How mummy keeps sane - YOGATONE

Mental Wellness is very important to me. Keeping a sane mind and the ability to appreciate the current is exactly why I do yoga every week. I also keep my body flexible & strong so my mind can stay flexible & strong. .. well at least I try and fail many times when the boys start niggling away at it. Regular top ups of yoga practice is important . In New York I also was fortunate enough to be able to practice lots of different types of yoga and different teachers.

I tried Power Yoga, Vinyasa continues flow, basic yoga (although in New York basic is NOT the same at what we call basic) and many other. Unfortunately I never got a chance to try the one where you float in the air balancing on a mat - Aerial Vinyasa. The kids also did yoga at their pre-school. I think this is great as they are so open to learning and this will really help them cope with difficult situations in life. In fact with my toothache this week, Thomas said to me : breath mamma breath!

Every so often I try to get away from it all. This was my second time going on a Yogatone yoga break with my Ashtanga teacher Les Benney. Four days yoga in Spain sounds like a relaxing time to most people I mention it to, but actually its hard work. The first time I went I noticed my ego took over and I wanted to practice as best as I could and challenge myself. Result: neck ache from a move gone wrong and lots of muscle ache. Luckily you can book a message which I had done which helped a lot. This time I think I did much better and just enjoyed the moment, the company and the views.


The place is beautiful and the mountains give you a different view each time - see some pictures here ond on this page. Its just a small house with a few bedrooms, a lounge, dinning area and a big terrace and of course the yoga studio. No swimming pool but plenty of sunshine to enjoy on the terrace. Yoga every day and when you are there a full day - twice a day. Plenty of lovely food cooked by always lovely people - not Les as he has enough to do! I love trying out new things and being able to eat more vegetables (I always come away thinking eat more vegetables and less biscuits but then the kids stuff gets in the way!) and pulses. I also like the balanced approach Les has which means you can join in if you want and if you want to indulgence in wine or home made lemon cake - that's possible too!

The boys were with daddy for those days. I said I would let my husband know the details of what they get up to.. 4 pages later I actually had a proper handover document. I think he ignored most of it but the kids did go to school and seem to have had a great bonding experience with their dad.

Definitely would recommend it.. Bootcamp for the soul and keep smiling!

Brighton Day Out with Kids

Or actually I should say Hove day out. We have been going to Brighton on and off with the kids when they were young and we have finally worked out the best way. Hove is very kid friendly, its easy to park and you can still always walk into Brighton along the coast. We take the scooters and off they go the two boys. I get a flash back to New York but at least its only one way to go here which is straight along the coast. Its scary when you cannot see them as they wont be able to see you either! A good run to chase after them usually gets them back, or we have a word with them to keep them close. It's so tempting for them to go off as the pavement is beautiful and very quick for the scooters.

I personally love the buzz from the city and Brighton/ Hove really reminds me of New York. Little things like yoga for kids is something we don't get in the country but you do get in Hove. Parents chilling out with a coffee by the playground also reminded me of NY lifestyle and central park. Maybe I only start to remember the good bits now?

This time we don't go all the way into Brighton so I miss the chance to go shopping or no visit to the pier either. We go to the Brighton and Hove food festival and check out all the lovely food on display. There are some good tasters and some quite expensive food to buy too. Oven backed pizza, home made hamburgers and milkshakes made to order - all beautiful but was it worth the money? Good value for money was the charity bouncy castle for only £1 as long as the kids wanted. Much better than the £3 bouncy slide....

All in all a great afternoon out and a bonus to get the sun shine too!

The Friday Club

It's the school holiday's and they last a long long time. You do remember this from your own childhood but this year its incredibly long for us as we left NY the beginning of June. So 3 months of entertainment to provide!

The Friday Club is based on something I had heard of a friend and their school friends were doing. They would meet up every Wednesday by the school with all the school kids in that year (or whoever could make it), bring a picnic and decide what to do for that day. Our group of friends is a lot smaller so we have to be a bit more organised. Friday was the day we decided on and now we try to get together each Friday during the holidays.

This week we went to Godstone farm. On Friday during the holidays they have a late night opening (well late for parents with kids anyway as its still closes at 7.30pm!) with games and a BBQ. Overall we had a great afternoon, with the sun slowly setting over the park and as a lot of people left it was nice that the kids were entertained. Football, running games and actually I don't know what else as I was having a glass of wine with my friends. The kids had lots of fun running around and being free of us (we did keep an eye on them) and playing until the set was setting.

The only thing I don't like in general about Godstone Farm is that mums and dads have to pay, and quite a substantial amount (ok 40p less than a child) AND there is not much for parents to do (not like when you go to an amusement park). The bbq food was not to my liking so we should have brought a picnic. Both these points probably come mainly from my very Dutch upbringing as we like to bring our own food and not spend too much money.

What will next week bring for the gorgeous kids from the Friday Club?

Farm Day Out

The first thing you do when you move back to England is a good farm day out..in the rain of course! I though it would amuse my foreign friends following this blog to get a report on this. Fishers farm is what my friend recommended and its was a little drive away from us both worth it. It was good for our family as with one child absolutely in love with animals (Jasper) and the other one more the action boy (Thomas), it was good for everyone.


What we ended up doing was less than you can do on a normal good day as it rained so much, but we still did a lot.


* Indoor soft play: always good and you get to sit and sip a cappuccino
* Squirrel Scramble: climbing through the tree's - mummy enjoyed it too!
* Animal admiration of course
* Barn theater: actually a bit disappointing from my point of view but kids still loved it
* Giant jumping cushion
* Mini golf
* Barrel Bugs
* Tractor trailer
* Ghost Tunnel

The rain didn't matter too much in the end. Its a good day out for the kids, not too big (so no need to take a buggy with 3 and 5 year olds) and actually I enjoyed being able to have a nice coffee, see them play and participate myself too. All nice and quiet in the car on the way back!

The story continues...

Once upon a time ... there were 2 Anglo Dutch boys who moved back to England from New York. 

The youngest was 3 so for him- he found this was actually a move to England as he hardly remembers ever having lived here up to when he was 18 months. The eldest Thomas who is 5, definitely remembers his friends and where we used to live. What I find interesting is that he keeps remembering more. The other day we had some Custard Creams and suddenly he said, yes I remember these from before mummy - these were my favorites. It's these little things that make it so much fun to be around kids.

So we moved from a 3 bed apartment on Manhattan (see for our adventures in NY) to a 15 bedroom house in a small village in the English country side. What a difference. Jasper keeps asking: who lives in this house mummy? Its hard to comprehend for him that this is now his new house. We had to 'camp' out for a month whilst our furniture was being shipped. This meant staying at the respective (Anglo and Dutch) grandparents which the boys seem to enjoy. The parents found it rather strange but nice to move back into their mothers place at almost 40 - they let themselves be spoiled!

The trip to the Netherlands was a trip down memory lane for mummy. I don't think I had spend that much time in the Netherlands for about 14 years - when I left the country. The amusement park Efteling is definitely recommended if anyone is ever in the Netherlands. Quite different from the enormous parks in the USA but charming but lots of history to it.

Here some pictures of our trip to the Netherlands, and we will keep you updated as the story about 2 Anglo Dutch boys continues.