Punk, Rock & Goth Party!

We had a Punk, Rock and Goth Party for the girls 10th Bday and had about 30 kids and 10 adults coming over. 

So full house!!

We had a band and a DJ, with a smoke machine and laser lights, the kids all had glow in the dark glasses, bracelets and other items which they were wearing, so you could find each other. 

The evening was gorgeous, not too cold and the kids danced away on the FAB music of the DJ. They were very excited to have the band, but then when they played they didn't dance anymore... I guess those rock band songs were hard for them to dance on... then you can see that 10 years old is still so young!! But the adults danced at that point.

All the kids were dressed up either as Punk, Rock or Goth. For most of the girls it was goth, they are so intruiged by all the black and especially the make up!

Smokey eyes is the IN thing now!!

The girls in their Goth outfit, make up, nails, hair all done into detail.

Pre-Party Posing!

We had all kinds of glow in the dark gadgets to make it even more fun!

Most of the girls in one shot!

You can see that Jasmine and Juliet are used to posing... :-)

As soon as the girls had to pose with the boys they felt a bit awkward.

Pre-party posing with Candice, my friend and mother of one of the band members Leo.

Posing in their Goth outfits from L to R: Paula, Cathlynn, Elle, Juliet and in front Jasmine.

The band was great!

The girls are dancing the Macarena dance.

Even the boys did the Macarena dance.

The party was great and I believe that everybody had a good time!

Pfew... it takes another whole year to come up with a new theme for their 11th Bday party!

Ciao,

Mireille

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

National Adoption Day!

November is National Adoption Awareness month, and today is THE National Adoption Day!

Each year I write something about the moment our life changed forever!



The day that Jasmine and Juliet entered our lives... that day was: July 27, 2002 at 10 am I got a phone call from the Birth mother who I had met twice before, once to visit her daughters and help her to support with some powdered milk and other items she needed to keep these little bundles of joy worry alive. And the other time to go with her and the babies to the hospital to give them their shots and a check up. In her mind, the Bmother already had a plan for us... which I was totally oblivious of.



See, our adoption was not done via an agency, on that day, July 27th, a month after I had seen the girls for the first time, the Bmother asked me at 10 am if I would like to raise her children, she took me by surprise!! But she explained that it would be good Karma for her if she would give her daughters a better chance in life. She had observed me for a while, she talked to my helper and she knew this was the best for her precious little babies. So how could I deny that offer?? I talked to Dirk about it and at 12pm, just 2 hours later we were the parents of these beautiful twins. Dirk laid eyes on them for the first time, he only briefly heard about my previous visits with the babies, so quite the change in HIS life too!!



November is Adoption Awareness Month, and I know some of you out there are thinking, pondering, shall we go for this route?, shall we adopt? How hard is it, what are the hurdles? Are we prepared??

I can tell you, we hadn't even thought about this step yet... at the moment I accepted the Bmother's offer to raise her children on July 27th, 2002 I had THREE EMBRYOS implanted in my belly, I could have been pregnant with triplets at the moment we accepted these my twins. Going through my last IVF cycle, not knowing if any of these embryos would catch on, I accepted the twins with open arms. Because how can you say NO to a desperate plea of a mother to accept and raise her children?? I couldn't! A week later I found out that none of the embryos had nestled in my womb...

So were we prepared?? NO! Was it difficult?? YES! But wonderful at the same time! Was it daunting and were there moments that I had no clue what to do next?? YES!
But wasn't it the most precious moment of all times in my life when I saw these babies and could not completely wrap my head around the fact that I was the mommy of not ONE but TWO gorgeous little faces and cute tiny bodies. 3 months old, I will never forget those first few days... overwhelming! But oh so precious!!



We accepted the offer that changed our lives and went on from there... it took us 13 more months to make those little twin girls our official children! 13 months of agony, difficulty, desperation at times because the paperwork didn't go well at all!! And we weren't even sure if we could actually keep these babies!! What if they denied this private adoption?? After taking care of them for 13 months, till the LAST day I wasn't sure if we could keep them!! That part was hell!! I loved the fact of taking care of them, holding them, loving them, from day 1 they were MY babies. But everybody around me was thinking: "Who is she that she thinks that she can keep them?" There is NO private adoption law in Thailand, so that made the case so difficult, but in the end we prevailed. And we had the official documents in our hands and flew to the USA to start our new life as a family of four!!

Dirk being transferred to the USA after 2 months when we got the girls, a journey of 30 hours from door to door to Thailand. Me alone with the girls on the other side of the world, going through all the firsts alone... not easy to say the least!
Dirk flying every other month to Thailand just for a weekend to get some paperwork done, appear in front of the child protection board and be there in person for all the legal actions to adopt a child. Every time he flew twice for 30 hours, to be in the country maybe for 1 or 2 days, just to do the legal work and go back to his new job in the USA.

