Kim Archer | Mindful Living

Puppy Power

I interrupt my attempt to get my blogging up to date with a little post about our puppies. It's amazing how these little guys have worked their way into our hearts and lives over the past weeks.

It will be so sad to see them leave and a little part of me is wishing I could throw caution to the wind and announce, oh let's just keep them all. But realistically, we couldn't manage having SEVEN DOGS! And now they are mobile I can't even imagine having to care for and round up so many dogs as they continue to grow and eat and play (and dig and bark and growl and fight)!!!

It's hard to believe looking back at these photos that they were so small. They have all developed their own little personalities now and are the most gorgeous little balls of fluff!

But there was a time they looked like this.

Skinny, rat like little creatures with pink ears, pink noses and hardly any fur. They started their life living in this large cardboard box and Roxy barely left their sides. She's been a good mum!

There eyes were shut fast and they barely moved. Just slept and fed.

The family is obsessed with them. And the puppies got loads of attention from the minute they were born.

 

 

All the kids claimed a puppy and named them. Capri named hers Max, Brandt's is Banjo, Jamison named his Nigel and this little fella is called Kenny..yep, you guessed it, Ken named him. And Kenny has become a family favourite.

 

The 5th one, a little white one, is apparently mine. He's a cute little bloke but hasn't got a name. Just "white one". And he's a pretty easy going, relaxed dude..

with a penchant for sleeping on his back!

So then they grew a little bigger. Their eyes started to open gradually. The black pigment darkened on their noses and ears and their black eyeliner defined their eyes. Oh and their fur grew!

But they still couldn't walk.

They went on a car trip to visit the family and Debbie snapped this one with her new iPhone...Kenny's missing from the photo.

 

and they were showered with love and affection by all of us!

 

It took us forever to get them lined up like this and posing for the camera! They are so cute and participating in their favourite past time - sleeping!

 

They are a bit of a handful!

 

It was amazing to see how quickly these puppies develop. Here's Kenny able to lift his little head up..but he still can't walk and the pigment hasn't quite finished colouring his nose just yet..

 

The puppies sort of roll along at this age but don't venture out of their box/pen at all unless we bring them out. They are still quite active though despite the fact they don't have any control over their back legs!

 

And a couple of them even made an attempt at barking. It was the funniest sound you've ever heard and I think they shocked themselves as well!

Having been confined to their box for the first few weeks, we let them out to experience their first taste of being on the grass in our backyard!

Here they are... You can just SEE the excitement from all of them!!!!

 

Well at least Kenny was excited about his adventure.

 

Capri and Chelsea have played with the puppies all school holidays! Here they are trying to line them up for a puppy race in our front loungeroom.

 

they were a little hard to get organised.

 

a bit of yawning going on..

 

almost ready to start..Brandt thought he would help out..

 

and they're off and racing! Check out the speed and enthusiasm.

 

A big bundle of puppies..(shame this pic is so blurry!!)

 

and yes the girls had been swimming..check the zinc!

 

Wave for the camera Max.

 

and after all that activity..they were all tuckered out. And promptly fell asleep..all over the place.

 

and some of them like to be close to their mum.

 

And that's all for now. I'll be back with the most recent photos of these little fellas in another post soon.

I interrupt my attempt to get my blogging up to date with a little post about our puppies. It's amazing how these little guys have worked their way into our hearts and lives over the past weeks.

It will be so sad to see them leave and a little part of me is wishing I could throw caution to the wind and announce, oh let's just keep them all. But realistically, we couldn't manage having SEVEN DOGS! And now they are mobile I can't even imagine having to care for and round up so many dogs as they continue to grow and eat and play (and dig and bark and growl and fight)!!!

It's hard to believe looking back at these photos that they were so small. They have all developed their own little personalities now and are the most gorgeous little balls of fluff!

But there was a time they looked like this.

Skinny, rat like little creatures with pink ears, pink noses and hardly any fur. They started their life living in this large cardboard box and Roxy barely left their sides. She's been a good mum!

There eyes were shut fast and they barely moved. Just slept and fed.

The family is obsessed with them. And the puppies got loads of attention from the minute they were born.

 

 

All the kids claimed a puppy and named them. Capri named hers Max, Brandt's is Banjo, Jamison named his Nigel and this little fella is called Kenny..yep, you guessed it, Ken named him. And Kenny has become a family favourite.

