Elephant Sanctuary

So we went to the Elephant Sanctuary in Hartbeespoort Dam, about an hour from our house. The girls had a day off and so we wanted to do something fun. At the sanctuary they take care of elephants that can't live for whatever reason in the wild anymore. It is really a caring team who love and take care of the elephants. They will introduce you to a unique experience of touching, feeding, walking and riding with these magnificent and gentle creatures.


Here the caretaker lets Jasmine and Juliet touch all different parts of the elephant. The skin is quite tough, but behind the ears it is soft and velvety. The elbows are very rough and the feet are surprisingly kinda soft again. The hairs on the tail are so bushy... This is needed to kill the flies. This is Temba, a baby one, only 9 years old, so cute ;-)


He was a very handsome boy with the longest eye-lashes! (scroll down to the other close-up in my previous post and you'll see that the older elephant didn't have such long lashes) Oh, and he is the best kisser!! The most gentle one, but the girls didn't dare to let him give a kiss. You would have had slobber all over your face, the girls and me didn't find that appealing. But many other visitors were kissed by him ;-)


This boy was 11 years old, and he showed us some tricks he could do. Like sitting down.


Here JJ walks with the elephant. All elephants walk in groups behind each other, holding each other's tail. So Juliet had to pretend her arm was her tail, the elephant takes her hand in his trunk... a bit snotty, but fun! Jasmine wasn't interested in doing this. She loves little creepy crawlers, but if the animal is a bit (a lot) bigger then she bails out. Which is fine, we just walked next to JJ.


The feeding part is so much fun. You get a whole bucket of dry pallets and you can dump a handful in their trunks. The girls couldn't get enough of this ;-)


Here is Jasmine with 2 hands full of food giving to one of the elephants. They made sure that each elephant got an equal amount... so cute!!


More, more, the elephants couldn't get enough, and Jezz is going back to the bucket to get more.

We had a fun day at the sanctuary. It is a beautiful surrounding in between the Magaliesberg mountains. The elephants go each day out for 2 hours to feed and walk around in the nature. Did you know that elephants only sleep 3 hours a day, in intervals of 30 minutes, not more. The rest of the 21 hours they eat!
The people who come and visit the elephants are a nice way of not getting bored, so we are THEIR entertainment ;-)

Living in Africa is fun, you can see so many wild animals so close by home!
Have a great day!
Mireille

Wacky Wednesday #1

From now on I like to add a Wacky Wednesday photo, I like to start a little tradition in my blog.... just for fun! Sometimes it will be on top of a posting, so I will do 2 a day, or other times I will do just the wacky picture. We will see how it goes...



ciao, Mireille

Cry or laugh about it in 1 year??

Since Dirk was not here for Valentine's day, we decided to go out for dinner with friends on Friday. Khetho, our maid was babysitting the girls. There was a leak in the estate, so they closed off the water to fix it. When Dirk came home he wanted to freshen up, so he opened the faucet to get a bit of water out...but he forgot to close it...

We came back from our dinner at about 11:15 pm. We noticed some water dripping through the wall above the front door and were wondering if the sprinkler system from the neighbors was hitting our house?? Hmm...weird!
Khetho was sitting in the kitchen reading a magazine. So I asked her why she wasn't watching TV? The electricity fell out (again, that is also very common here).. I also asked her if everything went fine with the girls. Yes she said, but upstairs is a lot of water! Then she left to her room (she lives in with us). Curious as I was I went upstairs and to my shock I saw that the master bathroom AND bedroom was flooded with water. Dirk had left the tap open and when the water turned back on it came gushing down. So maybe after an hour or so Khetho heard a noise... went upstairs and closed the tap. But didn't do anything else... she didn't call us... she didn't mop up the water, she just went downstairs and continued reading her magazine. I was livid!! Could not understand her reaction... I mean COME ON I know this is not in your job description, but what would she have done if the house would be on fire.... read her magazine?? .. actually my magazine! I just couldn't believe that she just left the water standing in my bathroom and it just run into the bedroom, the whole carpet was soaking, the bath mats were floating in the bathroom and the cabinets under the sinks were just filled with water.
Everything... and I mean everything was soaking wet. At least 2 inches of water... so at 11:30 pm after a de-lish meal at the Fish & Wine co. we were on our knees mopping the water with huge towels.

