The Real Jenty

Today was epic, and I am quite exhausted, but before I go to bed, here’s a rundown of what we did…

Newborn shoot at 8:30am so I had an early start and managed to cook egg breakfasts for the boys before I left home.  This was close to Fourways.

Then mad dash home to drop off my equipment and pile the kids in the car with toys to play with en-route.

Then mad dash across Jo’burg to meet up with Sharon, Sally, Louisa and Anglugs at the tweetup at Irene Country Lodge.  I had to make it so I could deliver Angel’s DVD of engagement photos to her!  What a cool place for the kids, and food was Ok too after fighting with the waitress who didn’t want to let me order from the menu because it was after midday! The kids got to fish in the dam, and feed the ducks and play on the grass and run around like lunatics for 2 hours!

Then bundle kids back in the car at 2pm to get to a party in Allen’s Nek that started at 2pm… spot the problem (not to mention the distance to get there)! En route, stop off at toy shop to buy birthday girl a pressie.  Finally get to said party at 3pm!!

Clamber Club entertained the kids, and OMW they had fun!  I didn’t actually take my camera but I was actually seeing all sorts of stunning shots of kids while I was watching… I’m quite sad that way!

I finally got home with the kids at 5pm!

Oh and then I spent the evening, once the kids went to sleep, upgrading my photoblog… and now it’s time for bed.

I got asked this morning when I spend time with the kids because I always seem on the go, and busy with all sorts of things if you look at my blog, and twitter and FB stream.  LOL, as you can see, apart from the photoshoots, my weekend is all about the kids!  Fear not, they’re getting attention too

What a disaster! Well, not quite… it’s not that bad, but I’m still not happy.

I finally finished doing Connor’s party invitations.  I really struggled to find triceratops pictures for it, this was the nicest I could find.  But I didn’t really look at the photo properly until I sent the invites out just now.

It’s violent man!! The triceratops are attacked a maiasaura and it’s nest!!  The mothers better not look too closely!

oh em gee… And to top it off, Angel just sent me an email to tell me that I spelt my street address wrong too!! Damnit!  I didn’t save the psd file for some unknown reason, so I’m going to have to start from scratch before I send it to his school friends.

Aaarrrggghhh!! What a fab end to a fab day!

Two small things happened today that made me realise that Bradley is no longer my little boy.

The first happened early this morning when he had to get dressed.  I took out jeans for him and told him to choose a t-shirt, think that he would choose the Ben 10 t-shirt that was on the top of the pile.  I was gobsmacked when he chose the rock t-shirt with an electric guitar on it intead!!

The second major deal was at the party.  The first part of the party was at the Spur, and then after they’d eaten the kids went to play Lazer Battlezone.  Now I’ve played that before, for a teambuild at some stage, and it’s exhausting.  It’s in the pitch black and you run around shooting at each other with lazer guns.

When I went to collect him when the game had finished, he looked so excited. He absolutely LOVED it, and he did so well.  He came 4th out of the 12 kids!! Now that to me is HUGE, he’s never excelled at physical and gross motor stuff.  He was telling me all the way home how he was hiding, and shooting and going upstairs to shoot at people etc etc.

The mom who organised the party said that only one child chickened out because he thought there were scary monsters in there.  And Bradley was so sweet, he told me that he only shot at his best friend once, because even though she was on the opposing team, she was after all his best friend

Yip, he’s growing up… too fast!

We had Bradley’s party on Sunday… the photos will get posted just now on my photoblog.

And of course, at some stage through the party the conversation inevitably goes to discussing other parties.

A few of the moms were talking about a party held on Saturday for one of the girls in Bradley’s class. He’d been invited to the party, but decided that he didn’t want to go… I don’t think he was too impressed by the invite actually. LOL!

The theme was Bollywood, and it was held at the child’s home in a fancy golf estate close to the school.

Well, what came out of that conversation about it warrants a blog post of some sort!  Bear in mind, that these kids are turning 6 years old this year… that’s all… 6.

Apparently it felt like going to a wedding.  The mom had organised a three tiered cake.  There were Bollywood style dancers everywhere and there was some kind of performance during the party too.  If the child wasn’t dressed appropriately, then they were offered outfits when they walked in the door – they were actually dressed and had make-up, bindi’s and their hair done!

And the party packs… genuine leather handbags!! But that’s not all… they were filled with about R500 worth of stuff including bangles, bindi’s, henna, a leather purse etc etc.

The one mom who was telling me the story yesterday has a daughter that’s a bit of a tomboy, and she went to her mom half-way through the party (after trying to dance like everyone else) and said “I don’t want to be a sexy girl anymore”. And when they finally left, and she handed back the clothes she’d been given to wear… they were apparently black from all the mud A had been playing in

I wish he’d said yes!! Imagine the photos I could have taken!   I could have gotten a new handbag! LOL!

Anyhoo, here’s the point of my ramble… if this child’s 6 and she’s getting parties like this… imagine what’s going to happen a few years from now.  How on earth are the parents going to top this?

I’ve never left it so late before, but with school starting on his birthday (next tuesday), and with Mother’s Day the following week, and Bradley only wanting his party at ONE particular venue that seemed to be fully booked… it’s been a bit of a nightmare!

