If you follow me on Instagram, you know that our big Christmas gift to the girls was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. Penny joined our family right before Christmas, so of course, I threw a little puppy adoption party to welcome her and make this little, wiggly present official.
I started with Chickabug’s free dog adoption party printables. (These are really designed for a true adoption of a rescue dog, and Penny came from a breeder for a few different reasons that were right for our family, but I hope Heather doesn’t mind! If you’re interested in a CKCS rescue dog, just google “cavalier king charles spaniel rescue” and you’ll find several different rescue organizations that might be able to help you. These are the sweetest dogs — great for kids.)
Puppy Party Dessert Table & Backdrop Design
With Heather’s designs in mind, I kept our little party to pink, white, black and puppy paw prints. I lined my sideboard horizontally with paw print fabric, just folded into the shape of a runner. Then I layered that with hot pink fabric running vertically. Along the front of the sideboard, I added a pink and paw print fabric bunting. (Find it in my shop here, as well as a blue and paw print bunting.)
For the backdrop, I found a silhouette of a CKCS from Linen Workshop and had it enlarged to fit our window by Driftwood Printing. I loved the matte finish, which photographed so well. I knew I was going to “frame” the poster, so I just used clear packing tape to adhere it to the window. (The paper quality is so nice and thick that the poster was actually pretty heavy and it took a good bit of taping to secure the poster.)
To frame the backdrop, I added this pink fringe garland from Petite Party Studio. Just attach it to the backdrop with pop-up glue dots. The polka dot banner is from Target’s party collection and I cut and added the letters.
Puppy Party Sweet Treats
The party was just the four of us — plus Penny — so we had a limited selection of sweets.
TIP: the fewer the sweets, the smaller the size of your table should be. That way, the table will still look full. Big table + spread out sweets = looks sparse.
- A mix of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting. To each cupcake, I added a sugar dog bone from City Chocolates. I attached Chickabug party circles to a lollipop stick and hot glued a little pink bow because apparently, I couldn’t stop decorating the cupcakes.
- Such good dog bone and paw print cookies from Arya’s Cookies. Lucia customized the colors for me and the cookies were so thick and tasty! Having three different styles of cookies made the table look like it offered more than it did.
The rest of the treats were for Penny and displayed simply in apothecary jars.
- Rawhide bones (Take them away from puppy when they get too small — you don’t want little pieces to chip off and be swallowed.)
- Pink silicone bones — great for the non-stop teether.
Round Out the Dessert Table
On either side of our human and puppy treats, I added soda and Penny’s adoption papers. They helped fill in our dessert table.
I found a free paw print image and used that to make soda bottle wraps. Then I couldn’t resist adding more pink bows to these paw print straws from Mailbox Happiness and attaching the straws with pink dot washi tape.
To make Penny an official family member, both of our daughters signed her “adoption papers.” They have been great about walking her, feeding her and cleaning up after her accidents.
Vendor Credits
- Party styling and photography: The Party Teacher
- Pink paw print fabric bunting: The Party Teacher
- Free printable dog adoption kits: Chickabug
- Dog silhouette: Linen Workshop
- Backdrop enlargement: Driftwood Printing
- Pink fringe garland from Petite Party Studio
- Sugar dog bones: City Chocolates
- Pink grosgrain bows: Amazon
- Dog bone and paw print cookies: Arya’s Cookies
- Free paw print image: Clker.com
- Paw print straws: Mailbox Happiness
So cute!! The water bottle wrappers, straw, and tape combo is adorable. Love it all! Welcome to Penny. I hope the kids are having a ball with her!
Thanks, Lydia! Yes, the girls are completely in love with her and they are doing a good job with the responsibility end of things too, thankfully.