Khetho left for the weekend to go to her family in Joburg, so I didn't see her all weekend. But I was so mad at her, disappointed and she deeply hurt my feelings... didn't she care?? That was my question, what went on in her mind that she didn't even take a few minutes to at least put some towels on the floor so the water could be soaked up?? The more I thought about it, the more I thought I don't want her to work for me anymore!! I gave this girl so much and helped her out whenever she needed, and then she just doesn't care for me to help me with this?

So I lined up already 2 other ladies for an interview but I was dreading Monday morning to tell her the bad news. How will she react, will she make a scene, I didn't think so, but you never know. The girls had a day off from school, so I told them to stay upstairs while I was talking to Khetho. Then she comes in and apologised immediately, she said that she felt she did wrong and felt terrible about it, but she felt ill on Friday and was too scared to tell me, and just couldn't get herself to clean up the water.

Here I go again, feel bad for her and give her a second chance... cancelled the 2 other ladies and life goes on as normal. But I had a good talk with her, and told her something like this can NEVER happen again! And she promised with tears in her eyes... we will see! You can look at a face but not into her mind, so I just hope that next time she will have a better judgement if something occurs that needs some extra reaction...

So now I know where that water came from that was dripping on our heads at the front door!! I just hope we won't get any problems with mold. We just have to wait and see. Because you don't think that in Africa they will repair or fix things that are not visible yet, just in case.... no way! That doesn't work like that over here... Living in Africa reminds me a lot of living in Thailand. In the moment these 'adventures' are very annoying, but later it is most the time a hilarious moment in life which we talk about at parties ;-) And this is my approach to most of these impromptus.... how do we feel about this in 6 months or in 1 year? Will I cry or laugh about it??

Well, that was my Valentines weekend! Being deeply dissapointed, hurt and angry when thinking about it. But my hubby made a huge breakfast with mimosas, just baked bread rolls, fresh fruit salad, yogurt, soft boiled eggs, chocolates, red roses... the whole romantic approach for his 3 girls, so cute!! He is the best hubby in the world... off to Lichtenstein a few hours later for 9 long days :-(

So since on Monday the girls had a day off and life with Khetho goes on, I decided to get away from it all and we went to the Elephant sanctuary where we could touch, sniff, walk and being kissed by an elephant was the matter of the day. More about this adventure tomorrow ;-)

Have a good Wednesday!
Mireille

I ♥ Faces; Wonder...

I stumbled upon this fun website: and thought it was cool to enter their weekly contest.

The purpose of this blog is to provide a photography sharing forum that focuses on the art of capturing faces and their various emotions. Each week, people from across the world will have the opportunity to enter their favorite face photos into two different categories ~ kids and adults. A judge will pick a winning photo from each category that will then be displayed on our home page.

This week the theme at I ♥ Faces is 'wonder' and I submitted this photo of Juliet who is being asked a few questions while we are photographing her, and in this photo she is wondering what to answer, but you can see on her face that she is having a funny answer in her mind ;-)... even her hands are making the gesture of wonder!


Do you have a good picture of the theme 'wonder', go to this website and submit your photo. A fun way to share your blog with the rest of the world!

By the way: I am number 111 on the I ♥ Faces list...

Have a great day,
Mireille

Happy Valentine's Day!!

love, Mireille

Valentine party at school

OK, it is Valentine's Day this weekend and my projects for school have kept me busy for the last week. We made 34 cards (JJ and Jezz have each 17 kids in their class).

