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!

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  ;)

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...

CAROUSEL PARTY

May 21, 2012

We threw a Carousel Party for the first birthday of Adrien. Most of the decoration and food was hand made by me.  I'll explain in detail below each one of the elements we had.

In addition, we had a real carousel as the main attraction for the children. It was a blast!!

It was also a windy day, so I couldn't take the best pictures. But we were so lucky that in a week full or raindrops, we had the whole day a bright and shiny sun. Thanks God!

FROGS, BUGS AND PUPPETS

May 17, 2012

We took the children for a puppet show about racism and prejudices which I found with great content and message!

I found great as well their Gymboree clothes. I bought for them several matching outfits that I'll be posting asap. The best part of Adrien's outfit? Its green frogs match with the children bathroom. What could be more fun than a fizzy amphibian with big green lips all around bath time?  ;)

BOYISH MOTHER'S DAY

May 13, 2012

What a better way to celebrate Mother's Day than surrounded by some of my favorite boys. We had lunch with my in-laws in Lausanne, and Adrien played all day long with his cousin Matéo.
I'm glad I have "only" 3 children. My grandmother Elba had 12 children! But do you know that a Russian woman had 69 children? According to the Guinness Book of Records, during 27 pregnancies she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 set of triplets and 4 set of quadruplets.
I correct: I'm relieved that I have only 3 children...

EGG-STRA SPECIAL EASTER!

April 19, 2012

Back to Switzerland, after the Spring break, we're all still recovering from a trip with too much fun. So we're planning on taking it slow this week.
I'm now uploading some pictures from before the break. When the family had an Easter get-together in a charming relative's chalet in the Swiss woods. It was a cold day, so we took just a few pictures in the surroundings before to head straight to the warm fireplace to eat chocolate eggs. Easter is the only time when it's perfectly safe to put all your eggs in a basket  ;)

ONCE UPON A TIME...

April 15, 2012

During our trip to Germany, we went to the civil wedding of a cousin. There, André fell in love with a cute little German girl. Since he saw her, he called her "my princess".  It seems that the "coup de foudre" was in both sides and they didn't separate from each other the whole day  :)

LEATHER WEATHER

March 31, 2012

This crazy weather can be scary for children, and indeed for parents. Kids have to dress well for confort and movement so I usually use the approach of layers. You know what people say: "No bad weather, only bad clothing".

Here a mix of Adrien's pics of these last two difficult months. In the first picture, we had a parents meeting at his brother school and Adrien loved it!! He's wearing a D&G navy leather jacket.

LA VITA E BELLA!

March 7, 2012

Oh yes, life is beautiful in Italy!! We went four days to Bergamo in order to accompany my hubby to a Plastic Surgery Congress there. Adrien and I spent our days strolling the beautiful city of Bergamo and the nights all the family had dinner together in lovely restaurants. The last day we visited my cousins that live there before to heading back to Geneva.

I have a deep love for Italian food!  Each time that I happen to travel to this country, I look forward to eating as much as possible and discover new places for the best pizza, gelato, tiramisu and pasta.
Searching the Internet for good restaurants in Bergamo, I found this list of the Top 10 Italian Food Blogs. I know that I'll come back with extra killos, but I'm sure it will be all worth.
BTW, my favorite Italian restaurant in Geneva is Les Tilleuls, located in the street of the same name. Great quality-price-service-children friendly for Geneva's standards... if you know what I mean  ;)
I'm going to stop this post now because my mouth is watering and my stomach growls!

VINTAGE TREASURES

February 28, 2012

Adrien is 9 months old and his great-grandfather Otti, of 96 years old, came for lunch to celebrate this special day. Otti is a special person that speaks several languages, has written a book and even has a Facebook profile. He's pretty active on the social media!
Adrien is the only of his six great-grandchildren that got his blue eyes, and is the only one who lives in Geneva as well, so they're very close.  May God give them many days together!

SERIOUSLY HANDSOME

December 30, 2011

Adrien is getting bigger and these two last months have been so overwhelming, surreal and extremely exiting!!  Here there are some pics of November and December...

THIS IS BLISS

October 31, 2011

I know I haven't taken all the pics for the blog that I should... sorry about that. But I've been enjoying my new baby Adrien every minute of his firsts five months. Here is a mix of some of his pictures from August, September and October.
This first picture is about Adrien starting his Gymboree classes. He loves it!!

SHE'S COMING HOME, TELL THE WORLD SHE'S COMING HOME!

August 8, 2011

 Yes, Adrien is as happy as I am because my older daughter Aimée finally is coming back to home to meet his new brother  :))

CHECK HIM OUT

July 30, 2011

Summary of some other random pics of Adrien from June and July. I want to stop the time and never ever let these moments pass...

BUNDLE OF JOY

All this time we were wondering and wondering... who is this person coming/growing/turning/floating/swimming deep, deep inside. I felt like everything was growing rounder and wider and weider, and I was in the middle of it all wondering who in the world he will turn out to be. And now the secret is out! 

Welcome Adrien Daniel!

Here there are some pictures of his first week of life. André has turned out to be the sweetest big brother ever. He loves his little bro and is not at all jealous of him... what a blessing!