Book review: 'Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer' (aka "I am that person")

So .... it is confession time ....

I am the first person to admit that I am not perfect, but there is one thing I do semi-regularly that I know horrifies some people.

I am the sort of person who buys someone a book and reads it before I give it to them.

My only mitigating factor is that I do only do this to certain people; mostly Mum, my sisters, and my daughters. I do also confess to them straight afterwards. However, considering how rarely I buy books for people I am not sure this is much of a mitigating factor. 

People are surprised that I don't often buy books. I tend to only buy them for people I know extremely well, and when I know their tastes in books and what books they already own. Can you see the problem? Well, except DB. I am constantly buying him books that I think he might like. I don't think he has read most of them. On the upside, it is not unheard of for me to get books from him that other people have given him and that he has no intention of reading. Winning!

There is one other exception. There is one book I have bought for a number of people because it is literally laugh-out-loud funny. Have you read my post on my most favourite books of all time? If not, I will write about it again later.

It was Tink's birthday last week. 

I got her a book. Well, I also got her other things, but I did get her a book.

I read it first, and it was awesome.

If you have read and enjoyed the Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, you will love this new series. 

The first book in the series is 'Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer'. Magnus is a older than Percy, and the themes are a little more grown up. Life at 16 is different to life at 11 whether or not you are a demi-god.  

I have always had an interest in Greek mythology, but I didn't know very much about Norse mythology. This book opened a whole new world of legend for me to explore and I had to read the book with my phone next to me so I could quickly search points that I wanted more information on. From that point of view the book is perfect. It is intriguing; a taster of what is out there if you want to delve further into the mythological world. I am very much hoping all three of my girls read it for that reason alone.

The story line is action packed. The biggest problem I had was sneaking in time to read it when the girls weren't around as it was a present for Tink. 

For adults or older teens who read Percy Jackson and found the writing and the story a little juvenile, Magnus Chase is a more complex and it is clear it is targeted at an older reader. That said, it would still be good for younger readers who like longer stories.

I am really, very much looking forward to the next installment of Magnus Chase, and in the meantime I am re-reading the Percy Jackson books!

Disclaimer:

• It is doubtful I am qualified to give parenting advice, there is still time for me to stuff up.
• No-one actually asked me to review this book, I just liked it so I thought I would share
• I would suggest trying the book yourself rather than just trusting my opinion on it.
• I am not even allowed to give legal advice without supervision.

I would recommend finding more reliable sources for any advice of any nature.

Party of Twelve

Just in case you missed my last post, it was the Pixie's birthday last week. Much celebrations were to be had. We do like celebrating.

In the midst of the celebrations, I took a few little moments to reflect on the crazy collection of people that make up my family.

The day after Pixie's birthday we went to visit DB for dinner. Never let it be said that we cannot make our own amusement. When I was little my mum told me only boring people get bored, and I have refused to be bored ever since*.

Other people might make drives less stressful by making them shorter. Not us. We amused ourselves on the drive to DB's work (about 90 minutes away) by making it longer. To be fair it wasn't so much the driving that took longer but the random stops to take pictures for our Alphabet Photograph Scavenger Hunt.

Buglet also decided that she was going make as many dad jokes as possible. Her father thought this was a great idea. I was much less convinced. Sadly, I can't share any of them with you because the whole experience was too traumatising to remember.

The only one I have remembered from the day was Buglet telling off someone for turning off the fans before she had finished dancing because "I like to perform for my fans".

I will pause here for a minute while you finish groaning.

Pirate socks - I was watching Buglet and Pixie do a pirate dance.
You can tell they are my feet because the socks match.

*Side note: I tried that line on the girls when they were little. It didn't work so well. Pixie cried for about an hour because "You said I was boring, Mama. I can't help being bored. Now you think I am boring". In my defence, that was not the intention. But you have been warned - use this line at your own risk.

Sunday night we had dinner with my family. We went to dinner at Sizzlers (all you can eat buffet type place for those of you who may not have heard of it).

I always tease the girls for only eating yellow stuff when they go to Sizzlers. At least until they get to the dessert.

A perfectly coloured meal - if you are a member of my family.

There were 12 of us at dinner that night. Mum, three sisters, two brothers-in-law, two nieflings, plus us. Every single person's first course was shades of brown, yellow, and beige. (Me included. Mum and I were having pumpkin soup; not a variation of pasta, potato, corn or cheese!). Tink insists that she had red bits so she was different. One BIL insisted on going to get green stuff when he heard me teasing so I don't think that counts. Did I mention that I am the oldest?