What we did was we cut out a little fish that is completely made out of hearts, the body is in a heart shape, the lips, the fins. Then we put it on red cardboard paper and cut it out with zigzag scissors. This was my part...then the girls decorated it with glitter glue and little embellishments and wrote their names and the recipient name on it. Pfeww...a project that took us 3 days after school! But it is finished and the girls are as proud as can be ;-)



The girls also have a Valentine party at school today, and the kids will do some Valentine projects. One of the projects I volunteered to help with is to make a tissue paper flower. We made these last year in Ridgefield as a Valentine for every child and it was a huge success. So we are using this again this year...thanks to Martha Stewart, she has the greatest projects all year round!



Me and another mom Susanne prepared some crafts, did the ground work, so the kids only need to assemble them later on at the party. So we cut out the tissue paper, you need about 10 sheets per flower, and we cut out the paper leaves. The kids only need to glue 2 leaves on top of each other with the stem (pipe cleaner) in the middle. Then slide the tissue paper on the top and twist the stem and you have a pretty flower to give to your mom, dad or your sweet valentine!

I love to do these crafts with the girls, so much fun!
What are you up to for Valentines?? Bake a cake, make some crafts or go somewhere romantic with your sweetie pie??

I decorated the contemporary Xmas trees we had into Valentine trees, no more ornaments, but little red hearts, glass ornaments with a red feather inside and some red crystals. It looks very festive. I wanted to host a Valentine's dinner but Dirk is traveling to Lichtenstein (Europe) for 2 weekends, so I am alone with the girls for 9 days. But that doesn't keep us from doing fun stuff ;-)

PS: More pictures of the party at school later...
Mireille

Disgrace to Miley!

Everybody has seen this picture of Miley Cyrus making fun of Asian people. It saddens me that teens, kids and adults still think this behaviour is OK. As a mother of 2 beautiful Asian girls I know that the racism between other races is not over in the world... I believe it is better than say 20 years ago, but this picture proves that it is not over yet! And that saddens me. (Although is it really better, or are people more subtle about it, and are afraid to be frowned upon if saying something nasty in public... a thought that keeps me busy some days).

So far Jasmine and Juliet had only a few incidents in their lives that confronted them with ignorant remarks and people who are not open to all ethnicity's. I hope they will be spared from people you see in this picture below!

I mean she is only 16 and teens do stupid things, but at least what she could have done is turn it around by making a public apology! This is what she says on her official website...to this day NO apology..... that is shocking to me and totally a bad choice for her career!!

Miley Cyrus is responding to criticism that she mocked Asians in a photograph of the tween star stretching the corners of her eyes.
"In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity!" Cyrus wrote Thursday in a posting on her official website. "I was simply making a goofy face. When did that become newsworthy? It seems someone is trying to make something out of nothing to me."

BOOOHHH!!

Korean American comedian Margaret Cho is not happy with Miley Cyrus and her ignorant ways! The troublesome Disney star inspired the funny lady to pen a song, just for her!

Here’s what Miz Cho thinks about Cyrus' ‘making a funny face’ incident:

Miley Cyrus made some chinky eyes

Standing behind an Asian guy
I don’t know if this should fly
As if there wasn’t enough to despise

I wasn’t necessarily a fan of
Her, her dad, or Hannah Montana
I tend to prefer the songs of Rihanna
Racism against Asians is simply bananas!

Oh Miley!
Chinky eyes make you look wily

prejudice isn’t thought of so highly
it doesn’t make us all smiley

Why is there nothing that Asians can do?

To make fun of other races as easily as you
Why isn’t racism against Asians taboo?

Why are we always so racially screwed!

All you have to do is pull at your face

To make your eyelids resemble our race

This kind of joke has no proper place

Miley Cyrus is a disgrace!

Miley you are a bad example to the youngsters who look up at you and you should come out and make your wrong doings right by making a public apology!!

And I hope that we don't need to write another blog posting about such a bad behaviour against human kind!! We shouldn't need to answer the question anymore what race you are? Maybe this mocking would be over and in the past!

