Face Painting, Bouncy House and a Cake

  Well, some of you have heard the song “Girls just want to have fun!” by Cyndi Lauper.  I could have sworn that I was hearing that song in my head during Jackie’s birthday party and well into the night this past Sunday.
  

Face Painting

Like most of our parties, the Setzer face painting brigade was in full force assisting happy party-goers!  Thanks Beverly and Alicia!!

 

I must say that this looks a little like Peter Criss makeup.  Naw! can’t be!  No KISS for Jackie!   Only Sophie, Savannah, and I want to rock n’ roll all nite and party everyday!!   The approval from her oldest child!

Bouncy House

Several weeks back when Jackie was thinking about having an actual party on her birthday, she booked a Bouncy house from our friends at Linda Craft Realty for the weekend.  I thought her main purpose in this decision was to have something for the kids to do while she and the other moms enjoyed their favorite adult(or child) beverage.  Well here is some proof that bouncy houses are not just for kids!

Not real sure exactly what is going on with her hand.  Anyway, have you ever tried to hold a camera still in a bouncy house? 

Cake

“With a little help from the Kids!” Jackie would not have it any other way. 
 

I will be adding a gallery shortly on trianglephotoprints.com so stay tuned for more.

Note: Facebook readers can view larger and higher quality versions of any images in this note by clicking  the “View Original Post” link on the Facebook page  below.  This link will show this same post on my blog website.

A Nanna, A Miller, A Marty, and A Mirror

Over this past weekend, we got invaded by a family of Cheese heads. One of the heads of the household is a Lego-maniac and heck-of-father named Marty Weishoff.  He is also known to drink a few beers at parties like this one for Jackie’s 29th(that is my story and I am sticking to it) birthday yesterday. 

Unlike my brother, he is both entertainment and maintenance for the children. The following series of images are from the party when uncle Marty was entertaining his niece Nanna armed only with a Miller high Life and mirror.  The mirror is off camera to the left.  

Call these teasers.  I just could not resist these. Synchronized facial expressions!!  I am going through the images from party over the next few days and will post more shortly! So stay tuned!  

Note: Facebook readers can view larger and higher quality versions of any images in this note by clicking  the “View Original Post” link on the Facebook page  below.  This link will show this same post on my blog website.

Happy Birthday Josh!

Recently, I had the honor of capturing a special birthday party of one of my favorite 2 year old little boys.  It is hard to believe that this little guy is already two years old.  Seems like yesterday when I was visiting him at the hospital when he came into the world.  Time flies when you are having fun, and kids grow like weeds flowers manly trees.

Here some of my favorite shots of featuring the  guest of honor:

Ok.. one shot has to have the “dreaded paci”..  Doesn’t he know to take it out for pictures? Better give this little guy some cake and the paci will bite the dust.

Did someone mention cake ?   What paci ? Do you see a paci ? I am ready to dig to that cake.

Nothing like cake and ice cream to free a paci from the lips of a 2 year old.

Mom, I like to have cake in my mouth, on my cheeks, and in my hair !  It is very stylish to do that !!    

Ok, big brother Jacob will help Josh with the cake while his girl friend Savannah looks on!

This icing is delicious! Would you like some? 

We Bucks know how to party.

The entire gallery can be found here.

“Hit-and-miss” weekend.

The past weekend was another busy weekend for the Jackle family.  I will call this past weekend the “hit-and-miss” weekend.  The good news is that the “hits” out numbered the “misses” but one of the “misses” was a big one.

Hits:

Friday Night “pre-Easter” Easter egg hunt – We packed up some of Jackie’s famous coleslaw, some plastic Easter eggs,  two kids, and a camera and headed to our friends house in Wake Forest for a Easter egg hunt.   Beside the hunting festivities, we ate some charcoal broiled northeastern hotdogs, baked beans, coleslaw(of course), and drank either some punch or an adult beverage or two (depending on the age and the designated driver status of the participant).  Also, we watched our precious children punctured  a piñata and scurried happily to indulge in its contents.  Last but not least, we had a surprise visit by one quite large and fuzzy pink and white Easter bunny.  The bunny could jump right out of his birchen stocks.  Quite amazing actually!!  Photos and blog post to commemorate this event will be coming shortly.

