Invitations and Decorations

• Make or purchase invitations shaped like a cat or have a picture of a kitty on them. If you have a pet cat, consider a picture of your own cat with the birthday child. Make kitty ears out of inexpensive headbands and send those along with the invitations so children can come wearing their feline ears. When other children arrive, draw whiskers on their faces to welcome them and complete their costume.
  
  Decorate with cutouts of cat paws made from construction paper. Hang signs such as "Meow" and "No dogs allowed." Large posters featuring cats can be hung on the walls for further decorations. Choose a color to complement the cat theme and use that solid color for paper plates, balloons and streamers.
  
  

Games and Activities

• Play traditional games with a kitty twist. For example, instead of duck-duck-goose, play cat-cat-dog. Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey can become pin-the-tail (or collar)-on-the-cat. Fill a jar with kitty treats (or cookies if you don't have a cat), and have the children guess how many kitty treats are in the jar. If your budget allows, purchase small stuffed kitties for each guest to adopt. If not, display all of your child's stuffed cats as decorations.
  
  Large moving boxes can become cat houses for smaller children to play in. Create cat murals by cutting out pictures of cats from magazines or give children blank coloring pages featuring various realistic or cartoon cats. Use a piece of felt, glitter pens, rhinestones or other materials for each child to decorate their own cat collars. These can worn by the children like a necklace if you make them large enough.
  
  

Food, Cake and Favors

• Serve milk and goldfish crackers for snacks, along with tuna sandwiches or other easy foods that a cat might enjoy. Let the children lap or eat ice cream from small kitty dishes.
  
  Make or purchase a cake shaped like a cat or decorate the cake with a cat image. Use candy for finishing touches, such as a red or pink gummy candy for the nose, stringy licorice for the whiskers, cut brownies into triangles for the ears and long Tootsie Rolls for the tail. Or, make cupcakes and insert cat cupcake picks or two Hershey's Kisses to represent cat ears.
  
  Use kitty bowls, decorated cat collars, kitty coloring books, stuffed kittens or cat themed candy or lip gloss as party favors. Tailor the favors to the age of the guests as well as the specific cat theme displayed in the party.