We are all HUMAN RACE!!

Have a lovely day!
Mireille

Valentine's day trivia and treats

Saturday is Valentine's day, and I was wondering...
No one knows the real story behind Saint Valentine (at least three different saints named Valentine are recognized by the Roman Catholic church), but one legend claims that he secretly married young couples against the orders of an emperor who had banned marriage because he believed single men made better soldiers.

Today's tradition of trading love notes on February 14 became popular in England in the 17th century. Here's a little trivia:

- The first box of chocolates was introduced by Richard Cadbury in 1868.
- The oldest known valentine card dates back to the 1400s. Charles, duke of Orleans, sent it to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
- So-called vinegar valentines, which carried insults like "Ugly, Fat, and Forty," were popular in the 19th century. They were sent anonymously on the 14th.
- "Be Mine," one of the original messages on Necco's Sweethearts candies when they debuted, still appears every year. Recent additions? "IM Me" and "Go Girl."

Side note: 'ugly, fat and forty'?????? since when is forty an insult??? these days it's the NEW twenties!!


Enough trivia, now we know about the history I want to go to the good stuff...the treats!! Since Dirk is leaving his 3 girls on Valentine's day for 9 days to Lichtenstein we have the kingdom to ourselves. Me and the girls will be making some of these goodies below...well not the Japanese crochet cupcake, but I just thought that was the cutest thing ;-)


These cookies look easy enough to handle for two 6-years old and a mom who isn't that much into baking. Recipe here.


Cute, cute, cute.... but no way I am going to make this!


Source: Flickr - no recipe available :-(


Beautiful and so sweet looking with the red and pink sprinkles.. source here.


Lip smackers gelatin kisses, Whoopie pies, Meringue kisses, Healthy heart sweet tarts, Love bites and Cupid cake. Source from one of my favorite blogs about entertaining: hostess with the mostess!

I haven't made my mind up which de-lish treat we will make, but I am sure we will have some fun this Valentine weekend!

What about you? Are you making, getting or giving something fun, sweet, de-lish, or... (I haven't used my favorite sentence in a loooong time...) unique, groovy, sassy, swanky, hip, bright, bold & funky stuff that gives you the wiggles & giggles!

Drop me a line, or show me what you are up to for Valentine's day, I am always in to see something new ;-) Inspiration for next year!!

Sweet love,
Mireille

Korean sushi is named Kimbob 한국 초밥

Yesterday I learned how to make Korean Sushi. It is not named sushi, but Kimbob. There is in general no raw fish included.


The girls have some Korean children in their class and they always get the most yummy and colorful lunch boxes to school. So the girls asked me one morning if I could give them Kimbob to school. Yeah, right! I just make some Kimbob for you... no problem!! Of course it is a problem, I don't know how to make that or even what goes into it!

Well, Anita another mom from JJ's class had the same request from her daughter Sonia, so we asked Hyun the mother of Jeongwoo if she could teach us. And she was more than willing to do so! We went to her house and not only did she teach us how to make Kimbob, she also prepared some other yummy Korean snacks and dishes for us to try. Like Korean pizza and some rice sticks wrapped with bacon. How fun is that!! We had a blast and we decided to do this more often.

Making Kimbob or sushi (it is the same just different ingredients and just a different name since Kimbob is in the Korean language and sushi in Japanese) is harder than you think. There are many tricks and special ways to do it, to make the outcome nice and sticky and not fall apart. But we finally got the feeling for it and last night me and the girls had Kimbob for dinner. Dirk was out with his boss for dinner, so he missed this treat. But we saved a few for him ;-)

We made 2 kinds of Kimbob, one was with tuna and sesame leaves, named Chamchi kimbob, see this website I found where you find easy steps to make it, if you are interested ;-) But since Hyun's children don't like this version, I thought it was yummy! we also made a few roles without the sesame leaves and tuna, just with crab, egg omelet, carrot, cucumber, yellow pickled radish strips, sticks of seasoned edible burdock root, and spam (ham in a can).

