Happy 6th Birthday to Dulce!

Today is our sweet Dulce's 6th birthday! We adopted her when she was four months old from Ratbone Rescues, just a month before we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. She has been with us almost through our entire married life, here for all of our adventures. She is our first baby, she is spoiled, and she will forever be referred to as a "puppy" in our house.

Have I ever mentioned how Dulce got her name? It was "Snow" when we adopted her but we changed it. Dulce means "sweet" in spanish and Johnnie proposed to me while we were staying on a resort on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. The name fits her well, as she is a very sweet and loving dog.

Dulce is well trained, has free reign of the house at all times. We have yet to get her a doggie door for our new house so for now she lets us know she wants out or in with pawing and a sharp bark at the door.  Every night before we go to bed, she goes out to pee and secure her territory one last time before coming in for a bedtime treat. 

She has a dog bed in the living room that she naps on during the day. She also has a dog bed on the floor in our bedroom but often sneaks out to sleep on the couch in the middle of the night (she's not allowed there during the day). The minute she hears one of our alarm clocks, she jumps up on our bed to kiss us good morning. She likes to get her cuddles in with us in before CC wakes up.

Dulce loves soft beds and blankets, getting baths, small toys that squeak, Nylabone DuraChews, and circular braided rawhides. She loves food and will do anything for a treat. She is very patient, she travels well, and she would never run away even if we left the front door open all day long. She loves us as much as we love her.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl! We wish for you many, many, many more years of adventures with us!

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“The world would be a nicer place if everyone had the ability to love as unconditionally as a dog.”

~M.K. Clinton

  

Happy 2nd Birthday to Cameron!

Monday, September 8, was CC's 2nd birthday! We kept things simple this year and had a small cookout party at our house the day before with only a few friends.  The theme for her party this year was her favorite television show, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, with simple red and yellow decorations and supplies.

I made CC's birthday party invitation myself using Photoshop and images I purchased in a digital set on Etsy (here).  I also used the same images from that set to create the cupcake toppers using card stock paper, double-sided tape, and toothpicks.

I made the cupcakes for the party myself.  We are a clean eating family so I wanted something yummy but natural.  I have a dairy allergy so I also wanted something I could enjoy as well, besides the fact that we actually don't have any dairy in our house, other than cheese, to use in a recipe.

I used a dairy-free white cupcake recipe from the blog Veronica's Cornucopia (here) and the cupcakes were AMAZING! They were rich, moist, and delicious. This is seriously going to be my go-to cupcake recipe from now on.

I found some all-natural, dairy-free vanilla icing (Cherrybrook Kitchen Vanilla Frosting) and all-natural sugar sprinkles at our local Whole Foods. I was pleasantly surprised with both! I put the icing into a large ziplock bag, cut off a small piece of one corner, and piped it onto the cupcakes in a circular motion. 

CC doesn't actually like very sweet things, mostly because she hasn't been exposed to them much, so she wasn't a fan of the sweet icing but she did enjoy the cupcake.  She loved hearing everyone sing the birthday song to her and has been singing "happy to me" ever since then :)

CC needed all of the characters on her cupcake :)

We gave CC a Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood themed present that included:
     Book - Goodnight Daniel Tiger
     Book - Meet the Neighbors
     Book - A Ride Through the Neighborhood
     Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Trolley
     Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Friends Figures Set
     Tabletop Hardwood Blocks

On Monday morning, CC's actual birthday, we woke early and went to the Aulani Disney Resort for the Disney Character Breakfast.  This is a gorgeous resort on the south-western side of the island. You do not have to be a guest at the resort in order to go to the restaurants there. Reservations are recommended.

There was a huge buffet with a wide variety of food options that should appease even the pickiest eaters.  There were three characters (Minnie, Mickey, and Goofy) that walked around the entire time we were there, stopping at all the tables multiple times for photos, autographs, and laughs.  Goofy was CC's favorite, he made her giggle every time he came near.

Our waitress brought out a tiny birthday cake with a candle for CC and we all sang to her.

