Ariane Blanc's blog

Travels and memories

Hello everyone...well...it took me a while but I think I'm going to be able to keep this up after all. (yes that is me in the corner!!!)

Well, let's see, we had the time of our lives going on vacation to Switzerland this July. Jean-Pierre, Natacha, Charlotte and Richard were the most wonderful hosts anyone could ever hope for. Emilie and Danielle absolutely loved being in Couvet and miss it terribly, especially the grass that doesn't kill your bare feet and all the greenery! We visted a few things in Switzerland such as the city of Bern and the Federal building, Neuchatel and its lake, and had a picnic at the Fontaine des Vernes (my dad's childhood forest fountain and JP and Natacha's special place) and the Chateau de Joux in France!

Mike and I also took some time as a couple and escaped to Paris for a few days thanks to Natacha and Eliane taking care of our little devils! We had a fantastic time being tourists but Paris is a town that you can never really completely visit..every corner has something historically important! While there we also got to say hello to Raphaelle...a friend we met in Phoenix a while back and also Lise and Monique Amaury (dear friends of mine.) Lise and Monique were wonderful tour guides in Paris and also took us to Versailles to visit the Chateau and gardens. It was fantastic!

Here is a little overview of our escapade: We started with Monmartre and climbed up the Sacre Coeur, went down the hill by the cemetery and through Pigalle and it's famous Moulin Rouge. The next day we tackled Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral before the crowds invaded it ; Visited the ruins of Lutece under the plaza in front of Notre Dame; Had lunch by the fountain of Saint Michel; Got a ride on the Seine by boat and then walked the Quais; Walked around the Quartier Latin; Saw the Sorbonne and ended our day lingering in the Jardins du Luxembourg. The third day was July 14 and pouring rain. We had a wonderful lunch with Monique Amaury, and then left Paris to go to Versailles where the weather was fantastic...visited a bit of the Chateau and the gardens before having dinner at Lise's home and heading back to the Tour Eiffel for the fireworks! The last day we were able to go to the Tour Eiffel to visit but the crowds made Mike say no to getting to the top. We then visited Les Invalides, the Army museum and Napoleon's tomb....as well as a few others, before heading to the Champs Elysees, the Place de la Concorde, the Jardins du Louvre and the Louvre. We, unfortunately, had no time left to enter the Louvre but headed back to the train station to go back to Switzerland and our family. Mike had told me that he likes "old stuff"...well I think this time he got quite a bit of it.

After two wonderful ( but short) weeks Mike had to come back to work (someone has to pay the bills...he,he,he) and the girls and I stayed and abused of the Blanc's hospitality for another two fun filled weeks. I discovered what summer luge is...scary...and Emilie keeps saying she wants to go to Switzerland because it was fun going fast down the hill....I suspect a future racer in the family! We also went to the Blausee in Bern for Natacha's birthday and I brought back pictures that made my husband want to kill me (see below and you'll understand!). Travel isn't as easy with two small kids but I must say that it was really nice to just hang out for a change. I really enjoyed being in Couvet with the family and felt so at home....that says a lot about my wonderful hosts! But enough with the blabber and on with the pictures...that is after all the best part of the blog!

Charlotte, Richard, Emilie and doucho!

lac de Neuchatel

Chateau de Joux

Mike in the TGV to Paris!

Sacre Coeur

Paris from Monmartre

Inside Notre dame

Under Notre Dame......Lutece...or what's left of it!

One of Paris' many bridges over the Seine

Michael and the fountain of Saint Michel

View from the boat...le Grand Palais

Sorbonne

Versailles with Lise and Monique

....to be continued!.......10/10/2010.......

10/16/2010......Here we go for round two ......a month of vacation means too many pictures ......

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Versailles

Tour Eiffel 14.07.2010

Napoleon's tomb

Les Champs Elysees

Lise

Charlotte...the best baby-sitter ever!

Emilie's favorite place to be!

Happy Birthday to me! Dinner at the farm....way cool!

Spoiled rotten...Thank you everyone!

Jean-Pierre in Bern.

our Federal Palace

Beautiful Emilie in Ouchy.

Richard going up the luge

Charlotte with no fear!...notice she's holding the accelerator with her feet instead of her hands.....

.......and still more ......

at the Zoo de Servion...riding in style with a one-eyed uncle....

here kitty, kitty...

getting fresh lettuce for dinner...thanks to the gardener!

with my cousin's kids.....Kinan, Oceane, Mahina,& Arnaud

Arriving to the Blausee

WOW!!!!