My family. The perfect example of how nurture wins over nature.

Sharing this photo because this beanie makes me laugh.

PS the alternative title for this post (in case anyone was wondering after my recent musings about blog titles) was "50 Shades of Beige", but I just couldn't bring myself to write about my family with "50 Shades" in the heading!

Disclaimer:

• It is doubtful I am qualified to give parenting advice, there is still time for me to stuff up.
• I would not take road trip directions from me.
• I am not qualified to give nutrition advice.
• I am not even allowed to give legal advice without supervision.

I would recommend finding more reliable sources for any advice of any nature.

The important things

The Month of Visiting Country People has begun! Maybe a little late, but it has begun. Last weekend I headed out to visit my very pregnant primary school BFF solo. (The girls had gone camping with DB). That was the first of four weekends when I am heading down country roads.

Holidaying can be expensive. I was trying to teach the girls the cost of life ...

Me: I hope none of you have any major expenses this moth. Between four new tyres on Paris, and paying for the hotel for Bali, I am feeling pretty broke.
Pixie *sternly to her sisters*: And she's had to buy me birthday presents.

See! I didn't forget!

You have to love a very subtle reminder that her birthday is up there on the important things that need to be included in the budget!

I had to laugh though. Pixie requested stuff for her bedroom. She had given me some suggestions after we went to Ikea a few weeks ago. She especially wanted "coke hangers". She specifically mentioned that it would be a good present for me to get her. How could you refuse a request like that? She was so excited. She insisted that her "coke hangers" be included in a picture!

(Pixie absolutely refuses to call them anything other that "coke hangers". Even now. I have given up on that fight.)

"Mummy! My coke hangers!"

Yesterday Pixie turned 12. I had been mentally preparing for another big party. Pixie had previously said she wanted to have her big "teenager" party this year, but she has since decided to wait until next year when she turns 13. After having Buglet's 16th a few weeks ago, I have to admit I won't be sorry to wait another year. I want them all to feel that their big events are special in their own right. I do try very hard to make sure they all feel they are their own separate individuals as well as being part of a family, especially since they are so close in age.

Part of this decision, included a last minute request to have her squad (the new word for group of people you hang out with at school, apparently, do you feel like you've learnt something new today), sleepover. This felt reasonable. To have the sleepover, Pixie also said that she would work super hard getting the house nice and clean. this also felt reasonable.

Wednesday ended up being a bitch of a day a work. There is no other way to describe it. I am pretty lucky with my job. I do work long days, and some days I work super long days, but I work in an area of law where it is unusual for to unexpectedly need to be in the office until awful hours of the night. Wednesday ended up being one of those days. Luckily KK picked up the girls for Guides, Apple drove them home, and Team Awesome Guide Leaders said they could manage without me (it was lovely of them to imply that they could cope rather than pointing out that they don't really need me, which is the actual case). I got home at 11pm to a sleepy Pixie who made me promise to wake her up at 5am on Thursday so she could finish cleaning.

Late night work supper. My colleagues are awesome.

I woke up at 5am to help clean. And then my darling child asked me if I was just procrastinating when we went on an early morning drive to get bread! I did point out that while I am brilliant at procrastinating, I do not get up at 5am to clean and then procrastinate. Turns out she just thought of the word. Seriously! Children these days!

It was worth it though. Pixie had a lovely sleepover last night.

Luckily the cleaning was done early. All three of her friends ended up arriving before I got home from work. I had said drop off at 6.30pm if they wanted me to be there, but turned out all the parents were fine with me not being home for the first bit. I walked into a house with music rocking and a cry of "I can't believe you have a stripper pole! You are so cool! I like you already!".

Did I mention I hadn't met one of Pixie's friends before? And that her older sister is friends with Tink, so she came for a sleepover too? Pixie has learnt something from her sisters; if you let them have their own friend they will leave your celebrations alone! Hopefully they will mention the law degree along with the stripper pole or they may never be allowed to sleepover again.

Just for the record, I don't call it a stripper pole. Just a dance pole. And the girls know I do pole dancing because I am too uncoordinated for real dancing. I like to have something to hang on to so I don't fall over.

Happy Birthday Pixie!
(The garden fairies from across the road put on the candles)

Today we are heading on our next country adventure. We are driving up to Boddington to have dinner with DB for the Pixie's birthday.

