The Boy Turned 8!

 Last week, the boy officially turned 8 years old.  Where has the time gone?  On the day of his official birthday, we celebrated at a local pizza parlour with taco pizza, a clown ice cream sundae with a candle, singing, and games.  Since it was a week-night, it was just the three of us.  We enjoyed our time together and remembered that we came to this very same pizza parlour when he turned one.  The boy wanted to know what he ate.  The answer. . . the little sausages off the taco pizza and the ice cream. 

 For his party on the week-end, we headed to our local Heartland Human Society.  They have a "party room" available for use and ask that your guests bring donations for the shelter.

 Once everyone arrived, we headed outside to a fenced in yard area and the staff brought us five puppies who could use some play time outside.

 The puppies played with each other and with the kids.  Put 5 puppies with 7 kids and you get a whole lot of running and playing.

Even the adults at the party got in on the action.  There was lots of love to go around for the animals.

 We were glad the animals were good natured.  We did have an injury when a puppy paw got too close to a lip and we ended up with a scratched lip.  A quick fix with no tears.  Whew!

 The puppies had kisses to go around and one puppy got a good brushing--see photo below.

 Here we all are.  The kids, the adults, and the puppies.  One of the puppies ended up with just his backside in the photo.

 Next we headed inside to the cat rooms.  There are two cat rooms and you can take the cats out and play.  Just don't let any of them escape from the room!

 Even Grandma got in on the action.

 In the photo above, you can see the table full of donations for the animals that this group brought to the party.  In addition to all of the supplies, they were also given some cash donations.

No birthday party would be complete without the cake.  You can also get an idea of the party room that is available from the photo above.

 I wonder what he wished for. . .

Here comes to cake!  Yummy!

 The animals got gifts and so did the boy.  So we opened presents next.  There were many "oh's and ah's" over the gifts.  The boy has much to be grateful for.

Then it was time to say good-bye.  All the kids left with McDonald's gift certificates as a thank you for attending the party. 

We left with a warmed heart for helping the animals and a great celebration with friends and family.

We also learned that on that day, there were over 200 animals being kept at the shelter with 120 of them being dogs.  We learned that many people surrender their animals when they get old or sick and that the other way they get the animals is due to unplanned litters. 

Heartland Humane was quite a busy place the day we were there, which was also a good thing.  There were volunteers from the local middle school there to walk and care for the animals, Girl Scouts helping, too, and many folks looking to adopt an animal.

With the holiday season approaching, many families look to add that new pet to the family.  I hope that when that time comes, folks will check out their local shelters to a pet to adopt.

Now, I've got to start thinking about a party for next year. . .