Mantra live!

Happy Birthday, Mike!
This evening we all went to Mike's 40th birthday Block party extravaganza. Mike plays in a band, Mantra, of which I attempted to sing.... they were so kind to let me try and play out my fantasies as a rocker girl. Fortunately for them, Shelli has stepped up to be their real rocker. The band did a great job and we had a blast hanging out in the court and rocking out! The best part is just how home town it all was. Here are these guys getting down at the end of their court while a small boy darts by on his big wheels. I love it.

HERE IS THE SLIDESHOW!!

check it out... complete with smoke machine. oh, yea. now we are big time.

DAG

Mike
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Shelli

Ernie




A rabid fan.

Max, the littlest rocker.


Anna watches her dad rock the house.

KidShoot with Millie's Friends

So after preschool sometimes the kids and the mommies will stay after just to play and hang out.... and one of the mommies said to me hopefully, "are you going to bring your camera?" Well, how could I refuse after that?

The girls LOVE to show off with the leaves, it is one of their favorite activities. Millie sure has some cuuute friends. So after running around photographing the kids, one of the moms asked if I'd come and shoot her family. Well, I've been thinking about it for a while, and I think it would be a really fun thing to do---after all, I do shoot with my sister all the time, and weddings are fast and hard--kids are fun! So in the span of five minutes, I ended up with the potential of a summer's worth of work, which is so great! Thank you mommies!

If you want me to shoot your family portrait, shoot me an email at joy@julesbianchi.com and let's set it up. I have some really amazing stuff I can do--canvas prints, family albums, and you can lose ten pounds in ten minutes just from my awesome photoshop skills. :) That's my kinda diet.

Here's some tidbits from the shoot:

SLIDESHOW RIGHT HERE, MOMMIES!

i told the kids to run towards me... they are such great models and had so much fun! first they ran, then they jumped like kangaroos!


how beautiful are these girls??



ring around the rosy... i love how good of friends they are...


and their favorite activity.... the throwing of the leaves!

A note on the girls

With all the excitement over Brett's birthday, where are the little chickens, you might ask? Ah, never fear, they don't allow themselves to be overlooked. In fact, they have both just gotten a new look, thanks to their harried mother who couldn't bear to deal with tangles for another day. In the middle of their shower, with shampoo in their hair, I hacked it off up to their ears, and I'm so happy to have done it! Take that, tangles. There you go.


Out of the blue the other day Millie asked me to get her flip-flops. Now I didn't have any idea she was aware of flip-flops, but I should know better, diva that she is. We found the perfect pair in the summer aisle at Lucky Grocery Store... 3.99! How can you beat that? And they sparkle like the princess that she is. Oh, and the nail polish--that, she did herself.

Happy Birthday Brett!

So Brett got the surprise of his life this weekend when he showed up to a 'sales meeting' for work, only to find four of his best friends waiting for him in the board room. He was so shocked at first he couldn't speak! So great to have Heath, Dave, Daren, and Steve make the effort to come out to celebrate with him. Thank you, guys.

The next day, we surprised him again with a party at the Dirty Martini in San Francisco.... the guys had to work hard to get Brett to go, but they got him there, and to his surprise, all his local friends were there too! :)

Here's the slideshow, but some people were having trouble with it... saying that it was going really fast, so let me know if that happens to you too, ok?

SLIDESHOW HERE!

My signature bathroom mirror shot...

The super-awesome big-face cake. Brett's high school graduation picture. he's a hottie, eh?

The guys...

is it the camera or the alcohol that makes this not so sharp? hmmm...

love this shot of steve

daren kisses a frog. we forgot brett's balloon at the club!

brett and his buddies

lucky me!

we love In N Out!

steve was cracking himself up trying to dispense wisdom to an 18 year old prom date

birthday boy

love you guys!

The camera is addicting...

Now that I'm shooting more, I'm finding all kinds of fun subject matter. Ok, maybe mostly my kids... but hey, I'm biased.

Playing in the leaves is just so satisfying. The kids were so willing to throw them over and over while I got the shot! I was trying to drag the shutter to get the blur of the leaves, and then I sped it up to get the sharpness... not sure which I like better....

Click RIGHT HERE FOR THE SLIDESHOW if you want to see a fun slideshow with all the pictures, but here are a few of my favorites...Click any pic for a bigger image..

sharp...

blur...


Sweet Ryan (climbing all over mommy)

Helena had to try it too...

Eight kids on a log.

it's all for the kids....Mint Julips, Cosmos, and Margaritas...

Saturday was a trifecta of parties for Joy and Brett.... we dropped those kids off with the grandparents (thank you dad!) and headed to party #1, the Kentucky Derby party. They were serving Mint Juleps that were more Jim Beam than any mint, thank you very much. Party #2 was a pre-auction party complete with yummy Cosmos (thank you Eric) and then we moved to the big party of the night, the school auction. Where they were serving margaritas. Why all the mention of alcohol? Well, mostly because there was a lot of it going around, and some managed to find it's way to me!!! We ended the evening dancing to 80s tunes, boy those Valhalla parents can boogy!

Congratulations are in order for Sandra Ferron, who bought herself a Margarita party in a basket!! For only $750. Hey, it's all for the kids.

IF you want to see the parents of first graders reliving their high school days, check it out

SLIDESHOW IS RIGHT HERE!!!

Here's a little bit of Nibbi and Sparky's Derby party, what a great way to start a Saturday! Check it out SECOND SLIDESHOW... CRAZY, I KNOW!!


I pulled some pix out from the slideshow, since most of you are missing it... so here, in easy to digest format... :)

big yellow bus

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.

I love hanging out with Penelope at school---so fun to spend time with the cute little first graders, and be part of their world. This week I got to relive some of my own grade school memories with a ride on a big yellow school bus to see a play in Oakland. While the bus ride was actually pretty fun (although I don't recommend texting and riding a bus)and the venue for the play was unbelievable, the play itself was pretty painful to watch. Some hokey version of Henry and Mudge with lots of cheesy dialogue and singing. I was happy to get back on the bus when it was over!