SCURVY LANDLUBBER

July 6, 2012

Our last day in Marseille, after the nice White Weekend I posted before, we enjoyed a relaxed breakfast in our hotel, surrounded by one of the most beautiful gardens I've seen in the French countryside. Next, we promenade around the city of Marseille to at least see the sea _that we don't have in Switzerland_ and have lunch, before heading back to Geneva.
Au revoir Marseille!

MADE IN USA

July 5, 2012

André is the only one in our little family that has the US passport, and we went to renovate it as it's about to get expired. What a coincidence, yesterday July 4th, was the US National Day.  Considering that we went to the US Mission in Geneva to fill his passport's application with André dressed according to the occasion, wearing a US flag t-shirt in honor of his American nationality.
Afterwards, we took a snack in the area and as the US Mission is near to Notting Heel my favorite shoe store in Geneva, I couldn't help but stop by... what can I do? I confess I'm a shoe-addict  ;)

According with this post, another shoe addicts are: Christina Aguilera, who owns 750 pairs of shoes, Paris Hilton has about 2000 pairs, Imelda Marcos, the infamous former Filippines First Lady, had 1060 pairs (not mentioning her 888 handbags, 508 floor-length gowns, 71 sunglasses, and the list goes on)  And they mention Danielle Steel, an US author, who has 6000 pairs just of Louboutins!

I shouldn't feel bad then, even my hubby has more shoes than me. But again, his addiction is stronger than mine. You can understand now why André has a lot of shoes  ;)

WHITE WEEKEND

June 30, 2012

Good friends invited us over for a White Weekend Party in Marseille, France, to celebrate their 10 years of marriage. There were several events during the weekend and all of them had as dress code the white color. It seems that Adrien loved the theme so much that he started for the first time to walk alone and didn't even want that we touch him. It was so funny!
We're very thankful for such a great weekend with wonderful company, good music and excellent food. OMG I love the South of France!

PAPERWORK

June 27, 2012

Do you think that running errands with your baby is mission impossible? Well, I always thought that until now that I have to actually do it. So I found some very useful tips to survive:

1) I always try to do my errands in the morning while André is at the school. It's much more difficult with them both around.

2) I always have an extra diaper in the car's globe box in case I forget the baby bag. Believe me, it happens!

3) For short errands trips, I leave the diaper bag in the car and just carry a couple of diapers and wipes in my bag to have more liberty and less to worry about. You can always run out to the car if there is an emergency.

4) If your baby cries despite your efforts, just stop to worry about what other people will think about you as a mother and try to finish whatever you're doing as quickly as possible.

5) And the most important tip: send your husband to do the errands for you, whenever possible  ;)

ROLAND GARROS PARTY

June 24, 2012

It was the final match of the French Roland Garros tennis tournament between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djocovic. Despite we weren't so thrilled because the Swiss tennis player Roger Federer couldn't make it to this final match, we invited over some good friend and their children to watch it.  As André is taking his first tennis classes this summer, he needed some inspiration.
I did something small and fun to welcome our friends, so I used all over the Roland Garros logo and its green/orange colors.

TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAR

June 23, 2012

After André showed off his new Dinoroom, Adrien wanted to share also his French vintage nursery. Most of the furniture is in hand-carved wood.  In order to decorate this baby room, I used some items of the decoration of Adrien's Bird-cage baptism party and his Carousel birthday party. The net and crib-wear are from Italy and most of the toys, carpet and mobile are from Noukie's. I didn't use curtains because didn't want to cover the view to the lake from the window, so I just framed it with some blue ponies. The photo filter is from Pho.to.

CATCH A WAVE

June 20, 2012

School is over!! To celebrate, we took André for a bath in Aquaparc. But before, we had lunch in a charming Zen restaurant around the lake. André's favorite place in Aquaparc is the waves pool. I have almost to force him to try the other places. I think he really believes he's a surfer in his Gymboree Surfer swim outfit!

BUCKLE UP EVERYONE!

