This past week, Mom has been on Spring Break, and it has been wonderful. The puppies are very glad to stay in bed until it's light outside. They are also very happy to help Mom with the projects she has been working on since being off of work. Mr. C and Miss M were only too happy to hold the quilt in place while Mom was working on it. When they saw Dad with the camera, they were a little worried that he was going to make them get off of it. Mom reassured him that they weren't laying on the part that she was working on.

I (Mom) like to make a lot of things by hand. I got tired of trying to find bread that was non-GMO. None of the breads in the local stores are non-GMO. As far as I can tell, the closest store that sells bread without corn or soy in it is Whole Foods, and that's not very close. So in the interest of not eating GMO corn or soy, I've been making all of our bread for over a year. I was making a basic white bread until Grandpa gave me a sourdough starter. The sourdough bread is really mild and perfect for sandwiches. So lately, I've been making a lot of sourdough bread. One of the things I hadn't tried making at home was cheese. Well, that all changed a few days ago. My sister, Aunt P, had gotten a cheese kit a while back, and since I have had a little more time on my hands than normal, I decided to try it. The puppies of course were all to happy to help. I started by heating up two gallons of milk and then adding all of the ingredients. You don't realize how much two gallons of milk really is until you pour it into what you think is a really large pot. Here, the curds are starting to separate from the whey as the mixture sits in warm water in the sink. Note that the sink is normal size, and this is a big stock pot. That's how much milk there was.

After a while, the curds were transferred to cheese cloth and had to be hung up to drip dry for an hour. I didn't really think the hanging up to dry part through. While the milk was doing its thing, I had started another project- painting the kitchen cabinets. I only had one cabinet door left with the knob still on it, so that is what I used to hang up the curds. Mr. M was very curious about the dripping bag hanging from the cabinet. Notice the primer on some of the cabinet doors. 

After letting the curds sit with weights on top for 24 hours, we were left with a block of cheese. Well, okay, almost cheese. It has to air dry for 3 to 5 days and then I will wax it and age it for 6 months. So maybe around Christmas time we will have actual cheese. Hopefully by then I will have finished painting the cabinets. 

Between all of the cheese making and cabinet painting, something amazing happened. Mr. C and Miss B turned 2!! How did that happen?! It seems like it was only yesterday that we brought them home. It is hard to imagine that we have had them for almost two years already. 
Of course we had to do something. We got them a little birthday cake and some toys. Everybody shared the "cake" because they wouldn't understand it if we only gave the birthday pups a treat. They don't understand birthdays. We put Mr. M and Miss S in their crates and let Mr. C and Miss B their toys. Normally when we get toys, the little ones take them away from Miss B and Mr. C. Since it was their birthday, we wanted to make sure that they had first pick of the toys and that they had a chance to pull them apart before the others came and took them away. They LOVED it. Miss B was so happy with her toy that she even rolled over onto her back to chew on it. Mr. C spread out on the couch and went to town on his toy. Miss M, who was out with them, was happy to chew on her ball.

The birthday "cake," toys and treats.

Miss B noticed the birthday spread on the counter.

Miss B waiting patiently.

Mr. C, Miss S and Miss M waiting for their share of the "cake."

 Today was a very interesting day. We woke up in the middle of the night with high winds and torrential rains. We went right back to sleep but woke up to storms again around 5. Dad went outside and discovered that while it was really windy, it wasn't raining much. So we decided to take the puppies out for a potty break before it started raining again. When we got back inside, we went back to bed, but then we started hearing funny noises. We heard a transformer blow behind our house. Our lights were still on at that point. Soon afterwards though, we started hearing the transformer closest to us make noises too. It sounded like it was revving up. The clock in our bedroom flashed a few times, and the little fan stopped a couple of times before the lights went all the way out, shortly before 6. With the two of us and all five dogs in the bedroom, it started heating up pretty quickly. Mr. M, who gets hot quickly, started panting, so we put the puppies in their crates, where they would be cooler.
We tried going back to sleep, but at that point, we were already wide awake. In the days before getting the puppies, we used to camp regularly. Because of our camping habit, we are fairly well equipped for bad weather. We got out our propane stove, and set it up on the porch. We would have used it in the house, but it needs to be used in a well ventilated area. We got out a cast iron griddle and a tea kettle and went to work. Then we ate our bacon and eggs and drank our coffee by candlelight. The puppies were a little disappointed that they didn't get to share.
The lights were off for about 5 hours before they came back on again. It stormed off and on pretty much all day. There were branches down all over the neighborhood. The people two houses down from us had their fence blow over completely, which the puppies noticed of course.
Later in the day we decided that we needed to do something for Miss M since today was her birthday. We had planned on going to Buddy Bites for a birthday cookie, but the weather was just too bad to go anywhere. So instead we went to Petsmart and got a container of Pup-kin Spice Latte treats. The puppies loved them. We got Miss M a little pumpkin costume as a birthday outfit. All in all, it was a successful birthday.

August and September are full of birthdays in our family. This weekend, Mom had her birthday on Saturday. So the puppies had a very full day. We took them for a walk in the morning so that they got their exercise. Then we bathed them and took them with us to Grandma and Grandpa's house. The puppies immediately offered their bottle crushing services.

Grandma was cooking, and occasionally Grandpa would go into the kitchen too. The boys decided that it would be best to stick around the kitchen so that they could help in case anything fell on the floor. They love helping in the kitchen.

The puppies love Grandma and Grandpa's fridge. It is very puppy friendly with side by side fridge and freezer sections. At the moment, with Blue Bell back in stores, there is even ice cream right at nose level. Mr. C took the opportunity to conveniently smell the ice cream while pretending to be interested in ice cubes.

Sunday, the puppies got to help Dad pull up weeds in the yard. 

Miss M just had one question. With all of these birthdays going on, where was the cake? She didn't believe us when we told her she couldn't have any cake. She was absolutely convinced that they needed cake too. We gave them puppy treats instead.