The Day That I Met Chantelle of Fat Mum Slim

Last week I had the most amazing news.....I was going to finally meet Chantelle of Fat Mum Slim....it was going to be totes awesome!!!

It was the eve of the big day, all the prep had been done.....hubby would be working so I had made arrangements for Miss 16 and Miss 14 to stay home and do their homework (yeah I know, who was I kidding there!!) and Miss 11 and Miss 6 were spending the day at my sisters house.  Miss 17 was coming with me to the luncheon....because it was all about sharing the passion of photography with your children and she had just survived her year 12 trials and her major work deadline so a day out was well deserved!!

I stocked the fridge and the cupboards for Miss 16 and Miss 14 and I packed a bag full of snacks and goodies for Miss 11 and Miss 6, I packed drinks, I packed activity books, I packed colouring pencils.....I was all over this...totally awesome parenting!!!

The girls went to bed early and then it happened.....

Miss 6 vomited....EVERYWHERE.!!!!!

So instead of meticulously planning my outfit for the one day of the year that I actually had plans to go out and mingle with adult people  (okay so technically I only have one decent pair of casual pants and one pair of boots so really I was just choosing between two tops!!!) I was now doing loads of washing...the doona, the blankets, the sheets.....ugh I hate vomit!!

I went to bed needing a good nights sleep.....but instead I spent the night anticipating Miss 6's next vomit and running in to her at every sound as I was not going to be washing more sheets and blankets!!!

Morning came and I felt like crap....a few panadol was in order!  Miss 6 woke up and initially seemed a little better....oh yes thank heavens it was just a 12 hour thing and the day could go ahead as planned!  But as the morning progressed I could see that this was no 12  hour bug......queue mummy guilt!!!

As it does time was getting away that morning so I stuck to the plan and dropped Miss 11 and Miss 6 off to my sister while profusely apologizing for Miss 6 being sick and detailing instructions of medicines in the bag.

I've gotta say I was feeling like the worst mum ever....her poor little face as I may have exaggerated and told her I wouldn't be gone long!!

But Miss 17 and I were now free!!!  

We hit the motorway like Thelma and Louise and I could now start freaking out about driving to the city, having absolutely no idea where I was going and wondering where the heck I was going to be able to park the goddam Tarago!!!!

The planets must have been aligned because we made it without getting lost, on time and even pulled off a parking spot in the same street...trifecta!!

OMG and then we met Chantelle......!!!!

And do you want to hear my most profound first thought upon meeting her.....wow she looks just like she does in her profile pic....holy shit thank god I only thought it in my head and didn't say it out loud!!!

So the day was an Olympus photography workshop for 15 lucky readers of Fat Mum Slim and their children and Rachel Devine was there too....how awesome hey!  The venue was freaking amazing.....The Grounds Of Alexandria...if you haven't been there you totally must check it out....I haven't stopped raving to hubby about it since I got home!

We learnt fab photography stuff, we ate amazing food and we photographed with the best Olympus cameras!

I called and texted the girls and my sister during the day and poor Miss 6 was really sick. She had been vomiting during the day and had even slept for two hours, woken up for half an hour and then slept for another hour.....I've gotta admit that in between feeling bad I did think 'oh well at least she hasn't been misbehaving!!!!!'

The workshop came to a close so I grabbed a gorgeous bunch of flowers from the florist for my wonderful sister and Miss 17 and I made our way home.  These flowers will totally make my sister forget the vomit won't they?!

Getting home took forever due to the traffic, we raced in to collect Miss 14 for a party which she was now late for and she didn't hold back letting us know, ran into my sisters with the flowers and scooped up poor Miss 6 and popped her in the car, dropped Miss 17 and Miss 11 to the church for a confirmation meeting, dropped Miss 14 to the party even later than planned and almost made it home before Miss 6 vomited again...thankfully into the container...which she then accidentally dropped two minutes from home........ouch I think reality was slapping me in the face!!!

But I still had the memories of a great day out and of meeting Chantelle.....though it was only when I thought about it later on that I realized that I have no photographic evidence of meeting her.....but hey there is a group photo floating around somewhere so it really did happen ....it wasn't just some stalkerish fantasy okay....coz that would be kinda weird!!!  Chantelle is totally awesome by the way!!

I took heaps of photos with the amazing Olympus camera and will put my favourites together for my 10 on 10 Photography post in September.....but here are a few to tease you!!!

I think after all of that it will be a long time before I plan another day out.....I was exhausted for days!!

Miss 17 wrote a blog post about the day on the girls blog if you want to check it out...Mummy Daughter Day Out!

Linking up with Eva of Multitasking Mummy for Mummy Mondays!