Charlie's Angels...

Jasmine and Juliet went with their friend Elle to a paintball Bday party last week and they felt all ready for it!!

Ready to beat the boys!! There were only 4 girls against all the boys, so the pressure was on :-) 

But with this kind of attitude you can beat anybody!

It's a real fun location called the Woods, check it out here, if you need a great idea for a Bday party!

You need to drive through quite some adventurous path and even water to reach the location, so the drive to it is already fun!

I was a bit scared to drive through this water with my low beemer... but I survived :-)

The location is gorgeous!

The Woods paintball place is located right off William Nichol in between Dainfern and the American school, so easy peasy to find!

Another great day in Africa!
Mireille xx

Last day 9

I know I haven't been blogging much and I hope that my readers are not too mad at me... sorry guys, just not in the mood for writing and nothing much happening here. At least in my eyes nothing worthy to write about. But I will promise better...

I haven't been blogging for 1,5 week and the system has completely changed on me, the outlook looks completely different when I type in the text for the body... hope it turns out the same ;-)

Tomorrow is the girls Bday, so last day in the single digits. Tomorrow they will turn 10... TEN!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone, can remember the day we got them so vividly and now almost ten years later.

I just measured and weighed them to see how things are at the moment, well Jasmine is a bit taller, always has been and she is 1.40 mtr/4,5" and Juliet is 1.39 mtr/4,5" and they almost weigh the same as well. Jasmine is 66 lbs/30 kg and Juliet is 65 lbs/29,5 kg and they wear shoe size 3 US and 2 SA. They grew in the last 4 months an inch = 2,5 cm, so that is a good sign that it is still going upwards and not side ways ;-) But you can see that their body is changing, the womanly curves are setting in, a bit more hips and booty and the boobies are slowly coming in as well, a new phase is here!



Here they are on their last day being 9, having breakfast before going to school. Today at school they will serve cupcakes, pictures later and today is the BIG party as well. The girls have off tomorrow for a long weekend so we do the party today, in case some kids go out for a few days to celebrate the long weekend. WE, we just PARTY!!

The scene of the party is Punk, Rock & Goth, and everybody has to be dressed up in either one of these 3 scenes. It will be fun!

We will have a live band and a DJ with a smoke machine, laser lights and all kinds of glow in the dark thingys to make it fun, since we have it outside on the patio between 6-9, so dark and mysterious :-) And there are coming about 30 kids, so busy enough tonight!

The girls have chosen their outfits and go for Goth, black hair, black clothing and black eye make up, it is looking good. Took a while to get those outfits complete and it just reminds me how my future with these two will be... a lot of fussing about hair and outfits!

More pictures tomorrow!
I promise I will be back :-)

Enjoy your day!
Mireille

More space? #41

When the girls come back out of school, these days they immediately go to their room and hang out there.

Then when I walked by I heard them giggling and talking while reading both a book. (what a surprise...)



But then I was looking at them for a while... they hadn't noticed me with the camera yet and I thought by myself: "Don't they want more space, each their own bed?, or even their own room? It looks so small for both of them."

But I guess they are not ready for the separation yet... because believe me I asked them many times. They like to be that close to each other, I guess they still NEED that!

Kids don't have the need to have that much space I guess... I mean when I am going back to the house where I grew up as a child now I always feel that it is so small!! But then I didn't feel it was small. We lived with 5 people in a house with only 1 bathroom and only 1 toilet. Now I almost get claustrophobic when I think about it that we shared that small space with 5 people. My dad lives in that house now by himself, and yes it is big enough with 4 bedrooms... but the spaces are tiny!

I guess that is the same with Jasmine and Juliet, they don't know any better than sharing their room, even their bed with each other and they like it that way...

I guess there will come a day that they will ask me to have separate beds or separate rooms, and that is perfectly fine with me!

But for now, they just giggle and share all their secrets with each other cozy together :-)
I just love to have twins!


Enjoy this gorgeous day!
Mireille xx

Being pampered the African way....

I am a little behind with my blogging since my mom is still here and we're are doing so many things....

On January 2nd my mom and me went to have an African revitalization day at the Mangwanani day spa at the Indaba hotel here in Fourways. The spa has been chosen many years in a row as spa of the year. Well, I can tell you it was divine!! Since we had this big New Years bash we were ready for a relaxation extravaganza. Let me walk you through the treatments we got.

We started the day at 8:30 am, everybody got a thick robe and slippers we had to change in and then they served us this healthy yummy breakfast, with fresh squeezed juices and yogurt with muesli and a fruit skewer. Every group was seated at a different table and this was your table for the day. There were at least 50-75 guests there at one time. And as much massage therapists there. A huge spa but very well organised!

We started off with a Izimanga; a Full Body Massage with hot stones. Just a great start to completely relax the whole body, in the room were 2 beds with a bamboo screen in the middle. And 1 side was open to the nature, so while we were getting our heavenly massage we heard the birds sing songs for us....what a great start!


After that we got Neo Maoto; a Foot Massage. An African Royal Foot Gift (from toes to knees) with a Rose Petal Wash, Sugar & Grape Seed Scrub, and then at the end they applied the Mangwanani Massage Cream and kneaded all those knots out of my feet. This was one of my favorite massages of the whole day, it was SO good!

In between the different treatments we would walk to our table again to have a new drink, a sip of water ore one of the juices they had waiting for us and then they would come and fetch us again at our table for the next treatment.

