Savannah's Puppy Party

For Savannah's 7th birthday, we decided to have her first sleepover and she wanted a puppy theme. I was surprised to find stuff at Meijer that was for a puppy party. I bought some party favors, "doggy bags", plates and napkins. I searched online for ideas for a puppy party and this is what I came up with.
1. When the girls first arrived they made dog collars. I had some dog stamps, small puppy stickers, beads, stretch string, and metal rimmed paper tags (used in scrapbooking). They were so cute. A couple of the girls even made two, one for their dog and one for themselves.
2. We made individual pizzas. Each girl put on their own toppings. I put them in the oven and sent the girls on a ...
3. Scavenger Hunt. I had made picture clues of different things in the house. I had the first one, the clue they found there would lead them to the next and so on. The girls all did this together since there was just four of them. They ended up at the closet where there was a note that said please come to the Pet Adoption Center in the basement.
4. Puppy Adoption: They headed down to where Savannah and I had set up some little stuffed dogs I had purchased at Big Lots in boxes and cages (cardboard boxes and baskets). Each girl was allowed to adopt one puppy for their own. They then examined their puppy with some play vet instruments that I had found for a couple of dollars at Big Lots. They got a tiny tennis ball (3/1.00 at Family Dollar) and a tiny dog bowl filled with cookie dog food and a candy bone (I found these @ Meijer for $1.25) I made each of them an adoption certificate when they named their puppy and they had fun playing with them while I got the pizzas out of the oven and set the table.
5. We ate our pizza.
6. I told the girls while we were eating that they needed to plan a dog show. When Sam came home with the boys later, we were all going to watch them perform tricks and stuff with their puppies. They spent about a half hour practicing routines and tricks with their puppies.
7. We opened presents (Sang happy birthday in dog language - that was so funny!)
8. We made dog beds for their puppies. I picked up a fleece blanket kit at JoAnns. It comes with 2 pieces of fleece...then you cut slits on the edges and tie them together. I got 4 pillow sizes easily out of this and I have leftovers. One piece was all puppy faces and the other was black. So the girls worked on tying the pieces together (I had to help them a little) and then they stuffed them with polyfill and the insides of an old pillow I was getting rid of. They turned out so cute.
9. They did the dog show. Each girl did tricks with their puppies and then they did a routine together to a song that one of the girls had on a CD they brought along.
10. Laid out the sleeping bags, made popcorn and watched a movie: Beethoven's 4th.
About Midnight the lights went out.

It was a great party and the girls had a blast. They were so into the puppy thing. We only had one little girl cry once- but it was her first time away from her parents. She did great...and we have the funniest story!

Ellie's mom told me she had never stayed the night away from her family before. She was a little nervous. I told her parents that we probably would be getting done with the party stuff around 10. Her dad came around that time to pick her up, but she didn't want to go. She decided to stick it out. We told her she could call home anytime if she wanted to. So after the dog show I went up to put the boys to bed and I guess there was a bit of a lull in the activities...and Ellie started getting upset. I was up with the boys and I was not aware of what was going on downstairs with the girls. Apparently, Ellie started to cry a little and so Sam asked her if she wanted to call home. He hit Caller ID and asked if that was her number, she said yes, so he called and had her talk to her mom. She calmed down and was fine the rest of the night. The next day her dad picked her up and we mentioned that she had cried but we had her call her mom and she was fine after that. Her dad didn't raise any questions, and it wasn't till we were at Savannah's basketball practice later that morning and were talking to one of the other moms that we found out what actually happened. Grace's mom came over to us and asked if her daughter was really ok. I told her that she had a great time. She never acted upset or wanted to call home once. Her mom looked puzzled. She said that Grace had called her all upset and crying and that she had been worrying about her all night. I said Grace never cried. Then she said that she had talked to Sam. And then it all clicked. When Sam had called Ellie's mom, she had really called Grace's mom instead. Neither one of them knew...of course, Ellie didn't say much because she was weepy. I guess all she needed was a mom...and in this case it seems that any mom could do the job! We all had a huge laugh about it and I think the story got told about 5 times at church today by different people involved or who heard it from one of us! Too funny!