Mentos for the Dogs

At the music festival last weekend, there were sponsors there handing out samples of different foods. One of the samples was Mentos - they gave two rolls to each of us. For those of you a little math challenged that means we came home with 6 rolls. Somewhere, one evening, we got the idea to feed some to our dogs to give them better breath. Well . . . the problem with that is that Sam doesn't really chew his food. He gives it a couple of crunches and then swallows. How on earth is that going to give him better breath.

Ranger on the other hand chews everything into tiny little pieces. And during the chewing, he usually spits it out a couple times so that he can smell it and lick it - I've never seen a dog take so much time to chew treats but he does. It was funny watching him eat his mentos. And did his breath smell very minty afterward.

To solve the Sam problem, we tried softening one up in the microwave. Well, it didn't soften instead it just melted. Sam enjoyed licking the melted mentos, but it still didn't do much for his breath. We got a great laugh out if it all, so it was worth it in the long run.

Music Festival

After our afternoon water balloon fight, we went to a music festival in the evening. It was an all-day event, but we only went in the evening. My two favorite new CD's right now are by The All-American Rejects and 3 Doors Down. They both played at the music festival. Both bands were terrific. They sounded amazing. I couldn't have asked for better performances. They are both pretty different and made for a really fun evening. I just wish it hadn't gotten so cold. We took blankets with us and it was still cold. I felt sorry for the people that had been there all day and were wearing their shorts and flip-flops. BRRRR!

The stage - waiting for The All-American Rejects to come on:

Ryan and I relaxing between performances:
The singer for 3 Doors Down on the big screen - what a powerful voice he has. The second song they performed was Ryan's favorite - Citizen/Soldier. It was a brilliant performance - dead on. He kept cracking us up, after every song he would say "Thank you my friends".
Ryan trying to stay warm between the bands:
So, like with every other festival you go to, there was tons of food (I enjoyed my funnel cake) and things to buy for the kiddies. Ryan had his eye on these light saber things that lit up. They had them in solid colors and multi-color. We bought him one between bands performances. We had fun playing around with moving it and capturing pictures. This is one of the best ones we got that night:
Here he is holding the light-saber thing still:

Neighborhood Water Balloon Fight

We got a flyer on our door last week advertising a Neighborhood Water Balloon Fight. A family we know that lives at the other end of our street wanted to organize a water balloon fight as a way for families to meet. At 1pm, last Saturday, we went down to their house with our big bucket full of water balloons. I have no idea how many water balloons we made, but it was a heavy bucket. There were four other buckets. They had marked off an area with cones and the buckets were place in each corner. Anyone could participate as long as nobody got wild. It was a lot of fun. We threw water balloons at everyone until they were all gone, and then the buckets were dumped on people. Some of the kids brought water guns and had fun shooting those once the balloons were gone. Afterward, most of the kids & the parents picked up the balloon remains. It lasted about an hour from the first balloon thrown to the last balloon fragment picked up. It was fun.

Our bucket of balloons:

Ryan hoping for the "fight" to begin soon:

Some of the neighborhood kids waiting for the signal to start. Ryan was throwing his in the air and catching it:

Ryan with two balloons, getting ready to throw:

Ryan throwing a balloon at Doug:

Ryan & a neighbor girl getting ready to throw their balloons:

Bucket Vs. Water Gun:
Ryan and a neighbor friend, Marcos, enjoying shooting water at me:

First Piano Recital

Last weekend, Ryan had his first piano recital. He was very nervous. He performed very well. He's only been taking lessons for about 5 months. He played two songs - and although he had the book, he didn't use it. It was fun to watch him perform his two songs and to see the other students as well.

Ryan performing his songs:

Ryan with his piano teacher:
After the recital, Ryan and his friend Adrian pretended to play:
Ryan with his grandparents who also enjoyed the recital:

The Harper's:

Happy 10th Birthday to Ryan!!!

The first thing Ryan said on his birthday - "I'm now double digits!", with his arms raised up in triumph. It was a nice day. He was on spring break, so no school! Doug had the week off and the two of them spent the day together. He opened his gifts from us before I left for work that morning and then in the evening, my family came over for cake & ice cream. Good day all around.

I couldn't resist taking this picture of his presents. This was waiting for him in the morning!

Ryan with his gifts from Mom & Dad:
Reading our card. It's a musical card that plays "Rock & Roll All Night". He really liked it, as you can tell by his smile:

Opening one of his gifts:
He saved the big gift bag for last. He had to pull a chair up to the counter to pull the tissue out:
An armful of shorts (he loved them!):

Card later that night:
Opening another musical birthday card:
Ryan wanted to play dart tag so bad, Ben & Baylee were terrific and played with him. Don't they look wonderful in their glasses (please note that Baylee's are on upside down - I think she is a future trend setter!!!):
Blowing out the candles:

Thanks to everyone that helped Ryan to celebrate his special day! He had a great time and was glad to share it with you.