Yippeeeee!!

Today was the Aspire AER Champs - Tink's last chance to qualify for Nationals in Step 4 9-11yrs.
Her first comp in Invercargill was a bust when she just had to stop a bit over halfway in to what was looking to be a good clean routine, thanks to an upset tummy and her then undiagnosed asthma.
Second chance was ZM Series 3 a month ago where she did a complete, good clean routine but missed the qualifying mark by 0.8.
The girls' AER coaches are based in Alexandra in the South Island, so it's been a case of intense training when Sally and Glenn were ever in Auckland backed up by practice at home.  Tink has faithfully done at least one routine a weekday since late April, with the odd Saturday practice supervised by Jess.
So out onto the comp floor she went today, bolstered by some warm up routines under the watchful eye of Glenn, who happened to be in Auckland this weekend and who managed to make time in his busy schedule to be there for his "Auckland girls".
One complete, good, clean routine later we got: 13.3 and a ticket to Dunedin for Nationals.

WAY TO GO TINKERBELLE!!!

And then there were three...

Dini didn't turn up for breakfast this morning.  This isn't unheard of.  However, on getting to the end of the driveway to go grocery shopping, I saw why this morning was different.

No more head butts

No more meows that took her whole face to make (and she was the only one who did actually "meow" - the rest peep, cry or yowl)

No more fur left everywhere (she was the fluffiest of the five four)

Dini had the most beautiful yellow/green eyes

And the longest whiskers

Dini was our ratter...

20 minutes from leaving the house to coming back with daddy rat,

then a bit later on with mummy rat was the record

The house feels even more strange now...