Doggy Birthday Party

I realize that many of you will think I'm totally crazy after you read this post, but hopefully those of you with four-legged best friends will totally understand.  Last year, we adopted this adorable little puppy.  He has brightened our home and I look forward to his four paws, wagging tail, and doggy kisses greeting me every time I walk through the front door.  So when his first birthday rolled around this weekend, we wanted to make it a special day for him.  Don't worry, we didn't hire a clown and rent a moon bounce, but we did celebrate the day. We bought him a few new toys, got him some tasty doggy treats, and I might have baked some cookies and made some doggy decorations.  That's not too crazy, right?

Here's the birthday boy, freshly groomed and dressed for the occasion with a Happy Birthday bandanna and one of his new toys.



Now, here's where I may start sounding a bit wacky.  I wanted to bake some tasty treats (for us humans), so I made sugar cookies (with this awesome lemon glaze) using a dog bone shaped cookie cutter.



And of course no doggy birthday party would be complete without some decorations, so I made a simple dog garland by tracing a schnauzer shape onto sheets of blue and brown construction paper.  Once each shape was cut out, I punched a hole into each doggy and strung a white gift ribbon through them for a quick schnauzer garland to dress up my fireplace.





But my favorite doggy decoration (which I had to make for Halloween anyway of course) are these schnauzer carved pumpkins.  Better Homes & Gardens has awesome free dog breed pumpkin stencils and I couldn't wait to give the schnauzer stencil a try!



So there you have it, my dog's first birthday celebration.  That wasn't too crazy, right?  So tell me, do you celebrate your pet's birthday too or am I nutty after all?