Georgia Bulldog Football Party

This weekend was my son’s 12th birthday.  He is my baby boy so it’s hard to accept that he’s getting so big.  This year, he really didn’t want a party and he just wanted cash for a gift and to have his friend over so it was super laid back.  It was just so nice, especially with 5 kids, to not have any stress involving a birthday.  I did miss having a party with a fun theme though. 

Last year, he had a Georgia Bulldog party.  Since I wasn’t blogging much last year, I figure I’d go back through some of the old pics and share it with you, especially since it's now football season.

Georgia Bulldog’s colors are red and black so I used these colors for the balloons.  I created this balloon cluster for the backdrop. 

It was fairly simple.  I started by tying two balloons together end to end. 

Then when I had two sets of two, I tied them all together with ribbon and tied that to a long ribbon.

I continued this process all the way down the ribbon and then hung the ribbon up. 

I made a Happy Birthday pennant banner by cutting pennant shapes from a red vinyl tablecloth and the letters from black vinyl with my Silhouette. 

I made another banner with his name by layering a coffee filter, red paper circle, foil cupcake liner, and a letter printed on paper then cut into a disc shape.  I hot glued them all together and hung from a red ribbon. 

In the doorway to the party room, I made a curtain of red, black, and white streamers.  The kids loved going back and forth through it. 

I covered the table with red and black tablecloths.  I mod podged a Georgia “G” onto red Folgers coffee containers and filled them with red and black licorice.  I also made little flags by printing a design and glueing to wooden skewers. 

I served a plate of chocolate cupcakes with “G”  toppers I made by printing out a design and cutting them and gluing to toothpicks.  I mod podged bulldogs onto red chip bowls and also served a big bucket of popcorn. 

I made white chocolate covered pretzel sticks with sprinkles and stood them up in jars with red and black ribbon wrapped around them.

I found some football shaped party trays and filled one with hot dogs which I labeled as “Big Dawgs” since bulldogs are often referred to as dawgs. 

In the other one, I folded pieces of crescent rolls around lil smokies and labeled them as “Little Dawgs”.

I made a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake in the shape of a dog paw.  My son requested a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake and I decided to try the dog paw by adding cupcakes out in front.  I made the ice cream using sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, andes mints, mint extract, and green food coloring.  I found the original ice cream recipe online (cannot recall which blog) then added the coloring and flavor.  I used a chocolate cookie pie crust over the top and bottom but it cracked on top so I made some chocolate ganache to try to hide it (which did not turn out as planned but was ~okay~) then crumbled another chocolate cookie pie crust over the top.  Next time I will do something different for the chocolate cookie/cake part but the ice cream turned out wonderful.

I found some GA Bulldog themed plates, napkins, and cups to serve all the treats on.  All in all it was a very budget friendly and fun party. 

Keeping with the dog theme, for his birthday, he adopted a new dog, Rocky. He searched and searched all the shelters and ads all over the state until he found his perfect friend. 

This was the picture he saw online that he fell in love with.  Rocky is the one with his tail up in the air.  These little guys were abandoned on a dirt road.  

This is when he brought him home.  He can’t really sit in his lap anymore though.  He weighs about 70 lbs!

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