Six out of 10 Americans own some type of pet, which shows what an integral role pets play in our everyday lives. Pets have become ingrained into our societies, and it’s not unusual to want to celebrate their presence in our lives. Whether you want to dress your pet up, shower him with new treats and toys or bring him into work to show him off, there are myriad ways you can celebrate your pet. These 20 blog postings will make you laugh as you look at all of the darling pictures of pets and the different ways you can celebrate your own.

Dress Up

Many pet owners enjoy dressing up their pets in pet-size clothes, and it’s easy to see why. Tiny sweaters to keep a small pet warm during the cold months and costumes to celebrate Halloween are just a few of the ways you can indulge in clothing for your pets. There’s even a holiday in January specifically celebrating dressing up your pet! Take a look at these five blog entries to see how people are dressing up their pets. 

• Celebrate National Dress Up Your Pet Day! Indulge in National Dress Up Your Pet Day by picking out the perfect outfit for your favorite companion.
• 10 Dogs Celebrating National Dress Up Your Pet Day This post showcases several adorable dogs that are all dressed up.
• It’s a Celebration: Today is National Dress Up Your Pet Day While this holiday is actually in January, you can dress up your chicken any day of the week.
• Dress Up Your Pet Day: Share Your Furry Photos Take a look at these furry friends in all their finery as they celebrate Dress Up Your Pet Day.
• National Dress Up Your Pet Day You’re sure to draw inspiration for your own pets after you check out these adorable pet pics.

Birthday

A fun way to celebrate your pet is to throw him a birthday party with other dogs you may know.  If you don’t have room at your place or are not comfortable with a bunch of extra dogs in your house, you may want to meet at a local dog park for the party. Dog-approved cake mixes are available for dogs now, or you can make dog-friendly cupcakes and party favors using the blog posts listed here.

• 7 Ways to Celebrate Your Dog’s Birthday New York Style Read all of the suggestions listed in this post for ways to celebrate your dog’s birthday.
• Celebrating Your Pet’s Birthday! Treat your pet to a spa day on her birthday or spend some extra time with your pet to celebrate her special day.
• Pets Dogs/ How to Celebrate Your Dog’s Birthday Learn how to throw a birthday party for your dog that includes all her canine friends.
• Do You Bring These Birthday Traditions to Pets? Take a look at these human traditions that you can do for your pet.
• Daily Delight: Celebrate Your Furrbaby’s Birthday The recipe for this dog-friendly cupcake is perfect for celebrating your dog’s birthday.

Gotcha Party

A ‘Gotcha Party’ is a celebration of the day you adopted your pet and welcomed him into the family.  Most of the time there’s no way to know when a pet’s birthday really is when you get them from a rescue situation, which is why people have started celebrating the day that they got their pet.  For ideas on how to throw a ‘Gotcha’ party, read these five blog articles.

• Celebrate You Pet’s “Gotcha Day!” If you don’t know your pets actual birthday, celebrate their “gotcha” day instead.
• Happy “Gotcha Day” to Scooby! Read about how this pet owner celebrates her pet’s gotcha day.
• Sunday- Final Day of Yoko’s 20^th Gotcha Day and Birthday Party! A rather humorous post from a cat’s perspective.
• A Happy Gotcha Day Party Weekend! This is a funny post written as if there was a real party for three cats.
• Happy Gotcha Day to me my Human! Check out this cat’s blog post, which discusses how she celebrated the day she picked out her human.

Take You Dog to Work

“Take Your Dog to Work Day” is the perfect way to show off your favorite furry friend.  This day is meant to not only celebrate your dog, but to encourage other people to adopt pets of their own.  To learn more about these efforts look at these five blog entries.