The reason Mike would go completely insane in this place????...no fishing allowed!

having way too much fun!!

Eliane

Happy Birthday Natacha!!

Joyeux 1er Aout!

We were invited to a 1st of August brunch at the farm...it was fantastic and the kids had a blast!

Dancing his little heart away!!

aren't they fabulous??!!

And finally...our last dinner together!

I can not thank everyone on the old continent enough for everything they did this summer but we look forward to re-paying the favor anytime they might come our way!!

Posted at 07:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Welcome to the new Blog site

Hello everyone and welcome. I hope this works and I can keep this little overview of our family life alive and well. Pictures and real blog posts to come shortly! Thank you for keeping up with us!

Posted at 07:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A busy month of May!

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I keep saying that I post at least one thing per month....I'd better hurry up!!!!

The month of May has been eventful and calm all at once. Emilie's school had their annual sports day and this year Emilie was much more at ease than last year. It's interesting to witness your little offspring become so independent so quickly!

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THE event of the month however, was Emilie's 4th birthday party with all of her friends from the Montessori school and the neighborhood. Who knew she was so popular! I still can't believe it has been 4 years. Next thing I know she'll be in high school and I'll be really depressed. Four years really doesn't seem like much to us old people but at her age it's amazing to think of all the things she has learned in that time....all the things she discovers everyday.It really is a shame that we just can't freeze these moments in time...as much as we'd like to.

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We also had a much smaller and calmer party for her on her actual birthday (Tuesday) with a home made cake and our friends Eva and baby Charles!

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This month we managed to finally make it to the Children's Museum of Phoenix . I've been hearing about this place from every mom I know and now I know why. They have three floors of stuff to see and do and it is all hands on, get dirty, crawl around, scream and go nuts kind of fun! Mike had a blast!! hi,hi,hi!

Thight fit!

hadn't realized it got tighter as you went?

They even have a small supermarket and kitchen where kids can do as they wish and it is all their size. Danielle and Emilie were both quite enthused by it all and the best part is that it is indoors and air conditioned. Finding fun activities for the girls in the summer is hard to do here....it's just too hot and they are just too darn pale to be in the sun for too long, so this is fabulous! Now I'm on a quest to find many more activites of the same genre!

going through the car wash!

Shopping!

Enough of the activities and running around news. We spent most of the month at home having fun and watching our little Danielle grow up way too fast. She eats as much as her sister...(and often even a bit more).. and wants to be a big girl and do all sorts of things on her own (much to her parents chagrin!)

This should be an Ad campaign for corn!

Happy!

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There is nothing like being naked in the yard!!!

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Raiding the fridge...because we don't feed her enough!!!!

Sisterly love!

Emilie is ready to read on her own....so she's decided to "read" to her sister!

Palying with Papa!

Mike will probably kill me for putting this on here...but I think it is really sweet of him to play with princess polly-pocket dolls with his daughter!

The latest thing I had the genius idea to do was shave Stella!!! She's been shedding all over the house....the last straw was when Danielle ate a big clump of dog hair....why you ask?...It was on the couch and everything that child touches ends up in her mouth. Anyway....the result is a very happy dog and Mike and I laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes....so I guess everyone is happy!!

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not quite sure why she changed colors...but interesting!!

Okay...I now leave you with a couple of "family pictures". It is hard to get everyone in sometimes but I'll do my best to get one in every once in a while!!

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Posted at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Easter etc...

I'm outdoing myself today....two postings!

Easter was great. We painted eggs...hid them in the back yard and both Emilie and Danielle had a blast looking for them. Unlike all of her friends...Emilie gets real chicken eggs at easter and so when she was asked what the bunny had put in her eggs by her friends at school my poor child was a bit confused by the question. Danielle and Emilie did however, get a great basket of goodies from the Easter bunny. These were especially great since 80% of what was in them came from Eliane the Swiss easter bunny!!! (merci beaucoup!)

