My new hangout in TriBeCa...

While in New York City I was hanging out with my good old friend Espen in TriBeca. It was just days before the Easter weekend and he was moving out to his new place just around the corner.

So this will be my new hang out while visiting him in the City next time I come around... Truffles Tribeca, the most talked about rental in Manhattan.

The view: the trendy and totally cool and hip area of TriBeca.



The view on the other side: the Hudson river.



The common area: where the pretty people mingle... cool & funky!



I know they are up to date with the trends, look at that African side table... I have a few of those in my house!



Good job choosing your new place Espen, love to come back to hang out some more with you!!

Not bad at all... I LOVE the City!!

So vibrant, always something to do, to see, to experience, to eat...

Next time we move to the USA, New York City will definitely on our list!!

Mireille xx

Foodies adventure in NYC

I am still unpacking my last boxes, but the house is coming nicely together. But I have to finish writing about my summer trip in the USA and the Netherlands, since I already have booked 2 more safari's for this weekend and the next...

So we were 4 days in NYC, and every time I am there, I am exploring the best food places in town!! The FOOD is so good in the City, no place can beat that! Well... maybe some cities in Asia, but definitely not in the West. NYC = the BEST!

First 2 days we had a hotel across from the Empire State building, we could see it clearly from our room. So we explored Times Square. There was a huge launch going on from the new toy called Fijit. TV and Radio stations where there and JJ and Jezz got interviewed, since we just bought that toy that will be the next big thing for Xmas this year. So we will see if they use that clip on TV, then the girls are famous!! :-)



A huge hype on Times Square, and we just happened to be there!!





The next 2 days we spent with our long time friend Espen, who lives in Tribeca. He moved from Soho to Tribeca, so we still explored both parts of the City. We love this neighborhood!!

Of course we met some more good friends, while enjoying the variety of food in the City. Just in these 4 days we went to these places below, all meals we spent eating outside and we like to have as much variety as possible. Any of these places I can recommend, so check it out when you are in the City!!

First night, something very special: Momofuku Ssam Bar, corner of 13th ST / 2nd Ave. A Taiwanese-Japanese funky bar, with a menu so different and always changing, just plain awesome!! We had the most interesting food combinations, the crowd is hip. This is a happening place, go for it the next time you are in town. Actually Momofuku has a few restaurants in town, so check it out!!

After that we had a drink at one of the oldest watering holes in the City, at McSorley's Old Ale House, established in 1854. The oldest operating saloon in town. They still have hay on the floor so the floor doesn't get dirty. A bit smelly like an old pub smells and the crowd being really interesting, but not really our taste we headed out to a place I would feel more at ease... and that is the Macao Trading Company. Wow, this is nice!! Such an eclectic mix of food and drinks, this is the kind of place I feel at home, a nice combi of East meets West, the same fusion we are in our family. East meets West. Go here if you are in NYC, you will love it!! We only had drinks there after dinner, but next time I like to eat here.

The next night we went out to Barolo's and meeting our dear and good friends Patsy & Alex, which was so great to have some time with them again, after we had seen them in Ridgefield, CT. Now only us adults, spending some quality time with great food and drinks. Barolo's had restaurant week so there was a set menu, and we were sitting outside in the garden ~ Bliss!! Italian food & wines in a setting you don't believe you are in the middle of this huge city. So tranquil and peaceful = sweet life!! For drinks after we went next door to Thom Bar, a great bar with an extensive list of cocktails, just what the doctor ordered!! :-) Sweet!!



Meeting our dear friend Luciano, who lived till now in South Africa and we had spent many parties together in Joburg, now moved to Westport, CT and working in the City. A good moment for us to see him again and have a drink at the rooftop bar at Jimmy's at the James Hotel. Such a fun place to go and have after work drinks, cool, hip and happening!!





It was so hot in the City, temperatures reached easily a 100F/40C and we were walking the Highline (which you need to do one day too), and went to see Ground Zero. This place is growing, huge construction going on and a lot of progress is happening. Interesting to see in this building stage. But Jasmine got overwhelmed by all the walking in this heat, so she started crying and we went home with a taxi... but not before we had some lunch at the Viet Cafe in Tribeca.
For lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant my favorite is Pho. The noodle soup... YUM YUM YUM!!





And the BEST for the last. We went out for tapas at the Boqueria Tapas bar. OMG!! If you like Spanish food ~ tapas, go here!! This food is modern version of the old and good tapas, but so good!! So fresh!! So delish!! I still think about this evening, the food, the ambiance, the sangria, OUT.OF.THIS.WORLD!! Of all the places we saw this trip, this was my FAVORITE!!