 

The 5th one, a little white one, is apparently mine. He's a cute little bloke but hasn't got a name. Just "white one". And he's a pretty easy going, relaxed dude..

with a penchant for sleeping on his back!

So then they grew a little bigger. Their eyes started to open gradually. The black pigment darkened on their noses and ears and their black eyeliner defined their eyes. Oh and their fur grew!

But they still couldn't walk.

They went on a car trip to visit the family and Debbie snapped this one with her new iPhone...Kenny's missing from the photo.

 

and they were showered with love and affection by all of us!

 

It took us forever to get them lined up like this and posing for the camera! They are so cute and participating in their favourite past time - sleeping!

 

They are a bit of a handful!

 

It was amazing to see how quickly these puppies develop. Here's Kenny able to lift his little head up..but he still can't walk and the pigment hasn't quite finished colouring his nose just yet..

 

The puppies sort of roll along at this age but don't venture out of their box/pen at all unless we bring them out. They are still quite active though despite the fact they don't have any control over their back legs!

 

And a couple of them even made an attempt at barking. It was the funniest sound you've ever heard and I think they shocked themselves as well!

Having been confined to their box for the first few weeks, we let them out to experience their first taste of being on the grass in our backyard!

Here they are... You can just SEE the excitement from all of them!!!!

 

Well at least Kenny was excited about his adventure.

 

Capri and Chelsea have played with the puppies all school holidays! Here they are trying to line them up for a puppy race in our front loungeroom.

 

they were a little hard to get organised.

 

a bit of yawning going on..

 

almost ready to start..Brandt thought he would help out..

 

and they're off and racing! Check out the speed and enthusiasm.

 

A big bundle of puppies..(shame this pic is so blurry!!)

 

and yes the girls had been swimming..check the zinc!

 

Wave for the camera Max.

 

and after all that activity..they were all tuckered out. And promptly fell asleep..all over the place.

 

and some of them like to be close to their mum.

 

And that's all for now. I'll be back with the most recent photos of these little fellas in another post soon.

More catching up..

Anyone still out there reading this thing!

So, yes we are still in December with my posts, but I am getting there with everything. Let's rewind to Boxing Day. Brandt, Capri and I left on Boxing Day to come home from Bateman's Bay.

It was a loooong drive but we decided to take a detour and visit Sussex Inlet on the way home. Sussex is about 10minutes off the highway and there's only the one road in and out of the town.

We lived there way back in the 90's when Brandt was little. We have been back a few times to visit but not recently and Brandt was keen to see the town and our old house. Well we couldn't find the house to start with and it took a few attempts down various streets to find it.

We DID end up finding it...but my camera was packed away so I didn't take a photo. I have recent photos of the house anyway that Mum took when they visited there a few years ago and it didn't look all that much different. This shot is of the back of the house from when we lived there. Grass needs some water!!!

I have good and bad memories of our 18months in Sussex.

I hated the isolation and the fact I was a new mum and all of my support network was five hours away in Newcastle. Being Ken's first manager's job meant long hours away from home and the highlight of my week was travelling into Nowra to do the grocery shopping. 

Here we are on our little jetty. Don't we look great. I mean check that NICE maroon jacket come dress with the drawstring waist I am wearing. Teamed beautifully with stretch black leggings and joggers. Lover-ly. That jacket was from Sportsgirl and I LOVED it at the time! Oh it wasn't a boy cut I was sporting but a foofy fringe and a ponytail!

   

But I did love the house and the fact that we had so many visitors come and stay with us. We lived on the canal and the outlook was great! I really loved our view and the size of the house!

Here's Dad and little Brandt in his all time favourite Bananas in Pyjamas gumboots that he wore everywhere...And check out the view. What a great backyard!

I ended up stopping and digging out my camera and took this shot.

 

This was the area we lived in and these houses were a few houses down from ours. The boys would love living there and fishing off the jetty etc now although in saying that there would have been no job opportunities for Brandt or any night life! So he wouldn't have coped with life in a small town as an 18year old.

We stopped for lunch and I loved walking down the main street of Sussex. It was beautiful and sunny and I was in a good mood. The main street had changed a lot but some of the shops were still the same. And it all felt so familiar!!

We decided to grab some hamburgers at the fish and chip shop as it was lunchtime and the kids were hungry!

Well what PITIFUL service. After waiting for an eternity and staring in bemusement as about three young staff each saw us and turned on their heels to walk in the other direction rather than serve us, the manager or owner perhaps turned around and said, "Are you right?"

