Guess Who Turned 1 Year Old Last Week????

Ginger did!

She's my sister's dog. Her birthday was May 16th and my sister had a party at my parents' house last Saturday. Yes, I said party. Yes, for a dog! Why not a party? She deserves being celebrated too!

Doesn't she look excited in her birthday hat?

Here's my sister, Alesia with Ginger. Did I mention that Ginger is an English Springer Spaniel? She's really pretty and so sweet....for a dog!
There were presents!
This is a little blurry but Aunt Cindi bought some gourmet dog treats at a "Just Dogs Gourmet." Can you say $15.00 a pound???? And you thought gas was high! I got her peanut butter stars, chicken fingers (in the shape of little hands...too cute) and little bones that were dipped in peanut butter, yogurt and carob. I packaged them in little cellophane bags tied with paw print ribbon. I then put them all in the little paw print bag. Too festive if I do say so myself!
The Springer pillow is from us too. Well it's more for Ginger's Mommy than for Ginger. I know it wasn't her birthday but seriously friends, what do you buy for a dog that has everything for her birthday?
Yes, there was even a piñata that looked like Ginger! I wasn't allowed to play! It was for the kids! It was raining outside so we thought the safest place was to put all 4 kids at the table and have my brother, Albert, be the holder.
It worked just fine as you can see. That sweep of the arms Mya did netted a lot of candy! Which was fine with me...less for us to take home!
What a pretty pic of the birthday girl with her little friends! Can you see Ginger's all natural dog birthday cupcake? My sister made it herself. Impressive, huh?

Left to right is Abby (my brother's girlfriend's daughter), Mya (my brother's daughter), the birthday girl, Ginger, my Allison and Derek (my brother's son).

Yum! She loved it!
Cake and ice cream time! Please notice the cups and plates...they have little doggies on them!
Here is the close up of the cake. The cupcake cake to be correct. Yes I made it. I just whipped it up in 5 1/2 hours...from start to finish! If you click on it, you may be able to view a closer look of the icing. It looks like fur. I tried to make it look like Ginger. She has that little "V" of brown on the top of her head. Also, her white isn't even on the sides of her nose thus the reason it isn't even on the cake either. The piping of the icing on the cake took 2 1/2 hours. The rest of the time was for baking 2 batches of cupcakes...one chocolate and one vanilla. As you can see I used the chocolate for the ears. All of the icing is vanilla and an old family recipe. I made four batches and ended up using about 3 1/2. I had to use the whole 1 oz. container of Wilton brown paste coloring to get the brown color. My sister liked it and that was my goal. My brother made some off handed comment about knowing whose going to be making all of the cakes in the family. If you know my brother, that is his way of giving a compliment. I'll take it!

Overall I think the party was a success. My sister also had dinner for us too but the only picture she got was of me feeding my face...which is not a picture I will share with all of you! Alesia also made gift bags for all the kids with a ton of stuff in each of them. We enjoyed ourselves. I think Ginger did too!

Happy Birthday Ginger! May you have many more spoiled years ahead of you!

"A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more than you love yourself."

- Josh Billings

Have Fun!

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