I asked the Pixie if she would like to go up to have dinner with Daddy on her birthday weekend. Her response: "I think he should like that. I get to pick where we have dinner though. Out of the two  places".

We are planning on doing an alphabet photo scavenger hunt on the way. Check out #alphabetadventures and #krisangels  on Twitter or Instagram if you want to see our pictures!

Disclaimer:

• It is doubtful I am qualified to give parenting advice, there is still time for me to stuff up.
• I have nothing against strippers, but not sure if it the girls' friends' parents would be thrilled b the image.
• I have no idea how I raised children who want coat hangers as birthday presents.
• I am not even allowed to give legal advice without supervision.

I would recommend finding more reliable sources for any advice of any nature.

Good Mama, Bad Mama

The last week has been full of highs and low. I know this is true for every week, but this week has felt a bit more see-sawy than others. To give myself perspective I have decided to write a list of my good Mama and not-so-good Mama moments.

I may also have been inspired by similar type posts on other blogs.

Good Mama Moment (GMM): Pixie packing for camp all by herself.

Not-So-Good Mama Moment (NSGM): Having the horrible realisation that I hadn't sent any spending money with her. In my defence, she wouldn't show me the kit list. (Thanks Apple for telling me to toughen up over this one. You were right; she was fine).

GMM: Planning time to make Pixie feel special for coming home from camp, and at the same time not overshadowing Tink's birthday.

GMM: Finishing work on time on agenda day (this is impressive) so I was at the train station on time to pick up Pixie.

GMM: Dinner with DB, because family birthday time is important. Bonus points for there being very little fighting with one over-excited birthday girl, one over-tired baby home from camp, one grouchy teenager, and one grumpy ex-husband coming off night shift.

Amusing themselves at dinner.

NSGM: Being told off by Pixie for colouring in her picture. I picked the wrong colour.

NSGM: Posting a mushy status update: All my girls are home safely with me (big two tucked up in bed, the little one curled up asleep next to me). My puppy is snoring on her couch. I am in my pyjamas with a glass of red wine and a good book. Life is good. Then realising that Buglet had said good night to me twice and that Tink was actually across the road getting her hair cut.

GMM: Being a super awesome backstage ninja.

NSGM: Deciding the puppy was my favourite child because she doesn't fight.

NSGM: Tink broke herself and I sent her to Apple because I was busy helping someone else. (I did take her to x-ray later that night and she is all good).

NSGM: Totally forgetting to buy the girls' confirmation presents even though I knew exactly what I wanted. (My sister came to the rescue and bought it for me because I was at rehearsals all day Saturday. She is totally awesome).

TBMM (aka Total Bragging Mama Moment): Being so super proud of my girls at confirmation.

BAM (aka Bad Auntie Moment): Scratching my youngest nephew's ear when I was cuddling him in church, and making him bleed.

GMM: Sharing the babies nicely with everyone else at the celebration lunch.

GMM: Taking the little two to the movies so Buglet could study.

GMM: Dropping the girls off at school on Monday because Buglet had exams and there were thunderstorms.

GMM: Remembering to buy Buglet study food (I had promised the Pixie that when she had exams I would buy her "study food" and I figured this would apply to the others too).

NSGM: Not realising that Buglet doesn't eat cheezles. To me these are the ultimate study food. How I have a daughter who doesn't eat them I don't know.

NSGM: This status update: Snuggled up in bed, just about to go to sleep when I realise that the Pixie is still wandering around. If I was a better mother I would get up and find out why (instead of posting here so I remember to find out later). I never bothered finding out.

NSGM: Leaving Tink at home sick.

NSGM: Bribing Pixie with a McDonald's hashbrown so she wouldn't have a tantrum about being dropped off at school early.

NSGM: Telling Pixie not to tell her sisters that I bribed her with a hashbrown.

GMM: Delegating parenting stuff to DB (and Apple). Parenting is a team effort.

I am pretty sure I have balanced it out overall. You have to take the good with the bad! Keeping it real peoples. You can't be perfect all the time.

Disclaimer:

• Do not attempt a similar post unless you are sure it will work out to be an overall positive. You do not want to end up feeling worse about yourself.
• It is doubtful I am qualified to give parenting advice, there is still time for me to stuff up.
• I am not even allowed to give legal advice without supervision.

I would recommend finding more reliable sources for any advice of any nature.

Pixie party!