I said that we hadn't been served and he called for a boy to come out and take our order. Mind you we were the ONLY ones in the shop so they weren't run off their feet or anything and there were more staff members than there were us. The boy barely looked at us and mumbled, "Yeah?"

I started to give the hamburger order, reading straight from the menu above his head..He cut me off and said abruptly.

"No burgers today."

And he didn't even add a small little "sorry about that!" My good mood diminished and my happy thoughts of hey we're in Sussex vanished. I sighed and said, "Well thanks for nothing."

and he said, "that's ok."

I then left muttering about how pathetic it was to have to wait all that time to be told they didn't make burgers on the very day we decided to visit Sussex!

We stopped for lunch in Nowra..this time at KFC.

We drove for hours to get home, I missed the turnoff and luckily I know Sydney so I was able to drive through and find my way home. Not the most direct route but it all worked out fine.

Puppies missed us. And it was good to be home after such a long drive.

Anyone still out there reading this thing!

So, yes we are still in December with my posts, but I am getting there with everything. Let's rewind to Boxing Day. Brandt, Capri and I left on Boxing Day to come home from Bateman's Bay.

It was a loooong drive but we decided to take a detour and visit Sussex Inlet on the way home. Sussex is about 10minutes off the highway and there's only the one road in and out of the town.

We lived there way back in the 90's when Brandt was little. We have been back a few times to visit but not recently and Brandt was keen to see the town and our old house. Well we couldn't find the house to start with and it took a few attempts down various streets to find it.

We DID end up finding it...but my camera was packed away so I didn't take a photo. I have recent photos of the house anyway that Mum took when they visited there a few years ago and it didn't look all that much different. This shot is of the back of the house from when we lived there. Grass needs some water!!!

I have good and bad memories of our 18months in Sussex.

I hated the isolation and the fact I was a new mum and all of my support network was five hours away in Newcastle. Being Ken's first manager's job meant long hours away from home and the highlight of my week was travelling into Nowra to do the grocery shopping. 

Here we are on our little jetty. Don't we look great. I mean check that NICE maroon jacket come dress with the drawstring waist I am wearing. Teamed beautifully with stretch black leggings and joggers. Lover-ly. That jacket was from Sportsgirl and I LOVED it at the time! Oh it wasn't a boy cut I was sporting but a foofy fringe and a ponytail!

   

But I did love the house and the fact that we had so many visitors come and stay with us. We lived on the canal and the outlook was great! I really loved our view and the size of the house!

Here's Dad and little Brandt in his all time favourite Bananas in Pyjamas gumboots that he wore everywhere...And check out the view. What a great backyard!

I ended up stopping and digging out my camera and took this shot.

 

This was the area we lived in and these houses were a few houses down from ours. The boys would love living there and fishing off the jetty etc now although in saying that there would have been no job opportunities for Brandt or any night life! So he wouldn't have coped with life in a small town as an 18year old.

We stopped for lunch and I loved walking down the main street of Sussex. It was beautiful and sunny and I was in a good mood. The main street had changed a lot but some of the shops were still the same. And it all felt so familiar!!

We decided to grab some hamburgers at the fish and chip shop as it was lunchtime and the kids were hungry!

Well what PITIFUL service. After waiting for an eternity and staring in bemusement as about three young staff each saw us and turned on their heels to walk in the other direction rather than serve us, the manager or owner perhaps turned around and said, "Are you right?"

I said that we hadn't been served and he called for a boy to come out and take our order. Mind you we were the ONLY ones in the shop so they weren't run off their feet or anything and there were more staff members than there were us. The boy barely looked at us and mumbled, "Yeah?"

I started to give the hamburger order, reading straight from the menu above his head..He cut me off and said abruptly.

"No burgers today."

And he didn't even add a small little "sorry about that!" My good mood diminished and my happy thoughts of hey we're in Sussex vanished. I sighed and said, "Well thanks for nothing."

and he said, "that's ok."

I then left muttering about how pathetic it was to have to wait all that time to be told they didn't make burgers on the very day we decided to visit Sussex!

We stopped for lunch in Nowra..this time at KFC.

We drove for hours to get home, I missed the turnoff and luckily I know Sydney so I was able to drive through and find my way home. Not the most direct route but it all worked out fine.

Puppies missed us. And it was good to be home after such a long drive.

Happy birthday

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes for the 18th!! I hadn't even put out a blog post but some of you have brilliant memories, some of you read Janelle's blog and others have been checking out Facebook!