• Celebrating Take Your Dog to Work Day! Celebrate your pet by taking them to work with you.
• Celebrate Take Your Dog to Work Day Go through the steps to make sure your dog is ready to go to work with you.
• Celebrate National Take Your Dog to Work Day Friday at the Annual Dog Mob & Fair Learn how other people celebrate their dog at this annual event.
• Celebrate Dogs and Encourage their Adoption With One Easy Step! Get a little history of the ‘Take Your Dog to Work Day’ event.
• VPI Celebrates Take Your Dog to Work Day Check out these helpful tips before you take your dog to work.

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Meeska, Mouska, Mickey Mouse! Thanks to Disney for bringing back the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so another generation can enjoy Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and all of their friends every day on television. Don’t be surprised when the love of the mouse prompts your kids to want to have a Mickey Mouse themed party. From invitations to decorations to kid-friendly foods and games, there’s no shortage of ways you can bring Mickey Mouse to life during a party! These 30 blogs will show you how to accomplish all of these tasks.

Invitations

Mickey’s silhouette and his trademark red shorts with yellow buttons are easily recognizable, which make them the perfect outline for a party invitation. Take a look at these six blog entries to get the step-by-step instructions for making your own Mickey Mouse invitations.

• DIY Mickey Mouse Invitations and Party!
• DIY: Mickey Mouse Invitations
• Grandma’s Unique Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Party Invitation
• How to Make Mickey Mouse Invitations
• DIY Mickey Mouse Party
• DIY: Mickey Mouse Invitation

Decorations

Red, white and black are traditionally the colors used when putting together a Mickey Mouse party, and you can use these colors as the basis for your decorations. Of course, Mickey has gone on many adventures, so you can also tie in more than one interest when decorating for the party.  These six how-to blog posts will get you started on party decorations.

• DIY Mickey Mouse Party Centerpieces!
• DIY Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Party Decorations
• DIY Mickey Mouse Birthday Decorations
• DIY Mickey Mouse Decorations
• DIY Minnie Mouse Decorations
• Homemade Mickey Mouse Crafts and Decorations

Menu

Labeling the food with clever Mickey inspired names will add that much more fun to your food table.  The easiest item of all is the Hot Diggety Dog song that allows you to serve a kid favorite of hot dogs or cocktail wieners.  For more inspiring food ideas read through these six blog entries.

• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Party Toddler-Friendly Food Ideas
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 1^st Birthday Party—Part 1
• Minnie Mouse or Mickey Mouse DIY Cupcakes! Easy!
• Minnie and Mickey Mouse Oreo Cookie Pops
• Sprinkle and Chocolate Covered Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Pretzels
• Homemade Mickey Mouse Birthday Party Menu

Activities/Games

What party would be complete without games and activities?  You can put together a craft table for older kids and tweak some traditional games for younger ones. For instance, instead of playing Duck-Duck-Goose, you can play Mickey-Mickey-Mouse. These six blog articles have tons of clever games you can play at your child’s party.

• DIY Minnie Mouse Birthday Party Games!  Pin the Bow on Minnie Mouse!
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Party
• Mickey Mouse Birthday Party –Part 2 of 3
• Mickey and Minnie Party Games
• Celebrate that Special Occasion with Fun Mickey Mouse Party Games
• How to Keep the Mouseketeers Busy at Your Child’s Mickey Mouse Theme Party

Party Favors

Once the party is over you will want to send your young party guests home with a little memento or favor bag.  To find some creative ideas on how to tie in the bags and boxes to the theme look through these six blog posts.

• Minnie Mouse Party Favors
• Mouse in the House
• Mickey Mouse Party Favors
• Cute Nautical Mickey Mouse Birthday Party
• Our Minnie Mouse Birthday—Minnie Party Favor Bags
• Mickey and Minnie Mouse Cookie Party Favors

Do you ever feel like choosing what to make for dinner is too much of a chore? Well, with hundreds of apps for foodies on the iPhone, you no longer need to stress. Planning and making dinner will take no time at all once you’ve downloaded these 10 apps that bring meal planning into the 21^st century.