We have finally had the Pixie's birthday party. Have I mentioned before my family is extraordinarily good at moving birthday's to when they suit us? We always do presents and have an icecream cake  on the actual day, but with three "sides" of the family to fit in the rest of it can be somewhat spread out.

We don't always have a "proper" party, but there is always something with friends. Most often a sleepover now they are older. This is partly to help alleviate the mother guilt about lack of play dates (not child manipulated guilt either).

This birthday party has reminded me of a few important life lessons.

Firstly, I love Guides. The main thing that stresses me out about birthday parties is having to clean the house. (Most of the time I have managed to avoid this too). I have worked out over the years that I just tend to treat them like organising a Guide meeting. I would like to say that this is not intentional, but this is what I seem to do.

As the girls have gotten older it has been even easier. Sleepovers are awesome, because the girls can organise most of it themselves. They love organising things so for them this is a big part of the fun.

The Pixie did everything this year with a bit of help with the shopping. Massive bonus. She was so proud of herself and excited to be doing it, and it kept her happy for ages. There was a bit of confusion with the invites where she had the party going from Friday night to Sunday morning (apparently I am not always that good at proof reading), but we overcame that hurdle. Thank goodness! Just because I can handle five 11-year-olds for a weekend, doesn't mean I want to.

Another part of minor confusion arose when the Pixie wanted to know what time Apple and Mr Apple were coming. She had made them lolly bags, and she was very anxious about how the pizza would arrive if they weren't here to pick it up. I did point out that usually you invite people if you want them to be at your party. Pixie was adamant that they didn't need an invitation they would just be there "because that is what they do". They were there, and the pizza was collected.

It also reminded me why being on good terms with your ex can be very useful (even when you are not talking to them).

Sorting out the cake is DB's job. Although considering he dropped the cake off with three very hyped up girls who had eaten chocolate mousse for breakfast (the Minion is filled with mousse, I am not exactly sure why, but it was yummy) and then left ..... I have a sneaking suspicion that when it comes to sleepover parties he has sussed out the easy part of the deal.

Let's do the time warp again ....

.... and flash back to 11 years ago when I was in hospital, with the effects of the pethidine just wearing off, in awe of my beautiful new baby girl, now known as "Pixie".

One of her middle names is "Joy", because it is my mum's middle name and one of her great-grandmother's names was "Joyce". The girls love hearing the meanings behind their names and when Pixie was about four we were having one of those conversations. Pixie asked what joy meant my response was "happiness, and that was a lovely thing to call a very special baby". Pixie's very serious response was "that is because I was only a baby and you didn't know that I was 'naughtiness' yet". Oops! Parenting fail! I did call her naughtiness a lot.

But that conversation did make me think. While she was called "Joy" for other reasons, she has brought so much joy to my life. Pixie was my surprise package, and she most definitely makes our lives a more joyous place.

Birthdays are a big thing. Buglet's birthday is exactly one month before Pixie's and she is not allowed to make birthday plans until after Buglet's birthday, so that Buglet gets to enjoy the lead-up to her special day. I was in a little bit of trouble on Monday when Pixie asked if I was going to pick them up on Thursday, and I asked why? In my defence, I hadn't forgotten it was her birthday, I was just worried there was something else on I had forgotten. We tend to spread birthday celebrations out, so I don't usually pick them up from school just because it is their birthday. However today I am massively thankful for Apple for picking them up from school and for making Pixie's afternoon special while I was at work. It helps relieve the mother-guilt somewhat. There was even cake. I did not get cake (ok that is not quite true, I did get myself a cupcake at work in celebration of 11 years of Pixie parenting!)

This year Pixie has decided to commemorate her birthday in her own way. Last weekend she spent most of her time amusing herself by making a time capsule to be opened on her 21st birthday. While I think this is a fabulous idea there were lots of arguments about the suitability of materials for making the capsule as she was adamant it needed to be buried outside. Luckily Google came to the rescue and in her hunt to find out how to make a good time capsule, she found a site that said it could be kept inside. The compromise was that we would "bury" it in my walk-in-robe; this would not be as hard as you might think.

Pixie hasn't quite finalised what is going inside the capsule yet, but she has drafted this letter. She told me I could share it with you all, but you have to forget what it says in the next 10 years.

