Birthday Party

I just realized I completely forgot to post about Lance's 1st birthday party!  He turned a year old on August 22, and we celebrated on August 21st.

It was a good party, or at least we had fun.  I think everybody else did, too.  There were only 10 or so guests due to the fact that we inadvertently planned the party for the weekend of the Canadian Shiloh Shepherd Nationals, but quite a few of them commented afterward that it was a really interesting mix of people, so we were pleased.

The guests included neighbors and people that are in Lance's life--his trainers, his groomer, a few of the friends who'd help socialize way back in the beginning, and so on. And Lance had a canine guest, too--a chocolate lab puppy by the name of Hardy.  And Kai, of course.

The party and the prep went fairly smoothly, although we had a bit of a panic when, after working all day to prepare the new patio and the back yard for company, it started raining about 1/2 an hour before guests arrived.  But we got everything moved into the garage and under a dining tent, so it all turned out well in the end.  And the rain cooled everything off, so we didn't have to worry about humans or dogs overheating.

And Lance had a lot of fun.  He had so much fun in a game of chase that he broke a hurricane lamp on the aforementioned patio 'cause he couldn't make the corner!  LOL!  And so much fun that he wore both Kai and Hardy (who is a few weeks older than Kai) out by the end of the evening.  They both had to go to bed early, so Lance wound up having the human guests all to himself.  :)

The only thing I regret is that I was having so much fun I totally forgot to get any pictures.  :(  We took some of the aftermath, but it's just not the same!  I'm thinking next year we put out a few disposable cameras to make sure we get some DURING.


All in all, a very good memory!


p.s.  We did make it to Nationals the next day, and Lance took second in his age class.