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

Since I am Dutch....

I have to show you these commercials I found on YouTube....

The language is Dutch, but it is pretty obvious... The girl is showing her new house to her friends, and last she shows the walk-in closet. While downstairs the guys gaga over the walk-in fridge!



Pretty cool huh?

And then the follow up: the walking fridge ;-)


Some Dutch humor, as long as beer is involved it is always pretty good!
Have a chuckle...

Love, M

I ♥ Faces, week 32 ~ Bubbles

Bubbles is the theme this week... so here is Jasmine under water in the pool in Orlando, Florida last month. We had so much fun with our under water camera and they tried to create as much bubbles as possible. We even took some pictures in the hot tub, but there were too many bubbles... so those pictures didn't turn out quite well.



Check out all the other contestants at the I ♥ Faces website, you will see some cute ones!


Tomorrow my last posting about our vacation and then back to normal life here in South Africa!

Have a Terrific Tuesday!
Love, M

Part 5 ~ on the beach in Marshfield

We had a fabulous week in Marshfield on the beach, this location is just before Cape Cod. The house was direct on a private beach, so ideal for our 2 families. We arrived on 4th July, which is also Valerie's Birthday. So enough reason to celebrate, drink champagne and BBQ some food on the grill while enjoying all the fireworks on the beach. A fabulous start of a great week!!

I had more pictures of the spectaculair fireworks, but they were all blurry, was it because it is hard to photograph moving light in the dark, or was it because I had already some lovely drinks??

The 'coddage' as it was called. A 4 bedroom house, so great for the 2 families.


The view from our deck, right on the beach. No need to carry our stuff in a car, then to the beach, we just walk to the water and enjoy yourself. What a treat! I don't want EVER to go to a beach house that is NOT direct on the beach!

The girls decided to sell some home made lemonade, the only problem was nobody was buying, so in the end they gave it away for FREE.... At least they had fun!


A Jarlsberg moment! Brave start, but in the end only 2 girls went in... too chilly!

Our 2 families: Valerie and Bob, with Mia, Emmy and Ella. And Dirk and me, with Jasmine and Juliet.

When you are in the Cape, you HAVE to have some lobster dinners! Well, we DID!

And the guys couldn't wait to dig in!

The girls went almost every day at low tide crabbing. They had some amazing finds, and hundreds of sea stars. But almost all of them we threw back into the ocean. We are kind to nature!

And of course we did some dancing, singing and drinking on the deck after sunset! We had tons of fun, it was a great vacation!!

New school year, new hairdo.

For the new school year the girls wanted a new look. Jasmine was very sure about her decision. She wanted it the same as I have my hair. Short bob. That means at least 5 inches/12 cm had to come off, but she didn't hesitate and here is the result, she looks so cute and sassy!
When it was Juliet's turn, she went back and forth about her new lenght, but at the last minute she decided to not go so short as me and Jezzy, so she took of about 2 inches/5 cm and we layered her hair. So it is bouncy and also very cute! The girls are ready for 2nd grade!

Now my friends don't need to ask me all the time, who is who? They are now the not look-a-like twins anymore :-)

I LOVE their new look, and in the morning we don't have the problem anymore with detangling their knots.... pfew, that makes mornings a lot easier!

Have a great day!
Mireille

I ♥ Faces: week 29 ~ Funny & Silly faces

It's Monday morning and I am back into the game with I ♥ Faces. Have missed putting my picture up for so long, so I am glad I have a funny and silly faces picture.





This picture was taken in Ridgefield, CT last month while we were on vacation and there was a street fair going on. The local dance club Enchanted Garden had a guy there who made the most amazing face paintings. Check this out:

Jasmine and Mia as a leopard, Emmy as a cat, and Juliet & Ella as a butterfly. Great or what? Such a funny and silly faces!! I just love these faces and sweet little girls!!

Check out the I ♥ Faces website, to see more of amazing pictures taken with this theme!