• Ucook – Over 60,000 recipes are provided with this free app, making choosing what’s for dinner a much easier task. There are some great search features, too, which will allow you to filter by region, preparation time and even by the equipment you have in the kitchen. You can also find all those essential missing ingredients with a feature that searches local stores.
• Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner – Dinner Spinner is an iPhone app favorite. The innovative functionality takes all the work out of searching for recipes. You simply enter all the ingredients you want to use and the app returns a list of recipes for you to create. Still too much work? You can just shake your iPhone and Dinner Spinner will choose a random recipe for you. This app is highly rated and free to download from iTunes.
• iFood Assistant by KRAFT – Have you ever wanted to just look at an empty package and find out where you can get a refill? Well, with iFood you have the next best thing. A barcode scanner, voice or text search feature will source all your favorite foods in stores that have the items in stock. Once the free app directs you to all the ingredients you need, you can then utilize thousands of recipes to whip up a great dinner for the family.
• Healthy Recipes – Looking for a healthy approach to dinner? Use Healthy Recipes, another great free app available for the iPhone. Simple categories will guide you through recipes for your breakfast, dinner and summer salads. To help personalize the experience, Healthy Recipes has a completely customizable database where you can alter or create your very own recipes, too.
• How to Cook Everything Essentials – Based on world renowned chef Mark Bittman’s book  “How to Cook Everything Essentials,” this free app is packed full of dinner ideas. Although there are only about a hundred recipes, each one has a number of variations, which gives you thousands of meals to experiment with. There are also a number of cooking guides that will help you source ingredients, time your meals and teach you advanced cooking techniques.
• Easy Recipes – No matter where you are, Easy Recipes has your cooking needs covered. The offline function means that you can access recipe ideas even if you don’t have full cell-phone coverage. The search function is clean and easy to use, so you won’t spend too much time looking for the recipes that you love. The app costs $0.99 and is available for download from the App Store.
• Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List – This app is a two-time winner of the ASME Award (National Magazine Awards for Digital Media). With over 30,000 gourmet recipes available for you to create, dinner will never be boring again. Icons and keyword search will help you find exactly what you’re looking for, and new recipes are automatically added to your device every day. This free app is absolutely brimming with other great features, so explore them at your leisure.
• Whole Foods Market Recipes – If you, a family member or friend has special dietary needs, then this is the recipe app you need to have on your iPhone. Whole Foods Market Recipes has over 3,000 recipes that you can filter by course, cuisine, special diet and more. Staying on budget is easy, too, with an intelligent cooking guides feature. This is another great free app for the iPhone.
• BigOven 250,000+ – In case you hadn’t guessed, this free app has an astounding 250,000+ recipes for you to try. Synchronize the app with a BigOven account to store all your created menus, leftover ideas and share your recipes with friends and family. The drag and drop feature is ideal, as you can quickly add menus to your meal calendar for forward planning.
• Martha’s Everyday Food – If you love Martha Stewart’s recipes, you’ll really love her new and improved app. For $0.99 you get recipe shuffle at the flick of a wrist, detailed video tutorials, and daily articles from Everyday Food editors. There is also a great shopping list feature, which allows you to easily add ingredients from any recipe.

The arrival of warm weather means that you’re likely going to be spending more time outdoors, which also means your chances of getting bitten by bugs vastly increases. While it’s impossible to prevent every bug bite, there are a variety of ways you can ward off the majority of them. When bites are unavoidable, you’ll need an effective way to take away the pain and itch quickly. Check out these 21 blog articles to find solutions for bug bite prevention and treatment for both you and your favorite four-legged friend.

Preventing Bug Bites

Bugs are attracted to tight, dark clothing and strong fragrances, so it’s important to wear loose, light colored clothing and minimal perfume or deodorant. Mosquitoes, which are prevalent in the warmer weather, thrive on standing water, so make sure that you rid your yard of any standing water. You’ll also need some type of topical treatment to deter any bugs that aren’t put off by these preventative measures, and the following seven blog posts are full of different treatment ideas.