Since we didn't plan this adoption, it came on our path, it's what happened to us overnight, so no long discussions beforehand about the pro's and con's of adoption. In an instant we were the proud parents of Jasmine and Juliet. Think of this story, when you are in the process of adopting but don't know for sure if this is the right thing for your family, and see the end result. Just keep in mind the big picture, don't worry about the little things, it will all work out!!



To us this is the BEST instant decision we have taken so far in our lives!! So when you are thinking of adoption, don't think too long!! Go for it!! It will be the best decision in your life too!
You can never plan for a pregnancy, it just doesn't work out like that in life, the same counts for adoption. Don't think of the hurdles, yes you will come across a few, but in the end it is all about the end result and that is a precious child that you can love, hold, cuddle with forever!! More worth than those few hurdles...

Believe me... I have been there!

Adoption is a blessing in our lives!

And as I said in our adoption announcement: "Miracles do happen!" I still believe in that statement.

Just look at these beautiful little girls...



When we think about adoption, we often forget about the Bmother. For me, she is the hero of our story. The bravery and LOVE that it took to give not only one, but two children to a woman she merely knew but felt out of true devotion to her most precious possessions in life, that this is what she had to do.

To me the gift of life is the easiest to accept but the hardest to give!

B is for the bravery of putting your children first
I is for the interest you have in your children
R is for remaining true to what you believed is best
T is for the tears you shed
H is for the hours you spend pondering adoption
M is for the months you were pregnant
O is for the overwhelming and mixed emotions
T is for the terrific woman you are
H is for the honor you deserve
E is for the experience of labor
R is for the reward of choosing life

by Leslie Gallimore

Enjoy your day, and may this be a very special day!
Mireille xx

Noodles = Love

Jasmine and Juliet love noodles in all kind of form and shapes....





Noodle Soup = Vietnamese Pho with rice noodles

Bami = Fried Egg Noodles with veggies

Korean Jap Chae = potato noodles with beef and veggies

Pad Thai = Fried rice noodles with egg and tofu

Glass noodle salad with shrimp or mince

We eat all kind of noodles, and we LOVE it!!

Do you like noodles??
What is your favorite??

(I did this post because my friend Karen was saying that I don't take pictures of the girls so much these days.... so Karen, this one is for you ;-) wink wink)

Ciao, Mireille

My growing girls....

I was looking through my picture files and found these ones in which the girls are almost in the same position.
Jezz on the left and Juliet on the right in all 3 of them.

So I thought it is nice to put them together and see how the girls have grown. Cute at 4, and still totally adorable at 8!

This one is from 2006, so the girls are 3,5 years old.



This one is from 2007, and the girls are 5,5 years old.



And this is just taken in 2010, and here are the girls 8,5 years old.



You can totally recognize Jasmine and Juliet in each of them! At least I can, what about you??
Do you see the difference??

Have a FAB day!!
Mireille

Kids just wanna ride bikes....

You would think so?!
Especially if you are the child of 2 NATIVE DUTCH parents... right??

Well, NO!

Not in our case! A typical case of nature vs nurturing??

Our girls are 8 and until this day, they didn't want to ride a bike!! When we told them last April that we were planning to buy some bikes for their Bday, they started CRYING!! REALLY!! So we bought them some BOOKS instead... and they were totally over the moon!!

But the summer is starting here, and this weekend we decided when we saw this AWESOME deal on 2 cute bikes, that NOW is the TIME!!

And guess what?? The girls LIKE it!! Suddenly they want to learn to ride a bike!! (I probably know why, they see more and more kids riding their bikes... )

So here they are trying to hold balance... riding one way... walking back the other way! LOL
Because it goes down a bit and riding up the hill is not easy.... (you have to really look to see that hill, but OK in their minds... it is a hill) And I am the last one negotiating now with them on this point... if they want to walk back.. they WALK back!



So this week, our project is to bike every day after school a bit, hoping that at the end of the week, the girls are RIDING their bikes UP and DOWN the street! I see already some huge progress on the second day!

YEAH!! These DUTCH parents who are practically BORN on a bike are HAPPY for this new milestone!!



Did you know that?

- 95% of Dutch kids bike to school every day!
- A bicycle is a transportation mode for the whole family!
- Americans use their bicycles for less than one percent of all urban trips. Europeans bike in cities a lot more often—
in Italy 5 percent of all trips are on bicycle, 30 percent in the Netherlands, and seven out of eight Dutch people over age 15
have a bike.
- There are 16 million bicycles in the Netherlands, which equates to about one for every inhabitant.
- Dutch people don't just use their bikes for fun - cycling is an important way of travelling, from doing the daily shopping to
going to work or school.
- The Netherlands is the perfect place to spend a cycling vacation. Its flat as a pancake, with a mild climate and has many
bicycle paths. The distances from one town to another are never great.
- The bicycle is always at hand in Holland. Individuals who find themselves without a bike, Dutch and tourists alike, can rent
them by the hour, day, week, or even longer. They can be hired at most train stations, or bicycle shops.
- Because so many people cycle, the Netherlands has special traffic lanes, rules and road signs to improve safety for bikes.
There are over 17,000 km of cycle lanes, indicated by round blue signs with a white bicycle on them. In cities these lanes even
have special bicycle traffic lights!

