Saint Patricks Day In Savannah (Juan and Jacob too)

So, we made it through our first Saint Patrick's Day here in Savannah! We had heard to get to the parade by 8 am so we could have a place to see along the parade route. The parade started at 10 am. Miguel and I slept in so didn't get down town till around 9:30... we had to park on Islands Expressway and walk at least two miles to the parade route. And we were carrying lots of beer, subway sandwiches, and the dog. Emma did really well. She was sort of overwhelmed, but she did really great! She got loads of attention because she was extra cute in her St. Patty's bandanna. We met up with some of our friends at one of the squares (the square where they filmed Forest Gump). The parade didn't get to us till around 11:30. It's a long parade! It lasted four hours. 

Cute Saint Patrick's Day puppy!

It was a really beautiful day! 

During the beginning of the parade... when I was actually interested. 

Here you can sort of get an idea of how crowded the squares were. It felt a lot like a tailgate to me. These people with tents got downtown very early to save their spots. 

Bathrooms had super long lines... however, we found a special, secret porta potty. Here, Miguel is explaining the importance of such bathroom. 

After a long day in the sun, we went back home to the islands, and Emma, Miguel and I all climbed into our bed and took a long nap. 

Friday morning Miguel and I took Emma to the dog park. It wasn't busy at all. I guess people were still sleeping in or waking up to bad hangovers. Emma played with her friends Abby (a sweet 6 year old black lab) and Ardsley (a large, four month old chesapeake bay) and got some energy out. Later, Miguel and I went to a friend's house and cooked out. We met up with my brother-in-law, Juan, who came to visit from Greenville, SC for the weekend. Our friend, Jacob, came down from Atlanta too. We enjoyed time with friends. My favorite time of the night was sitting up on the porch, smoking cigars, and watching the sun go down. Afterwards, I went home to take the dog out and hang out until the boys needed a ride back home. 

We cooked wings, brats, dogs, ribs, and burgers. Then our friend, Jason, pulled out this steak to grill. Ha. It was 14 oz!

Twins!

Saturday morning we all slept in a bit and made a yummy breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, and eggs. The boys spent the day at the beach. I stayed home and let the boys do their thing and made tie dyed cookies (blog post to come later). After a day at the beach we headed over to one of our favorite restaurants, Bonna Bella Yacht Club. The sand gnats were awful! The wait was also really long, but we had a good time entertaining ourselves playing corn hole and drinking beer and $3 margaritas and snacking on fresh raw oysters. We saw the sun go down and the beautiful moon come up. All of us, minus one, got fish tacos...yum!

Bonna Bella

Raw oysters

Miguel owned the hook and ring game...

Fish tacos... 

Yum!

We're back home from dinner at Bonna Bella right now... the boys are sitting here sipping on Glenlivet deciding whether or not to go downtown. Crossing my fingers they stay here... I don't want to play taxi driver tonight. =) But either way, it's been a fun weekend. It's great to have good friends and family come visit!

Welcome Buzby

 

Hi!  I'm Emma's newest cousin, Buzby.  I also answer to Buzz, little bit, baby kitty and little fox (I have a very bushy tail).  My dad thinks I look like Toothless from "How to Train Your Dragon," but I think I'm cuter than a dragon.  I live in Seattle with my parents, Jared and Sarah, and this guy,

Milo, my big brother

I'm still very much a baby at 7 months old and am learning how to be a mature kitty when I'm not busy bouncing off the walls.  I love to run as fast as I can down the hallway and bounce off the armchair onto the couch and off again.  Milo joins me sometimes and we've only knocked over the lamp and plant on the end table maybe just once or twice.

tired from all that running and bouncing off the furniture

My litter mate and I were found without our mom when we were a few weeks old.  We were really sick and my eyes were so infected that my foster mom thought I might lose them!  Thankfully they are okay because I definitely need them to see all the bad birds outside and so I can pounce on Milo.  I love to carry things around the house, including my toy fish, lots of toy mice and I might have been known to take the keys of visiting friends and hide them behind the couch.  Currently my parent's remote for their Apple TV is missing, but I swear I had nothing to do with that...  

"happy paws" :)  I move my feet back and forth when I'm really happy (which is most of the time).  My mom says  I have to purr about everything too.

Milo is teaching me a lot about being a big kitty.  He likes to take care of me and grooms me all the time.  I like to hang out with him and we wrestle a lot.  

He helped me quickly learn that I need to show my mom where the food is every morning and talk about it as well.  We're super helpful.

We like to snuggle up together too

Lastly, I need to show you how amazing my hunting skills are.  This is a very evil bird that shows up in the house sometimes and I really like to grab it out of the air.  I really just want to show off my awesome gymnast moves. 

PS. Aunt Laura and Uncle Miguel, thank you for the welcome care package you sent me!  I have successfully killed the toy mouse several times and have reluctantly shared the treats with Milo.  I hope to meet you both very soon!

"Pot of Gold" Saint Patrick's Day Cookies

I made cookies in the spirit of the upcoming Saint Patrick's Day! Nothing too beautiful or anything like that... just dough from a store bought mix + food coloring + sprinkles. Simple is great and was just want I needed for afternoon entertainment!

• Like I said, I mixed up a dough that came from a box. All it needed was softened butter and an egg.

• Next I used Kroger food coloring to dye the dough yellow to make some 'gold coin' cookies to make a "pot of gold".

• I was planning on rolling out the dough and using circle cookie cutters. However, I think that the food coloring messed up the composition of the dough and made it too wet or something. 

• So... I ended up making little balls of cookie dough with the palms of my hands... real advanced baking moves here ;)

• Next I whipped up some more dough and put green food coloring in them. (Please ignore the redness of my hand... it is left over ink from a hand stamp from the night before). 

• Next I used a cookie press to make some cookies shaped sort of like four leaf clovers

• I've had some trouble with using my cookie press in the past. I recently read that pouring hot or warm water over the press would help. It really did! Great tip! Wish I had remembered where I read that...

• This is how they turned out... not a very accurate clover... but you get the idea. 

• Again, roll your eyes if you must, I used store bought icing... just makes life easier. 

• I applied the icing in a swirl pattern that allowed it to all fill out into a circle. 

• If the icing still left gaps, I used a small icing knife to make it all cohesive.

• And here are the final results. Not the prettiest cookies I've ever made... but totally captures the spirit of the holiday! I think I'm enjoying living in Savannah for March 17th!