T's Cat Party

My little guy turned 8 last week. We were kicking around ideas for a party theme. We were considering a cat theme along with a couple others. Then I was scrolling through Pinterest for cat party ideas. T got one look at this litter box cake and his mind was made up. Cat party it was.


 The invitations were a free download generously offered by Heidi of My Paper Crane. They were so impossibly cute. Thank you, Heidi!




Decorations were a combination of store-bought basics with added homemade touches, and a few etsy purchases.  The colorful kitty head garland was a pdf from GirliePains.  The black cat heads and triangle garland was from BluefinWorks.



I made headbands with cat ears, and cut up feather boas from the craft store for tails. Some guests chose to wear cat accessories and others declined. Okay by me.



The first game was Eat Like a Kitty. Pet food bowls filled with dry cereal were put out in a circle. Guests had to eat it like a cat, no hands!



After that we went outside to the park to have a mouse hunt. Nate had gone out a few minutes earlier to scatter the "mice." They were ping pong balls with mouse faces drawn on. Guys, did you know it's pretty difficult to draw on a small round surface? The mice faces were not great looking but they got the job done. The kids spent a few minutes running around the park looking for mice. Then they delivered them back to me, as a cat would deliver a prized catch to his owner. I didn't get many pictures of this game in progress. I was watching the kids, and visiting with a friend in the park.




Back inside for cake. We served litter box cake, which had brownie/cookie bars on the bottom, vanilla sandwich cookie crumbs, and tootsie rolls. A touch of food coloring makes it look pretty darn realistic. What can I say about this cake? It's such a disgusting idea. I'm glad I'm not the person who originally thought of it. But for an eight year old boy (mine, at least), the gross-out factor of this cake was absolutely the most important feature of the party. So I had to make it. I also served cupcakes for those who couldn't stomach the litter box cake. And there were a few kids who couldn't. Sorry, kiddos! We also had popcorn, pretzels, and M&M's.



Our cat Sirius can jump really high when he's trying to get his favorite feather toy. A few different times during the party we showed off his moves. Free entertainment at its finest.

After cake we played Pin the Whiskers on the Cat with an adorable, if I do say so myself, cat head I whipped up the night before the party. Black pipecleaners for the whiskers. That was our last game.



Afterwards we let T open gifts and watched a bunch of cat videos on YouTube until parents came.



Goody bags featured some internet cat faces, and had Trader Joes cat cookies, kit kats, two Japanese cat charms, and stickers.


This party felt like a lot of work because of all the homemade decorations and activities. But at its core it was a very simple, sweet party. I love how much T loves cats, and I'm happy he wanted to do a cat party.