Here is a video how to make the Kimbob, we didn't use beef but crab meat instead. But it gives you an idea what we learned yesterday. Easy peasy lemon squeasy would Jezzy say :-)

This will be a new dish on our menu. Next week Hyun will take us to the Korean market and we will buy all the necessary ingredients to make it ourselves at home. How fun and yummy!! Thank you 당신을 감사하십시오! Hyun for this yummy and interesting morning :-) 명. 고맙습니다

We are planning to give each other cooking lessons, since Anita is from India but lived a long time in Sweden, she can teach us some Indian and Swedish recipes. And I will be giving some Thai and Dutch cooking classes. We've started a new tradition for our class moms ;-)

당신의 저녁식사를 즐기십시오 = Enjoy your dinner! (I hope translation is correct ;-)
Mireille

Daily choices of a 6 year old....

At 6:50 am the girls have to face the sight of all these shoes to make a choice! Life of a 6 year old can be tough ;-)



Poor Dirk, he has 3 women in the house who are shoe fanatics....
Have a wonderful day,
Mireille

What Are Big Girls Made Of? ... by Marge Piercy

I have a good and dear friend who I met while living in Thailand, she was my neighbor and my 'Legal Alien' friend (a group of ladies who met weekly to talk about our lives abroad). We got to know each other pretty well, and we are still in daily contact via Facebook and email. She lives in Germany now but also lived in South Africa. So we have some common backgrounds. She always gives me good advice and is a very smart, witty, sassy lady. She challenges me with remarks and comments and her wisdom has helped me overcome some 'battles' in my life. Her name is as special as she is: Ginster.

So Ginster posted this poem on Facebook and since you are not all a friend of Ginster you can't see this posting, and since it is such a good poem I wanted to share it with you.
Thank you for sharing Ginster :-)

(painting by Gustav Klimt)


The construction of a woman:
a woman is not made of flesh
of bone and sinew
belly and breasts, elbows and liver and toe.
She is manufactured like a sports sedan.
She is retooled, refitted and redesigned
every decade.
Cecile had been seduction itself in college.
She wriggled through bars like a satin eel,
her hips and ass promising, her mouth pursed
in the dark red lipstick of desire.

She visited in '68 still wearing skirts
tight to the knees, dark red lipstick,
while I danced through Manhattan in mini skirt,
lipstick pale as apricot milk,
hair loose as a horse's mane. Oh dear,
I thought in my superiority of the moment,
whatever has happened to poor Cecile?
She was out of fashion, out of the game,
disqualified, disdained, dismembered
from the club of desire.

Look at pictures in French fashion
magazines of the 18th century:
century of the ultimate lady
fantasy wrought of silk and corseting.
Paniers bring her hips out three feet
each way, while the waist is pinched
and the belly flattened under wood.
The breasts are stuffed up and out
offered like apples in a bowl.
The tiny foot is encased in a slipper
never meant for walking.
On top is a grandiose headache:
hair like a museum piece, daily
ornamented with ribbons, vases,
grottoes, mountains, frigates in full
sail, balloons, baboons, the fancy
of a hairdresser turned loose.
The hats were rococo wedding cakes
that would dim the Las Vegas strip.
Here is a woman forced into shape
rigid exoskeleton torturing flesh:
a woman made of pain.

How superior we are now: see the modern woman
thin as a blade of scissors.
She runs on a treadmill every morning,
fits herself into machines of weights
and pulleys to heave and grunt,
an image in her mind she can never
approximate, a body of rosy
glass that never wrinkles,
never grows, never fades. She
sits at the table closing her eyes to food
hungry, always hungry:
a woman made of pain.

A cat or dog approaches another,
they sniff noses. They sniff asses.
They bristle or lick. They fall
in love as often as we do,
as passionately. But they fall
in love or lust with furry flesh,
not hoop skirts or push up bras
rib removal or liposuction.
It is not for male or female dogs
that poodles are clipped
to topiary hedges.

