MACH_Shower_Bon Fire_ Celebration

Friday July 3rd a bunch of the "Orange People" got together to CELEBRATE!!

A New "human" baby boy due in the middle of September.
Poor planning in 'my' opinion, as September is the busiest agility trial season. G

Two NEW MACHS!!!! Addie and Carrie, along with Jeff and Bea.

Plus a bon fire, that we really didn't get to enjoy much as it decided to start to rain just as it got dark. I don't think it actually mattered too much.

Anytime you get together with Friends is a GREAT TIME!!
Especially when there's FOOD involved! Boy was there FOOD!!! And PRESENTS!!!!!

Whenever you give a baby shower, it's tradition that you have games. I'm not terribly found of baby shower games, so I put a twist on them. They would be DOG related! PERFECT!!

The first game involved matching the dog breed to a breed specific tidbit I found on the AKC website. I didn't pick anything obvious, as where would the fun be in that?

I'm not sure these people have ever been this quite!! Of course, there were the complaints.
They ranged from the questions were too hard, the font too small and of course Natalie who can't read that well. GEEZ!! They are a competitive group and Meme (Marsha) took the prize with 9 of 13 correct. Martha (Melinda) showed up 'late' and got them all correct, but we figured that didn't count as she had a lot more time and fewer distractions without all the grumbling.

While the breed game was fun. The Clicker - Human Trainer - Human "Dog", was a HIT!!

Everyone paired up with a partner and one person was the dog, the other the handler. The 'dogs' got to pick their reinforcement of assorted candies. M&M's, Skittles or Peanut Butter M&M's. The humans got to draw a 'trick' to teach their 'dog' using positive reinforcement and a clicker. NO VERBALS!! I happen to know, there WAS some CHEATING going on!!

Carrie was a SMART dog and was able to open up and sit on this mat in with only a few clicks!

Liz, not quite as smart as Carrie. Liz was suppose to put a tennis ball inside the crate, not get on top of it!! Meg got a GREAT laugh out of it however, so it was worth it!!
Great job Liz!!!

Jeff went for some extra credit points by putting his 'rump' on the sign.
No Jeff, boy hands!!

Poor Michele. She wasn't sure WHAT to do with these to bars.
(She was actually suppose to back through them)
She did offer a LOT of great behaviors however!!

Fritz and Rilda were a GREAT TEAM!!!
They had there trick perfected in NO TIME!!!!

Carol and Sue Ann, well....I think it might have been more difficult if Carol
(she was the handler), hadn't performed 1/2 of the trick herself by setting the bar to the appropriate height!! G

After the games, Jeff ran out to the fire in order to BURN his Novice A shoes!! I suppose this should become some kind of tradition. When you finish your MACH you should burn the shoes you ran with in Novice. Boy, that's pressure!! I'd have to remember which shoes they were!!


Of course, then there's the baby gifts!!! Not your normal boring, bibs, diapers, and such.
(Okay, there were those too!) But a cool orange and blue quilt from Johnette!!

And look what's on the back!! Perfect with the little baby T-Shirt with the same Logo.
A perfect homecoming outfit.

I'm not sure if the soft and cuddle stuffed animals ever made it home?
Michele, Rilda....GIVE THOSE BACK!

Then of course there are the MACH presents!
Meme makes the BEST MACH PICTURES!

Here's Carrie with hers.

Do to the economic conditions, we felt it might be necessary to make the MACH bars a bit smaller. So, here's Jeff showing off his newly earned MACH PEN!

How could we top off this party!!!!!
SPARKLERS of course!!!
Here's Liz and Fritz helping their Granddaughter Natalie.

Natalie was nice enough to share one with ME!!!!
Of course, I had to promise to sit still and not run around with it.
These people really just can't forget about one careless incident involving my sparkler and a person's shirt. For crying out loud, that was like EIGHT years ago!!!

His skin grew back......eventually!! LOL