Anyhoo, it’s booked and organised…. and I’ve just designed his invitations.  I like it, hope he does too… because I’ve already emailed them out   He’ll see it in the morning.

Now all I have to do is organise the cake, and it’s done! What a win doing it at a venue… they’re doing the rest   But this will be his last big birthday party I think.

Only a week to go before Connor’s birthday, and I only managed to send out the invitations yesterday.  LOL, it’s the latest I’ve started organising a party ever!  Hope people will be able to make it.

On Friday afternoon in Woolies, we passed some Spiderman item, and Connor say “pider” and twirls his arms and goes “fssshhhh”(he’s been watching spiderman on TV with Bradley).  So I ask him if he wants a Spiderman cake at his party.  “mmm…hmmm” is the reply (his version of yes).

So, then I say “What about a plane cake?”  and again “mmm…hmmm” is the response.  LOL!  I should have known better.  So, I asked him again “Do you want Spiderman?”  This time the answer is “No… pane”.

Isn’t his talking cute?! I can’t wait to blog about conversations with him.

We finally had a theme.  While I was on that roll, I went next door to the home industry and ordered the cake… an aeroplane cake… and then finally got around to doing the invites!    And what do you think?  I like the way they turned out!

Thanks to Sue for the idea in the comments on the last post on the subject a few weeks ago.

Bradley went to his friends birthday party this afternoon.  My mom took him to the party after school, and I joined the party later.

LOL, it was so much fun.  One of the mom’s is an absolute scream once she gets going.  She’s a child psychologist so she’s quite interesting to talk to, but OMW she was on a roll today

We learnt about the body language of men when they’re interested in women…  they puff their chests out and start fiddling with their belts.  Not the crotch area, but above that… it’s apparently the most sensual area.  And they tend to face their whole body towards the woman.  Must say, I’d never noticed that.

Then we learnt about how women tend to fiddle with their ears, or their neck when they’re in the presense of someone they like.

And all this knowledge was imparted because she thought there was a relationship between the birthday girls aunt (B)… and another guy that was there. LOL, it was funny.  The girl in question (B) was adamant that there wasn’t anything happening, and her family (her mom and sister) were quite horrified at the thought.  The strange thing is, that I also felt that there was a connection, but I couldn’t articulate it as well as Sandy did.  LOL, B’s never going to be able to look at him in the same way again.

You can imagine where this conversation eventually went, and all of us were laughing hysterically, and the couple at the table next to ours were learning a thing or 2 as well.  Hehe!! Conversations about sex etc are just the funniest things to discuss at a kids birthday party in the middle of a busy family restaurant… especially with a bunch of loud mouthed moms who are used to talking above their kids voices… and after a few glasses of wine

Nash, Madi and Laura threw Marlise and I a surprise birthday party last night.  LOL, it was a lot of fun.

When Lance told me yesterday afternoon that he’s taking me out for dinner, I was imagining a nice restaurant… and I was surprised that he’d even arranged something like that… I never have surprises like that.

Then when we got in the car, he told me what was going on… he knew that I’d be too suspicious if he drove to the pub… we NEVER go to pubs.  In fact, the last time we went to a pub on our own was before we got married!

So Laura, no, I wasn’t completely surprised… but surprised enough not to have taken my camera along

But OMW, there was this very drunk guy there, quite harmless… who tried to make a move on me when Lance went to the bathroom.  I wasn’t facing him, but as soon as I felt him on the bench next to me, Marlise was up and almost cleared the table and ordered him to move to another table.  LOL, it was funny.  I seriously would have sorted him out myself, if I’d been given half the chance… but thanks bud for looking after me like that

And then this morning I got reminded why I stick to wine nowadays.  The cocktail was great… but not a good idea after wine.

If you’re looking for my Weekly Winners, they’re here…

One of Bradley’s school friends had a party at the firestation today.

It was loads of fun. Both the kids had a blast!  I know the drill at the firestation… we’ve been to many parties there, but today was totally different.

Not only was there the normal fire truck siren thing, and the fire hose try-out thing… but the parents had also organised cupcake decorating, face-painting and drumming!  It was crazy, every few minutes the kids has something else to do.  I was in awe!  That mom must’ve spent hours preparing everything!

Anyhoo, that’s not the point to my post… and if you want to see some pics, check out my photoblog.

Firstly let me say that I was carrying my camera around the entire afternoon.  It was amazing to me how people treated me differently with this camera compared to the last one.  With the P&S I was tolerated… me and my camera… but now… I got asked so many times whether I’m professional. LOL!

People made space for me!  I got told to stand in front of people to take photos!  Oh the pressure!

Eventually the parents asked me if I could take photos for them… their camera stopped working.  So then the pressure was on!  OMW!  I hope they like them!

I’m having a bit of a problem with focus on the lens, so I’m a bit disappointed with the quality of some of the shots, and the light wasn’t good.  I really have to figure out how to use the manual settings I think.

But in the end it was fun afternoon, with me chasing Connor away from ducks and water and chickens and the road… in between taking photos of everyone!  I’m exhausted!