Our baby is teenager.

Today I am an exhausted yet proud mother! Celebrations started last night when 8 teenage and almost teenage girls arrived on our doorstep to spend the night in celebration of the fact our eldest is now 13. Unsure herself of what would constitute an acceptable party, our daughter bravely left us to invent a surprise evening. Understandably Bri and I planned to wear them out! Therein lay the first problem.

How do you wear out 8 teenage girls without being left totally wrecked yourself? (Personally I don't think it's possible unless you hire in someone to take on the job!)

We planned a walk down a country lane nearby, across fields and up a steep hill then back to ours for hot chocolate. We decided to punctuate the walk with various challenges so that rewards would give a sense of fun and incentive.

First stop - the end of the lane. 'Wherefore art thou Romeo?' hailed loudly by each girl in turn from the top of the stile successfully saw each of them receive a glow stick or glowing piece of jewellery. (These took at least 15 minutes to distribute due to various pieces being dropped in the mud.)

We continued on to the bottom of the hill and the next challenge which was to sing a Christmas Carol. 'O Come all you faithful' rang out over hill and vale in a manner and at a pitch which I'm sure is unlikely to ever be heard again. It was ominous that at this point the sky began to spit droplets of rain. Bri and I looked at each other. We hadn't accounted for this. Only moments earlier we'd commented on the mildness of the night happily trundling down the hill with the excited girls glowing in their trinkets. This would throw a spanner in the works. The singing must have done it we decided and began to hurry the girls towards the next and final challenge of the evening.

This next part was the most challenging for me as it was the steepest and muddiest bit of the walk. I trailed behind and watched the bouncing figures of the youthful group become smaller and smaller as they steamed on ahead despite the now persistent and more heavy rain. When I finally reached them gathered at the top of the hill I was a sodden , sorry looking lump.

Bri was no better as he determined to take on the last challenge which in the now sleeting and wind driven rain was nigh on impossible. The idea had been inspired, each girl to light a sparkler from the girl in front and say the 'iggle piggle' poem, the problem lay in the fact that we couldn't get the first sparkler lit due to the worsening weather. When it finally DID light it fizzled out within seconds because it had become so damp in the waiting process.

We abandoned the idea and decided to head for home. Brian and I dropped exhausted into bed at 11.30 having spent the rest of the evening hanging all the wet clothes out to dry and making sure everyone was happy. The girls continued merrily partying until 2. 30am until I'd finally had enough and threatened to separate them and put them in different rooms! Silence reigned.

Today has been yet another adventure, worthy of a blog all to itself so tomorrow I will continue in different vein.