Spring Showers

February passed by quickly and I'm finally catching up with a little update on what we have been up to lately. Well, the cold winter weather made way for some warmer, spring like temperatures and lots of rain showers. So instead of being cooped up indoors, we are spending a lot of time outdoors visiting parks or playgrounds or working in the yard. 

Family walks/ runs in the park:

A couple of weekends ago, we played outside most of the day. It was even warm enough for the first Popsicle on the porch:

Not only is it warmer, but the flowers and tree blossoms are in full bloom:

But the rain showers also brought a lot of flooding in the area. This was at our local park during an afternoon run this week:

Indoors, we played a lot of board games this month or read a lot of books. Amelia is learning how to play chess. 

Derrick brings usually the kids to bed at night and almost every night, he reads a book or two to Elliot. Amelia either reads on her own or I read with her. He is all about dinosaurs lately:

And we cuddled on the couch when Daddy was on his business trip:

Last weekend, Amelia was invited to her friend's birthday party. Games, cake, fashion show and a pinata. The girls had lots of fun:

Here comes Amelia: She was interviewed before hand: She is 6 years old, her favorite color is purple, she likes playing "Connect 4" and when she grows up she wants to be a Mom. The last one cracks me up as everyone was ahhhing but she only wants to be a mom so she can be bossy (to her children) - her words :). 

 All the princesses:

 Amelia and the birthday girl:

 Girl power!

Meanwhile, the boys made pizza at home:

We also prayed a lot this month for Elliot's teacher as she was recently diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer and underwent surgery this week. Ms. Williams is such a loving person and not only the children miss her, but the other teachers and parents do to. While the surgery went well, she still has a long way to go until she is healed. We keep praying and sending her cards and at preschool they are wearing these t-shirts in support of her.

And so the second month of the "new" year comes to an end. The hours of daylight are getting longer and the clothes we wear are lighter. We are soaking up all those days where the sun shines brightly and the skies are crystal blue and the air feels warmer while we are getting ready for Easter and Spring break.

Paris for a Day

On Friday afternoon, I took the plane from Bordeaux to Paris and arrived at the same time as my little brother. I was so happy that he decided spontaneously to come and spend the next 40 hours with me in Paris. 

After checking in to the hotel, we took the train to downtown Paris to meet one of my best friends for dinner.  Franzi lives and works in Paris and it was so good to see her and catch up with her. Plus, the Indian food was pretty good too. 

Because of the winter weather in Paris that week, the roads were very slippery and the Seine river still continued to rise. 

After a good night's sleep, my brother and I put our walking shoes on and bundled up -the snow had stopped and it was sunny but very cold (36F/2C) -and took off toward city center. First up some breakfast:

We had no real plan of what we wanted to see or do so we just went along and stopped here and there, paused to eat some delicious foods, walked some more and enjoyed spending the day together. The first attraction we went to was Montmartre, a neighborhood in the North part of city known for it's artist district and the white-domed Basilica de Sacre-Coeur on its summit.

Sacre-Coeur:

           

View over the city: 

We stopped at Galeries Lafayette for some desserts and an assembly of lunch items, which we devoured near Place de la Concorde. 

 

From there we walked thru the Tuileries Garden towards the Louvre. We didn't want to stand in line for hours at this museum so instead, as per my brother's request, we went to Musee de la Magie. It is a small museum featuring cool artifacts from the beginning of magic and illusion: antique props and gadgets, optical illusions, and even a little magic show.  

 

 

After that, we walked by Notre Dame de Paris. I have been to Paris multiple times but never seen it covered in snow. It was very pretty, albeit quite slippery on those old cobblestone streets. 

We definitely needed to sit down for a while and took a break at a typical small French cafe, eating crepes and drinking cidre.

Then, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower...only to find it closed due to the wintry conditions. But we still took a few good picture of this famous wrought-iron tower from 1889. Prior to that, we went to Tour Montparnasse, a modern tower, where one can enjoy a panoramic view over the City of Love 210 m above the ground. But again, the lines were too long so we abandoned that mission.  

 

 

We didn't came to Paris to shop but that didn't prevent us from walking down Champs-Elysees at dawn towards the Arc de Triomphe. 

Our last stop was a tiny, authentic Vietnamese restaurant, where we ate delicious Pho soup (I had a different soup and it was perfect) and then headed back to the hotel. 

I truly had a great time exploring for more than 12+ hours this magnificent city with my little brother. We walked 13.4 miles that day and were exhausted when we got back to the hotel. But it was so worth it!!! The next morning, we had to hug each other goodbye as one headed off towards the US and one towards Germany...until we will see each other again. Au revoir!

Business Trip To France

In the beginning of February, my boss, my co-worker and I spent a week in France. My company acquired a distributor near Bordeaux and we were there for team meetings and to figure out how to transition certain things between these two companies. 

We traveled almost 19 hours to get from point A to point B and one does not get much sleep on a transcontinental flight. But this is what you see when you arrive in Bordeaux: an extra large bottle of wine! They even grow grapes between the terminals. 

The entire week while we were in the South of France, it was super cold. We even had snow a couple of mornings. 

The town we stayed at is very popular during the summer as it is located on the Atlantic ocean. We did not had time to sight see as we worked from 8:30am till past 6pm but one evening I was lucky to snap a picture of the low tide in the small harbor before dusk:

That was the same night, my co-workers picked up fresh Oysters for dinner (I ate salad and pizza instead).

First time, I saw a Baguette vending machine, located right next to a local bakery:

On Thursday, we took off early to drive down to Spain to visit another office location. This office is located just a few miles behind the Spanish border, near the Pyrenees mountains. It was very cold that day (36F/ 2C) and there was no heat in the office, except for one small radiator. But we made up for this inconvenience by enjoying the best steak and Jambon ever for lunch. 

Business trips always sound so glorious but they are not really. This was my working spot, right next to the heater among some wine bottles. The only positive was that we took a bottle to the hotel at night to enjoy it with our dinner.

Plus being away for over a week from my family and traveling for 19+ hours during flu season and weather delays can be exhausting. I did took one day to spent in Paris before I flew back to the States. But by Sunday, I was ready to head back home to my loved ones:

Next up, my 40 hours in Paris with the best sidekick ever!