A Day at the Park

Happy Ides of March! The weather this morning was gorgeous so we took a little family trip to this gigantic park called Signal de Bougy. It's got loads of play structures (the fun, risky ones that they don't build in the U.S. anymore for liability reasons), a miniature zoo, and bumper boats and cars -- my favorites.

At the duck pond -- but where are the ducks?

The bumper car section was not open when we arrived, so Daddy got to push the girls.

Again, Daddy, again!

Okay, Daddy, this is a little bit scary but it's okay.

("It's okay is one of Anna's favorite phrases. She often says it to me when I'm stressed out -- "It's okay, Mommy.")

Daddy's Birthday!

We celebrated Rob's birthday today. I think the whole event was more fun for Anna Claire and Mariah than for Rob. Anna Claire has a new book with loads of pictures of cakes. She picked out the cake that she thought Daddy would like -- a basketball cake, because Daddy used to play basketball. It also kind of fit in with the gift the girls gave Daddy -- a new, real-sized soccerball. (Yes, this is a little self-serving because it's so that Daddy can kick the ball around outside with the girls.)

Here's the cake. We burned out on chocolate after just a couple pieces so we had to give most of it away.

Anna Claire proudly displaying her masterpiece. If you look carefully, you'll see she just stuck her fist into it.
Happy Birthday to you. . .

Happy Valentine's Day!

Earlier this week I had to go to the hospital for 24 hours for a little surgery. That was rough on the kids. So this week we've done lots of fun activities to make up for it. On Wednesday, we made Valentine's Day cards for Daddy and the grandparents. Next, we had a special Valentine's Day picnic (outside on our balcony). Anna Claire set out all the plates and food and poured water, while Mommy made sandwiches. The girls love doing these picnics. Anna Claire sets out everything nicely and Mariah happily messes it all up.

Valentine's Day (and evening) itself became a family occasion this year, mostly because I neglected to get a babysitter and Rob has been working crazy hours. The girls and I made chocolate heart cookies and when Daddy came home, we frosted them with pink and chocolate icing and loaded them with M&M's. The M&M's ended up mostly in Mariah's mouth, however.

Mmmmm, this chocolate stuff is almost as good as the green beans I just devoured!
Yum. . .chocolate to my heart's content.

Afterwards, we had a family Valentine's dance. That was the best part! As you can see, Anna Claire got a new dancing outfit. Mariah got to share some costume jewelry, but she mostly chewed it up. (She was a big chocolatey mess so we had to strip her down.)

Past Blast

My friend Tzili came to visit this weekend. She's a friend from my joint-degree program and is an amazing advocate for women's and children's rights. She came to Geneva to present a paper to one of the UN committees and then spent the weekend with us. She dragged me out of my children-crowded world back into the world of law and advocacy for a couple days. Here we are in front of the oft-visited Chateau Chillon.

Dance with me!

With more days cold and rainy lately, we are spending more time inside. The girls love to listen to music. Both of them drag out all our instruments (including the toy violin rented from the Ludotech) and jam to the beat. Mariah climbs up on the coffee table and bops around. The other day, we were listening to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" while Mariah napped. Suddenly, I heard a little voice singing to the music, "La la la la la la la la. . ." Mariah had woken up, heard the music and was singing from her crib. She's destined to be an opera star!

Hangin' out on the sofa.

Anna Claire can't stop dancing to music either. She puts on her little swimming suit (which has a skirt like a tutu), pulls on her sparkly tights and her "glass slipper" shoes (some dressy, white shoes from back when she was a flower girl), and twirls and leaps around. I need to get her some real dress up!

Mariah's Birthday!

We celebrated Mariah's first birthday today. I can't believe it has been one year since she was born. So much has happened, yet it seems not long ago that she was a tiny new born. She has already taken a few first steps. Goodbye baby, hello toddler! Mariah is picking up new words almost every day. Starting with "uh-oh" and "bubble," she moved on to "Da-da" (why is he always first?), "Ma-ma", "duckie", "ball" and, of course, "Nana" (which usually means her favorite sister Anna, but also means the fruit when she's hungry).

Actually Mariah adores Anna. She speed-crawls around the house calling her name. In the mornings when she wakes up before Anna, she'll crawl over to Anna's door and push it open, waking up Anna Claire while happily chanting "Nana, Nana".

We had as much fun getting ready for Mariah's birthday celebration as having it. Anna Claire has figured out that birthdays are fun even if they're not hers. She helped me decorate Mariah's cake and make her birthday crown. Mariah absolutely loves duckies (we see them in the canal and the lake almost every day), so we made her a duckie cake. It was easy. I just created a little pond and added tiny rubber ducks, Swedish fish and gummy frogs. (I had to make the pond green, though, because I couldn't find blue food coloring here. Hey, most ponds have algae, anyway.) When Mariah saw it she screamed "duckie, duckie, duckie". Aaaaah! I love how babies are so easy to please.

Mom, inspecting her accomplishment, with Mariah thinking, "Quit taking my picture and just let me eat the thing!"

Mmmm, delicious! And this time I can make as much mess as I want!Time for presents: Hey, Nana, that's MY phone!There you go. Hello, how are you? Gotta go!I must say that Mariah's big birthday gift was a bit of a disappointment. Not for her, but for me. I bought a little toy lawnmower in the US (it doubled as a learning toy, so I needed it in English). Anyhow, I thought it would be like those cute popping vaccuum cleaners, and also could serve as a little walker for Mariah. Well, the handle doesn't stay up by itself, so it doesn't work like a walker. And the thing is soooooo loud (the part that doesn't turn off) that it will bother the neighbors below. What a waste!

Christmas and New Years!

The run-up to Christmas this year was crazy, due to our move, but Christmas day and onwards was quite relaxing. (We just decided to go easy on the post-move-in organizing.) We did a little sight-seeing and a little skiing. (Rob and I hit the slopes for the first time with our new ski equipment.) It was so much fun to have CK with us to help out and hang out with us. She brought a little bit of "home" with her. Plus, the girls absolutely adored having Aunt CK around. (By the way, CK is my fashionista sister who designs her own fabulous line of dresses. You should check it out at http://www.shabbyapple.com/.)

We had some friends (Nathalie and Andreas and kids) over for Christmas brunch, which gave me incentive to at least clean up the place and make a decent meal. Actually, I made Rob's family's traditional Christmas casserole again. CK helped me prepare it, but it had everything in it that makes her sick -- eggs, cheese, sausage, croutons, cream, cream, cream. Yep, it was delicious! Unfortunately, instead of serving fizzy apple juice, I accidently bought and served fizzy apple cider (which is full of alcohol). I discovered this, to my horror, only halfway through the meal when Rob took a sip. Fortunately, none of my guests (nor their children) had been drinking it except one person, who drinks alcohol anyway.

Unfortunately, the weather here has been pretty dismal -- with the inversion effect over the lake (something I'm no stranger to as a Salt Lake City girl). So we drove up into the mountains above the cloudy soup to show CK the stunning view of Mont Blanc (just across Lake Geneva).

CK and I also did a whirlwind tour of Chateau Chillon, the picturesque castle near Montreux.

Braving the cold weather to hit the swings!

Sledding!

Exploring a snow cave. I know they look grumpy, but they really were pretty happy until their hands started freezing.

Daddy and Mariah after a fun run.

The two snow bunnies.

Wooh hoo!