McKinstry Moments: Partying Clifford-style

Ever since Caleb's birthday party last year, I've been excited to plan this year's celebration. Theme ideas popped into my head all year long as Caleb's interests changed from one thing to another. Most recently, he's been enamored with several TV and book characters, including Mickey Mouse, the Sesame Street Muppets, and Thomas the Tank Engine.While he would have been thrilled at the prospect of using any one of these celebrities, I decided to go with a less common character who's also stolen his heart lately - Clifford. If I remember correctly, his fascination with the big red dog began back in the fall. Since then we've read tons of books and watched the one Clifford DVD he owns over and over. When doing some research to gather ideas for the various themes I was considering, I ran across PBS's birthday page with all kinds of tips and free printable materials for a Clifford party. While it may not be the most unique theme, it wasn't as mainstream as many of the others I'd thought about and I had a great resource for making the planning economical and easy. Partying it up with this pooch as the focal point was going to make for a great second birthday for our Clifford lovin' boy.

Thanks to PBS, Caleb was able to help with the party prep by making invitations. Although I printed, filled out, and addressed them, Caleb is the one who made them beautiful with the help of his red crayon. Inside the invitations, there was also a note asking our guests to bring their favorite stuffed pup to help us celebrate. We also requested they bring an Easter basket for a special activity we had planned during the party.

Some more searching led me to a few other websites where I found Clifford themed plates, napkins, stickers, and balloons to add to the decor.

The main party element I began looking for right away though was the cake. I went to local grocery stores and searched through books of their character themed cakes hoping that Clifford was well-known enough that we'd find some type of cake to use but found none. One lady from Martin's bakery told me they used to make Clifford cakes but stopped now that his popularity is waning. In my opinion, the cake is a pretty important part of decor so I was a little perplexed about what to do. I thought about purchasing some figurines or an edible cake image to place on top at first. Then, I saw an dog bowl cake idea on the PBS website. After how much I enjoyed making last year's wagon cake, I was thrilled about this idea. Rather than following PBS's recipes, I used a box of cake mix and prepackaged icing to keep the cake making simple. For the "dog food" to put in the cake bowl, I looked up a recipe for "puppy chow" that I'd seen someone else make once and left out the powdered sugar step to make it look more realistic. Dave and I made the cakes a few days prior to the party and froze them so they'd be easy to work with and wouldn't crumble when I decorated them later. With a newborn this year, there wasn't time to do a trial run. As I began to decorate the night before the party, I was just hoping it would all turn out as planned. It wasn't professional but I was happy with the results.

Caleb also helped make something for the event - a party crown. I found some traditional cone-shaped party hats on the same site I bought the plates but these printable Clifford crowns look just as good and are more comfortable than having that rubber band strap under your chin. I thought making the crowns by cutting out the pieces and stapling them to the headband would be a fun activity the kids could do, but since we had the party at a park, the playground equipment was so much fun that I decided to skip the activity and send it home as a party favor the kids could work on later if they wanted. I also printed placemats with a Clifford maze that ended up being sent home since the slightly windy weather wasn't the best mix with paper decorations. This all worked out for the best though because the paw print and bone shaped cookies I'd originally planned as favors didn't quite turn out as expected. Flexibility, right?

Since keeping the house clean and getting ready for a party is a bit more of a feat with a newborn, we decided several weeks prior to hold the celebration at the local park I blogged about a few weeks ago. Unlike most of the other nearby parks, I was unable to reserve this one; usage was based on the "first come, first served" policy. This was a bit nerve wracking leading up to the event but it worked out great; we ended up being the only ones there that day and didn't have to pay the large fee required to reserve a shelter at the other parks. The weather was also wonderful - a perfect spring day for outdoor play. This was important because it allowed us to bring Hadley out to celebrate with us.

After everyone worked up an appetite playing, we had plenty of food ready for their hungry bellies. I made dog bone shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (which turned out much better than the cookies I attempted). Our plan was also to have hot "dogs" to go with the theme but I thought maybe pigs in a blanket might be better to make sure none of the small kids got choked. Dave ended up finding some little sausages inside of yeast rolls to use which was a big hit with both the kids and the adults.

After all the snacking and some more play time, we gathered the kids for an Easter egg hunt - the party was the day before Easter after all. Natalie did this last year at Max's party and the kids had fun so I borrowed the idea. Inside each of the eggs were two Clifford stickers for the finder to keep. Caleb's older cousin Ryan helped hide the eggs and did a great job spreading them out in easy spots for the littler ones and harder spots for the older kids. Caleb's been into hiding eggs with Na Na a lot lately so this was right up his alley.

Then it was time for the birthday song and blowing out the candle. Caleb licked his red cupcake a little but was much more interested in getting his hands on a juice box. (This is what happens when you don't give your kid juice until he is almost two years old.)

While a few of the guests brought stuffed canines as requested to join in the fun, Aunt Courtney brought a real dog - her new pet, Wilbur. Caleb has been infatuated with Wilbur since the day they met. He talks about Wilbur when the pup isn't around and loves to throw the ball to play fetch when he is. It was a great addition to the party to have his new friend present.

The last part of the party before the guests began to disappear into their cars was opening the huge stack of presents. The other kids gathered around and helped Caleb get the job done and it was a good thing because towards the end he kept getting distracted and running off. We had to chase him down a few times to remind him he had more gifts to open. He loved all the presents but the biggest hit by far was an extremely loud laughing monkey that rolls around on the ground. (I have Granny to thank for that one. It might just have to end up staying at her house!)