I received loads of emails, text messages and calls as well as some lovely surprise pressies that I wasn't expecting. So THANK YOU EVERYONE!!  This birthday was low key compared to last years party which was fine by me..And I had a lovely day.

We went to my parents place for a big breakfast and a swim. And then mum and I went with Capri to the shops for a browse around. Ken was Mr Marinade in the kitchen and marinaded prawns and steak and made a salad for a BBQ dinner.

Will add photos of some of my presents tomorrow...

And happy birthday to Ken for today - our birthdays are only two days apart!!

More photos tomorrow..

O Christmas Tree

Ok, so this is my mammoth effort to get my blog up to date in one big long mega post once and for all so I can MOVE ON!!

First up, I really loved my tree this year, well last year now..I spruced it up with some new decorations and nifty twinkling lights and I was SO happy with it.

And I got some beautiful handmade gifts from Janelle..(I LOVE my fabric angels SO much that I couldn't bear to pack them away after Christmas so they are hanging nicely in my studio).

 

and this beautifully stitched bag and gift card from Mardi which I also love.

We spent Christmas in Batemans Bay..not my ideal choice for Christmas BUT it was our turn to spend Christmas with Ken's family and they decided they wanted to spend it at Bateman's Bay instead of Canberra. This meant booking into a motel for two nights.

Now, with newborn puppies to worry about and being SO far away from them and Roxy just having given birth to FIVE puppies...

...we decided to take two cars on our trip and I would come back again with Brandt and Capri on Boxing Day and Ken would continue on to Canberra with his mum and Jamison and also attend a reunion with his school friends which was organised well before the puppies made their arrival and also before Batemans Bay became the Christmas plan.

My parents looked in on the puppies and Roxy while we were away and made sure Roxy was fed and given puppy milk 3-4 times a day! It's a big job looking after a new mum!

It was a long, rainy trip down on Christmas Eve and the traffic was pretty heavy! But we arrived late in the afternoon and took a tour of the town and had fish and chips with Ken's family at the place they were renting which was right on the beach.

I was determined to make my little corner of the world very Christmasy even though waking up in a small  motel room didn't feel very Christmasy.

So I took a little tree with us..tiny hey!

And the kids were so excited that it was Christmas and we had a very early start Christmas morning and it wasn't too bad. Lots of lovely pressies...

and we had the restaurant to ourselves for breakfast..and I mean WHY wouldn't we have it to ourselves..who stays in a MOTEL for Christmas! 

Well there were the Archers and this older couple who were in the room next to us and that was about it in the entire place. Breakfast was actually very nice. Each table had a little Christmas tree and festive sprinkles on the tablecoth and there were plenty of carols playing.

Brandt got creative with the reindeer shapes...

We spent Christmas lunch and well into the night with Ken's family. Ken's sister had outdone herself with the food and I must admit, it was a very nice lunch spanning several course and several hours! Cold seafood, fruit and then a hot selection of Christmas meats and all sorts of goodies. And desert was trifle or chocolate cups with blueberries and strawberries!

 

 

and afterwards, there was swimming..

 

and some boogie boarding..

here's the cousins together..

 

and all in all, it was a nice Christmas..

 

Ok, so now I have tired myself out and my post wasn't as mega as I wanted it to be....will update more very soon..promise.

 

Pre Christmas Celebration

So, yes it IS ridiculous that I am posting about our PRE Christmas celebration and here it is the 13 January!! But it's better late than never and I am trying hard to get my posts down and share photos etc etc...

We had my family's Christmas get together the Sunday AFTER Capri's slumber party and before Christmas day as it was our turn to spend Christmas with Ken's family. We spent a very nice day indeed with my family at my parents home..

Capri, Chelsea and I made rum balls.

 

Here's the girls waiting to open presents!

 

We all got GREAT pressies!! Ah, now, doesn't that look like Christmas! Wrapping paper everywhere.

 

Lot's of exciting presents. Capri got some glamorous bejewelled false fingernails.

 

and a new outfit..

 

 and Brandt got...

 

a....fish tank from mum and dad!

It is excellent.  Filled with a full starter kit. Great value. And he LOVES it.

So many presents - we were all so happy with our goodies!! The BEST surprise came for mum who was NOT expecting this old fashioned looking record player from us. She loved it. it was a big hit and I loved the emotional response...makes gift giving so worthwhile...

