Lulu's 10th Birthday Party

What young girl could turn 10 without having a birthday party? Yesterday John and I helped Rachel host a birthday party for Lulu and six of her friends.

Gone are the days of little girls dressing up in pretty dresses and playing party games. Now it's rock climbing, sneakers and lots and lots of food. After going to the food show in the morning the four of us spent the afternoon getting ready for the party. We had decorations to put up, food to make and cakes to decorate.

Rachel and John take a breather before the party begins. Perhaps they foresore the insanity that was about to come.

 All the girls were very gracious and very good at waiting until the instructor was free to make sure they were strapped in to their rock climbing gear correctly.

Emily.

The girls were so quick up the rock walls and zippy around the place that my camera almost couldn't keep up. I love the blurry photos though. They show the craziness of the afternoon!

There was a bouncy room. A room full of rock climbing walls and a bouncy castle floor so that they could climb up and fall down without hurting themselves. Of course the girls loved it and used it for running, and jumping, and flips, and everything else you can imagine.

Sophie on the run.

Lu climbs the wall.

Holly.

The girls all waited patiently for their turn. They were very encouraging of their friends too - so sweet!

Emily and Kendy.

Kendy

Jaime.

Sophie and Lulu.

Sarah.

Kendy.

After the climbing up the walls the girls decided to tackle the ladder.

The look on Lulu's face says it all.

A little cheeky tongue too!

Holly flew up the ladder.

Jaime.

They even tried shimming up the rope.

Sophie.

When they wanted to come down, they just had to yell out "Pink Fluffy Elephants" and down they came.

Emily.

They went about half way up, but once one made it to the top, they all wanted to try again.

Emily.

Lulu almost at the top. It was pretty high! I was knackered just watching her!

Sophie

Sophie and Lulu practised their flips in the bouncy room.

Trying to get six girls to jump at the same time is ridiculously hard!

But when they do, you get some wicked mid-air shots.

L to R: Emily, Lulu, Sophie, Jaime, Kendy & Holly.

All the girls took a turn on the tightrope and they all did really well.

Even Monkey wanted to try the ropes.

Ring-a-Ring-a Rosey .  .  .  .

More wicked movement photos.

Emily, Lulu & Holly practise their flips this time.

The girls tried a little sideways jumping action. How awesome is Lulu in this one?!

When we got home the girls were starving. So Geeves the butler appeared, ready to serve the girls and their every whim. Once they realised that he would do whatever they asked, they loved to order him around, and become real little madams. John did a fantastic job, he looked awesome and he didn't snap once!

Check out the short video of Geeves getting some flack from the girls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxpsghzf-UM 

Geeves watches over the girls as they enjoy the chocolate fondue.

Geeves lights the candles on the '10' birthday cakes.

Lulu does a stellar job at blowing out all the candles.

After dinner and dessert the girls spent the rest of the evening running up and down the stairs, playing in Lu's room and making up dances to songs from the Glee Soundtrack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh2i6GaJgEI

The weekend. . .

hmmmm, I don't have so much to say today. . . the 30 day challenge gave me prompts that led me to having lots to blog about. I realise now that to keep this up I really need to have a few "back up" topics or prompts  to pull out on nights like this when I think I have nothing else to blog about.

This is going to be a pretty busy weekend. On Saturday morning Rachel, John, Lu and I are going to the Food Show, then it's Lu's 10th birthday party in the afternoon/evening. I'm taking my camera along and hoping that the girls might wanna do a bit of a photo shoot. How cute is a bunch of 10yr old girls posing?! Sunday afternoon is Lee's baby shower, for which I have some prep work in the morning. I might have to go to work just to get over the weekend. It might be busy, but it should be lots of fun. Fingers crossed I'll have lots of photos to share with you all next week.

Have a great weekend!

Paintings

It's been a long time since I picked up a paint brush. I put them away when I picked up my camera. I used to paint alllll the time and every now and then I think about picking up the brushes again. I'm sure I will again some day, but for now I'm happy playing with my camera. In the meantime, check out some of my fave paintings. Most of these you'll see either hanging in my house or in the houses of my closest friends and family (in fact YOU may have one yourself).

