Funny how the rescue organization didn’t seem to know much about Pinot’s past, but they did know her birthday down to the exact day. And what a great day it was – Friday, so I got out of work at noon, upper 70s/low 80 degrees and sunny – the perfect day to get outside!

I got of work at noon, as I just mentioned, and headed home for a walk and some prepping – I figured that I’d combine Pinot’s birthday with our fancy schmancy dinner this week (but you already knew that if you read the cooking blog!) When Nick got home around 5, the three of us set off to one of the lakes by our house with the cooler and grilling gear, and set up shop to make what turned out to be delicious toasted pecan burgers and potato salad. Pinot is loving her new and improved canned/dry food mixture, and since she was a good dog and ate all of her food, we had no qualms about letting her have some doggie birthday cake that I’d made for her later that night, after heading to the dog park and petsmart to pick out a birthday toy. (Of course, Cashew got something new too )

Noone was really loving the party hats (though they were pretty cute to try to put on, and Nick’s experience at target buying them was pretty funny), but that seemed to be forgotton once Pinot started munching on the doggie meatloaf cake with EZ Cheese frosting and milk bone crust. Haha.