Boricua en la Lima

Last weekend of full blown kids' activities (thank goodness!). This weekend was Gabi's ballet recital and while it's been a little tough on her this year not understanding too much French, I'm still really proud of how she did on her recital.  Only problem was the unbearable heat in the theatre (why won't Swiss people turn on their A/C's???) and having to sit through a whole 90 minutes of dances (two days in a row!) when Gabi's was the very first dance.  But at least after the recital on Sunday Gabi was able to go to a friend's birthday party (even though she missed saying goodbye to her ballet friends because we had to run for the door during an opportune moment!).  She also had to say goodbye to her best friend Alessia who left for Russia today.  I'm starting to get bummed out about all the goodbyes coming but I guess I'm glad the move is happening during the summer so that once school breaks it doesn't feel like you're ripping the band...

This is the month of never-ending school activities -- birthday parties to make up for the summer birthdays when the kids won't see each other, school plays, field trips and sports days (field days for those of you in the US).  And to top that off we're trying to take advantage of every single sunny day because it's been raining so much in Geneva we don't know if we can count on the weather staying nice!  I've therefore been working on perfecting my iMovie skills (I'm not doing so bad except it takes me forever to upload a movie to YouTube once I've created it and if I make a mistake like I did today it's "double the pleasure, double the fun".  Anyway, here are two videos, once for Gabi's sports day which was last week and one for Sebas' sports day which was today.

I find myself revisiting the past a lot these days. Maybe because of the book I just finished reading ( A Night Train to Lisbon ), or it may be that my daughter is now going through stages that I remember going through. It's been a rough weekend at home. I've been "bad cop, bad cop" for most of the weekend. We had a sleep over gone amuck on Friday and I'm still reeling from it. These girls are absolutely nice, these girls were pleasant and treated my kids well and even played with my son, which for sleepover scorecards earns most kids A++. But I don't know, they're just spoiled. On top of that they're parents are likely going through a divorce and I find myself hearing those dreaded punches against one parent or another ("My mom is the worst, she's got a boyfriend"). I don't know what's going on but there's something there that just says "I've had it easy my whole life and I don't even know it". Unti...

This is a long one (17 min.) but I couldn't stop myself because Sebas was just doing such a good job during his school show! I hope one day he'll be glad that I recorded all 17 minutes.  Maybe when he's a famous soccer player or Formula1 racer.  :)  Although at some points you can see he's tired and at some points you can also see him sucking his thumb and wanting to pick his nose (I'll have to edit that out when he's famous). However,  I think sitting still for 17 min. for a group of 4-year olds is quite an accomplishment.  I am so proud of my little Spiderman! It took me like 24 hours to upload this video onto YouTube, I don't think I had ever uploaded such a big file (not to mention that our WiFi at home is not the speediest of WiFi's).

Alas, we come to the end of our European travels, unless we can somehow swing London in July for the Madonna concert in Hyde Park and/or the Olympics.  This last week we took a trip to Greece - visiting Mykonos, Santorini and Athens.  On the first day we slept at a hotel in the Athens port because we got in pretty late (there's only one Easy Jet trip a week to Athens from Geneva) and had to take an early boat to Mykonos.  For dinner we started tasting the local food.  Well I tasted the beer and Jose had his first of MANY, MANY gyros. Next day we took an early boat to Mykonos and checked in to this beauty of a hotel ( Argo Hotel Mykonos ). If it was up to me I could've not moved from there for the rest of the vacation! But Platis Gialos (Gialos Beach) was only a few steps away so we had to venture out and enjoy the food, surf and sand. At night we would go to the center of Mykonos to enjoy some delicious cuisine (more gyros for Jose of course), desserts...

Just a couple of days ago this Coldplay footage from the European tour showed up on Perez Hilton and since we have just been to the concert I thought I would share!

This week deserves two blog posts just because of the fact that Jose and I took a whirlwind 24 hour trip to Nice to see Coldplay.  Every step of the way I told myself we were crazy for doing it (particularly since I hate flying!) but it was well worth it.  The stadium was packed with 45,000 fans and when they sang "Viva La Vida" you just couldn't help yourself but jump and down and act like a crazy 20 year old (which I'm soooo not!). And "Fix You" literally brought tears to my eyes the minute Chris Martin started singing.  What an amazing song to hear live! I had wanted to see Coldplay since forever, one more scratched off the bucket list!  We have tickets in Madonna in July (in Hyde Park, London) but we don't know if we'll be able to make that once because we don't know if we'll still be here in Geneva. I'm hoping! We missed the kids and can't wait to pick them up at school today, but it was definitely worth the get...