The weather in Arizona has been absolutely gorgeous this month. Spring and fall are my favorite seasons here...warm but not blazing hot and this year we even got a normal amount of rain for once. The desert is in full bloom and the cacti and other desert plants are beautiful. I love this time of the year but for Mike this is hell season. My poor husband suffers from both seasonal allergies and asthma...and one triggers the other. He has been miserable lately and apparently our little Danielle inherited the seasonal allergy part of his problem. Our poor little one has been walking around sneezing and snotty for the past week and her pretty blue eyes and just as red as they can be. Benadryl works for her but it also knocks her into a three hour coma. (I will admit to taking advantage of this fact in my planning of nap time though!) While I'm on the subject of allergies and allergens....Danielle is also allergic to sunblock, which, for a Scottish/Irish/Swiss really white kid living in the Arizona desert.... is wonderful news!!! She breaks out in itchy hives and looks miserable. I have found an organic fragrance free "granola" made sunscreen that works for her but unfortunately it only comes with SPF 30. Emilie needs to have a sunscreen with SPF 70 in order not to turn red so I guess I'll be reapplying on Danielle every 15 minutes......ahhh.....the joy!

Emilie is loving school and planning her birthday party. She is very excited and makes sure to tell me how good she was in school every day...."Je suis gentille maman....I can come to my birthday...right???" Soo cute!

Okay...I guess I've written enough for this time....If I could only be this verbose more often you'd all know every detail of our little lives. I'll leave you with some more pictures of Easter etc...

Until next time!

Posted at 03:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Very late but still better than never

Okay so I completely forgot about the blog. I promise to do a bit better and have a least one post a month...Unlike my friend Ana...I can't get myself to blog almost every day.....I'm not that organized....he,he,he!

The past two months have gone by and the girls keep growing up and surprising us every day with their wit and energy. The older I get the more I realize that if adults were able to move and do as much as children...the world would get a lot more accomplished. But enough of that...lets move on to the news. Danielle decided to take a header off the dishwasher door while I was putting away the dishes and the horrible sound of a skull hitting the tile made my blood chill. I called one of the doctors from work and was told that all they would probably do if I took her in was observe her for a few hours and then send her home if all was well....since she didn't lose consciousness....they probably wouldn't scan her and just watch her...heck...That info saved us the price of an ER visit and I did that at home...waking the poor child up every 3 hours to see if her brain was swelling....luckily...she was fine but the huge bruise on her forehead stayed for a few days and migrated south to cause a black eye as well....the moral of this story....don't fall head first onto your head....it hurts!!! ......Oh and I'm a bad Mommy!

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In other, more pleasant Danielle news....She is trying to potty train. We are a long way from not needing diapers but in March she started sitting on the potty and waiting until something came out. before that.. she would sit on it and immediately get up and run out of the bathroom. Mike took a picture of her first accomplishment!

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But enough of the little one. Emilie is getting to be quite a young lady. She is still way too tall for her age and still skinny as ever. She is a wonderful big sister but Danielle's weight gets in the way of Emilie trying to "help" her. Almost once a day Emilie tries to pick up Danielle for some reason or another and it always ends up the same way....both of them are on the floor screaming!!

Mike decided that his eldest was old enough to take fishing last month and bought her a pincess themed fishing pole. On a grey Saturday morning the two went out to one of the urban lakes in Phoenix to fish. They didn't bring anything home but their smiles but that was enough for me.

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As for the rest of the month...not much to report. We made it the the Arizona farm day and got to show Emilie how to ride an old John Deere...and took a ride in a hay wagon wich Danielle loved. It was a great day and it was also sad to think that everything that I took for granted as a kid.... like running around a bunch of chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, horses and cows was scary and new to my kids. I'm raising a couple of city dwellers and wish I could afford to live in a place where they could get the best of both worlds...kind of like I did. Oh well...maybe someday we'll win the lottery or something....

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Posted at 03:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!

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Okay so here is the reason for the title of this blog.....I typed up and updated all sorts of fun and exciting....(just kidding)...stuff for 45 minutes this morning only to have Vox bleep and it was all gone. The only thing I managed to recover were the pictures I had uploaded.... Luckily I have Danielle with me at home and as you can see in the picture above I can't be mad for long with her around.....Just look at that face!!! I promise to redo what was deleted this morning....try not to peek at the pictures yet...I'd like them included in the blog first. I will write again soon....I promise...and if Vox does it again...I might have a small coronary!

Posted at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Having a moment!

Oscar Espeche: Mamitai

I was just playing around on-line when I found this video named Mamitay...which I thought was pretty cool (since it's the name we gave my mom)......what was even cooler was that the following video happened to be Zamba de mi Esperanza...my dad's favorite Zamba! Sometimes I have a moment like this and it warms my heart!