Have a Marvelous Monday, and tomorrow I will be posting some more stories about our vacation. Since it was more than a month, I just simply can't do it in 1 posting!!

Love, M

Women's Day in South Africa.

South Africa honors women every August 9th. The day is celebrated as a reminder of the contribution made by women to society, the achievements that have been made for women's rights, and to acknowledge the difficulties and prejudices many women still face.

Women Rule!

This day commemorates 9 August 1956 when women participating in a national march petitioned against pass laws (legislation that required African persons to carry a document on them to ‘prove’ that they were allowed to enter a ‘white area’).

Imagine over 20 000 women of all races and ages from every corner of South Africa marching together towards the Union Buildings in Pretoria. On 9 August 1956 these women were marching in protest against the pass laws that proposed even further restrictions on the movements of women.

The Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw) organised the March, led by four women; Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophy Williams and Lilian Ngoyi. The leaders delivered petitions to Prime Minister JG Strijdom's office within the Union Buildings. Women throughout the country had put their names to these petitions indicating their anger and frustration at having their freedom of movement restricted by the hated official passes.

To conclude the Women's March the women sang freedom songs such as Nkosi sikeleli Afrika.



however, the song that became the anthem of the march was "Wathint' abafazi, Strijdom!"

wathint' abafazi,
wathint' imbokodo,
uza kufa!

[When] you strike the women,
you strike a rock,
you will be crushed [you will die]!

The march was a resounding success and we recognise the bravery of these women who risked arrest, detention and banning by declaring 9 August National Women’s Day.

We went to Newtown, a part of Johannesburg today to see what the celebrations was all about. Supposedly there was street music and other activities, but we didn't see anything. So we ended up going to Melville and have a nice lunch with some wine tasting. Although it is still winter, it was so warm today that we ate outside!

We had a nice and relaxing weekend, and tomorrow we are off to school to see in which classes the girls will be for their 2nd grade year. On Wednesday they will start school again.

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!
Love, M

Part 4 ~ Mickey's Backyard BBQ

Annie, our friend who works for Disney has a leading role at Mickey's Backyard BBQ show. So we went to see her on our last night in Orlando.

Mickey's Backyard BBQ Dinner Show is an all-you-care-to-eat Disney Character dance party with live entertainment at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.

Here some pictures of the fun event.
Before we entered the pavilion Chip & Dale greeted us, so we had a small talk and picture moment with them. JJ and Jezz were so delighted to see them again, they hugged and kissed if they were each other's best friends, so cute!

Cyclone Sally and Tumbleweed Will, our new best friends ;-)

Jasmine and Juliet were so proud that Cyclone Sally gave them so much special attention during the show, they couldn't get enough of her. Adorable these 3 together! (Thank you Annie, for doing that, they felt so special!)

The girls got on stage and Cyclone Sally asked them a few questions, another great moment!

All Mickey's friends were there and all the kids had a chance to dance, touch or take a picture with their favorite animals, this was a great show! The girls had so much fun! I would recommend this to everybody with small children, it is a fun, vibrating and super evening!

And this was our VIP treatment, we got to get behind the scenes and take a special picture with all our new friends!

Dirk with Tumbleweed Will, don't they just look alike so much?! I think there is a birth swap made here about 40 years ago... Too funny!!


I have to give Annie aka 'Cyclone Sally' a big hug and thank you from JJ and Jezz, we miss and love you!!

More to come!
Mireille

Part 3 ~ Orlando

The rest of the week we just hang out at the pool, did some major shopping for Dirk at the biggest outlet mall in the USA and went to Cirque du Soleil. This was an amazing show, if you ever are in Orlando and have a day to kill... which is hard to find with so many attractions around, you HAVE to go. The show is just beautiful, amazing artists, and stunning set up, clothes and music. You look your eyes out, there is at any given moment an artist performing, they use the whole stage, and there are performers in every corner doing the most amazing tricks. Really really neat to see these acrobats!

We were not allowed to take any pictures inside, so I took these from the web, but all the acts we've seen. And they are just amazing!