      

Saturday night Hurricanes–Penguins Hockey game -  As Sophie would say,  “Daddy you promised me that you would take me to Carolina Hurricanes game since I was four.  I am now seven and it is about time!”  Last Fall, we contact Linda Craft and Team to help us sell our house and move to a better location in the Raleigh area for our Sophie’s (and eventually Savannah’s) education.   We sold our house in less than 24 hours and moved just before Christmas to our new location.  Besides just the sale, the resources for moving, plumbing and electrical work for the our new kitchen all came from Linda’s resource list.  If you ever has visited Linda Craft’s office, you may get the impression that she is a Carolina Hurricane fan.  That is to put things lightly.  One may also think she is married to Rod Brindamour with all the pictures of the pair of them in the office.  She offered us some Hurricanes tickets for an upcoming game.  I gladly and appreciatively accepted this offer and set the date for the April 4th game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  I was finally off the hook with my daughter with the help of Linda Craft.    So the father-daughter date night was born.  Linda provided us with a truly VIP treatment as we were treated with Premier Gold parking passes, admission to the Lexus Champions Club, free food, and drinks, some of the best seats in the RBC center, and last but not least a Hurricanes overtime win that clinched playoff spot.  A side effect, was my wife was a little bit jealous.  Pictures and a dedicated post to follow.

    

Saturday night Tar Heels win -  If you ever want to see an excited look on Sophie’s face, just mention to her that she can stay up to “midnight.”  This excitement comes from her first new years eve dropping of the ball experience.  I promised her that after the game she could stay up and watch the rest of the Villanova-Carolina final four semi-finals game with me.  This could result in her staying up to midnight.  The good news is that the Tar heels did not drop ball and are competing for the national championship this evening against Michigan State.  Since the games starts after 9 PM eastern standard time, it will be a late night for me tonight. Go Heels!!  P.S. Sophia fell a sleep on the couch at about 10:45 PM. :)

  Sunday Savannah’s 3rd birthday party-  Though her birthday is actually on Tuesday, we celebrated Savannah’s birthday with about 30 people at the Marbles kid museum.  This place is kid heaven!!!  I will save more details and photos for a later post once I get a chance to go through the hundreds of pictures that I took to capture the event.

Misses:

       DirectTV’s slow death- Since we moved to the new house, I have had many outages  for  HD DirectTV  that caused me to miss much of the ACC and NCAA tournament in HD.   Thank god for the HD feed on www.ncaasports.com  on my computer. Every time it rains I lose the signal.  I have had DirectTV for several years without an issue.   The technician came out on Sunday.  He was surprised from the placement of the dish by the previous installer that I was even receiving a high-def signal.  Apparently, we would not have a clear view to the HD satellites without cutting down some oak tree limbs in our yard.  The wooded lot is one of many traits we like about the house so that would not happen.  He marked the service ticket “NLOS”(no line of site).   This week we will be looking into other options for our TV needs.  Bye Bye NFL Sunday ticket and the NFL network !!!!

       My mother’s surprise 70th birthday party-  In another time zone and region of the United States  a surprise birthday party took place for the world’s greatest mom on Saturday in Racine, Wisconsin.  This is the one miss  I truly regret.   I called her last night to apologize for my absence.  In typical mom fashion, she was more interested on how things were going with me and how Savannah’s party went.  It made me feel a little better but  I still wished I was there like with my brothers and sisters to see her surprised face and share the special night with her.

Sophia’s Birthday – Two-fold celebration

In the last few weeks/months, we have been working hard to get our new house ready for my daughter’s seventh birthday this past Saturday.  We celebrated both the birth and the life of our dearest oldest daughter Sophie as well as the birth of our new “home.” 

Up until Saturday, only a few close friends and  relatives were able to transcend with the walls of the place we now call “home.”   Basically since our move-in date in December, we have been living surrounded and sometimes suffocated by moving boxes and other items that had yet to find their place.  It was like coming home to a place expecting to escape the stress and challenges of the work place, but being forced to realize that chaos would further overwhelm our minds.  So many things to do and seemingly so little time and energy to do it.  

As with most things in our lives, our children provided us the strength and will to take control of  this chaos and make me this house a place  for all the Jackles to be proud to call “home.”

One thing you have to understand about my life partner Jackie, nothing is more important to her than the family(especially our girls) and making someone feel special on their birthday.  Be sure to never tell her she needs a “strong man”  to do anything.  Thirdly, do not tell her that something she wants for the girl’s birthday can not be done.  This heart and will are some of the many qualities I love about my wife. 

Before the party, I told her we do not have time to paint the girl’s bedroom, playroom and our dining room.  We needed to focus on unpacking the boxes and finding homes for our mass of things. The painting and decorating can wait until after the party deadline.  When we moved a few months back , it was promised to the girls that their bedroom would be painted with Sophie’s choice of purple and the playroom would be painted with Savannah’s choice of yellow.  

Well, we have a birthday party coming up where she arranged approximately 40-50 guests.  When Jackie sets a deadline, things will get done or else.    We just can not do things half way(no painting in this case) when it comes to the kids birthday party plus we promised the kids.  So the rooms not only got painted but also decorated in a manner that would make some like Martha Stewart proud.  Jackie should start a home decor company that specializes in kids rooms.  I will leave the pictures of these rooms for another blog post down the line.  

