Meet Phoebe the Puppy

I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but I am really not a dog person. I don't know why exactly. I do remember that I was terrified of dogs as a child...maybe that has something to do with it. But I just am not a dog {or really any kind of animal} person. We had a few puppies growing up and I'm sure I played with them at some point, but I don't really remember ever being super attached to any of them. Now just because I'm not a huge fan of dogs doesn't mean that I don't want my boys to enjoy having a pet. We actually had a dog a few years ago {Corndog} who had an unfortunate accident with a car...but it's been a few years since the boys had a pet. 

*****

Over Christmas break, my parents got a cute little part beagle part dachshund puppy. 

And my boys {especially Henry} fell in love. 

After seeing how much they loved playing with Eddie, I knew it was time to get them a puppy...and luckily Eddie had a sister that needed a home too.

And so we got Phoebe:

 She is actually a really good puppy.

She plays well with the boys, hasn't tore up much in the yard, knows to stay away from our cars, doesn't bark loudly, only eats a little bit of food, and she poops in out of way places:)

We bought her a cute little wooden dog house and she has a pillow and blanket. For the most part she is content to nap in the sun during the day and sleep in her doghouse at night. We have let her in the house on the few cold nights we've had...and she is great about coming in and going straight to her little kennel by the back door. 

 Phoebe is getting pretty good at playing fetch. She loves the little squeaky balls the boys picked out for her a few weeks ago, and she also like to play with stray socks that the boys leave outside by the trampoline. Eli usually goes out and plays with her for a little bit in the mornings while Henry and Grant are at school...and she really gets some fun play time in the afternoons with all three boys:) So far the boys have been pretty good about taking care of her...Henry is in charge of food and Grant is in charge of water. And Henry is now officially on pooper scooper duty too!

 So for now, I am trying my best to a dog person...and I have to say, it's actually nice to have another girl around the house!

Let's Go Fishing

 Give a man a fish

 and you feed him for a day.

 Teach a man to fish

 and you feed him for a lifetime.

 Chinese Proverb

100 Days

Today is Henry and Grant's 100th day of school. Their school always has a fun 100th Day Party with all kinds of fun 100 activities. Earlier this week both boys took baggies with 100 items in them {Henry took toothpicks and Grant took Conversation Hearts} to share with their class. And yesterday the boys and I helped Grant's teachers hang 100 balloons from the ceiling of their classroom.

Yesterday I was also up to my eyeballs in cake and homemade buttercream icing:) Grant's teacher asked last week if I would make a 100 cake for their class, and I was more than happy to help out!

 Honestly making a 100 cake really isn't that hard. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that all you need is a rectangular piece of cake and two round cakes. I mixed up two store bought box mixes. One I place in a 13X9 pan and the other I divided into two round 9" pans. After the cakes baked and cooled, I stuck them in the freezer to harder up. I've learned the hard way that boxed cakes don't keep their shape well when you cut them unless they are pretty close to frozen. After about an hour in the freezer I pulled out the two round cakes and used a 3" round cookie cutter to cut a hole in the center. To make the one, I lined the almost frozen 13X9 cake up next to the zero and cut it as proportionally as I could {sorry I forgot to measure how big the one was}.

 After I had the cakes cut and ready, I did a crumb coat of buttercream icing. I used the Vanilla Buttercream recipe from Cookies & Cups and it work really well. After I did the crumb coat I stuck them back in the freezer to chill for about 10 minutes. Then I added the final coat of icing. It's not perfect by any means...one of the reasons I don't make cakes often is because I can never get the icing as perfect as I want it. But the pretty M&M's distract you from the imperfections:)