CC was slightly overwhelmed with all the people and noise - she was quiet and observant but we could tell she enjoyed it and had a great time.  The breakfast crowd was full of tourists, primarily all Asian. Although the breakfast is geared toward children, there were many couples without kids and quite a few honeymooners.  Disney is HUGE in Japan, seemingly more so for adults than for kids.

There was an ukulele musician who walked around strumming and singing the entire time. She led multiple songs and activities that children were invited to participate in.  CC volunteered to participate in a few of the activities.

We walked around the resort for a while after breakfast and met a couple more Disney characters. I don't know if CC will remember this day at all but it was a fun one and great way to celebrate her 2nd birthday!

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"Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever."

~Walt Disney

Cameron's 1st Birthday Party

Happy 1st Birthday, Cameron!

Cameron's early birth one year ago was unexpected and a little chaotic - we weren't prepared, Johnnie was away on a trip, and nothing went smoothly but somehow everything worked out with the most perfect timing.

The theme for her 1st birthday party was the book, "On the Night You Were Born," to remember and celebrate the adventure of her birth.  It was a small party that included us, our visiting family, and a few neighbors and friends who played a part in her birth story last year.

We decorated our dining room for the party using the fabric from her 52 week photo for the backdrop, balloons, ribbon, and homemade star streamers hanging from the ceiling.

 

Cameron has never had food with added sugar or artificial colors yet so I didn't feel comfortable letting her fill her belly with a "normal" birthday cake.  Since she doesn't know what she's missing yet, I didn't feel bad making her something healthy!  Her favorite food is carrots so I made her a healthy vegan carrot cake.  Don't worry, the bit of icing on the top is a regular sugar-filled buttercream icing so I didn't totally deprive her of a sweet birthday treat :)

The vegan carrot cake only contained whole wheat flour, carrots, water, applesauce, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and baking powder.  No oil, eggs, or sugar!  It actually wasn't bad tasting, it just wasn't sweet.  Cameron seemed to enjoy it and ended up eating about half of it.

The original recipe (found here) also called for currants and salt, both of which I left out.  I made the cake in a small 6" cake pan and then cut it into a star to match her party theme.  I painted and bejeweled a cheap birthday candle for the top.

There was no cake smashing - Cameron ate her cake in small bites like a little lady :)  The sweet buttercream icing was a new flavor for her and I'm not sure how much she liked it.  She ate it while making faces and then drank a ton of water from her sippy cup.  I ended up scraping most of it off so that she would continue to eat the cake.

Cameron was lucky to have both grandmas, a grandpa, and an aunt here for her party.  The rest of our relatives were certainly in our thoughts that day!

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"On the night you were born,

the moon smiled with such wonder

that the stars peeked in to see you

and the night wind whispered

'Life will never be the same.'"

~Nancy Tillman

Happy 4th Birthday to Dulce!

Today is our sweet Dulce's 4th birthday!  She is such a blessing and an amazing family dog.  Dulce is a Rat Terrier that we adopted from Ratbone Rescues when she was four months old.  She is well trained, has free reign of the house at all times with a doggie door for going outside, likes to sleep in late and go to bed early, loves going for car rides, and will do anything for food (including wearing a birthday hat and posing for photos).

We used to have to crate Dulce at night to keep her off of our bed but this year she finally learned to sleep in her own bed all night without disturbing us.  Dulce also used to destroy her toys, especially anything with stuffing.  This year she stopped doing that - perhaps she finally learned that ripping apart a toy made it disappear forever.  Dulce seems to have matured in the past year :)

I make Dulce a fake cake every year for her birthday photos.  This year her "cake" is a can of peanuts with a birthday candle hot-glued on top, covered with frosting and sprinkles.

Dulce loves the little bit of frosting she gets to lick every year.  It doesn't take her long to get to the container underneath... just long enough for some photos :)

Happy Birthday, Dulce!  May you always know how loved you are :)

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"No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich."

~Louis Sabin