• Preventing Insect Bites According to this blog post, insects don’t like vitamin B1 or thiamin. By taking this vitamin regularly you will emit a fragrance that keeps bugs away.
• Avoiding Mosquito Bites and the West Nile Virus Try to avoid being out at dawn or dusk when mosquitos are most likely to bite and be sure to wear bug repellent containing DEET.
• Mosquito Prevention and Treatment, Updated Make sure to empty any standing water and wear light colored loose clothing if you have to be out at night to help repel mosquitos.
• Lemon Oil Prevents Mosquito Bites Without Irritating Sensitive Skin Lemon oil and citronella oil can be used undiluted on the skin to deter bugs. Catnip and clove oils should be diluted before applying, but are also effective bug repellents.
• How to Avoid Mosquito & Insect Bites During Your Gap Year If you are trying to avoid DEET, you can use DEET-free sprays that contain Picaridin instead.
• Preventing Bug Bites When Camping When camping, avoid doing so near bodies of water and make sure to build a campfire – the smoke from the fire will repel the bugs.
• How to Avoid Bug Bites: Jungle Secrets for Mosquito Control Wash with Irish Spring soap and apply cinnamon oil mixed with witch hazel to your pulse points to avoid bug bites.

Treating Bug Bites

Typically, bug bites aren’t life threatening unless you are highly allergic, but that doesn’t make them any less of an irritating nuisance. Sometimes you can find some relief simply by applying some ice to the bite. There are many ways to treat the pain and itch of a bite, and you can find several methods for doing so in these seven blog entries.

• 7 Ways to Treat Bug Bites (Slideshow) Dab lavender oil onto the bite a few times a day and the bite should go away quickly, according to this post.
• Relax!! It’s Summer!! Tip for Treating Insect Bite or Sting Learn how to remove the stinger if you or your child is stung and how to treat the site of the sting.
• Fast and Effective Mosquito Bite Remedy (That’s Probably Already in Your Kitchen) Rub the inside of a banana peel on a mosquito bite to not only stop the itching, but also help it heal faster.
• Homeopathic Bug Bite Bustin’ Learn about several homeopathic remedies you can use on mosquito bites and bee stings.
• Natural Health Remedies for Insect Bites and Stings Crush an aspirin, make it into a paste with water and apply it to the site of the sting for some pain relief.
• Natural Remedies for Insect Bites and Stings This post is full of helpful tips, such as how the cut side of an onion will stop the itching of bug bites and vinegar on a cotton ball will stop the pain and itch from a spider bite when applied.
• Annie’s Surefire Mosquito Bite Remedy Apply ammonia to a cotton ball and dab it on your mosquito bites and it will take the pain and itching away within a few minutes.

Protecting Your Pets

Unfortunately, pets are not immune to bug bites and stings and they can have allergic reactions just like humans can.  What pets can’t do is prevent these bites or treat them after they happen to prevent infection, which is where the owners come in. There are pet-friendly topical sprays that are safe to use on your pet to keep bugs away. If your pet has already been bitten, use these seven blog posts to find treatments and remedies that will provide them with some relief.

• Homeopathic Treatment and Prevention for Bug Bites Improve your pet’s immune system and he will be less likely to get certain bugs like fleas.
• Protect Your Pets from Fly Bites Treat your pet with preventative methods for insects as you would for yourself, however avoid spraying an insect spray around the face and ears.
• Protect Your Pet from Mosquitos Keep your pet inside during prime insect time and use a topical insect repellent on him.
• Pets and Insect Bite Reactions If your dog has a swollen muzzle due to an insect sting you can give him antihistamines, but you will need to work with your vet to find out the dosage.
• Essential Survival TV—Essential Oils for Insect Bites & Stings Watch this video to learn ways to use essential oils for your pet and how to make your own flea collar.
• Using Benadryl to Treat Dogs for Allergies, Bites and More Learn when and how you can use Benadryl to treat allergies and allergic reactions to bug bites.
• 3 Summertime Dog Bug Bite Remedies Find out how to deal with a tic attached to your pet and how you should remove it properly.