Meeting friends.

This vacation was all about meeting friends, some old and dear ones, but also quite a few new ones. Friends we met through blogging or via FB connected most of the times because we are all parents to adoptive Thai children. How fun it was so see so many friends I have been writing to and following their blogs or journey towards a waiting child, and then finally meeting them in real life is surreal and so much fun!

Jennifer and Jason we met while we were in NC, I wrote on FB that we were there and then she responded: We are there as well, let's meet. So we did one night and it was so much fun! Hope our paths will cross again. They already have a handsome little boy age 3 and are now waiting for a precious Thai little girl, soon to be picked up from Thailand! Good Luck guys, we wish you all the best and hopefully your little girl is home before Xmas!!



Then after a week on the beach on the Outer Banks we headed to NYC for 4 days. We are meeting even more blogging and FB friends. Jenn and Ruby we already met in Delaware, they stayed with us for a few days and we spent some lovely days and evenings drinking bubbles and chatting away. This was not the first time I met Jenn, 2 years ago we also saw her in the City but then Ruby was not home yet. This year we saw Ruby for the first time and we instantly fell in love with this sweet little girl!! She stole JJ and Jezz's hearts!

And we saw Wendy, Lily and Becky again, well for Becky it was the first time, but Wendy and Lily we met in 2005 and it was so good to see them again. We stayed in touch all this time, and I feel we quite know each other. Are very comfortable talking online with each other and now seeing each other again, is like meeting a good old friend, so fun!!

Since we all 3 came from different directions we planned to meet at Central Park at the Balto statue. While we were waiting we took a picture with Balto.



By the way, this statue has an interesting story... read here.

In January 1925, Alaskan doctors feared a deadly diphtheria epidemic would spread among the children of Nome. Medicine to stop the outbreak existed, but doctors needed to travel nearly a thousand miles to Anchorage to retrieve it. With no trains running that far north and the only available airplane sidelined by a frozen engine, the best chance of transporting the medicine across the icy tundra was by sled dog.

More than 20 sled teams coordinated to make the trip through blinding snow and sub-zero temperatures. On the first of February, the package was handed off to the final team. Lead by Balto, the team covered 53 treacherous miles back to Nome in 20 hours. Newspapers and radio around the world followed the trek, fascinated by the brave team whose efforts eventually helped end the epidemic.

Balto became a national hero. Just 10 months after the successful mission, this statue by animal sculptor Frederick G. R. Roth was dedicated in Central Park. The sculpture depicts Balto surveying the distance, hind legs braced and a sled harness hanging from his back.

Balto spent many happy years in the Cleveland Zoo, but his statue remains a favorite for children and adults here in Central Park.

Then Wendy, Lily and Becky arrived and we took some pictures of our Thai princesses, dressed in white... :-) Aren't these girls just the loveliest?









Then we headed off to Alice's Tea Cup for some magical times at a cute little tea shop. Time to see Jenn & Ruby and drink some tea and eat some scones. We had a lovely time!!





Here are we all, from L to R: Jenn, me, Wendy, Becky and front row: Jasmine, Lily, Ruby & Juliet




I so loved meeting all my wonderful friends!! So good to see you all again, I treasure these meetings and friendship!!
Hope for sure that we will see each other again, come and visit me now in South Africa!!
Love, M xx

Great weekend in NYC!

Georgous weekend! Open House planned at 446 Bennetts Farm Road in Ridgefield, so we decide to stay in the City for a weekend. Couldn't have picked a better timing, it was soooo nice!!

Saturday afternoon we drove to the City and stayed in a hotel in Times Square. Perfect location, not too far to walk for the girls.

First we had planned a play at a theather for Children. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (by Laura Joffe Numeroff). When a boy shares his snack with a hungry, demanding mouse, he learns a hilarious lesson about cause-and-effect. "Sixty minutes of theatrical enchantment. This is pure theatre, with a capital 'I' for imagination!" And that indeed was true, the girls had a blast. It was so much fun! Now, we had to buy the book, we walked around to look everywhere, but of course when you want to find something you won't find it. So instead the girls saw Toys'R'Us and bought a Barbie instead...they happy, we happy since the search was over. And we could enjoy the rest of our stay and explored Times Square. Dirk and the girls were making silly faces while walking around, stopping now and then to pose in front of the camera.

After we walked around a bit we decided to go to Queen of Sheba, an Etheopian restaurant. We read on the internet that it was quite authentic, so we had to try it out! The atmosphere is lively and full of excitement. And since it was in midtown and close to our hotel, we went and we were not sorry. Indeed very authentic food and the wine from North Africa we ordered went well with it. Jasmine and Juliet didn't eat much, but loved the 'princess' atmosphere and played with their new bought mermaid Barbies, while we enjoyed our dinner eating only with our hands, since that is the tradition!

Sunday morning we met our good friends; the Liu's, for Dim Sum in China Town. Emmy, Ella and Mia are JJ & Jezz's best friends. So we made their day to meet in the City! Of course we ate so many goodies, but the girls as usual, are more into playing, so after a few bites, they were sitting on the floor and playing and singing away. Atracting quite the audience ;-)


It was Central Park's Birthday, the Pope was in town and the weather was georgous, it was extremely busy in the Big Apple. However, today it was called the Green Apple, since Central Park was celebrating Earth Day, lot's of activities were planned at the park. Such a georgous day, we just enjoyed walking around. The girls getting a face painting and they planted some new plants in honor of Earth Day. So we did some good for the Earth today while having loads of fun!


Being a bit giddy, wild and funny JJ, Jezz, Mia, Emmy and Ella posed for us as the next Super Models. It was almost the end of our fun weekend! We went back to our hotel to pick up the car and the Liu's went back to Central station to get their train back to Ridgefield. While we were driving back we heard this cute song from Yael Naim, called: New Soul. I wanted to share that with you ;-) Perfect ending of our perfect weekend! (check out the bottom of my blog for the video)


And while we were in the Big Apple, we had our Open House and quite some people took an interest in our home. So who knows, maybe we have a deal in our hands ;-)

Let's see and wait!
Tomorrow, school again, spring break is over!