This Life: Happy Barkday, Beau & Fletcher!

So, a couple months ago I was talking with one of my classmates/friends, Michelle, and found that our dogs are the same age! They both were born in September three years ago. We both immediately decided that we needed to have a doggy birthday party. I have been dreaming of doing something like this for - well, ever! So, it was fun to find someone who is as obsessed of a dog mom as I am.
We chose the date and invited all our dog friends and human friends (who we thought would not mind being over-run by dogs). Thankfully Michelle's parents let us use their backyard! Things never turn out exactly as planned, and this party is a testament to that. I had these grand ideas of making a video and whatnot. But with 6 crazy dogs, things didn't work out like that. We still had a great time and Beau was completely worn out by the end of it.

Want to have your own doggy barkday party?
*Make sure you have more humans than dogs. (We just barely met that criteria)
*Do not put the dessert/treat/human food table right where all the dogs like to wrestle, which is inevitably where the humans are! (We almost lost the food to the floor numerous times)
*Keep plenty of treats on hand for photo-ops and distracting other dogs
*Have a safe place for owners to take their dogs by themselves if the dog becomes overwhelmed (Teddy, the smallest dog definitely appreciated that he could fit under the bench away from the other dogs)

Now for the photo dump.

^^ Ashley, with her dog Teddy. Michelle with her dog Fletcher. Heather with Michelle's sister's dog, Sydney. Cambria with Beau, my dog. Christina with Riley, Michelle's parent's dog. Me with Cooper, Michelle's brother's dog. :)

^^ Riley the Labrador Retriever. Isn't she the cutest? She would rarely sit still for a photo!

^^ Sydney the Weimaraner. I have so many goofy shots of her. This is the least goofy one!

^^ Case in point! Look at Sydney in the top right corner!

^^ And here she is again!

^^ Us humans had hummus and veggies provided by Cambria. The dog friendly birthday cake we made was definitely less cakey and more bready. The dogs still ate it though and that's all that matters! The blue bowl is full of dog friendly peanut butter cookies, which we taste tested first on Fletcher. He didn't seem extremely fond of them so I slathered the tops of the cookies with peanut butter and that seemed to do the trick!

^^ Sydney, again!

All the non-single ladies! Janelle who is in a picture later on in the post kindly took some picture.

^^ Sydney...again...

^^ Fletcher! He is a mix of who knows what. This is his new trick! And this is no small feat. That was a large piece of dense, bready birthday cake.

^^ Okay, I added this photo so you can get a picture of Beau's personality. Do you see how intense his gaze is? He would not look at me and I was holding a treat all for him right under his nose.

^^ Michelle and me with our pups, the birthday dogs!

^^ Cooper the Corgi with Fletcher

Sorry. It's official. Beau is the cutest. dog. ever!

^^ There's Janelle. On the far left.

^^ There was a lot of this going on. Most of my pictures are blurry and full of slobber and dogs wrestling.

Now for some of my favorite photos from the afternoon.