THEME: My Daughter loves dogs! So, for my daughter's 4th birthday, we decided to throw a puppy party.  My daughter was not specific on an actual character which made it much easier to be creative. INVITATION:  For the invitation, I used photoshop elements to create a photo card invitation.  I superimposed her head onto a cartoon dog to personalize it. You can get digital scrapbook elements to design the card (i.e. dog collar, fire hydrant, paw tracks). On the middle of the card I put a big white paw where all of the party information would be listed. Title: You are invited to (Kelly's) Tail-Waggin' Paw-ty!, Location: The DogPark (with the address),and date/time, etc. I added a little Beware of the Dog" sign and crossed out "Dog" and put 4-year old instead to add humor. DECORATIONS: Since we held her party at the park we couldn't do much decorating.  We had paw printed balloons and decided on multi-colored table covers to add a little color.  I also had daddy create an actual doghouse made out of cardboard and put a little sign on it that said "Kelly's DogHouse".  It made for a very cute entrance to the party. I also got a "Blues Clues" chair from a cousin and decided to bring it out for photo opportunities especially since Blue was one Kelly's favorites.  COSTUME: I had a few activities planned. But to start the party off right we had a Doggie Station where all the little guests were made into cute little puppies.  Each child was given a set of dog ears to wear along with a dog collar and tag. Each child was able to make up their own puppy name and I engraved it on their tag. Engraver and Dog tags can be found on Orientaltrading.com.  I then sent all the puppies to do arts & crafts time while one by one I face painted their faces into puppy faces.  Too cute! ACTIVITIES: Arts and crafts were all puppy themed- I created puppy coloring books using the same design on the invitation and included coloring pages from Kelly's favorite puppies.  They also got to make their own Puppy necklaces Paint doggy magnetsand do foam art w/ puppies and such.  GAMES: I always like to give my games a thematic twist.  One of the games we played was "Fetch" which is a scavenger hunt but for puppy things (i.e. slipperball kittens etc.) This was a big hit for the kids. We also played "Sit" my twist to musical chairs and we played the song "Who Let the Dogs Out". This was fun! We also played "Blues Clues" but this was a little confusing for the kids so the adults had to help a little. In addition to actual games that everyone played we also had dog stations which included a Digger game which is the candy crane game filled with candy bones.  We had a "Catch a Cat" where you toss a cat (stuffed animals) and a kid would catch it.  And we also had a toy called Bruno where you take his bones but you try not to wake him as he barks at you.Lastly we had a puppy pinata which was Scooby Doo (another favorite)filled with bone shaped candy.  We used cute litter bags (unused of course) for their candy bags (can be found at dollar store or Target).  PARTY SNACKS: We of course had Scooby snacks which were made out of graham crackers. I also made sandwiches shaped into little bones by using a big cookie cutter. Each child ate out of cute dog bowls (unused of course), which I got from target and the Dollar Tree.  CAKE: We initially decorated each cupcake into puppy faces using fruit roll up but it didn't last the evening so instead we used the candy bones to decorate it.  FAVORS: The favors were all puppy themed and included whistlesballspuppy stationary etc.  This was a doggone good party! :)"