My 12th Birthday, Part 2

I promised you more good stuff from my birthday...well, here it is!

I had my very first, full-fledged birthday PARTY!  Mom and I went over to our cool neighbor's house and the three of us had a party.  Seriously.  And our neighbor really, really went all-out to help us celebrate.  (She ROCKS!)

She put up a big banner that said, "Happy Birthday Buttons," and she had two GIANT balloons.

One balloon looks like a doggy.  The other one plays music when you tap it. "Ceeeeelebrate good times, come on!"

Since the balloons were up by the ceiling and I have tiny little legs, Mom pulled the balloons down to show me.

On the floor beneath the balloons and banner, our neighbor put PRESENTS.

Lots and lots and lots of presents for ME.  And a new doggie bed that's super-duper soft.  And a new blanket.  And a card that had a picture of a white doggie on it that sorta looks like me!

Before I started opening the presents, we had some other business to attend to.  CAKE.

Mom actually tried to take pictures of me with my hat and cake before we went over to our neighbor's house.  So these next few pics are from earlier in the evening.

Anyway, Mom got my cake and my hat from Lainey's Pawtique.

I was not a fan of the hat.

But I still managed to lick the cake frosting while Mom was trying to take pictures.

Then I got the hat OFF.

Had to pose one more time...

And then I went right back to licking until Mom rudely took the cake away. She said I had to wait until we went to our neighbor's house for the party.

When we got over there, and before we opened presents, Mom tried to make me pose AGAIN with my cake. That was absurd.

I just went back to licking my frosting.

And I nearly got the little "princess" candy piece off of the top of the cake before Mom brought out the stupid HAT again. I started barking at our neighbor, hoping she would help me out.  She just took pictures, too. Hrmph.

But after that, it was time to EAT.  Mom and our neighbor had chocolate people cake.  I had my special Lainey's carob and strawberry cake and some Frosty Paws (doggie ice cream).

Nom nom nom nom nom.

Nom nom nom nom nom.  (That's the special plate Mom got me two years ago. It's reserved for birthday cake.)

 Nom nom nom nom nom.

After I ate most of the frosting and some of the cake, it was time for me to open my presents.

Played and wore myself out with the first present and had to take a little snooze.

Opening more...

Another one...

Playing and plucking.

Mom has no idea what I was doing here, sitting in all of the tissue paper, but she said I had to post this pic because she thinks it's just hysterical.  (Whatever...)

And even though it wasn't HER birthday party, our cool neighbor gave Mom these super pretty flowers.  She said they were for taking such good care of the Princess (a.k.a., ME).

It was an awesome, totally cool, super duper party.  I got a little overwhelmed, though, by all of the new stuff.  We had to leave early 'cause I was so pooped.

Here's my "I'm sooooo tired" face.

These are the nice presents from my neighbor:

And I can tell you for a fact that the new bed is SUPER soft and comfy.

WHAT a day, don't you think???

My 12th Birthday, Part 1

I turned 12 years old on September 18.  It was an awesome day, too!  Mom started our birthday celebrations early.  She tiptoed into where I was snoozing...

And she put a present right by my head!

I gave it a good once-over.

Mom helped me unwrap it.  I was so excited that I didn't even realize I had my tail sitting in my water bowl!

As soon as that wrapping paper was gone, that new toy was MINE!

Mom and I played fetch for a bit.  I had some good "bed head" going, and I was still a little half-asleep. Gotta give myself some credit, though, 'cause that's the most activity I think I've ever had at that time in the morning.  I'm not a "morning person."  Neither is Mom.  We both grumble a lot in the morning.

Anyway, after I grumbled a bit, we played fetch some more.  Here's a pic of me waiting for Mom to throw the toy over my head.

Unfortunately, Mom had to go to work, so we couldn't play all day.  But let's face it, I wanted to go back to sleep anyway.  When Mom came home from work, you know what she did?  She gave me another present!

I got tired of Mom taking so many pictures, so I took the toy under the bed to play with it while hiding.

Eventually I came back out and posed...

Sounds like I had a great birthday, huh?

BUT would you believe that I haven't even told you about the biggest part of my day yet???  Stay tuned for Part 2, just as soon as Mom helps me sort through the 150 pictures she took...  He he he...

Checking Pee-Mail

You know why I love to go for walks around the pond near our house?  It's not the exercise...it's the PEE-MAIL.  There is SO much pee-mail over there...you just wouldn't believe it...

There was a lot of news to catch up on.

Here's a pic of the pond.  Mom took it to break of all of my sniffing pics.

Back to checking my pee-mail.

As you can see, there are a LOT of garbage and recycling cans around the pond.

Taking time to stop and sniff the flowers...

Another garbage can...

OK.  So I started to get tired.

Then gave Mom my best "what are YOU looking at?!" look.

Then I just sat down in the grass for a bit.

Caught my second wind and BACK to sniffing!

Mom thought this tree was pretty because its leaves are starting to change colors.

Then I took off like a rocket!

But that burst of energy was short-lived.  I went back to sitting in the shade.

And then I laid down.

After a quick rest, I eased myself back into checking my pee-mail...

And, finally, I gave the very first tree an extra couple of sniffs.

It can be exhausting to check all of that pee-mail.

It wore me out for the rest of the day.