Another weekend, another trip!  This weekend we took advantage of the fact that the kids were off Thursday and Friday (don't ask me which weird Swiss holiday it was) and drove about 6 hours from Geneva to Florence.   It took longer than planned because Mt. Blanc Tunnel is always hit or miss and on the way out it was definitely a miss (although the sight was a NOT MISS!).  Thankfully on the way back it was a hit. Once we were in Italy stopped for lunch at Recco based on a "reco" (pun intended) from Jose's friend from work.  We had yummy focaccia with their specialty cheese and then enjoyed seeing the ocean for the first time in a while! We stayed in a great apartment right next to Il Duomo (and lots of shopping!).  The day we left we actually found a place with "american breakfast" but it was closed that early so we ventured all the way to the top of Il Duomo.  The kids made us very proud by climbing up the stairs (though not without some complaint...

We started the weekend with really wonderful summer-like weather and sunshine and we went down to the lake for some paddle boat time. Unfortunately Saturday and Sunday were not quite as nice so we did what you do when the weather is crappy...eat!  For breakfast we had Mother's Day "brunch" at one my favorite breakfast places in Geneva.  Then we barbecued while it was sort of warmish and watched the first Venezuelan to win a Formula 1 race.  I guess if someone's gonna beat Fernando Alonso he might as well be Latin.  And the fact that I'm talking about this means I've been totally brainwashed by the husband and son.  :) Anyway, here are the little cards that the kids gave me for Mother's Day which were both so sweet.  Sebas' definitely reminds me that while we sometimes roll our eyes at kids being kids because they can drive us a little bit crazy, this time goes by so fast and before we know it they are all grown up. And since it was Mothe...

We just came back from the most amazing trip!  Definitely towards the top of our list -- it was so much fun for us and despite the fact that we thought "Amsterdam isn't for kids" the kids enjoyed it a ton too!  Particularly the Heineken experience.  Who'd thunk it but it was so well designed for kids they felt like they learned how to make beer and that they experimented making beer themselves and that they were even "made into beer" (there was a really cool "ride" demonstrating this).   We got up on these bikes and made t-shirts with these pictures, they love the fact that Sebas looks like he's sitting in one of the beer crates! I just wish we could've spent more time there, or I hope we can go back there in the future!  It was so much fun.

I was able to transfer my gym membership at work to the mall gym for not too much money so I've been trying to work out as close to daily as possible. I'm sore, my arms are spaghetti and I can barely move. But it feels good. If I can continue to brave the language barrier (by just following everyone else along) and bear being all the way in the back of the class it should be a productive use of my hiatus. I finally tried Zumba for the first time ever (yes I know, where have I been hiding all this time? At work that's where) and it was so much fun. The music was awesome, I sweat like a pig, and the feeling of dancing again after so long was incredible. Only problem now is that my body's in that stage where it thinks it needs to eat so much in order to keep up with all the exercise that it actually ends up consuming MORE calories instead of less. The fact that I'm not working doesn't help either because I'm at home constantly surrounded by yummy snacks. ...

I'm currently on a mini getaway with the husband. I think the last time we did this was in 2006! Well in October we went to Miami by ourselves but it was really to hang out with friends so this is the first time in a really long time we've gone away just to be by ourselves. Sorely needed! We've gone only about 30 minutes away from home to spa in France and it's beautiful. The most we've done is eat (bad for the diet, good for the soul!) and read Hunger Games. I'm on book #2 and Jose's on book #3. It's unfortunately still too cold in Geneva to hang out outside but we're doing just fine with the pool, jacuzzi, food and our books. And my iPad of course. :) Here's a couple of shots from where we're staying. It's called Jiva Hill Hotel and it's pretty amazing. The first picture is a view from the pool and the second picture is a view from our hotel room -- straight out into the golf course. Of course no one is playing golf. You...

My little baby boy is all grown up. Woke up today and said he wasn't going to suck his thumb anymore or drink milk from a baby bottle. He is super excited as we wait for our flight from Budapest to Geneva so he can open his big present which we hauled all the way from target in Cincinnati. He's gonna love it! Had a celebration lunch at hard rock cafe in budapest and he couldn't believe the staff knew it was his birthday. ;)

Attempting mobile blogging from a Cuban restaurant in the heart of Prague. We've had an amazing trip so far despite the fact that it's been cold and rainy in the beginning and end of the trip. We are sad it's almost coming to an end. Tomorrow we take a train from Prague to Budapest and then we fly from Budapest to Geneva on Monday. I also begin a new chapter of my life -- in the span of one week I am officially unemployed, I finished the last installment of the millennium trilogy and one tree hill is over. I feel empty! But I am renewed in my focus to exercise especially after eating so much cinnamon bread on this trip so hopefully between exercising and being a soccer mom I will fill my days until I can figure out what's next for me career wise. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy what I am dubbing maternity leave without actually having a baby...

