7 years young and gorgeous!

Happy 7th birthday Petunia!

Matt is still on his 15 days of 12h shifts, so the girls and I had our own little party for our sweet girl.  I was planning on just giving her a bone or something, but the girls wanted to go all out!

I found a "just add water" cake at PetSense (the only major pet store around here...it is nice, but doesn't have a wide selection of stuff--for instance, I went in there hoping to find a snuggler bed and [nonrelated to Tunia's big day] a shrimp for our fish tank so I wouldn't have to clean it as much...and it didn't have either of those things, which are staples at a lot of other pet stores).  Anyway, we went with the cake mix, two squeaker toys (elephant and lady bug--two of the girls' favorite animals), two heart-shaped bones, and a Kong Senior with a peanut butter cheese-whiz-ish refill cannister.

Little sis was in charge of the vanilla cake:

While big sis recreated an apple dessert recipe that she learned at school for the rest of us:

She had a great time playing with all her new loot and got a lot of exercise in to make up for the cake!

Tunia is a sweet and very loyal dog and has been such a good sport over the years.  For such a homebody, she has tolerated our military moves very nicely.

S.E.R.E. training

The girls picked out some scrumptious nom noms from the New Orleans Insectarium during our recent trip down south, including a regular bug-shaped lollipop, a strawberry pop with a scorpion inside (kinda like a twisted tootsie pop)--and two boxed delights for their Dad:

The girls and I whipped up a baked egg delight for him this morning, which he heartily and good-naturedly woofed down.

Baked egg and vegetables with salsa, mexican waxworm, and salt & vinegar cricket topping:

He compared the crisped bugs to shrimp skin, which is also chitin-rich (and a great source of protein!), and noted that it is great practice for S.E.R.E. training (mandatory for Active Duty pilots prior to their first assignment), where he will be eating far worse.