Separate parties for 4-year-old twins?

So my goals for May as far as the party is concerned were to do the guest list and book the venue.

Done!

However, I seem to have ended up with a first pass list of 30 kids....

On the one hand I justify it saying "well, I'm hiring a venue so it doesn't matter" (one price for as many kids as you want) and on the other hand, there's Kendra.

 

Kendra told me she only wants 4 kids there.

You see, she's an introvert and is really much better with a smaller crowd.

Then I said, "what about so and so?" and she said, "oh yes, them too" and then I tested and said, "and these two?" and she said "YESSSS" so I realised I have lots more work to do with her because including her and Connor, there were 10 kids total.

In essence, she wants Connor to have a party and then she wants to have a separate party which sounds more like a playdate to me, with only 4 kids.

I get her, I really do, and if the friends were separate, I'd be totally game for that (more parties = more fun) but 4 little girls are not going to come out twice for the same set of twins.

Right?

Still, it's her birthday too...

I need to narrow down that list (or do I?) because after the RSVPs roll in (or to be fair, chase down the RSVPs), we'll be down to about 20 kids, which is a much more respectable number.

When do you start doing separate parties for twins? Have you thought about it at all?
What do you think we should do?

{Wordless Wednesday} Autumn walk

This particular day it was FREEZING and very close to sunset but I'd promised the kids a walk so off we went.

I do love that going for a walk with me is a treat and I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can. And that it requires almost no effort other than going for a pee before we set off.

The kids always collect branches, pods, stones, leaves, etc. on the way but since I don't allow those things in my house, my top step always looks like someone's building a shrine :)

I only went out with the 50 mm lens so that's why there's some blur in the pics :( This is my attempt to break loose and trying new things, making mistakes, and so on.....)

spot the moon

How often do you go for walks with your kids?

Portraits of 4 precious babes

I'm still trying to post some pics from the Superhero Photo lessons. Also, I realised just how annoyingly pedantic I can be about these sorts of things. GAH!

Lesson 3 was portraits - as you know, I'm not much of a fan of the posed portrait with a nice white background where the kid floats in space.

(no offence if that's your thing!)

It's just too "perfect" for me.

I really don't even mind kids not smiling - some of my best pics are the non-smiling ones - but I do like them to at least look at the camera.

I was looking back at all my "faces" pics. I started that project beginning of 2012, did Superhero and have continued it all the way through.

I now have a folder with 75 really nice pics of faces. Isn't that cool?

Just looking through all of those photos, i can see how my photography has improved. It's a good thing to look back now and again, right?

But I thought I'd show you 6 of my very latest pics - these were all taken at the Mothers' Day Tea at the school. My friend, C, and I were again all nostalgic about the fact that this was a MOTHER'S DAY function and we were at it.

Are we the only two who get all soppy?

It was not the best day for photos (for me, anyway) as the sun was out in full force and it was very, very bright. So I'm super happy that I got lots of keepers.

I also got some nice pics of my friend, C, but she's going to be cross with all our "lines" showing so I'll hold those back :) Although you'll remember one of my most favourite pics of all time is this one of her at a party in early December. Of those 75 pics in my folder, about 5 are of her! I honestly think it's because she's comfortable in her skin, and in front of the camera so I've never taken a bad pic of her.

Anyway, enjoy my selection.



one of the teachers - I love the necklace and the thinking going on... :)





now check out that expression!





this one is such a serious little cutie pie





my little K who is not the littlest in her class!!!!! There are 2 kids shorter, possibly 3! :)





I always love the Connor hand pics - eating as usual. I've since discovered that Heather's Tommy eats just like this boy does. First and second breakfasts, two suppers, etc.



Which is your favourite pic?



Next up, the dreaded self-portraits.... although... I've become much better at taking good ones ssof me... if I have lipstick on!
ps I'll have to fix the size of the pics tomorrow. The photos are going pixel-ly when I increase the size!

{Messy Monday} Baby book project

I must tell you that I wasn't glad to have the books finished as I was glad to have a tidy study again.

Picture it - about 350 pics, 6 albums, post-it notes organising the madness...

Thank God it's done!

Here are a few pics of what it looks like.

Remember my best tip is to let go of your perfectionism.