 

and she instantly pulled out some golden oldies and we sang along to Darryl and Ossie and Dad's hilarious German record which was a Saturday morning tradition in our house when we were growing up - which you can't sing to as it's just music with NO lyrics! But we know every beat of every song.... And then we had Rolf Harris and Barry Crocker.

The hits just went on and on!

 

Then came time for all the food!

 

We ate outside. Took silly snaps of each other. Including this one of me TRYING to lengthen my neck and not show off any double chins..ahhh, not really the natural, casual look I was going for really..BUT no double chins in sight.

 

I TRIED hard to get some decent family shots out the front of mum and dads. NO cooperation.

 

Ok, almost there..why doesn't everyone look at the camera at once.

and a photo of my sister and me! 

No decent family shots to share:(

But we had a fun day!

SEVEN LAYOUTS IN SEVEN DAYS!

I know. I know. I haven't even blogged about Christmas or our trip away or New Year, not to mention share photos of the lovely gifts I received from friends over the Christmas season.  Those posts are on their way. Really they are.

But in the meantime..I wanted to mention that we have a NEW class over at the @Home site. We've been working very hard on loads of samples for the new SEVEN workshop.

We have an EARLY BIRD PRICING OFFER which closes midnight Sunday (yes that's tomorrow) and we would love you to join us and the lovely girls who have already booked in.

Class kicked off this morning with our first step by step layout revealed and will continue over the next week as we share with you SEVEN LAYOUTS IN SEVEN DAYS plus a bonus PDF layout.

No time now to complete the projects? No worries. Classroom will remain open until at least the end of February - most likely even longer in our archives section on the site.

Loads to share. We would love to invite you to join in.

BOOK IN HERE.

Puppies everywhere.

So yes, Roxy's puppies decided to make their grand entrance into the world at Capri's slumber party.

The girls had been keeping regular checks on Roxy all night and they were desperate for her to start having these puppies. I found them several times with a torch, shining it through the family room windows trying to catch a glimpse of Roxy in the backyard.

It was really late and the girls SHOULD have been asleep but of course it was a slumber party and there wasn't much slumbering happening and the prospect of new puppies was just TOO exciting.

We had a special birthing box all ready for Roxy and a puppy keeper pen surrounding the box to keep Mojo out but Roxy spent most of the day digging in the dirt under the plants along the side fence and nesting!

The action started around midnight.

And continued on into the early hours of the morning. The girls thought it was most exciting and kept tip toeing out to peek through the back windows. But they couldn't really see anything.

It was becoming obvious that Roxy wasn't too keen on her birthing box and the puppies were going to be born in the dirt. Nice.

We had to lock Mojo in the laundry as he was over excited and painful! And he hated it!! He howled. And cried. And whined. And scratched the door and made a huge fuss!!

Anyway, no amount of persuasion would budge Roxy from her dirt hole so we had no choice but to leave her there.

I sort of checked Roxy a few times but to be honest I was a bit of a chicken and not particularly wanting to SEE the puppies being born so I very gingerly stuck my head out of the door a few times. And I would turn around and have one or two little ten year olds behind me wanting to check Roxy as well.

Brandt arrived home at 1.30am and came in to tell me he could hear little puppies crying in the backyard..We found a torch and could sort of make out 3 grubby little faces all crying loudly and Roxy's face was filthy too. NO amount of persuasion would make Roxy budge out of that dirt hole though. We couldn't really get in there to check her or to see how many puppies there were or if they were ok. And Roxy was quite aggressive toward us so we left her to it again.

It was a very looong night but eventually all puppies were born and Ken managed to persuade Roxy into the birthing box where it was more comfortable for them all. Ken ended up having to assist with one little puppy who was having a little trouble. And I was able to transfer all of the new puppies from the dirt hole and into the box with their new mummy.

We counted..1,2,3,4 and 5 puppies!!!

And so tiny. And one was black and white!! Black and white???? Roxy and Mojo are both WHITE but Roxy is a Maltese Shitszu and Shitszu puppies can have black or brown markings - I had only really visualised little white puppies for Roxy and didn't think any would have such cute dark markings!!..and they were ALL filthy dirty.

So with Roxy finally in that birthing box and all puppies in there with her we went to bed!!! But not before a few of the girls appeared at the back door, bright eyed and desperate for a glimpse at the new puppies.

It was around 3.30am before everyone went to sleep..

Well, everyone except Mojo.

He certainly made his presence felt. He made a mammoth racket for the rest of the night. I dozed on and off for several hours. And I was up again at 6am. Mojo hadn't slept ALL night. And I hadn't really either.