June 17, 2012

This Father's Day weekend we decided to go away with Adrien for a short trip to Berlin!
The first day of our arrival, we took a boat tour across the multitude of Berlin's rivers and canals. Did you know that Berlin has more bridges than Venice? Around 1700 bridges. We finished with a traditional German dinner.
The second day we took the risk of get a walking tour around Berlin. The weather was not the best, as the whole day we had a few rain showers. However, Adrien never complained and he even seemed to enjoy the tour so we finished it successfully. We visited most of the main sights in the city, included the Berlin Wall, Hitler's Bunker, SS and Gestapo Headquarters, the Parlament, etc, etc. Of course we were deeply moved for Berlin's touching history. But we finish with a happy end as we met great new friends in our tour! I wanna say many thanks to our superb guide!
We had an incredible dinner that night to celebrate Father's Day.
Last day, we had a short walk and then headed to the airport. We arrived just to Geneva just in time to have dessert with my in-laws for Father's Day family meeting. Congratulations to my hubby, my father and all dads! Remember that the best thing you can do for your children is love their mothers  ;)

SCHOOL MATTERS

June 11, 2012

André is finishing school next week! To celebrate this year's memories, challenges and accomplishments, he and his classmates had an end of school trip to the Vivarium of Geneva.
We're so looking forward to start the vacations soon!
The region around Geneva is world famous for the finest private schools that for decades attracted the children of kings, celebrities, diplomats and presidents. Geneva has 289 private schools, that means the highest number of international schools per inhabitant of Europe!
However, Geneva's public school are also exceptional and among the highest level in the world. Probably, this is because of the high quality of the private schools that set the bar high for the whole educative system. Whether public or private, all Geneva's schools have a multicultural level for the high percentage of foreigners in the city.
Public schools in Geneva are free, and are pretty small, compared to schools elsewhere. The children have a lunch break to go to take it at home, as it is Swiss tradition, but in some schools is possible to take it at the school at reasonable prices (as André does).

LITTLE GREEN RIDING HOOD

June 9, 2012

We went to our way to a Minnie Mouse birthday party of a little friend of us from India, who came to Adrien's Carousel party last month as well.  André had a lot of fun playing with his friends and watching the clown/magician shows, while we enjoyed the great Indian food buffet.

We did our best to be a green matching family. Some people think that matching outfits are cute, some think that are cheesy... I do match my family up every once in a while! Specially I like to use coordinate clothes, like the same color in different shapes. I think it would be cheesy if it was all the time, but once in a while is fun! The more important thing is if they want it, and my children love it!  It melts my heart when they dress alike.

HEAD-TO-TOE

June 8, 2012

It's so nice to have good weather so we can take the children for short trips in charming French and Swiss towns. This time we went to Thonon-les-Bains in the Haute Savoie region of France, less than one hour away from Geneva. This city has an interesting history for its past as a French Dukedom and one of the most impressive and breathtaking views to the Léman Lake.
We had a nice walk with the children, a delicious French lunch and some shopping, where André got a two-heads dragon, which he doesn't separate now.

DON'T STOP THE MUSIC

June 7, 2012

"Music washes away from the soul the dusty of everyday life" said Auerbach.  We can't help but agree while we were dancing with the Putumayo Kids  new cd's that we got for Adrien's Carousel Party. They are great!  But if you don't believe me, check here all the awards they have won over the last years, including the "Best of the Year" lists in the best educational and parenting magazines.
Putumayo Kids are CD's collections with children music from all around the world that introduce children to other cultures. They have child-friendly music with African, Asian, European, American and Latin songs in several languages.
My favorites collections, which I played during Adrien's first birthday party, are (you can click on the links to listen a portion of each song):

• Animal Playground, animal songs from around the world. It's my favorite and a percentage of the sale of this album is donated to preservate the famous Bronx Zoo.
• Sing Along with Putumayo, a selection of classic blues and folks.
• Sesame Street Playground, multilingual songs from Sesame Street.
• World Playground, songs from all around the world.
• Latin Playground, Latin songs. My favorite is a Guantanamera version, sung by children.
• African Playground, African songs.
• French Playground, famous French songs.
• Jazz Playground, cool jazz songs.

And there are a lot more collections...