"Today 26-6-2014
So last Thursday I came up with the idea to make a time capsule. I decided I wanted to bury it in the garden, but I couldn't find any containers that would be suitable so I have to just put it in mums wardrobe. Anyway, I asked mum want to put in there and she said I can't put my puppy in a box for 10 years. So today I am going to put special things and little memories inside my box I made. Just to remind future me I am going to list the newest & best songs at the moments: Fancy by Iggy Azalea, Problem by Ariana Grande & Iggy Azalea and Wiggle Wiggle by SnoopDay. The biggest movie (even though I am not allowed to watch it), is 'The Fault in Our Stars'. Sadly biggest trend is jellies which are plastic sandals. Buglet is at the stage she wears heels at ever chance she gets. Tink is at that stage where she is definitely becoming an annoying teenager. It's my last year of primary school and the year 6's of 2014 are the first group of year 6's graduate primary school in year 6. It's Tink's first year of high school and Buglet's last year of lower high school. Yesterday I found out I got into the EaLS program. Anyway, Mum recently started a blog on Facebook called 'Philosophy Minors'. She also just started the 1st chapter of 'Elementals', but by 2024 it will already have been the  #1 best seller in the World. Also at the moment loom bands are the biggest craze. In the capsule there is a rainbow loom band".

Please note: all spelling, grammar and punctuation are as Pixie wrote it! I should also clarify that the puppy discussions was because I suggested she put things in that would remind her about what her favourite things are at the moment; Flip-Flop is her favourite everything. We are going to get a photo of Flip-Flop for it instead.

Pixie requested that I post one whole paragraph about her, I think I have that covered!

And now I am going to go to bed. Pixie has just told me that I read the first chapter of her new book "right now" so we can discuss it in the morning, apparently she has questions, and I want to cuddle my not-so-little-baby while she still lets me.

Let them eat cake!

Today we finally had the Buglet's birthday party with her friends.

We went and saw Maleficent, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

There were some important life lessons learned though:

1. Organising a party is hard work when you can't pronounce the name of the movie. Even writing in the blog posts because I struggle so much it was hard to even copy it.
2. The Buglet has inherited her father's love of puns. So many "maligcifent" jokes. (If you don't get this, try pronouncing both words out loud. If you are still struggling refer to point 1 and know I am sympathising).

My proud moment of the day was predicting the end of the movie (clearly to myself in my head). I never get this right. This was also made even sweeter because DB had told the Pixie what he thought was going to happen and he was wrong. He is usually really good at not only predicting them, but also telling me just to make me mad. When he told me afterwards he'd picked the ending too, he was severely squashed by a Pixie pointing out that he'd been wrong. I will be claiming bragging rights about this one for a very long time.

Flashback moments
I had been looking forward to this movie a little bit more than usual, because Sleeping Beauty was the first movie I ever saw at the cinemas. Part of the reason I remember so clearly is because at the time we were living on a sheep station and Mum had given us the day of school so we could drive to the closest town to see it. Unfortunately she got her days mixed up and it wasn't showing that day. The story ends happily, we ended up seeing it in Adelaide when we went on a holiday. We sat in the front row and I still remember clutching my cousin's hand very tightly during the scary bits.

The girls were more interested in their first cinema experiences.

Dad took Buglet and Tink to their first movie. I am pretty sure it was to see Lilo and Stitch. They were 3.5 and 2 at the time and he took them with two of my sisters who were 9 and 6. I was little bit anxious about his ability to cope. I spent a lot of time reminding Buglet to tell her aunt if she needed to go to the toilet, and reminding Miss 9 to take her before they went into the theatre. I must have forgotten to explain what the movies were because Buglet's first comment when she got home was "Mummy! Did you know there is a big tv at the movies?!". Oops. I guess you can't cover everything.

Pixie's first real movie experience was Ice Age 2. The big two were going to their end of term excursion with Guides so DB and I decided to take Pixie too. Half way through the movies there was  a very loud exclamation of "Mama! Mama! Mama! There are two eflants!!!". There was lots of laughter. She was so excited. She loved elephants, but apparently hadn't really been following the story line! The rest of the cinema had realised there was two elephants about 10 minutes into the movie; if not before the movie started from seeing previews.

Facebook link in
Just in case you missed the Pixie's quote of the day, here it is .....

Pixie *big eyes*: I think Buglet is sad.
Me: Why is she sad?
Pixie: Because she didn't have a birthday cake.
Me: She did have a birthday cake.
Pixie *even sadder eyes*: Not with her friends.
Me: You wanting cake is not the same thing as Buglet being sad.

