CHEESE & WINE ADULT PARTY

"Fromagerie" Dessert Table

KNIGHT & DRAGONS PARTY

PARTY DECORATION ON SALE

Dessert Table

FARMER ADRIEN BIRTHDAY PARTY

PARTY DECORATION ON SALE

PARTY AT THE NORTH POLE

PARTY DECORATION ON SALE

PIRATE PARTY

PARTY DECORATION ON SALE

Par la barbe de Neptuno!! 

Soyez vous les bienvenus dans le terrible monde des pirates et des trésors cachés.

Por la barba de Neptuno!! 

Sean todos bienvenidos en el terrible mundo de piratas y de tesoros escondidos.

NO PRAY, NO PAY

July 22, 2012

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the wood playground that my hubby was building at the backyard. And here there are some pictures of it. It's an amazing Pirate Ship with a lot of accessories and games from a German brand... Ahoy Matey!!
It will hopefully keep the kids actively busy and entertained for a few minutes everyday. Adrien loves his horse swing!  However, it's still missing finish the sand area because we're looking for a way to cover it.
I took these pictures after André's tennis classes. By the way, André is very proud that he helped with the assembly of the pirate ship.

SADDLE UP WILD BOY!

July 17, 2012

 As I mentioned before, André is also taking equitation classes twice per week. I love horses and riding, so I can't be happier to find out that my son shares my passion.
Horses and riding have wonderful effects in children, physically, intellectually, emotionally and even spiritually. Why? Because of course it's a physical activity, but is unlikely any other. Like gymnastics, it improves strength, flexibility and endurance. Like dancing, requires physical skills and a "partner", so it develops skills like balance, coordination, plus intellectual, theoretical understanding, and even there's an emotional component to build a genuine relationship.
Having a partnership with horses, kids learn to be thoughtful and gentle, compassionate and empathetic. Also, they learn to be patient, and to have courage and determination. Learning to care for horses properly means learning how to take responsibility for another being which is dependent of them for its care, health and happiness.
I discovered that this activity helps my son to build his character and get values like respect, compassion, empathy, responsibility, honesty, integrity, and many more values. Who wouldn't want their children to have these values?

HUSTLE, HIT AND NEVER QUIT

July 15, 2012

André started last week his summer tennis classes for 4 year old kids. So here there are some pics of his first week. I hope he continues with this sport, because you know tennis is all about practice, practice, practice.
I couldn't help but notice that André is a lot taller than his pals of the same age. It seems my secret vitamin is working, isn't it?  ;)

THERE'S DEFINITELY SOME MOM SHOPPING GOING ON HERE

July 11, 2012

Sales season has arrived! And one the best places to go for good shopping is in the near city of Annecy in France. It's just 30 minutes from Geneva and besides of the good brands and bargains you can get in here, it's absolutely a gorgeous city.
People have been asking me which are my favorite French brands for children clothes. Here there are some:
Tartine et Chocolat (preppy and french elegance)
Cyrillus (very chic and preppy)
Grain de Blé (cheap and chic)
Petit Bateau (comfy and stylish)
Interdit de me gronder (stylish... love their tennis collection)
Catimini (not really a fan though, too colorful for my taste)
After a exhausting shopping day we took the children for some ice-cream and playtime... btw André has really with luck with girls  ;)

SOUNDS OF THE SUMMER

July 10, 2012

André started several courses this summer: piano, tennis, equitation and English classes in Gymboree.  He's excited with all the new friends he's making, and so do I!

To celebrate the end of his first week in piano lessons, we went to have some ice cream in the Yacht Club de Genève. He's having every afternoon, five days per week for a couple of hours, a musical course with emphasis in piano, and he seems to like it. I'm crossing my fingers for this trend to continue. His teacher is Greek and has a lot of patience and talent.

I always try to boost music in the life of my children, as it's proved that music has amazing effects in children. My baby Adrien was having music classes and baby disco in Gymboree when he was 5 until 7 months old. My older daughter Aimée was several years in the conservatory learning piano, as well as ballet, rhythmic gymnastics and dance courses.

The International Foundation of Music Research has published several researches about the benefits of music on early brain development. These studies have shown that children that had music education got higher SAT in intelligence scores. They say that music "benefit cognitive abilities, higher reasoning and motor skills, and higher achievements in language and math". Isn't wonderful what music can do for those little brains?

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.