D and I, the kids and my mother looked through these 6 albums and we all focused on the pics, not how imperfect the photography or the light was, we just remembered the moments.

Have I inspired anyone to print some photos and put them in an album? 

A million things in 4 days

Since the presentation, I feel like I've got a million things done in the last 4 days.

Work stuff that's been hanging over my head plus life admin.

And it feels great with a capital G.

My hair's cut, the gate's fixed, I've bought Kendra's dance things, gone to gym twice and organised about 10 different spaces in my house. No joke.

all iphone pics from May

1. view from my bed
2. Kendra's shoes
3. Sunset at the Lion and Rhino park
4. Alice with the dark hair
5. Typical Jhb in winter (pic taken at my gym)
6. Leaving work
7. Getting my craft on with some lovely tape from Lesley
8. Church
9. Trying to take a self-portrait with the iphone at gym
10. Kids in leaves
11. Hillbrow
12. Kendra with camera
13. Somewhere on the edges of town
14. Connor with new pjs
15. Colleague's coke can 
16. Sunset.... ah :)

Is this excessive? I've taken 1400 pics in 7.5 months, just on my iphone!

Anyway, I still have about two hours of work left for tonight - my own stuff (blogging on the other blog and so on) so let me get to it.

This week is a "normal" week in the team but still moderate pressure for me since I don't know what I'm doing.

I have a deadline to get something out by Thursday so if I'm not too active commenting, you know why.

However, I have a lunch date on Tuesday with Louisa and I couldn't be happier :) :)

What are you looking forward to this week? Do you like me putting up iphone pics?

I realised I (almost) never put any iphone pics on the blog and I have a couple of really nice ones. I limit myself to one on Facebook a day and 3 on Instagram but there are tons more.

PS I totally missed our May photo challenge

I have one or two good ideas :)

Books are very special in our house so I wanted to remember their books while still holding true to my values of keeping the place decluttered and organised.

This is one of the latest batches of books we gave away to V's baby. I put them in a heart shape so I can put them in their 3 - 4 year album (now that I started I intend to keep up ;))

Isn't it a good idea?

I pinned it ages ago but that lady did it with all her kids' baby stuff - one day when my photography is super awesome, I may do that with all my kids' things and then I can blow up the pics and put them in a big frame as decoration :)

And then... this set of pics was taken in September last year.

My kids know their letters (all credit to Nanny V) so when we go to a restaurant without a play area, I had over my gel pens and tell them "look for all the Ks or Ms or whatever" on a word search puzzle.

Aren't I a genius?

Keeps them busy forever and it's a game - "yesss Connor, you found 3 Ss" or whatever :)

Of course they don't both listen at the same time... but that's the twin thing, right?

Look at the cute little hands!

What are your good ideas for restaurants?

{Friendship Friday} High tea with blog friends

Many months ago I saw a Groupon that was for 2, 4 or 6 people.

I wanted to invite Mrs FF because she's always game for anything (I love that about you, F!) and then I had the mad idea to invite 5 bloggers and make it a "thing".

So I did.

5 quickly responded, Groupon was bought, banking details were handed out.

Back and forth with emails and such til we finagled a good date since the place only does high tea every second Sunday. Once we settled on the date, I sent out a meeting invite with the Groupon and all we had to do was pitch.

Well, apparently there were a few grumpy bloggers whose GPS led them astray and very nearly didn't pitch :)

Is it wrong to say I'm so glad this doesn't only happen to me?

We were all together at first til Louisa and Jeanette left, and then Mrs FF, Laura and I sat chatting for a long time afterwards. So lovely!!!

Anyway, here are my pics.

I have 3 hand shots - i might just change my project 25 faces to 25 hand shots for my next list :)

or feet :) Laura's feet - I LOVE THIS BLACK AND WHITE!

Laura has a perfect profile, doesn't she? (I'm afraid I got a bit carried away - I had about 5 pics - this one is my favourite)

colour!

bee

beautiful smile - Laura

and another beautiful smile - Mrs FF

Laura, Jeanette, Mrs FF, Louisa

Laura grabbed my camera so I could get in the pics too

messing around...

love this angle - deep discussions and notice the hands on hips :)

When was the last time you stepped out of the (friendship) box?