The next challenge

So the 30 Day Challenge was really interesting. I actually enjoyed doing it (I wasn't sure if I would) and it got me back in to being excited about blogging regularly again. Now that I've done it, I wonder about doing another challenge. I had been thinking that I would do another one and was pleasantly surprised to have one loyal fan suggest I do too. Of course that then begs the question about what the challenge should be. . .

30 days of blogging turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. So maybe something a bit longer. However, I've seen many people do year long challenges (most popular being a photo a day for a year), but I'm not sure that I can really commit myself to that. Of course I'd do my best but just don't know that I could do it.

I have a few ideas for a new challenge. And I'd like to do all of them over time. I'm also looking for ideas for new challenges, so all ideas are welcome, just leave a comment or flick me an email. Here are some ideas I'm working on:

* I have a pack of pastels. 36 colours in the pack. One pastel per day and I would post a photo with that colour featured. A photo a day might be a bit difficult time wise so thought maybe I'd do it so that it's one pastel per week.

* Rachel and Lu have leant me the Girl Guiding Handbook which has all the badges and the criteria for earning them. Over the summer John, Rachel and I talked about earning the badges now seeing as we didn't do it when we were kids. I'm not quiet sure how to turn this in to a blog challenge too, but perhaps it would be regular updates on progress?

* Getting everyone I know to ask me a question and I'll answer one per day.

* I saw a 60 day photo challenge where you showed a photo each day for the prompt given. I just have to remember where I saw it so that I can get the prompts.

The latest craze

Have you heard of 'Planking'? Apparently it's the latest craze in Australia and it's fast catching on in New Zealand, possibly the rest of the world too.

A few days ago a friend posted a picture of her 6month old son on Facebook with the caption "baby planking". I didn't know what that meant so brushed it off. In the news today was the story about a young man that has died in Australia after attempting a very risky 'planking' from atop his apartment building.

Still confused about what 'planking' really is?! Me too. So I youtubed it and found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRHnTFesv7c

Hilarious. Whoever came up with such a ridiculous game and then managed to turn it in to an international craze is a genius. Well, perhaps not a genius, but funny at least.

So, now when you see people 'planking' you'll know what it's all about. Go on, try it, you know you want too. I'll be so impressed if you do!

Deep Impact, Definitely, Maybe & Deja Vu

Time for a bit of a catch up on movie reviews seeing as we're almost at the end of watching the E movies we own, and I'm at home with a nasty cold that has taken over my ability to do anything except sit on the couch and watch DVD's. I'm having a little trouble staying still and coping with my forced time off. I've moved from the bedroom to the lounge for a change of scenery and I'm bored!! I wanna go back to work already because I worry about what I might be missing and what I'm going to have to catch up on once I do. That and I don't have much leave left. Anyway, I digress. . . Time for a catch up on movie reviews . . .

Deep Impact is one of those movies that you wouldn't really expect to find in my DVD collection. But something about the disaster movie appeals to me. I'm not sure what it is, but I really enjoy them. Perhaps it's the high drama of the scenario or the fact that no matter what happens in my ordinary life at least there's not impending natural disaster about to dessimate the world (fingers crossed anyway!)

There's mountain sized comet on a collision path with earth. With a very lengthy lead in time the world has time to prepare for the impending doom. One lucky reporter breaks the story and gets the privelage of leading the story on the nightly news. While the president builds bunkers in the middle of the mountains he sends a team to place bombs on the comet in an attempt to blow it up. Meanwhile the young star gazer that discovered the comet tries to find a way to take his girlfriend with him to the bunkers when his family are chosen to go and hers are not.

Made in 1998 the movie has started to date. The biggest teller is the fashions, but also it's star. Tea Leoni stars as the reporter. When was the last time you saw Tea Leoni star in a major movie?! I think she's an ok actress, probably not my first pick for a lead actress though. She squints all the time, I don't really understand why, but it's distracting. She is supported by a strong group of big names - Elijah Wood is the teenager that discovered the comet, Robert Duvall is the experienced astronaut that goes to save the planet and Morgan Freeman is the calm and collected president.

This movie plays on the fear that the world could be the victim of a natural force that none of us can predict or prevent. While that's pretty scary, one thing about these movies is that they are always set in America or Europe. Never little old New Zealand. It would seem that living on a little rock at the bottom of the world is a safe place to be. At least in the land of the movies.

Theres a slow beginning, a fast middle and an explosive end. It's not the best constructed movie I've ever seen, but something about it appealed to me all those years ago. Now a days I find that it's not as appealing as when I first saw it. Perhaps with all the disaster movies out these days the novelty has worn off.

Is it worth watching? Well, you probably aren't going to miss much if you don't, but then again, you might like it. If nothing else you'll have a night in in front of the telly laughing at the late 90's fashion.

Definitly, Maybe has fast become one of my faveourite movies. The stars are one reason and the way in which the story is told is the other.

Will Hayes sets out to tell his 11yr old daughter about the three loves of his life. But he tells her he's changing the details and she has to guess which one is her mother. The story starts in the mid '90s during the Clinton campaign and with his college girlfriend. He has a strong friendship with his workmate and a passionate relationship with a writer. Is his daughters mother the love of his life? And will he finally let her know that she really is his greatest love?

Ryan Reynolds stars as Will Hayes and Abigail Breslin is his persistent daughter Maya. Elizabeth Banks plays the sweet Emily, Rachel Wiesz is the firey Summer and Isla Fisher stars as the quirky April. Each of these actresses play the different roles with sincerity and passion. They are all so different, and yet you want each of them to be 'the one' that Will chooses in the end.

The movie jumps from the present day relationship between Will and Maya, to the relationships of Wills past. It runs pretty smoothly and you definetly don't get lost. There is the sub story involving the politics behind the Clinton campaign for governor, or whatever it was (I'm really not that clued up on American politics).

The music featured is uplifting and fits perfectly with the storyline and feel of the movie. They've done a fantastic job of marrying the right songs with movie. I'm not usually that impressed or that focused on the music of movies, but here they did a great job, so great that I actually noticed!

Definitely, Maybe is a Romantic Comedy of course, and it follows the Rom Com formula. It's the storytelling and direction that allows it to stand out above the others. If you're a Romantic Comedy fan then you definitly have to watch this one. It's fun, it's romantic and it has Ryan Reynolds, what's not to love?!

Deja Vu is one of my faves, one that I can watch over and over again. It's main theme is time travel which I always find fascinating and enjoy.

It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans and a ferry filled with revellers and sailors sets sail, only to be blown up. ATF agent Doug Carlin is brought in to assist in the investigation to catch the bomber and finds himself working with a highly secretive group that has spacefolding technology allowing them to see 4 days in the past. Focusing the search on the woman murdered for her truck prior to the bombing, Doug finds himself falling in love with her and then wondering if he can use this new technology to save her.

 Denzel Washington stars as Agent Doug Carlin. There is just something about Denzel Washington that I find endearing. I find him very believable in any role he plays. He plays the intellegent agent with a slight naivety about the fact that time travel is possible, making you believe that maybe it really is possible. If he's naive about it and comes around then what's to say that it's not really out there and we just don't know about it?!

Jim Caviezel stars as the psychotic bomber - another great actor that I think is highly underutilised. He's calm and creepy at the same time. Paula Patton plays the completely ignorant victim Clare Kuchever.

New Orleans is a beautiful setting for this movie and was filmed there just months after Hurricane Katrina in 2006. I've always wanted to go to New Orleans for a long time, it's the culture and music and art that draws me in. The beautiful jazz music at funerals is a perfect example - in fact it's that music that Dad wants played at his own funeral.

This movie is action packed as Doug Carlin tries to catch the killer and save the girl. It's definetly worth a watch if you like this type of movie. If you find time travel difficult to wrap your head around or to believe in then this movie might just irritate you. You definetly need to be able to suspend your sense of disbelief and enjoy it for what it is - a good movie.