And just to be very clear, she has had cake! Miss 9 is now Miss (almost) 21 and made her a super yummy cake which we had at my parents' place. She requested icecream cake for at home on her actual birthday. Buglet also made cupcakes to take to dancing to celebrate.

Never let it be said that we don't take cake or birthday celebrations seriously. Now if you will excuse me, I am off to reminisce some more about my memories of my children and my sisters where they were little and cute.

15 years and counting ....

Today my Buglet turned 15!

15 years and two days ago, I had successfully made it to week 12 of uni and had massively disappointed everyone by not dramatically going into labour during class (about a year later when I was pregnant with Tink I realise I had all the classic signs of pre-labour that last day of uni, but hadn't realised). As a side note, I made it back to my final class the week after.

My waters broke about 1am the Monday night, and at 18.02hrs on the Wednesday, Buglet was born. I got to announce to everyone there that she was a girl. An hour and a half after that Mum had gone home to get my four lovely sisters (my fifth sister wasn't born yet), and I got to show them their beautiful new niece, and introduce my daughter to four of the people who would have the most impact on her life.

15 years ago, I was snuggling my baby-girl and watching Blue Heelers. I would like to say I was reflecting on something deep, but that would be a lie.

My facebook message to the Buglet:

 

"Happy birthday to my amazing, talented, beautiful eldest daughter! Where have the last 15 years gone?

Hugging you this morning it is hard to believe that 15 years ago, I told those present that you were a girl and my universe changed forever.

I am so proud of how hard you work. I am proud of the things your teachers have to say about you, and I am proud of you for working at the subjects you find the hardest. It blows me away that you are old enough to be teaching dance, and I am beyond proud when other parents tell me how wonderful you are with the younger students (and how well you cope with your sisters). I am proud of you for making grown-up decisions when it has come to your health and dancing, and for taking the time to follow medical instructions *and* for not giving up. 

I admire your grace, your dedication, and your quiet achievements. I also am thankful for your ability to only cook, but I am also in awe of your talent of presenting it all beautifully. Thank you baby girl, you make my life easier in more ways than you will ever know.

 

I love the moments we get to share, just the two of us, whether it is at Guides, about books or movies, or just the random moments that make up our lives.

Most importantly, don't ever forget that I have loved you since the moment you existed, and I will love you long after my final breath."

 

I probably should have mentioned her amazing Pixie-wrangling skills.

 

 

 

Speaking of the Pixie. This was her birthday present to her sister. She even gave her the option of having glasses added so it looked even more like the Buglet!

 

 

 

 

Armed and dangerous: Part 2 of my weekend

Sunday is family day. I try to stick to this. Mostly unsuccessfully, but it is the thought that counts!

Buglet managed to convince us that she should have her birthday present's today. Her reasoning was that Daddy was spending the day with us and because tomorrow (her actual birthday) is a Monday, and that Monday's are super busy. This is true.

I mostly gave in because one of the Buglet's birthday presents was The Host (on dvd, she got the book last Christmas), and that made a nice diversion between Tink's soccer and the main attraction of the day ..... lazar tag!

Today was a just a "house family" celebration. With a massive family, birthday celebrations can go over the whole month. Originally we were going to do something with her friends, but that didn't work out so a family session at lazar tag it was. I do maintain my right as their mother to claim their birthdays as my special days too! Not only am I the one who actually gave birth, each year is another year I get to celebrate how much they have grown, and that we all have survived.

Lazar tag was not only great fun, it was very educational too.

What we learnt at lazar tag:

• we are all ultra competitive;
• real men can wear pink;
• Tink has the makings of an officer;
• Tink has a scary number of tactics;
• don't get on the Buglet's bad side, she started a vendetta against the other dad playing who was the only person to obtain a higher score than her in the first game;
• DB refuses to follow instructions especially when the instructions are "don't shoot me I am on the same team";
• three out of five of us really need to work on our aim; and
• despite my best efforts the girls still didn't know who C3PO was (the character name Tink was given).

Some of these things we should probably have known earlier.

Proud mama moments of the day ~ lazar tag edition:

• my girls weren't the ones sulking when they got hit; and
• Tink obeying the international law protecting the injured even from the other side (aka a small crying child who was lost).

There is something ironic about shooting other people's children celebrating a parenting milestone. Or possibly therapeutic. Probably better for family relations that we were all on the same team. DB suggested paintballing. Lucky the girls are not old enough. I really will need to work on my aim before then!