In the Netherlands with rain, sleet or snow, people still go on their bikes to work in full suit, wooden shoes or with computer bag!



In the Netherlands the bike is a family vehicle, young and old... you don't believe me... look at these pictures!



We even have space for the dog! Parking garages for bikes and navigation systems on it...



Now you understand why we are so THRILLED that the girls finally start a liking to biking... we could never move back to HOLLAND if the girls don't know how to bike! We want to go on Sundays and go biking, but till now we never did... soon!

PS: We started off wearing helmets, knee and elbow protecters but it hindered them.... since they are still going so slow, we decided OK you can go like this for now...

I am a happy camper!
Mireille

~ JJ & Jezz over the years ~

My sweet precious girls are growing up so fast that I wanted to have a look back at how they developed, how their character is build over the years and how they have changed. And by looking up these pictures in old files many good memories flooded by, so fun to look at old files. To remember the good and sweet times. So great to see how much fun they can have together.

From 0-8, I can tell you it went by FAST! And so I can only imagine how fast the next 8 years will fly by... so it is good to stand back, enjoy the moments, smell the roses, seize the day... you get the idea!

Here JJ & Jezz are just 3 months old, and we just got them on July 27, 2002. We are still living in Thailand. I tried to take a few pictures, but a 3 month old baby can not sit up straight by herself, so I propped them against some pillows, but they would slide down the whole time. It is tough to try to take a picture of ONE baby... let alone 2. All the time either Jezz (R) would slide, or then the hat was in front of their faces.... it took me quite some time to shoot a few decent pictures... but I had so much fun!! I remember that I couldn't stop laughing. :-) I was home alone while Dirk was working and this was my project for the day, in between tons of diapers, bottles and naps. I mean I still wasn't used to being a mom and taking care of 2 babies at the same time was quite a tough task, but I managed to have some real quality time with them... haha more quality for me than for them! Look at these precious faces, I could eat them!! I remember this moment so vividly. I even changed their outfit once and took a few more....



We just moved to the USA with the girls, but I had to show the babies to our family in the Netherlands, so one month later we flew to Holland for a vacation. The girls are 18 months old here and have been in 3 continents already! This will be the pace for the rest of their lives. At least as long as they are living with us. Traveling with mommy and daddy to many countries, but at this age they have no clue yet. Jezz on the R again.



2 years old. They were always sitting together, playing close and interested in the same things. Inseparable these 2. Jezz on the L now. She wanted those fuzzy things in her hair, but JJ had no interest....



Playing with bubbles in our garden in Connecticut, such a beautiful garden we had! 3 Years + 4 months old. And again, not far from each other.... Jezz on the L.



Back in Thailand for a 3 month sabbatical, here at a water park in Pattaya. The girls had so much fun with the water fountain. They are almost 4. Jezz on the R.



You can see their personalities shine a bit more through now they get older, here they are almost 5 and giggling away because one of the balloons they were playing with went flying off with this huge buzzing sound, it cracked them up! Jezz on the R.



The last month we were in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The girls are looking at an ant in a tree, very inquisitive these two! They didn't even notice me with my camera around... 6 years old, and about to embark on a new adventure to South Africa! Jezz in the white dress.



While I am trying to take a portrait from Jezz, JJ is making a funny face in the back. Even Jezz is trying to hold a straight face but you can see that she has a bit of a funny face... Now the girls are 7 years old.



And being 8 and growing out of that little girl face, they are becoming pre-teens or tweens as they call it right? However, not much has changed in their relationship. Still as close as ever, JJ a bit more the dominant one, but Jezz knows how to work her sister and takes advantage of JJ good heart. So funny to see them together, they don't need much words... and you know what still sleeping together in 1 single bed. Almost every night Jezz goes to her sister and snuggles up to her... too cute!



How great it is to have twins, their bond is beyond words. They almost never fight with each other and can play together for hours on one end. They don't need a play date, they have enough with each other. Some days on the weekend, when we don't have anything planned they just retreat to their play room and play, play, read, and play some more. They just stay in their domain and enjoy each others company.

Sometimes it is so quite and I go up and see them sitting next to each other, mostly Thai style... you know the way.... with their feet on the table and squatting and reading both a book, next to each other just for hours.

