa + 1/4 regular cocoa instead of a 1/2 C of regular cocoa. That bit of midnight black cocoa gave the cake layers that dark chocolate Oreo taste and look. Perfect!
The frosting was a Swiss meringue buttercream frosting tumbled with homemade Oreo crumbs. I like to use a Swiss meringue buttercream because of its light creaminess, resembling the pillowy lusciousness of the “cream” part of cookies and cream.
The dark chocolate layers were stacked and spread with the Oreo-speckled buttercream, smoothed over on the top and sides, and decorated simply with a humble group of doggy figurines found on Amazon. (There were enough of these cuties in the package to serve as party favors for the guests, too!)
Since I was familiar with this recipe, the cake came together relatively simply (baking sessions snuck in between bursts of caring for my daughter, of course).
The cookies and cream cake came out tasty and adorably on-theme.
Budget-Friendly Dog Decorations for a Puppy Birthday Party
I had a near-two-year-old AND I was pregnant while planning this bash.
Simplicity was absolutely necessary, especially when it came to the decorations.
When I found the adorably designed puppy plates and napkins at Target, I also unearthed a matching banner. This Spritz puppy banner became a toy for my daughter in the days leading up to the party, trailing behind her like the very obedient little paper canine friends they were.
We strung up the banner, admiring each unique and cheerful puppy depiction. It was the perfect backdrop to our party spread.
The only other decoration we purchased was a balloon arch set from Amazon.
The set included balloons that were powder blue, gold, beige and several shades of brown. There were even a few balloons that were white with black paw prints.
I chose this arch because of the tie-in with the doggy theme, but I liked the colors as well. We didn’t stick to any particular color scheme, but the rest of the options seemed extremely wed to one theme or another. The shades of brown, beige and blue allowed us to beautifully incorporate our other decorations as well.
The Simple Joys of an Unfussy Homebased Birthday Party
After throwing a somewhat elaborate first birthday party for my daughter, I vowed not to take it that far for her second.
And then she grew almost another year. This year included so many changes and so many memories– I felt compelled to celebrate this eventful passage of time with our wonderful daughter! Besides, the ready-made decor beckoning to me at the store pushed me further into party-planning mode.
Though throwing the party became a sizeable effort, it was never impossible or overwhelming. Knowing our limits, we made sure of that.
I encounter a lot of frenzied Internet posts from moms who feel the pressure to host magazine-worthy birthday parties for children not even old enough to remember them. To those moms, I’d say this:
Choose just one or two elements of the party you’d truly enjoy orchestrating– from baking or ordering the cake to creating a simple decoration. But a relentless pursuit of event-planning perfection is not needed for this day that really hold one essential goal: to enjoy and celebrate your child. Sometimes the simplest shindigs can be the most memorable and fun.
Parties at home are back in, in my book. Our budget necessitates it. What do you all think? What are some of your party planning essentials?
Thanks for stopping by– if you’re interested in reading more about my adventures in mothering and substitute teaching, peruse the site. I also have a growing DIY section on the site that’s super helpful for crafty-yet-busy mamas! Happy you’re here.
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