I'm a brave girl!

If I have ever got close to having a phobia, it has been with snakes, and quite justifiably so. Being born in Nigeria, and living there till I was 9, I developed a healthy fear to stay awy from the dangerous creatures. I could never really understand why anyone would want to have one as a pet, and especially to touch or have one coiled round their neck!

Luke was invited to a birthday party on Monday, and rather than the mandatory bouncy castle, fancy dress and screaming children, the parents of the girl who's birthday we were celebrating, went down a more creative route. They bought in entertainment in the form of Simon Airey from Corner Exotics. An enthusiastic man who brought various animals and creatures to share. He gave lots of information and tried his best to put people at ease, particularly with the furry 8 legged creatures and the afore mentioned reptiles. I was not prepared for the amount of screaming to be had when Simon flicked a toy spider into the middle of the room - the boys were worse than the girls! Eventually when everyone had calmed down the girls were very brave in coming forward and looked, touched and eventually handled everything that came out of Simon's boxes.

These included a Chinchilla, a desert hedgehog, exotic furry! spiders, huge scorpions, huge cockroaches, tree frogs, a bull frog, lizads, gecko's, a chameleon, stick insect, and various sized snakes. We were constantly reminded that fear is learnt and that all the animals were safe, this however did not put everyone at ease.

Ethan stroking a lizard

Ethan probably touched more animals than Luke, though Luke did stroke a snake. A highly enjoyable evening, highly recomended for a party, wether child's or adult!

"No mummy, I don't want to hold it"

I worked my way up from a small snake to this big mumma!

Below are pics of a beer mat album that will be going on sale on ebay at the weekend.

Note to self: continue making Crystal brooches.