Movies, X rider & making your own sushi all in 1 afternoon.

I haven't been posting for a while now, because my pictures take forever to upload, but it seems to go a bit better these days, so let me try to add some posts with only a few pictures and try to get back onto my schedule!

A few weeks ago I went with the girls and their friend Cathlynn (our neighbor) to the movies at Montecasino. They wanted to see the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ~ part 1. But here this movie is rated PG13 and the girls are only 9. Although it was fine with me, since they have seen them all so far. So I told them to stay on the side when I purchase the tickets, so the seller doesn't see that the girls are younger. But then when we walked towards the theatre with their popcorn and drinks a lady called us back.... but we just pretended we didn't hear her!! LOL and watched the movie. So much fun to be to have a naughty mom the girls were saying! :-)

Then the girls wanted to go into the X Rider, a simulated ride where you get wind, snow, bubble effects and water sprinkled upon you and the chair moves up and down and left to right. You have to wear those 3D glasses and the girls totally dig this every time we go to Montecasino.

After they were full of adrenaline of the shaking and movements of the X Rider we went to YuMe for sushi. Juliet and Cathlynn love sushi, Jasmine goes for a safer option; fried noodles. We were sitting at the sushi belt when we ordered some special sushi that was not on the belt, so the sushi maker asked the girls if they wanted to make their own order.

And YES that sounded like a lot of fun!!







And here Juliet and Cathlynn on another sushi outing together! These girls love the good life!



Another fun Wednesday afternoon here in South Africa!

Life = good!

Enjoy your day,
Mireille

Back in South Africa!

OK, I have been back in South Africa now for a while now, but so behind blogging that it only seems I come back now... so just a recap of what I have been doing these last weeks....

380 boxes were waiting for me to unpack, put into the right place and decorate the new house... LOT OF WORK!! hence, the no blogging updates on a regular basis... sorry! But better times ahead. Still some boxes left, but I put them all in one room, so the rest of the house is at least decent, not all the pictures are hung up, because some of it has to grown on me. I can't decide in an instant where and what is the right place. This is a work in progress.... pictures will follow as soon as the progress is done :-)

Kids starting back to school, regular life for them and for us, which is nice in a way. We went to the movies on a Wednesday at Monte Casino, which is an Italian village/shopping centre, since that is a short day at school and the girls had fun with their 3-D glasses, took out the lenses and pretended to be NERDS!



Cathlynn, Juliet & Jasmine being nerdy with their 3D glasses :-)





Had a few cooking classes, which I love and keep doing, because you are never to old to learn some new tricks and learn more delicious dishes!! So here a few pics of that.

Cooking class with Karen a friend of mine from Singapore, she also is a blogger, check out her blog here, fantastic tales and photographs! She taught us how to cook Glutinuous Rice in Lotus Leaf, Chicken Satay and Portuguese Egg Tarts. All these recipes we learned that day and MORE you can find on her blog here. She also made that day a fish curry for us just to enjoy. YUM YUM, thanks Karen it was a wonderful morning!!





The other cooking class I had was Japanese by Sumie and the theme was MISO. We learned how to make a Miso dip, Nasu No Nabeshiki (Eggplant w/Miso sauce), Chicken marinated in Miso, Sushi & Miso Soup and for desert: Strawberries w/red bean paste in a sticky rice pancake. It was DELISH ~ Thank You Sumie for this wonderful class!!

















In the meantime I went already on 2 more safaris, and posts about that will follow soon!

We had the International Food Festival at school and the Parade of Nations, which I have loads of pictures on that as well, so separate posts on that too to come, and then after that I am up to date... pfew!

Not easy keeping a daily blog, which of course isn't that daily anymore and moving, traveling, cooking, entertaining, having a life, but I am trying... honest, I will do my best to get into the ritme again!!

Enjoy the pics, and hopefully your life is more in order!!
Tell me, what are your biggest hurdles?? I love to hear, that I am not the only one!!

Love & Happy Monday!
Mireille xx

Sunday morning...

It is Sunday morning and the girls are at a Military Boot Camp. 2 of their friends have a Birthday party there. So we will see how that went. They had to wear old clothes and shoes and we have to bring a towel for the car, since they will come back muddy.... The girls were very excited to go, this is a different party than the usual princess fairy parties. But I must say here in SA they have some great party venues. They went already to the Fire station where they could slide down the pole and actually drove in the big truck with sirens, blinking lights and everything. They had parties at mosaic craft stores, at a children theater, in the bush and on and on it goes. At least every weekend we have 1 party to go to. The girls have a busy social life! ;-) I can only imagine when they are teenagers...wow, if they are that busy now, how will it be when they are 7 years older??

But we have a nice and varied social life as well. We went on Friday evening to a Theatre nearby. It is a small theatre (about 300 chairs) at the Montecasino shopping mall, which is build like an Italian village. You have small cobblestone streets lined with cafeteria's, boutiques and restaurants. The fronts of the shops are like Italian houses and streets, it is great to go there for a night out. A lot of entertaining like a movie theatre, casino and real theatre. And it is all inside, one part is with a roof that is painted like it is a sunny day and the other half is painted like a clear night with stars.. so pretty.



Outside you have this huge beautiful hotel in Tuscan style, we stayed there when we were on our look-see trip in April last year. Just magnificent!

So went to this show called 'Not the Midnight Mass' we had no idea what to expect but it was just wonderful! 5 a capella singers that were so funny and are the best singers I've heard in a while. The show is about a bunch of people singing around a microphone and telling silly jokes but in voices that are as clear as water. Wow, it was really fun! So now we are planning to buy season tickets to this small theatre and go more often! And the beauty of living in SA are the prices.....a ticket like this is $12... yeah, you read it correct...$12. In the US you would pay at least $45-$60 for something like this, so we are hooked!! And are planning to go more!


This afternoon after the girls come back from their boot camp we are going to the Field and Study centre in Sandton with some colleagues of Dirk. It is a lovely spot to walk and picnic, go for an afternoon stroll and let the kids play at the playground.

Hope you have a wonderful and relaxing weekend as well ;-)
Mireille