I just LOVE Manhattan!! It is the best place in the world, to me! Our dream is to have an apartment in the City and a beach house in Thailand, when we retire. So we have both, the city and cultural life for half of the year and the other half the relaxing time on our beach... sounds good or what?

What is your ideal location for retirement?? Do you have a dream destination?? Share it with me!
Love, M xx

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

Valentine's weekend in the Bush

You probably figured out that I have been away for a while or my internet service hasn't been working...

Well, we went away for the Valentine's weekend to KweKwe Farm in Limpopo. It was just magical!

The moment we arrived back home from the weekend I had to leave to do my biometrics for my green card in NYC, well the weather was completely opposite in both locations. While in Limpopo it was a sweltering heat with temperatures reaching 99F/37C it was freezing cold (32F/0C) in NYC and we even had another snowstorm while I was in Connecticut! For this trip I was gone from Sunday to Friday, so gone for quite a long time again. But let me tell you more about the fun Valentine's weekend.

Kwe Kwe is a 265 ha private game farm, set at the foot of a hill. It is ideal for walking, mountain biking, game viewing and birding, family and friendship groups. And since they don't have any predators at the game reserve, you can walk freely among giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, kudu, impala and waterbucks. That to me was the most special about this particular game reserve!!

Kwe Kwe has four self-catering lodges, that accommodates up to 8 people. We went with 5 adults and 6 children and just had a blast! Each house has its own swimming pool, game room and you can use bikes and pedal go-karts and just pedal away while the giraffes and other animals roam freely on the same path as you are!!

We had a very relaxing weekend, reading our books while the kids were swimming, playing on the hammock or pedaling away to find the giraffes, ostriches and other animals we had spotted on our path before.

This is Hornbill, our vacation home for the weekend. It has 4 bed/4 bath, a huge kitchen, swimming pool, game room and a big yard to play in.



The inside of the house, spacious enough to seat all 11 of us!



The kids went out with the go-pedal bike, a tough exercise, but very fun!



On the way the giraffes were on the same path as the kids were pedaling away, we spotted them in our car.



Biking in this heat makes you hot and red in the face, so the kids had to take a dip in the pool. From left to right: Juliet, Jasmine, Zahra, Colm, Sanaja, Maeve and Desmond.



The kids PLAYING with the hammock.



While the guys, Desmond, Scott and Dirk are relaxing in the shade and having a drink. There is not much more you can do in this heat!



Getting the braai (BBQ) ready for a dinner, in the back you see the game room with ping pong, pool table and darts. So fun!



And the last morning we had a delicious Valentine's breakfast with the whole group. Pancakes, fruit and yoghurt made by Kashmira! Yummy!!



I already planned my next trip to KweKwe. We will be having JJ and Jezz's Bday party here. A sleep-over in the Bush with a walking safari with a ranger. I can't wait to organise this, will be so exciting and fun. April 27th is their Bday, so it is coming up soon!!

This is the house we will be going to next, Warthog. As you can see it has an open terrace on the second floor on the right. We can transform that room to a big bedroom and all the kids can sleep there. Out in the open air, but still under a roof.



And this is the view from the terrace, isn't it amazing?! All the wild animals will roam freely under their bedroom, how exciting is that for a 8th Bday party?!



So KweKwe we will be back in April! It was a great Valentine's weekend, and we want to come back more often!!

Have a good week y'all! I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's weekend as well, tell me about it!
Mireille

Part 6 ~ Ridgefield & NYC

The last 2 weeks of my vacation we've spent in Ridgefield, Connecticut where we used to live and the Big Apple, my favorite city!!

It was so great to see all our friends again, we had some grand parties on the beach at Rainbow Lake our old hood. Although I have no pictures of that... ;-(

We stayed at our dear friends the Liu's house for most of the time, and some other good friends the Cope family where we also had a girl's night out: a Twilight movie night on the big screen. (Also no pictures)

We had a few parties; a 'welcome back' and a 'goodbye again' party at the Sabido's house hold, which is always fun to hang around!

It was just great to have some fab meals, hang out and have some wine with good old friends. We really missed them all, and it was just great to see them again.

The last 3 days I booked a hotel right in the heart of Manhattan and the girls and me met some friends, hung out in the City and enjoyed the food, the sights, the smells, the shopping.... it was good to be back!!

My dear old friend Espen who lives in Soho and his girlfriend Helen, came to visit us in Ridgefield for an evening out of Tapas in Georgetown... it was yummy!!

