froglets, marbles and lots of gerbils

Someone from our home ed group was going away camping and asked if we would babysit their gerbils. The kids were super excited about it all, waiting outside for them for hours but unfortunately, they were running VERY late :o( so I made the kids some nectarine muffins, they all wolfed them down and even ate Daddy's share.
The gerbils arrived!!! All 11 of them! They came in four ENORMOUS cages and have made our utility room look like a pet shop :o)
The family said that they wanted to give three away to a good home, Boo of course jumped at the offer so I had to step in as the mean Mommy and say no :o( they really do smell :oP
We asked them why they had so many and apparently they were given a gerbil that was mis-sexed as a boy but turned out to be a girl oooops.

The younger two were as bothered about the rodents, Kiki spent the time trying to put on her big sister's skates, not very successfully.
You can tell it started raining outside as we have tents inside :o)
The kids all brought their duvets down and lay under their tent listening to James and the Giant peach until Kiki brought the whole lot down *sigh* little sisters can be such a pain :oP
Googs has been a little out of sorts so I took him aside and told him that I would make something that was just for him. He loved the idea and wanted to take pictures of me making it.
I got the inspiration from 'made by joel'.

It's a marble run!
After having it to himself for a while, he wanted to show it off to the others.
He played with it for ages. Here he was playing planting seeds.
When the rain cleared up we went to check on the froglets in the horse trough.
up and over
Aren't they so cute!