Yesterday we went to La Clusaz again for the last skiing of the season.  Since Sebas did so well with his first lesson and Gabi is doing so well overall we decided to only have Sebas take lessons and everyone else ski as a family. This was my first time skiing since Thanksgiving of 2010 because in Thanksgiving 2011 I got the flu on the days I was scheduled to go skiing. So as you can see in the video I'm basically back to basics and look way worse than my kids do!  Gotta love it when your kids pick up things so much faster than you do.  Ah well. This week is my last week at P&G and next week the kids are off for Spring Break so we're taking another once in a lifetime trip to Vienna/Prague/Budapest.

This weekend we took Sebas for his first skiing lesson.  We weren't quite sure what to expect but it seems that he absolutely loved it and did pretty well with it.  So much so that we're thinking about going next weekend.  Gotta take advantage of the snow as much as we can before we possibly get shipped back to America.  :)   Here's a little video clip of him during his first lesson.  After his lesson he was so hungry he ate a whole Snickers bar (which he'd never tried before) in like three bites. Anyway, since he did so well I promised that if we go next weekend I would ski too so that the four of us would actually ski.  Here's hoping I don't break anything!

On Friday we headed down from Cincinnati to San Juan to go to Jose's buddy's wedding in Dorado, PR on Saturday.  I keep telling people that when we lived in Cincinnati we would've NEVER made the long trip from Cincinnati to Puerto Rico just for a weekend.  But now living in Europe it puts everything into perspective, an 8 hour trip to Puerto Rico doesn't seem long at all!  While the weather forecast was supposed to be rainy and dreary, our friends got super lucky as they got an absolutely beautiful day!  Sunny but not too hot, beautiful sunset and an incredibly simple yet beautiful setting.  My highlights for the weekend were: A little bit of time in the beach/pool  A little bit of time with abuela from Peru   An incredibly beautiful wedding ceremony   Getting to catch up with old friends (barely but still enough time to see what they're up to!)    Incredible food (not pictured!), and Finding th...

So Jose's been in Cincinnati quite a bit since the beginning of the year.  After missing the kids (and the kids missing him) for so long we decide to take a trip to Cincinnati to come visit him.  We're having a great time going to the places they loved to eat, going to Target, getting manis/pedis, seeing old friends, etc.  We're staying at friends' which has been great too because it's like a kids' birthday party every day (and it's not my house ha ha!). Best part was that Jose's brother and father came to visit us for one night this weekend and we were able to have the four cousins together for the first time.  A photo shoot ensued, while not all the pictures came out as we'd hoped it was great to have memories like these...

Not much to report here except that this weekend in Geneva felt like Spring and we even saw the Swiss version of lady bugs start to crawl out of the ground on Saturday which is a clear sign of Spring so I hope for our sake the lady bugs are right because after having that taste of Spring I can't go back to Winter, especially the Winter we've had here in Geneva this year!  Taking advantage of the awesome weather (the SUN makes all the difference!) we went to our favorite Peruvian restaurant on Saturday where the kids could actually play outside. And on Sunday we went to the Museum and then to pizza with friends of ours who were celebrating their kid's 3rd birthday.  After that my always-prepared friend had brought loaves of bread to feed the ducks and swans so my kids squealed with delight at the birds eating their bread.  On Saturday we are traveling to Cincinnati to meet up with Jose who everyone has missed terribly.  I am also looking forward to getting cheap hairc...

Last week the kids were off school for their "mid term break" (seriously they have so many breaks I don't even know what's the purpose of each one) so we went to Barcelona to spend the long weekend and meet one of Sebas' heroes, Messi.  What can I say...amazing food, amazing weather, super relaxing time, and getting to see your kid's face jumping up and down when Barcelona made 5 goals (4 of those were Messi's)? Pure joy.  Now Jose's gone back to Cincinnati for a few more weeks which kinda sucks but the good part is we are going to visit him in Cincinnati for a week and then head to PR for a weekend wedding of one of his buddies from high school.  I don't know how to feel about the trip to Cincinnati part of me is really excited to see old friends and eat at our usual places the food that the kids have been missing so much (Friday's, Boston Market's Mac and Cheese) but another part of me feels like it's going to be sad to see everyone a...