A Happy Birthday Party at the Dinosaur Park

The Birthday Girls - Malia (on the left) and Jessica (on the right)

Sunday was the day of Jessica's shared seventh birthday party with Malia, a school friend. They had invited their whole class to the Dinosaur Adventure Park. The day was freezing cold with flurries of snow, but the children didn't seem to mind as, afterwards, many were heard to say that this was the best birthday party ever! On arrival the girls played in the Adventure Play Area for an hour before lunch. (See photo of Malia, Jessica and Emily above). Then we all followed the Dinosaur Trail through the forest. Huge life- sized models of the dinosaurs were scattered throughout the park and the girls ran excitedly from one to the next, stamping their identification booklets.

Malia and Jessica blew out their candles together.

Then we visited the live animals. in the Victorian walled garden. There they had wallabies, sheep, kune kune pigs and donkeys. Later, we headed to the Fun Barn to get closer to the animals. There they had iguanas, bearded dragons, millipedes, snakes, water dragons, cockroaches and other creepy crawlies for the girls to hold - if they dared!

Afterwards they got to ride on the pedal cars, play Jurassic putt putt, get lost in the scary maze and generally have lots of fun. Eighteen exhausted girls finally departed for home, each clutching their party bag, dinosaur gift pack and enormous piece of birthday cake. All-in-all a very successful day and no washing up or clearing away to do! Definitely to be recommended!

Today, Monday, it is snowing steadily and Clare decided to take Jessica to school on the bus as she didn't want to drive in such conditions. They waited for over an hour, but no bus came. By this time they were both frozen, so they came home again. We are all inside, warm and cosy, while outside the snow is falling with no sign that it is going to stop. Clare and Jessica have just decided to go out for a walk as soon as it stops snowing - I think I will give that a miss!