Well, the next was Molala; an Ancient African Head & Neck Healing & Relaxation Treatment with Sesame Oil. This was actually not my favorite, my shoulders were hearting the next day of the pressure. Although you had to make a choice how you liked the pressure (mild, medium or strong) I chose medium, but this one was to heavy duty for me and I felt it big time the day after!

Then we got the UBUSO; a Renewing African Facial Spa with Pressure Point Massage and a mask. Again we were laying in these private rooms with one side open to nature and I heard my mom snoozing a bit behind the bamboo curtain. After the facial cleansing they left us laying there with a mask and it was just heaven on earth...so relaxing! Life is good ;-)


Now with a clean face, relaxed body, super soft feet we had a delicious lunch with a grilled chicken salad and again some nice juices and wine, what more can we ask for, knowing we have a few more treatments left and just enjoying all this pampering! While we were having lunch the massage therapists all came to join the lunch area with us and starting singing and dancing traditional African songs...it was just magical!


After lunch we started off with TLHAPISO; Full Spa Body Works with a choice of Body Washes or Salt Scrub Body Brush or African Mielie Meal Body Exfoliation. Wow, she scrubbed my body with a salt mixture which smelled like roses, oranges and herbs but my body glowed and felt as soft as a baby. Needless to say I needed a little rest after this, it takes a lot of energy out of you these massages ;-)

So it came in handy that we had the pool and relaxation time after this. We just lay by the pool, enjoyed a glass of wine and realized that life is good ;-) And it was also time for a snack time with some French cheeses, fresh fruit and crackers. Glass of wine or fruit juices.


And last but not least we had NEO MATSOGO; Traditional African Royal Hand Gift (from fingers to elbows) with a Rose Petal Wash, Sugar & Grape Seed Scrub, and to top it of a Mangwanani Massage Cream. Almost as good as the food massage, still divine and a very nice and relaxing way of ending this perfect day of heaven on earth!

And to end the end we got a glass of Amarula (equivalent of Bailey's) with a chocolate. By now it was 5:30 pm, we had spend a whole day having 6 treatments and a relaxation time, heavenly and fresh spa food and we can conquer the world for the new year!


What a great way to start the New Year...thanks Dikky Dik!! It was a gift from my dear hubby ;-) How nice is he?!

More about our African adventures tomorrow!
Mireille

Buddy Bear fashion show

Jasmine and Juliet participated in a Buddy Bear fashion show on Saturday. The girls and boys had to compete with their Buddy Bear and dress alike. Although the girls didn't have a Buddy Bear, they participated with their Build-a-Bear. They wouldn't discriminate against the 'foreign' bears they told us. Here are some of the participants being a bit nervous and waiting to line up.

JJ and Jezz were wearing red and white and so where their bears, there were more than 30 kids walking the red carpet. It was so much fun and so cute to see!

Buddy Bear is the South African version of Build-a-Bear and the store is located in Cedar Square, here in Fourways. The mall has an open concept, so the sun was brightly shining and it became quite hot for us to sit on the side in the full sun.
Here is JJ pondering and waiting to see if she is one of the finalists, they were a bit dissapointed when they realized they weren't part of the eight finalists. To be honest I thought that at least one of them would be in the final 8, but we are thinking because the girls didn't have a Buddy Bear that that was part of the reason they didn't win....You never know, but none of the children who came with a Build-a-Bear didn't win, so you have to think. But in the end it didn't really matter, they had fun doing the show and they got a Buddy Bear shirt for their bear and a coupon for a free ice cream, on such a hot day...that is just perfect ;-)
Here JJ and Jezz are posing with their friend Heidi who also did walk the red carpet with her ballerina bear.

SA design & home decor

Before we went to SA for a look-see visit I was thinking already about which things I need to buy in the USA before we move. New things for in the home, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how many modern and up to date design and home decor they have in Johannesburg!! Wow, what a selection! They even have a complete Design Quarter, where I can experience the sensory pleasure of lavish shopping and delectable dinning in a stylish lifestyle centre created for people with a passion for interiors, design and fine eateries. With over 40 sensational stores including concepts stores with cutting edge approach of leading South African retailers. You will find Woolworths home & food, Boardmans, @home livings space and Mr Price Home.
Plus they have coffee shops and small restaurants there, so you can easily spend a whole day without being bored or hungry! I don't need to buy anything here in the US. They have probably even more all in one mall that is conveniently situated next to my new home ;-) So I can't wait to go and explore and shop for new things.


The styles are more European and I am very excited to see which styles are in fashion on the other side of this world. I've seen the styles here, so something new, something fresh.....mmmmm
I can't wait ;-)
They even have an Elle Decoration SA edition and House & Leisure SA, so there must be enough new and upcoming designers to have special editions just for SA.
Mireille is very excited!!
My husband will get a bit worried when he will read this, since he knows how well I can shop! haha...
But I have a good excuse, the house is about 2 times bigger than the house we are living in now, so obviously we have to add a few pieces!

And do you see these lounge chairs next to the pool, arent't they cute and have a fresh design? They probably would look good next to our new pool? Just an option, I have to check first what else they have there in SA. But I like what I see!

Pretty soon you will see me wandering through Design Quarter in SA and picking up some quirky pieces for our new ultra modern home!

PS: If you read this blog and you live in Joburg, please leave me a comment for more shopping tips since I will be new to the area in July.

Have a great day y'all.
Mireille ;-)