I was the second shooter at a wedding yesterday (photos to be posted in a few days), so I didn’t book anything for today because I knew I was going to be exhausted.  I was right! I did however have an extremely full day, filled with friends!

This morning I met up with a few online moms forum friends at River Cafe for a “quiet” morning.  We had a fabulous chat, and some good food, and the kids had a ball!! I haven’t been on that forum very much lately, and it was great catching up with everyone (and meeting some faces for the first time in real life).

The service however, left a lot to be desired.  One of the orders never arrived at all, yet we were charged for it.  The worst part of the whole morning, was when some dude arrived at the table telling us that we had to move because there was a party booked for that spot, and we had to be out of there within 10m minutes!! Colleen had booked the table six weeks before and no mention was made of the fact that there was a time limit to our reservation! Needless to say, we refused to move, mostly because they’d actually only just brought some of the kids food!! Then the dude threatened to move the shade covering if we didn’t move.  Well, you can imagine how irate we all got then. Nice way to treat your customers!

But anyhoo, here are a few photos…

After that drama, Madelein and her kids went and collected Pierre, and they came to our house for a braai and a swim (first swim of the season)… and we had a really awesome afternoon. After the boys played cricket with the dads, the kids all went swimming… not for long however, their teeth were chattering within no time because of the temperature of the water!

What the dogs thought of this swimming idea… Kimo nested on the pool net, and Kitara just didn’t get it!

It was a great day with friends… just the kind of day that I needed

I can’t show you any photos of the gorgeous kiddies today, but I can show you the most awesome decorations and food! I was asked to take photos at a 3 year old’s birthday party that was held at the Italian Club in Bedfordview yesterday.  And it was awesome!

The mom is Brazillian and dad Italian, and it was an awesome mix of cultures.  The mom actually MADE a lot of the sweets… they were sublime.  Even the singing was special with Happy Birthday being sung by the guests and family in English, then Italian and then Portuguese   so I had so much time to get photos of him blowing his candles out because they were lit 3 times!

Monkey Magic did the Mickey Mouse decor and also organised the clown, who did a puppet show then balloons and then a little magic before he did the most amazing face painting!

These are brigadeiro‘s and she made a wide variety of them. Some were like Lindt chocolate balls with gooey chocolate inside, and others were like truffles.

She also made these chocolate lollipops in the shape of the Disney characters

Also on offer were Ohlo de Sogra (Mother-in-law’s eyes) which are made from prunes stuffed with vanilla and coconut. Sound a little odd, but my oath they were so very very yummy!

Angel‘s Pamper Party was held today and as you can see from the photos below, everyone was asked to wear red and purple   It was such a fun afternoon with a few games and loads of laughter… and she even baked cupcakes for her own party!

It was fabulous to see so many blogging ladies together with her family and friends… and not to mention Briget, who drove from Durban especially for the event!! How special is that?!

Heidi and Sheena

Briget (and she didn’t believe I would put a photo of her on my blog tonight ) and Laura

Ready for the games

As you can see, Angel and Stef didn’t waste any time trying to sabotage the others attempts with the cotton wool (including a blogger I’d never met before, Alida)

Angel had to dress a “likeness” of Glugster…


Laughing with Exmi

I had to show you photos of Sheena’s gift. It was just simply too awesome for words… the card said “Angel’s Marriage Survival Kit”! So much effort went into it, and I actually had tears at times listening to the messages (I know, I’m a softy). The box was filled with little gifts, each one with a tag and a message for them. It had things like earbuds for when he’s not listening, and a sewing kit for mending them when they’re hurting, and a reminder for her to get her hair done sometimes and granny panties to remind her to be sexy and some tiger socks (can’t remember why) etc etc… ahh man, it was just so awesome!

And lastly, definitely the gift that came the furthest…

And so now the countdown to the wedding really heats up… 3 weeks to go before the big day!! Stay tuned for those photos (I’m the official photographer for the event and I’m so excited about it!)

I’ve got a weekend off this weekend with no photoshoots, so I took photos of the kids playing at home instead. The new swords and knife play sets were bought yesterday as a result of good behaviour.

We’ve been using star charts recently. They’ve been working like a charm, and yesterday’s toys were as a result of Connor finally pooing in the toilet for 2 weeks consecutively, and Bradley getting to bed on time and helping around the house!

I was actually surprised that they chose such cheap toys… R40 each!! And I’d promised Connor almost the world if he poo’ed (a Bruder digger costing R400 and Toy Story lego set costing R300) and he rejected them all in the end for the cheap option. That made me even more happy!! And look how they both enjoyed playing with them too!

These are my Weekly Winners for Lotus’ challenge

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

Madi and Sharon came over to our house this afternoon with the kids.  The rain thankfully stopped while they were here, and even though it was freezing, the kids had a ball playing outside.

If you’re wondering where Carmen (Andrew’s sister) is… she had locked herself in Bradley’s bedroom to escape the puppies… so I only got to take photos of the boys today

I have to also add these 3 photos… Bradley took them!! I think they’re brilliant.  I gave him my camera to use with the 50mm f1.8 on it.  Cool hey?!  They’re SOOC (straight out of camera), just resized to fit on a collage!  Not bad for an almost 7 year old

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.