Oscar Espeche: Zamba de mi esperanza

Posted at 02:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We're baaaack!

Okay so January was a bit busy but a lot of fun. After the holiday season...it's the birthday season for us. We got to celebrate Devon's 4th birthday (Emilie's best bud from down the street), Danielle's first birthday and Caleb's (a friend from work's baby boy) first birthday a week later. The events varied in theme as well as in size...we got a bit of everything.

Star Wars theme for Devon:

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Emilie really liked helping him with the cake and the presents!

We also managed to make it to Flagstaff to the snow. It was fun to see Emilie finally enjoy the cold stuff with her Papa. They went sledding and Emilie LOVED it. I tried a couple of times but after I sat on the thing the first time I remembered that it scares the h....out of me. I have no idea why but I really don't like sliding down a hill with no control over where or how fast I go....hmmm....maybe I should look into that...or not!

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Danielle slept through most of the trip but she wasn't too upset when I finally put her in the snow .

A couple of days after our winter escape...Danielle decided that it was time to walk on her own. Of course I would love to tell you we have the whole thing on film but we don't. It was early morning...we were getting ready to have breakfast...and she let go of the fridge door she was holding on to and walked all the way across the kitchen to the sink. Mike ran and got the camera but she didn't want to do it again until the following day. I guess it'll just have to be a moment we remember. And now on to the main event...Danielle's Birthday. We just did a little something at home with a couple of friends. Eva, CJ and baby Charles came over to help celebrate our little monkey's 1st birthday. I still can't believe that it has been a year already...I guess time flies when you're having fun. She got a whole bunch of presents from Switzerland...Merci Eliane...Natacha, Jean-Pierre, Charlotte et Richard...we especially enjoyed the beautiful pictures drawn by the cousins...I smell two future picassos in the making! We also got a package from Bolivia...and it made it in time for the birthday...a true miracle if you have ever seen the post office in Santa Cruz! Danielle enjoyed ripping paper off the presents and really likes carrot cake.....she even used some as hair conditioner!

And now on to the last event of the month...Caleb's birthday. It was a themed party and so very festive. Emilie got to jump in a bounce house.....her favourite....and Danielle loved being able to roam outside in the grass without Maman picking her up all the time in order to avoid the lawn ornaments that Cue and Stella leave behind.

The birthday boy!

We had a lot of fun this past month...let's just hope the next one is a bit calmer and not as busy!

Posted at 02:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ready for the holidays.

Here we are....almost Christmas and I have no idea where this year went. Emilie is however quite ready for this season. Her first year of school has been an eye opener for her and she has now "discovered" Santa Claus and is curious as to why all her friends are so excited. We were able to "visit" the old guy at my work and it was a lot of fun for her.She also got to pet a horse that was giving carriage rides...play in some snow....."maman c'est froid....yucky"...not so fun apparently... and ride in a little train. It was a fun night for everyone.

Riding and driving!

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Pretty horse!...the child has no fear....the horses hoof was as big as her head!

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This is one I'll always remember....Santa: "what would you like for Christmas?"

Emilie: " Nothing!"

Santa was a bit bewildered by the answer and just looked at Mike with a surprised look on his face!

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Danielle and Emilie's first time with Santa!

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The next day....Emilie was a bit tired from all of the excitement!

We also got and decorated our Chritmas tree on December 12th. It was so much fun to finally have Emilie realy help with the decorating!

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This Angel was on our tree when I was little and has been on our tree ever since Mamitay gave it to me....she kind of makes Christmas official for me!

Well that's all for this time. I'm sure I'll have a lot more pictures to post after the Holidays so Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

Posted at 05:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A busy month!

November was quite a busy month at our place. First we had Mike's parents visiting for close to a week, then came Sophie for a few days and last but not least, Jennifer for the thanksgiving holiday. Danielle is now completely in love with her grandpa, and Emilie has decided that sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag is a lot of fun...especially when your cousin is sleeping in the same room. She decided to camp in her bedroom instead of sleeping in the bed with Sophie...I would ask why but who knows what goes on in that three year old head of hers. Jennifer's visit was also quite fun. We visited Sedona and tried to eat a very big turkey. We had our friend Geiner come over and try to help with the turkey thing but did not succeed....we had leftovers for a week! As for Mike and I we are just happy everything went off without a hitch.

Here are some pictures taken this month: