Airborne

Last weekend the weather down here in Port Elizabeth was absolutely awesome and we went out to Maitlands and climbed up the giant Maitlands dune. Chaos Boy was leaping down the steep parts of the dune and I couldn't resist the opportunity to get a couple of shots of him being airborne. I love both the shots, but personally prefer the one with the sun in just a bit more.

For more excellent Skywatch pictures from great photographers around the world, click here.

Birthday Party

Chaos Boy turned seven on 14 April while we were away camping over Easter Weekend. Last Saturday was his party and this whole week I've been wanting to post a couple of pics.

The general theme of the party was boats with the Damselfly keeping the theme constant through the invites and birthday cake as usual. At least this cake wasn't as complicated to make as some of the other ideas she has come up with in the past.

Other than the party packs for the kids, we cater a bit for the adults as well. After a couple of years of boerewors (farm style sausage for those who don't know the term) rolls, we have now reverted to a big snack platter.

The kids had a swim and then decided that it was too cold to play outside *???* and headed for the bedrooms. The little girls were playing in Drama Princess' room, while the boys were trashing playing in Chaos Boy's room.

Then it was time to open the presents...

... and show it off

The boy in the red shirt

On our recent trip to Cape St Francis, Chaos Boy decided to tag along on my outing to find the wreck indicated on the information sheet at the resort we were staying at. While I was taking pictures all over the show, he was exploring away on his own. I liked how his red shirt stood out against the greenery.

He found a lot of "sea sound shells" as he calls any shell he can keep up to his ear to listen to the sound of the ocean.

First day in big school

Today was Chaos Boy's first day in big school. Just for the foreign readers of the blog, in South Africa kids go to Grade 1 in the year they turn seven.

He was up early and, as with any child going to school for the first time, very keen to get ready.

Here he is in his school uniform at school.

The other big news of the day is that I got my first picture published. Ok, so I didn't get paid for it. It was something we did as friends and my wife called up the daily newspaper, The Herald, to see if they would publish the pic and the little piece I wrote along with it. So you are wondering what it is all about. When we went for ante-natal classes, the lady presenting it encouraged the moms to form a Baby Club for everybody to get together every now and then for tea (and many birthday parties very close to each other) to share experiences, seek each other's advice and just to make new friends. The Baby Club started out with 14 moms (and some dads) and kids. Over the years some have moved away while others have faded. Now we have 7 families left and we decided to get them together for a photo shoot in their school clothes. The seven are going to six different schools, so it was quite cute to see them in their uniforms.

This is the original photo.