Pound Puppy's Big Birthday!!

Five years ago, we adopted our "practise baby", a shy little Maltese-Poodle that picked me when I went to the pound to find a Heeler for Tyler!  

Yep, big difference in dog breeds, but pound puppies pick you, you don't pick them ;)

Tyler had spoken about wanting a dog for ages, he liked Alaskan Malamutes and Blue Healers, I like Healers too, so I went to the pound with intention of finding one.  There were three Healers at the pound that day, all happy looking eager dogs, but then I spotted a fluffy little timed girl, hiding in the back of her shelter, glancing back over her shoulder at me, looking rather sorry for herself.  I was in love!  She pulled at my heart strings and I knew that if she could talk, she'd be saying "I don't belong here, please help me, I want to go home, will you take me home?"

She was a stray, so we got to name her, it was Mum who came up with her name, which turned out to fit her personality perfectly...from the nursery rhyme "Polly put the kettle on".

Polly has been such a joy to have in our lives, she's such a character.  We joked that she was previously living with an old lady and they munched on cakes and sipped cups of tea every day, coz any chance she got, she was into the sweets and lapping up our drinks!

Tyler quickly warmed to having a little lap dog, although to this day she barks her head off every time he comes home!

Luckily for her, she's come to an involving family, we take her out with us where we can...to the park for family picnics, to my mum's house for visits...and although she's always had a bed in the lounge room, she's never more then a few metres away from me...shadowing me around the house...including when I go to bed.

We also had her as a little flower girl at our wedding in 2006, including having her carry our rings, tied to her collar.

This years birthday is extremely special, it's her 10th!  Double figures, and it means she's now been in our family for half her life ;)

When she turned 7yo, I had my niece who was then 4yo over, with my sister and my mum and her dog Maizee, and we had a little tea party!  After discovering her love of a cuppa, Mum always makes her her very own tea in her very own cup, on special occasions ;)

This year, trying harder to steer Polly clear of sweet foods, I decided to do some cake cook-cook with Jack, with a difference, meaty cupcakes!!

  

JackJack did a pretty good job of loading up the patty papers into the cupcake tin, while Muma grated zucchini

JackJack wanted to have a go at grating, so he started off the carrot.  He was pretty excited when he made the grating noise!  Although light handed, he actually did get it to grate tiny bits, as you can see, he's pretty stoked!

Nanny helped JackJack stand some ice-cream cones up in the baking tray.  I have seen cakey cupcakes made in these, so thought we'd try some of our dog cakes in them

When you cook with kids....let go of any fear of mess!!!

This was Jack's 1st time with eggs....Muma banged them on the bowl edge to crack a little, then handed it to Jack....

1st egg....splatted in his lap and down the side of the highchair

2nd egg....exploded over his nose, nice face mask ;)

3rd+ eggs....made it into the bowl, shell and all.  Like, he musta thought the shell was needed too coz he crushed it into little bits

This Muma ain't afraid of mess...so this eggcellent lesson was hilarious!!!!

Next we squeezed in a loaf of sausage mince.

Oh and at this point I should explain, I'm only wearing gloves coz I have a band aide covered finger from peeling my finger tip when we made soup during the week, usually I'd dive my bare hands right into the slushiness!

Flop!  In goes a tray of mince meat

Squelch, squish, splosh!

The meats were so cold, my hands were aching!  But JackJack loved it ;)

Nanny had cooked up some rice, which was too hot for Jack's little hands to mix, so we busied him with the task of grating some cheese.....the block headed for his mouth rather then the grater though!! lol

After changing my gloves to help grate the cheese, JackJack insisted on wearing one too!!

He did a really great job filling the patty pans full of our meat mix, in fact, his turned out the nicest looking!

Major cheese fan!!

Every time I scrapped the excess back off, he tried to pile on more!

Ok, the only downside to cooking stuff like this with kids, was trying to stop the piles of cheese going into his mouth once it was mixed with raw mince meat....eewww!

Loading up the ice cream cones

Once the cones were loaded, we made a log out of the left overs, and just like he does when we make sausage rolls, JackJack declared this "pooooo!"

Polly and Maizee frantically grabbing all the dropped bits of cheese!

Yeah, ok, a learning curve....the fatty liquid that comes outta mince meat just made the cones collapse!

But the cupcakes turned out well!!

I grabbed them outta the tin with tongues....they weren't really looking like I could flip the onto a cooling tray like cakey cupcakes.

We got our party hats on....tiara's coz she gets called Princess Polly coz she acts like such a diva dolly ;)

Finally, a pic of the Birthday Girl!!

Stupid blogger format has changed again and I couldn't change the order of my pics, I wanted this pic up the top but it didn't go,

I wanted to light a candle in a cupcake for her, so Mum suggested putting Pol in Jack's highchair to bring her up to the table.  I didn't expect for us to sing "Happy Birthday", but Mum said we should, which was lovely....here you see Polly watching Nanny and Jack singing to her!!

*note here- some of you probably think I'm nutty with my pets, but my Mum is just as much too! We love our pets like our children ;)

So keen for her cake!!

Don't worry, the candle was being blown out as this pic was taken ;)

Maizee and Polly enjoying the feast

Mum was joking we were having "dog food" for dinner!!

When you think of it, they're really just hamburgers/rissoles, done as cupcakes....and we all found them very tasty...plus a great way to get hidden veggies into kids!!

Happy Birthday Miss Polly Pocket!!

I made her this pearl necklace, with a pink diamante charm on it.

She can't wear her leather collar at the moment, with allergies she's lost fur around her throat and her neck is sore, so this is a nice gentle option...and suits her diva ways!

With a pink bow on top of course....always a feature on her collar usually ;)

Polly put the kettle on, we'll all have tea!

Polly's rather partial to Scooby Snacks, but when I saw this packet near by on the supermarket shelf, I thought "there's a pack specially made for my Pol Pol!"

Footnote- No animal was forced into anything or lost their dignity in these celebrations! lol

While Maizee shys away from the fuss and is not forced into wearing "pretties", Polly will prance right up to anyone with some ribbon, hoping it's to put on her "necklace" ;)