If only we could like each other raw.
If only we could love ourselves
like healthy babies burbling in our arms.
If only we were not programmed and reprogrammed
to need what is sold us.
Why should we want to live inside ads?
Why should we want to scourge our softness
to straight lines like a Mondrian painting?
Why should we punish each other with scorn
as if to have a large ass
were worse than being greedy or mean?

When will women not be compelled
to view their bodies as science projects,
gardens to be weeded,
dogs to be trained?
When will a woman cease
to be made of pain?

by Marge Piercy.

Adoptive Families

I got an email this week from the magazine Adoptive Families. They asked permission to print a picture of Jasmine and Juliet in their next upcoming issue. I was honored so I gave my permission.

So check out the next issue up-coming Mar/Apr 09 (family album section) of Adoptive Families and you will see this picture of our beautiful girls. (Juliet left, Jasmine right)


Adoptive Families is a great magazine for parents who are an adoptive parent or are in the process of adopting, check out this link. You can get a subscription for this bi-monthly magazine!

They made me a proud momma again ;-) The girls were featured in this magazine about 2 years ago and I totally missed it till a mother from school told me she saw the girls in this magazine....

To have a chance that your child will be featured in the magazine you have to submit some photo's in their photo album, and who knows they will call or email you one day...

Have a good one!
Mireille

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

Mighty Might...black and white!

FDD's 1st Anniversary...YEAH!! ... and my Bday!!

A year ago I started this blog on my Bday, and wow did I not know how my life would change!! First I was fiddling a bit with images and the design of the blog and here you see some other examples I was testing...

I just added the text now to this donkey that I had made a bit funkier...


But let me tell you a bit about the last year. It is just amazing how many friends and other bloggers I met while doing this daily blog! Just amazing, it still blows my mind! So many nice, interesting, funny, inspirational and great friends I have met via the world wide web and this blogging world.

I am really happy to have started this blog, which I just did as a sort of learning process, I started reading some blogs and thought how nice it would to keep my family and friends up to date with our ever changing scenery. But I didn't realize that so many other friends I would meet!! It made my life so much richer and fuller by knowing all these new friends, it is really great!!

At first I started reading design and fashion blogs, then I added photo blogs, food blogs, daily life blogs, adoption blogs, SA blogs and once you start reading these blogs and look at which blogs they read, then there is no ever ending lists of blogs... just amazing!! From one blog to the other blog, the designs are fun to see, the text and photo's are addicting to follow and the stories behind each person is just mind blowing. So much better to read a blog than to watch TV!!

Thank you all for being my friend in blogging land!! I became attached to your stories, your comments and your blogs!! Thank you Kate, Annet, Rosemary, Jen and Emm for becoming part of my world! These wonderful women and many more who are reading my blog and I am following theirs! Me being part of yours in so many ways, not only via the blog world, but some of you via Facebook as well and private emails which I look out for all the time :-)

Let's make 2009 another even better blogging year!!
Love you all!
Mireille

Twins... the same and yet so different ;-)

OK, people tell me ALL the time, that Jasmine and Juliet look so much alike. Yeah, I kinda agree (not really), but look at these close-ups and you won't agree anymore! The girls have such a different personality as it shows in their eyes, smiles and the way they talk, hold their heads, move their body.

Jasmine is the shy one, although she hides behind her princess and silly looks. Then she can come out as quite the outgoing personality, but as soon as she is Jezzy again, she likes Juliet to take control.

Juliet is the bold one, the leader, the more talkative one. She protects her sister and makes sure nobody will hurt the princess. When they do role plays, she is the boy and Jezz is the girl ;-)

Since they were at pre-school we color-coded the girls (teachers asked us for that) and since then it is the way the girls pick their clothes. Jezz has the 'girl' colors and JJ the 'boy' colors.

