Happy Birthday Baby Brother…

Happy Birthday ameezing Baby Brother.  Your kindness, creativity and just plain ameezingness inspire me every day.

[Ameezing photos borrowed from facebook]

From One Gleek To Another…

Dearest Cara,

Sam Evans came all the way from McKinley High to wish you a happy birthday!  Thank you for being such an ameezing, fabulous and special friend to us all.  We love you.

Love Sam Evans and Ameezing

 

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Birthday Flowers

More Birthday Flowers

Birthday Elephant Brooch

Birthday Cake

Even More Birthday Flowers

Birthday Ballerina (Her and her friends were on top of Ameezing cupcakes which I never got a photo of. But deeelicious)

Birthday Face

Thank you friends and family.  It was Ameezing.

Tyron Janse van Vuuren is Ameezing! And my brother! Yessssss.

Another super talented and ameezing brother?!  Yes, dear friends, yes.  My older brother, Ty, celebrates his birthday today.  Ty  is a brilliant writer, director, photographer, story-teller, animal whisperer and all round ameezing brother.  Happy, Happy Birthday Ty!  Thank you for teaching me how to be a Joburger, always taking care of me, laughing at my unfunny jokes and being a brilliant nickname giverer.  You are Ameezing.

Ty and Jack Jack

Check out Ty’s movie in the making, Shady Valley, here and here.  And shoots we did with our Mama and Papa here and here.

Merlin’s Beard! Ameezing Just Turned One!

Three hundred and sixty five days ago I sat down with my brother, Ameezing Ty, as he painstakingly showed me again and again how to upload pictures, view comments and write posts for this new, alien thing called a blog.  Even if not one person had read not one article, this still would have been an ameezing exercise in ‘disposable’ creativity, flexing my then hamster sized writing muscles and just sticking to something.  But you did read them, you really did! Thank you, thank you, ameezing reader for coming along with me on this journey.  Correcting my spelling, sending cool stuff and writing ameezing comments (Mo Van and Karin get a special mention here).  You made sending stories into the giant world of the interweb a little less frightening and a lot more fun just by being there.

Happy birthday Ameezing, you did good kid.

A birthday photo of Ameezing Ty and myself when I’m around one.  My giant alien head and mutant lip aside, I have always loved the solemn tone of this picture.  As if being a kid wasn’t all Mike’s Kitchen and Zet.  There was seriousness to be had too.  Ameezing.

A quick thank you to my cousin Dillon for saying, ‘Merlin’s Beard!’ the other day.  There are very few people who can pull that off, but you, dear cousin, can.

Happy 60th Birthday Mama!

My lovely, gracious, stylish Mama recently turned 60.  Happy, happy birthday Mama!

This photo is from a series that my brother, Ameezing Ty, and I did with my Mama at an old, abandoned sand mine a little while ago.

For Jacqui

For The Ameezing Jacqui‘s birthday, her fiance’, Ryan, asked her friends to make birthday videos.  Because Aadil and I are both busy procastinators (now there’s a can of oxymoron worms), ours was ‘a night before the deadline, minimal lighting and a little point and shoot digital camera’ kind of project.  Super fun to put together, none the less.

Happy, happy 30th Ameezing Jacqui.

[Song by Barbara – Cover of ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ – Kid Cudi]

Make A Wish Why Don’t You…

Happy, happy Birthday Ever Lovely Lindsay Jane! You are lovely and amazing and ameezing.

(Photo taken on weekend trip to Cape Town.  More to follow 🙂 )

The Voortrekker and the Chang drinking Thai Fisherman

A little while ago, Aadil and I went to a dress up birthday party where the theme was ‘Dress as your Heritage’.  Holy Panda’s Toenails it was difficult, especially when your heritage is kind of 1820’s Settler, kind of Irish-ish.  Fortunately, my little brother, the Ameezing Joel Janse van Vuuren, whipped up this super Dr Quinn-esque skirt and kappie (the shirt is from my wardrobe, I wear it on ‘Nerdy Librarian’ days).  Voortrekker chic, no?  Aadil wore traditional Thai fisherman’s pants and a Chang Beer shirt.  A girl at the party said to me, ‘Wow, what was it like growing up Amish?’  The other outfits at the party were a mixture of farmers (with combs in socks, ob), Jewish schoolgirls, one British soldier and a German lederhosen wearing guy.  Ameezing.

Now and Then

This is a photo of my mom in her twenties.  Isn’t she so serious and beautiful?  Those eyes, those earrings, those eyebrows.

And below is a portrait of the same photo that my Dad painted and gave to me for my 30th birthday.  The photo is just 16cm x 21cm.  Only when I was loading this picture did I notice that he had made her topless.  High Five Papa! Thank you, it is so special and ameezing.