Dog-Gone Good Party: The Decorations

True story: before I ever had children, I made a list of all the superficial reasons they may be a good addition to our lives (note of preface, I obviously had other, more meaningful reasons as well).  At the top of the list was the fact that I would then have birthday parties...and better yet, children's birthday parties...to plan.  Two years later, I can safely say that those birthday parties remain as some of my parenting highlights (again, obviously with the other more meaningful moments as well).
That lengthy introduction serves to tell you all that this past weekend we had Colton's second birthday party.  And if you couldn't tell by the corny post title, the party was a doggy-themed event.  I think I explained in a previous post how we landed on the theme, so I won't bore you with those details again, but basically our boy has a certain fondness for the four-legged creatures.  In fact, as we spent the day getting the house ready for his party (it was at 4PM), there were a few temper tantrums over dog items that he was not allowed to play with because they were being used for decorations.
Since this post is already getting quite long and I have A LOT to share with you about the big day, I figured I would break it down into parts.  And up first is the decorations.  Like most all other things in my life, I got my inspiration from Pinterest via various sources.
Our mantle is the first thing you see when you walk into our house...plus it is the focal point of the living room where guests usually congregate...so I wanted to give it fully doggy treatment:

The stuffed dogs were a combination of ones Colton already owned and some purchased from the Dollar Store.  I made the doggy balloons by simply taping cardstock ears to plain balloons and drawing on the faces (and I am an abysmal artist, so if I can pull it off, anyone can).  I also made the birthday banner.  I wish I had gotten a closer up picture of it because you can't even see the dog print ribbon (purchased at Michaels...score!) used for each portion or the dog print stamps wandering through the letters....oh well, hopefully you get the idea.

I also used the dog balloons to decorate the food table (more on the actual food to come tomorrow).

ignore the orange print  background...I need to figure out a way to cover that up when we have parties

 Aside from the balloons, the table was covered in a simple green tablecloth and then some doggy fabric overlays (the fabric was purchased at JoAnns and I used no-sew tape to make them into oversized runners).  

And again, I should have gotten more close ups because I don't have a better shot of the "centerpiece."  Bascially, I made a simple dog house out of an old diaper box, spray painted it black, and put it on a cake stand.  I put some Easter grass underneath the house and a dog in it.  Flanking the cake stand on both sides were small vases filled with tennis balls (white with black paw prints) that I found at the Dollar Store!  Here's a kind of view if you look closely at the top right corner:

The other area of the abode that got decorated was our back porch.  I have this theory that a kid's birthday party should be as much about the birthday boy (or girl) as the theme.  In that vein, I wanted to do something that would showcase the first two years of Colton's life.  I came up with the idea to make a timeline of sorts.  I printed out various highlight pictures and added captions to them.  Then, I strung them along the same paw print ribbon I had used for the banner using clothespins and voila.

I have a lot more party details to share with you, but seeing as this post has already gotten quite lengthy, I'll cut it off for today and come back tomorrow with my favorite part: the food!!!!