Look for yourself and see, and try to guess who is who. Don't look at the colors of their clothes but at their faces!! The eyes give away so much. JJ has a rounder face and her eyes are rounder as well. While Jezz has a finer face and features with a bit more almond eyes. Can you see?? (Click on the images to see a larger view)


Sweet Jasmine

Vivacious Juliet

Being confident and happy together

Tickle me, tickle me!

Confident JJ

Silly Jezzy

Tomboy JJ

Princess posing Jezzy

How I LOVE my beautiful twins!!

Have a fun day, hope the weather is better on your side, here it is raining already for a few days ;-(

Ciao, Mireille

Life's for sharing....

I am a bit under the weather these days... a stomach bug hit me, so not much to share here with you guys. So the few hours a day I feel a bit human I was checking some blogs and stumbled upon this video and I have to share it with you. It made me feel better so hopefully it will do the same to you ;-)



I still haven't figured out how to add the video to my blog so that you only click on the arrow of the video, for now just click on this link and it will direct you to the video on You Tube that made my day today!!

Watch it, it will make you smile, and you would wish this would happen to you on a daily or at least weekly basis. Fun to see the reactions of the people....

Have a good one y'all, life's for sharing ;-)
Mireille

Food, Friends and a Hungry Bear

That's the name of another blog; Sunday Nite Dinner I visit frequently. Sunday Nite Dinner represents a gathering of people to celebrate good food and friendships. And since a big part of our life is about food and friendship I thought it was a good title for today.

We have our friends Marisca, Martijn and Justin over for 2 weeks from Holland and the gatherings at night around our outdoor dining table are always a fun and happy time. I like full tables with adults and kids around who enjoy my cooking. But most of all I enjoy my hungry bear, and people who know us, know also who I mean.... I like to cook, but my hubby likes to eat...he is my hungry bear!


I have never eaten so much red meat as here in SA. The steaks are superb here, better than anywhere we have lived so far. The combination with the good red wines and you can imagine that we need to worry about our waistline. Since I am not a big meat eater though, I was happy to know that Marisca is a vegetarian. So at least I can share my love for veggies and fish with her these 2 weeks.

My girls and Dirk are such meat lovers that I am always in the minority at the table, but not these 2 weeks...YEAH!! Since living in SA we use the braai a lot (if you read my blog often, you should know by now that braai is another word for BBQ) and we have a very good recipe (thanks to good old William and Sonoma) and that is Salmon rubbed with a seafood spice rub and then grilled on a cedar grilling plank that has been soaked into water for more than 2 hours. YUMMY! You will get this smoked flavor on your salmon which is so delicious, and you know what Hungry Bear loves this as well!!



So these days my cooking mode is set to vegetarian, but we need to add a bit of meat here and there of course for the rest of the group, and so it is an interesting mix of cooking these days. Which I LOVE!! I am browsing through recipe books, looking online to find some new and interesting meals.

If you happen to have a wonderful vegetarian dish, please email me and help me out, that would be great!! Or if you happen to know a great site where I can find recipes, please do send it to me.

Have a wonderful dinner, what are you cooking??
Love, Mireille

New Year, new day at school, more funny faces ;-)

First day at school I went with my mom to show her the grounds and buildings and pop into JJ and Jezz's classroom. They just had a break and were outside, so I took some pictures of their friends being silly and giddy.... happy to see each other again after a 3 week Xmas break.

Making funny faces.

Acting like fashion models.

I never see fashion models bent that much....but hey I guess that is their interpretation ;-)

From LtoR: Jasmine, Svenja, Kaitlyn and Juliet.

From LtoR: Zahra, Svenja and Jezzy.

None of these kids have the same nationality, the school is very divers. And it is amazing how you see these children develop in English. Some of them never spoke English when school started in September. Well, you can't almost hear the difference anymore. It keeps me amazed every day!

But more important is that they have fun, like to go to school, then the studies follow suit. Because they are happy and like to learn.

Have a good day!
Mireille