Or other days they are more into role playing and play and play forever, changing clothes, changing themes. Once in a few hours they come down to the kitchen for a snack or a drink, but besides that you wouldn't even notice we have 2 eight year olds in the house!

And then there are the other days that they play in the garden, jumping from the hot tub into the cool pool, they love that as well, but again, they can entertain themselves for so long. I can't really remember any details but I know for sure that in my household when I was a a kid, it wasn't as quite as with these 2 girls!! We were always fighting, making noise, and messing the whole house up. Well... at least the play room is also totally messy when the girls played there, it must be messy otherwise they don't feel content... haha! So there is a sign in the house that we have 2 eight year olds... just walk into their play room!

Jasmine & Juliet are such a blessing to us, we truly enjoy being their parents, and I can't wait to see them develop into young smart, gorgeous looking ladies. With a future that holds no limits!

Have a wonderful day
Mireille

~ Grrrl Power ~

It's National Daugher's Week... and it got me thinking.



3 Years ago...
They were still so small, only 5 years old, but without any inhibition in front of the camera... that is different these days! More aware of their environment and opinions of others. I wonder how it will be in another 3 years, when they are 11??

Do you have daughters and how are they developing, getting more shy or just the opposite and more confident of themselves?

What has the environment to do with it? The country you are living in? How do they see and treat girls? How much has the TV and other media an impact on the role of girls? Pop culture? The World Wide Web? Is it easier to be a girl these days, or harder / more pressure??

What do you think of Lady Gaga and all those other celebs like Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus... a good influence for girls or not?? Being young and pretty is not enough these days anymore, you have to be famous as well?? Right or Wrong??



Let's hear how you feel about it! What has changed since you were a girl?

Have a good day!
Mireille

Hot or not....

Jasmine and Juliet stay my little fashionistas! Here showing of their new skirts.







We found a little children's boutique in Nathon which has really cool kids and adults clothes, although a lot of it is in tye-die. I guess that is the latest newest style again. Coming back from the 70's but just slightly different. Quite cool! We will be going back for more :-)

Friends....

Cherokee, Jasmine, Juliet and Zoha, so cute these 4 girls!!

A little fun with whipped cream....

Just some silly pictures of the girls, they like to play with whipped cream as you can see....

Jasmine



Juliet



Juliet left and Jasmine right





For now I am not so inspired to write a long story, so just some pics today. I am more wondering about Jen & Jeff, they are in Thailand at the moment to pick up their precious Ruby Kate and I can't wait to see some pictures and hear some news!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!
Mireille

April 27th: Happy Birthday to my sweet Princesses!

I wanted to post this yesterday, but my internet connection went bad after my haircut post, so I have to do it now....

My sweet little babies turned 7 yesterday on SA Freedom Day! 7 years ago I had no clue of their existing yet and now they are my sweet little big babies!! I only met them for the first time when they were 9 weeks old. My heart and thoughts went out to the Bmother yesterday, not knowing she was carrying twins on that day she went to the hospital to give birth.
When JJ came out and the afterbirth didn't come (the doctor had walked away already) suddenly the nurse called him back... another one is coming out! So 10 minutes later Jezz was born. They weighed respectively 2,1kg/4lb&6oz and 2kg/4lb&4oz. The lenght I am not sure about. Both healthy and happy ;-)

So yesterday, since it was a public holiday, we celebrated together with a super duper breakfast and opening their gifts. Happy campers they were when they saw all their wrapped packages on the breakfast table.

The day before we had set up a new trampoline already, it was hard to keep that as a surprise because it is so huge.


Then in the afternoon we had a Princess Tea Party at a venue here in town. The girls were all day excited to go and meet their friends, dress up as a Princess and have tea, games and Princess food. It was so much fun, and all the girls were excited to be a Princess for a day. The highlight of the party was to meet a 'real' princess that joined the party the whole time. JJ and Jezz had chosen a snow princess to be the guest of honor and so it was. The highlight of the party was when the cake came out, it was a Barbie doll with a big skirt that was the cake. As soon as the princess starting cutting the cake and the legs became visible all the girls yelled out.... she is naked underneath!! So much fun, what else did they thought she would be.. fully dressed?? Later the barbie with a set of clothes was the bonus of the day.






In the evening we went out for dinner and since the people in the restaurant know us all, they all came out and sang for the girls and they had vanilla ice cream with chocolate fudge. Spoiled rotten are these 2 little princesses, but we enjoyed watching them, glowing from joy, excited about all the special attention just for the 2 of them! And my mind wandered off again to this lady I don't know much about but feel a strong bond with. How did she spend the day today... miles away on the other side of the world? Wondering if the girls are OK, feeling happy and sad at the same time? My heart goes out to her, but I know that we will meet again....

Happy Birthday my sweet little angels!

We love you so much!
Mommy & Daddy