Below are young Chinese girls who did an act with jojo's, they could throw the jojo's high in the air and while they were waiting to fall down, they would do acrobatic jumps. So cute, and so talented and SO YOUNG!!

Clothes and face painting was so colorful, it is just eye candy to go to this circus.



Our first week of vacation was fun, relaxing, sunny, hot, humid, even wet but a great memory! Now up to NYC for a night, then off to Cape Cod, where we rented a beach house for a week with our dear friends Valerie, Bob, and their daughters Mia, Emmy and Ella. More about that in my next posting.

Have a great weekend y'all!
Mireille

Part 2 ~ Disney World

The first surprise we had at Magic Kingdom, was while we were waiting a the gate to get in in the morning at 9am. We were chosen as the first family into the park. That means we had to welcome all the people at the gate and they welcomed us in unison. It was so cool! We were standing there when everybody welcomed the family Dykstra from South Africa. And we got a VIP treatment on the monorail into the park. We were sitting in front with the driver! Cool start of the day!

Then we went to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, where the girls had an appointment for a complete make-over. They wanted this already for 2 years, but last time there was a waiting list of 3 months!! They made the boutique bigger, since this is a huge success... and money maker!

Jasmine and Juliet turned from ordinary girls into princesses!

Jasmine gets her diva treatment. With an extra hair piece.


And Juliet got the same, only she got her hair piece in black and Jezz in brown.

They were made over by Fairy godmothers in training, but outside they met the 'real' Fairy Godmother, what a treat!!

But a little later we met Princess Jasmine and Alladin and that was the highlight of our Jasmine, she was so proud to take a picture with her 'predecessor' as she said that soon the Princess Jasmine will be too old to do this job, and then Jezz can take over her job, since she is the real one in 'training'! How cute is that!! Well, we let her believe that soon she can step into Princess Jasmine's shoes....

We were a bit unlucky that it poured the whole day, so most of the day the girls walked around covered with a rain coat, which I believe that Disney should distribute for FREE to all those poor people, who pay a fortune to get into the park and then it rains all day. NO, that is not the case you have to pay $6,95 for these capes that are worth maybe $1.... it is such a money maker!! But the rain didn't stop us for having fun!

Jasmine and Juliet posed with as many princesses as possible, real or not!



Exhausted, wet till the bone but satisfied and happy we went to the hotel and the girls slept with a shower cap that night to save the hairdo.....


A day never to forget!
Next time, more adventures in Orlando.

Ciao, Mireille

Part 1 of our summer vacation in the US

Since we were more than 4 weeks in the US, I can't do a single one posting about our vacation, so I will do it in stages. The first week we were in Orlando, Florida. We stayed at a great resort with huge swimming pools, so all we wanted to do was soak up the sun and swim and relax by the pool. But we ended up doing even more things than we anticipated. First few days though we just hung out at the pool and get a bit of a tan, since we came from the winter in SA and our bodies needed some sunshine.




And here some live action from the girls, who are very good at doing salto's in the air ;-)


While we were in Orlando we were so thrilled to meet with a blogging friend of mine Annie and her whole family. Annie and her husband Jacob work for Disney and they got us free tickets for the Magic Kingdom! Humbled by their generosity and help to get us in, we had a magnificent day. Because of these free tickets we could spend the money on the girls outfits and make over at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, which Jasmine and Juliet were dreaming of for more than 2 years now. Last time we were on a waiting list and it didn't work out, but this time it did! Thank you Annie and Jacob that was such a great gift to us and to the girls!! We didn't only see Jacob and Annie at Magic Kingdom but also we met with their beautiful children; Christina, Matthew and Joshua for breakfast at the Peabody hotel. This is where we saw the famous Peabody Ducks march from the elevator to the fountain in the main hall, so cute, so adorable! It was great chatting with the Haines family and I hope we will see each other again someday somewhere!

Above, Jasmine, Juliet, Joshua, Christina and Matthew. check out their website here.

It is good to be back! More coming from our fabulous trip!
Love, M