Boricua en la Lima

Last Thursday Gabi turned 5. Half a decade old. I can't believe it myself.  She acts like she's so big and I love to see her "mothering" Sebas even though sometimes I have to remind her she's not meant to be scolding him that there's only one Mom for Sebas.  :) On Thursday we took cupcakes to Gabi's school and yesterday we had some friends come over for cake and pinata.  They were both so excited! Especially to have some new friends (and English speaking ones!) come over.  The weather was pretty crappy so we had to mostly stay indoors which means their room looked like a tornado had hit after the party, but I'm glad we are able to have a cool "playroom" for them in their bedroom so that they can have friends over.  The cake was delicious and the company was great.  I'm glad the whole thing is over but I am looking forward to Sebas' 3rd birthday.  But that's a little far away so I guess for now I'm looking forward to seeing ...

This weekend we took a two hour trip to a town called Interlaken in the German part of Switzerland (thank goodness everyone pretty much spoke English). On Saturday morning we attempted to go to Jungfrau  ("Top of Europe") but we were a bit concerned with my mom and the altitude and also the weather was pretty crappy. So instead we took a 2 hour train ride to Luzern . I think the kids loved the train ride even more than they loved the actual town! Although it was definitely a beautiful place. You can tell that it would be sooo much nicer in better weather.  After having lunch in Luzern we took the 2 hour train ride back and then had dinner and went to sleep. I think every night this weekend we were in bed before 9 pm and slept for like 11 hours!  Sunday morning we drove to Bern  but didn't even get out of the car (it was freezing rain and I had started to develop one of my wonderful allergies).  From Bern we drove to Lausanne , had lunch in Lausanne and then dr...

...Those seem to be my son's three favorite words now that we live in Switzerland.  And he seems to make a very obvious effort of pointing out to everyone that there is COW cheese and COW chocolate.  And apparently the cows that make cheese are different from the cows that make chocolate.  Duh!!!  Anyway, since my mom arrived a few days ago and the first weekend she spent it babysitting while we went to Barcelona we decided to show her some of the sights.  On Saturday we went to Annecy where we love to rent boats and go out on the lake (when it's warm).  This time it was for Retours d'Alpage, the yearly pilgrimage to conmemorate the "descent from the Alps" of the cows and if I'm not mistaken the time to start making yummy cheese!  The little town was filled with craftsmen who were either making clogs out of wood, or other wood carvings, or men taking the wool from the sheep while the women started making fabrics for clothing from it right ther...

In honor of Mario Vargas Llosa FINALLY winning the Nobel Prize. I think this was the best day in my hubby's life. We were in Lima during the 2007 Holidays (I was about 6 months pregnant with Sebas). We left Gabi with her grandmother and went to catch a local play when we discovered that MVL was sitting right in front of us. During the intermission these guys were like kids who met Michael Jordan or David Beckham.  Now I don't know whether the day this picture was taken was the best day of my husband's life or yesterday when MVL finally (and deservedly) won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

‎10 years ago...I was at Mariselle's graduation, celebrated Carin's bday with her, went to visit my sister to celebrate my nephew's 1st bday, went to concerts for Juan Luis Guerra and Carlos Vives, said farewell to German who was moving to Geneva, started seeing Jose, and worked on Pampers (among others ). 10 years later......I was at Mariselle's wedding, celebrated Ida's bday with her, went to visit my sister to celebrate my son's 2nd bday, am going to Shakira (and hopefully Gaga!), said farewell to my friends and moved to Geneva, still married to the man I started seeing then, and now he works on Pampers. :) In short, 2000 and 2010 are two sides of the same coin. I'm blessed to still be close to all these wonderful people after so many years. Hope in 2020 I can look back and say the same.

Barefoot in Barcelona is one of my favorite OPI nail colors! However for this ocassion which called for a celebration (my girlfriend's Ida's bday) I went with Pamplona Purple on a little Swiss Air flight to Barcelona.  No more to say than good friends (some of which I hadn't seen in 9 years when we made the calculations!), remembering previous visits to Spain (I had gone with Ida and her sister in law Keysa to Barcelona freaking TWELVE years ago), good food (and wine of course), and sightseeing around one of the most beautiful places in the world.  And my favorite part was the 20F degree difference with Geneva. Thankfully when we came back it was a little bit warmer here so looks like we brough the good weather for us.  We actually surprised Ida -- they were on a 2 week trip all around Spain and we decided to surprise her on her birthday on the last leg of the trip. Her husband was wonderful helping me keep the whole thing a secret and reserving hotel rooms for us an...