Johnson Family Blog: Best in Show from the Johnson Kennel Club

Having a birthday at the end of August can be a bit tricky. I should know; I've done it all my life (ha, ha!). With school starting later in the month now and the Labor Day holiday, planning a party has its challenges. So Vivian's party was a week after her ACTUAL birthday.

Our theme was Puppies! We had 5 guests (girls only, please!) and a whole lot of fun. We started with face painting and decorating doggie bowls with glitter stickers and permanent markers.

The face painting took quite a while (longer than I thought it would), but the results were priceless. I let them paint themselves, and they certainly did!

That's Vivian mid-makeup and Emily decorating her bowl.

Then we played Puppy Match. I cut some dog pictures out of a magazine and pasted them onto index cards. Then I cut them in half like puzzle pieces. I handed each girl a piece of a picture, and they had to find their match. Then I had them talk to each other and find out the answers to a few questions: Name, Age, How You Know Vivian, Favorite Dog Breed. After a few minutes to find out the answers, I had them introduce each other. They stood together in front of our fireplace. One did the introduction while the other one posed. Then they switched. We had an odd number, so Vivian and I paired up. I really hammed it up for her. When we got to "how do you know Vivian" I looked at her and said, "How DO I know you?" She laughed and said, "You're my mom!" (with that "duh" tone in her voice). That's Emma doing her "puppy vogue" while Rachel introduces her.

After that we went to the backyard and did an agility course. Cliff set up a couple of boards to tiptoe across, a stool to stop and sit on, a card table to crawl under, and a haybale to jump over. Our fastest time was 12.5 seconds! Most were in the mid- to high- twenties. This is Jami, our fastest pup.

The girls loved the agility course and probably would have played the rest of the party time. Instead we went inside and had hotdogs and cake on a blanket on the floor. Some decided to eat like dogs, too! That's Sydney with her face in her plate.

Which brings me to The Cake. The difficulty level (on a scale of 1-10) was probably about a 2 (nothing like the hand painted cheetah print cake with real roses). But the presentation!?! Definitely a 10!

I took Sara Lee Pound Cake and cut it into cubes, layered it with chocolate pudding, and sprinkled Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookie crumbs over the top. Easy, right? But I put it in a stainless steel dog food bowl, so it looked like canned dog food! The girls flipped over it. They loved the presentation as well as the taste. Nobody was grossed out (thankfully). And, yes, the bowl was new, never used by a dog, and washed before its use. The moms who saw it thought it was wonderful. Amazing what kind of ideas you can find on the internet!