We met Jen, my dear blogging/email and now met in real life friend! And we had the grandest lunch in the City and just chatted... we could have talked for hours more. The girls really warmed up to her towards the end, so it would have been nice to see each other again.

We also spent a whole day with one of my best friends Marion and her 2 adorable sons Max and Sam in the Big Apple. Wow, these kids were troopers... we walked and walked and they never complained.. all of them!!

But they couldn't complain, because we had promised them a visit to the biggest toy store in town... FAO Schwartz. They were so excited!

Then we had lunch at Mars 2112, a fun Alien themed restaurant where you enter by space ship, this was a real treat for the kids.... not so much for Marion and me...

On the way back we walked past Jekyl and Hyde, JJ wants to visit this next time we go to the Big Apple!

We met Sponge bob Square Pants, Mickey Mouse, and some other 'celebrities' and of course they had to pose with some of them!

JJ and Jezz met a friend in Central Park, and look at their gorgeous dresses they got from Jen. Wanted to wear it immediately when we came back to the hotel!

And on our last day in the City we met Evelyn, a friend who lives next to Columbus Circle and Central Park, so posing with the Statue of Liberty is something you almost can't NOT do!!

Then in the afternoon we went to Helen and Espen and the 3 of them had a swim in the pool at the condo where Helen lives. Swimming under romantic chandeliers.. not bad huh?

We also went bowling in her private bowling alley... just for residents, then we had some yummy rice and Chinese tea...


And that was the end of our more than 4 weeks vacation... We had a grand time!
Thank you all dear friends to spent time with us, partied with us, shopped with us, dined and wined with us, we LOVE you ALL!!

See you next time!
Mireille

Twins of the week

I was googling Juliet's and Jasmine's nicknames: JJ and Jezz, thinking that my blog would show up on the first page. To my surprise this came up:

JJ and Jezz, meet the multiples, Mother's Day photo gallery
and another one;
JJ and Jezz, twins of the week, with mom Mirielle (of course all the time my name is written wrong!) so I clicked on it and this picture came up.
Underneath it says that they had my permission....well, I don't know anything about that! I remember that I had sent some pictures years ago to a twin site, but I never sent any pictures to about.com

Weird to know that these articles were floating on the internet without me knowing. I just discovered that this week!

The girls are more 'famous' then they know. They already have been printed in an adoption magazine, a few times in the local Ridgefield Press and soon they will be featured into a Scholastic craft book that is coming out next month or so. The girls used to model in New York City before we moved to South Africa, and this was their last gig, fun to do and especially because they LOVED the Big Apple, so fascinating to see all these big buildings, lot's of people and millions of taxis zooming by. We always had a fun time going there. When the Scholastic book comes out I will let you know!

ps: everybody thought they were boys when they were little, this was in their first jeans, almost 10 months old ;-)

Have a wonderful day,
Mireille

Weekend at the Waldorf=Astoria

Because I am moving pretty soon to South Africa, and I will miss hanging out with my friend Marion, we have planned a girl’s weekend out. Just the two of us, to have fun, chat and get treated like a queen. Where else in NYC than the Waldorf=Astoria can you do that?! So we booked a room in the classic and art-deco hotel. It is situated on Park Avenue, right in the middle of a lot of fun stuff to do, and the best shopping on 5th Avenue. The hotel reminds me of old New York money and I am sure we will be feeling like celebrities this weekend ;-)

I am hoping to have the most succulent meals, fantastic drinks and just enjoy the opulence atmosphere that permeates throughout the lobby. I heard the rooms are spacy and comfy, and the wait staff is impeccable. So I will let you know how our weekend went on Monday. Prepare yourself for some amazing pics or stories.

Have a great weekend y’all!
Mireille

Big kids in the City...

Jasmine & Juliet love to go to the Big Apple, so once in a while they have a modeling gig in the City and they get all excited! A lot of these photo shoots we have to cancel since I don't want the girls to skip school for it. But yesterday, it was georgous weather and they had a modeling appointment for H&M in the afternoon. So after school, we loaded up the car with coloring books, drinks and food and drove to NYC. We actually found a parking lot across the street from the CB studios on W.29th, between 7&8th Ave. They took quite some pictures from the girls, alone and together. So who knows you will soon see JJ and Jezz in a H&M catalog? I'll keep you posted if they use their pictures. Since they always use more children for 1 shoot and the best shots are used of course. It was fun, even if their pictures are not published ;-)
Afterwards we walked a bit through the streets, ate a yummy ice cream and went back home. Just another week day in the Dijkstra household.

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!