And Roxy had cleaned her lovely little puppies and they were all sparkly white and so cute.

And they were so tiny. FIVE puppies. SO many for such a small dog.

I cooked panckakes for the girls for breakfast. Ken cooked bacon and eggs on the BBQ before he bundled up Roxy and her new family and stuck them in a plastic tub we had and took them all to see our Vet which thankfully is only a short drive away.

Brandt went to help.

The Vet gave them all a clean bill of health, told us what to feed Roxy etc and declared that Roxy was the proud new mum of FIVE BOYS!

Yes FIVE boys!!!!

The slumber party girls were SO excited about their adventure and I overheard one of them announce that this was THE BEST slumber party she had ever been to!

I sent them all home after little sleep but I must admit, our party sure beats the average for entertainment value!

Slumber Party Puppies

Sooooo much to catch up on it's not funny.

We have crammed a LOT of stuff into a short space of time. And now it's time to add it all here so I remember it all down the track.

Let's rewind to the 19th December which was the day after Capri's birthday and it was her sleepover night! She had her main friends come over for a sleepover party to celebrate her birthday.

They arrived earlier in the afternoon. They gave Capri such beautiful pressies including jewellery, the Miley Cyrus CD, a game and a Smiggle gift card which Capri was most excited about. She loved all of her presents.

And such lovely cards - girls certainly take their time creating cards and writing sweet messages - unlike the boys!

Roxy the wonder dog was showing signs of getting ready for her impending birthing (yes, she was pregnant and the Vet had only estimated her due date so we had no real clue when she woudl go into labour!!) and I laughingly said to Ken, "You watch..she will have her puppies during the slumber party."

Which she did.

Roxy's heavy belly was the topic of discussion amongst the girls and that she could have puppies that night was a very exciting prospect. It also opened up a lot of questions,  about HOW the puppies were going to get out of Roxy, "do they just fall out of her?" and would they have to do anything to help Roxy. I reassured them that none of the kids would be expected to play midwife!

So, anyway, back to the party.

I took the girls over to mum and dads for a swim.

Bridie and my friend Marie then arrived. Bridie could only stay for a short time as she had some other stuff on and she wasn't able to stay for the sleepover which was a shame.

We headed back to our house for more party fun and games!

and I managed to get some photos of Capri and Bridie together. These two have known each other all their lives!!

Chelsea then arrived along with Debbie and Jake and they came bearing more gifts!!!

And then Bridie had to leave. We fed the kids a quick sausage sizzle dinner and then it was time to head out for....LASER FORCE.

We then took the girls plus Jamison and Jake to Laser Force.

Now, this was Capri's first choice for her birthday activity. She dismissed ice skating, the movies or ten pin bowling and was adamant she wanted to go to Laser Force. She had never been before but the boys have and she has been desperate to go there for ages!

Only a few of them had even experienced laser shooting before and several of them were quite scared of even going!! I assured them that if they got scared they could come out and that if they really didn't want to do this they didnt have to.

But they were all very brave!

The boys on the other hand were beside themselves with excitement about having a few laser games.

As luck would have it, their session only had the girls, Jamison and Jake and another little boy and his dad plus a young girl about 13. The next session had a large group of 18-19 year old boys and I think the little 10 year old girls may have freaked had the big boys been with them.

They were kitted up in their very attractive and stylish Laser Force fighting gear.

and off they were sent into the dark depths of laser force.

Now, we could see parts of the maze on little tvs in the waiting room and we waited to see if we could spot any of our kids as they made their way around. Look closely..on the right is Chelsea, followed by Capri - yes, you will need to look VERY closely!

We had to wait for a while. There wasn't much activity at all.

Suddenly onto the screen,  Jamison jumped into view, scooted around the corner, quickly followed by Jake, both in full action mode with laser guns poised for attack! Both looking like something out of a cop show.

And then trailing like little ducklings came the girls.

They were in one long line, and some of them holding hands and they looked like they were skipping off to a picnic instead of in a battle zone. It was hilarious.

And the verdict! They all LOVED it and wanted a second game. Afterwards we took them all home again. They enjoyed pass the parcel.

and more food.

And the birthday cake which was accompanied by a very loud rendition of happy birthday.

and then movies. And popcorn. And more food.

And chatting. Laughing. Singing. Dancing. And all those things girls do at a slumber party. And just when they were all ready to settle down and go to sleep. Yep. Puppy time.

But I will save that action story for my next post.