Puppy and Kitten Second Birthday Party

Owen’s fascination with cats and dogs inspired his second birthday party. His celebration was much smaller this year, but that didn’t stop me from going overboard with the kitten and puppy theme. And most importantly, Owen had a grand time with his very close family and friends.

The planning began with the kitten and puppy invitation, which I shared in a previous post. The decorations flowed from the invitation design – lots of yarn, paw prints, number two’s, and bright primary colors.

Wrapping styrofoam balls with yarn, I created playful yarn balls to decorate the tables.

Just like his invitation, I made paper pet collars to go around the pitchers, jars, and cups. This was extremely time consuming but I love how it turned out!

The blue paper plates were decorated as cats, with ears and whiskers. The dessert plates were decorated as puppies, with black ears and a fuzzy nose. I stamped the napkins with paw prints too.

Since this was Owen’s second birthday, I wanted to include the number two in the theme. So I crafted DIY party hats with number two’s made out of yarn and stamped paw prints. Owen did not enjoy wearing his hat.

Using a Silhouette machine, I made a bunch of cut-out number two’s for decorations. I used them on the cup collars as tags, for decorations on the tables, and in the banners and hanging balloon garland. I also decorated his birthday cake with a number 2 made out of M&M’s (Owen’s favorite candy).

Every birthday party needs balloons (according to me)! I decided to be ambitious and make a hanging balloon garland to go above the dessert/treat table. The balloon garland required a workout for my lungs, but I was pretty impressed with myself. I think it looked like the work of a balloon artist professional, thank you very much. And the paw print balloons added in just enough of the puppy and kitten theme.

Part of the inspiration behind Owen’s cat and dog party theme was the book Go, Dog Go! Owen loves this book and other cat and dog books. So I made some bunting pennant banners out of pages and illustrations from kitten and dog books.

I made other banners out of letters and colored squares with phrases like “Fancy Feast” and “Bow Wow.” I even made a sign for the bathroom: “Litter Box.” Hehe. I also displayed the words “Meow” and “Woof” which I made out of cardboard letters painted and wrapped in yarn and newspaper. These made purrfect displays.

Richard, Owen’s talented Daddy, wrote our welcome sign on a chalkboard easel. Cute, right?

The puppy and kitten theme was, of course, incorporated into the party menu: pup-peroni pizza, tuna sandwiches, “catnip” pasta salad, kibbles and bits, puppy chow, kitten chow, paw-tato chips, and hot dogs. I decorated food labels with paw print stamps and dog treat bones.

For other decorations, I created mini newspapers tied up with ribbon, displayed dog and cat toys and books, and framed a photo of Owen with his dog Walter along with the watercolor puppy and kitten paintings that I made for his invitation.


Owen called this toy “dog on bike.” He’s funny!

I found an adorable puppy pinata that was cute enough to use as part of the decor. During the party, we took it outside and showed Owen and his little cousin Brooklyn how to hit the pinata. It was actually a bit disturbing watching the cute puppy pinata getting beat, especially with Walter right there hearing us say “Hit the puppy!” We may have traumatized him. But Owen really liked the fruit snacks and Scooby snacks that finally fell out of the broken pinata.

Lastly, here are a few photos of the birthday boy from his purr-fect day.