You would think after being together for almost 15 years that I would not have any doubts that all the “decor” and “party” things on our list would be completed in time for our birthday celebration.  Keep in mind, the credit for the home transformation and party planning does not center on the person that is writing this post but rather on the hard work and vision of his partner in life.

So, the plan for the party was to have the guests take turns in the “moon walk” or “bouncy house” that we got from our realtor Linda Craft.   We arrived at her office to pick it up and were told we need 3-to-5 strong men and “big” pickup truck to get it to our house.   Well, my brother-in-law Craig  and Jackie came in our mini-van, and I  arrived straight from work in my Subaru.   So much for three big strong men (especially when I am counted in the mix) and a big pickup truck.   The three of us loaded the bundled bouncy house in the van and Jackie and Craig rolled it out of van and on to the driveway at our house before I could arrive at home.

Well, it rained all weekend none of the guests were outside and the bouncy house stayed put in all its bundled glory until Monday when it needed to be returned.  Sorry Linda, no bouncy house advertising for you this past weekend.  Or in the spirit of Jerry Seinfeld  “No Bounce for you!”   So everyone was packed in our house entertaining themselves with the crafts, indulging in the facing painting artistry of my niece Beverly, and smacking one super-sale piñata. 

No one seemed to care that they could not go for a bounce.  The party went off  like a bang!  Again thank God for my wife’s party planning.  That may be another business idea come to think of it. 

Here are some shots from the party.

First up, the birthday girl grabbing the first slice of the cake with my camera interruption under the watchful and loving eye of her grandmother Ginger. It was great to see my dad and Ginger at the party.  They surprised us earlier in the week by letting us know that they would be in NC.

You can always count on Zoe from Sophie’s girl scout troop to add some energy and humor to the party.

 

 

This brother and sister team added to the fun!

Do you think they will be this “love dovey” in a few years ?

The kids patiently waiting in the piñata line. 

Another satisfied “Beverly’s face painting” customer!

I am trying to convince a son of a Steelers fan to be a Packer fan!  Or at least to razz his father! This is my god son Josh.  Do you think that the parents really knew what they were getting into when they named me his god father?    Time will tell.. :)

 

Guests can find these and more pictures from the party can be found on  my Triangle Photo Prints web site.    I will be adding more to the gallery in the next few days.

Snow day , Birthday, Obama Day – January 20th, 2009

It was an interesting day yesterday in Raleigh, NC, my family, and in the United States in general.

Snow arrives in Raleigh

Originally, I grew up in Racine, Wisconsin.   After finishing my  sophomore year in high at J.I Case High School in 1981, we moved to Rocky Mount, NC. I transformed into a southern man as I now have lived longer in the south than in Wisconsin.  One of the advantages of living in North Carolina versus Wisconsin is the more moderate weather.  We do not see much snow in the winter here. So when it comes it is an event. 

Over Christmas, my brother who lives in the Chicago area, sent me an email with titled “For those wishing for a white Christmas”.   In this email, he attached a cell phone photo of the front of his home just after they received over 2 feet of snow.  At the time at least for a minute,  I missed the snow related activities and was reminded of my childhood snow fort building , snow ball fights, and  snow sledding.  I did not of course think about the snow shoveling and snow blowing which would have ruined the moment.  

When snow arrives in Raleigh, the town definitely slows down.   It is generally best not to be “out and about” driving in the snow as inexperienced drivers head for the ditches and possible your car.  The snow began to fall on Monday night and we woke up to approximately 3 inches of snow on the ground Tuesday morning.  

The schools were closed and my wife and I decided to work from home.  With snow on the ground, it can not be all work. We needed to get out there and let our children enjoy a little of white stuff.  All work and no play makes Steve a dull boy  - not to mention the kids a little restless.

Here are a shots of the family in the snow:

 

 

Happy Birthday Dad!

Well, my dad turned 71 years old Tuesday also.  I am so blessed to have a father like him in my life.  He has definitely taught me well and has been a role model on what it is to be a great father.   Happy birthday Dad!!!!! You are my coach, my mentor, my friend, and my ideal father.   You are one in a million! That is for sure.

Obama becomes President

It is now official. Barack Obama is now the 44th president of the United States.  After watching the festivities, I have a positive sense of unity and hope for our country that I have not felt much since the tragedy of 911.   I think Barak has inspired many Americans and people all over the world.  I hope this feeling continues as we face some of our most difficult issues as a nation.  Do you think there is any coincidence that he is the 44th president and I turn 44 in February ?  Hopefully that is a good sign of things to come for all of us this year.

Take care !!! See ya soon!!