Walking around Geneva - Ladurée

The French and Swiss French are very much into Macarons... Dainty pastries which can be decorated in a million ways and colored and flavored to match any occasion or outfit. Geneva is home to a branch of ths most famous Macaron maker in the world, the French company Ladurée...

A little history...  The history of Parisian tea salons is intimately tied to the history of the Ladurée family.
It all began in 1862, when Louis Ernest Ladurée, a miller from France’s southwest, created a bakery at 16 rue Royale in Paris.
Ladurée sells cakes, chocolate truffles and many other delicious foods, But Macarons, the  small, round cakes, crisp on the outside, smooth and soft in the middle, are their most famous creation. They are a perfect sweet little gift for a loved one, or a beautiful favor at a wedding or baby shower. The gift boxes are little works of art in itself.
The story of the Ladurée macaron starts with Pierre Desfontaines, second cousin of founder, Louis Ernest Ladurée, who at the beginning of the 20th century first thought of taking two macaron shells and joining them with a delicious ganache filling.
With each new season, Ladurée pays tribute to its most famous creation by creating a new flavor. The existing range of macarons is always the starting point when a new one is created, as the variety of colors is as important as the range of flavors, and a vital part of their appeal.

Here is the Geneva store with some of the famous Macarons. I pass by it on my way to the Library.

Swiss Halloween

No this is not going to be about a Swiss version of the holiday or how the locals celebrate. Sorry. :) This is about how we spent our first Halloween away from America.
Our local friends Lauren and Gabe decided to host a party for a bunch of expats with costumes being mandatory, so we had no way but get to work and come up with something cool and homemade, since you can't really buy much Halloween stuff here. It is just not a European thing.
Since I am prego, we've decided to go with Bun in the Oven themes outfits, and here is what I fabricated all by myself. I am quite proud of all this.

And here are our other friends dressed up at the party.

And to get even more into the Halloween spirit, I turned into a little Suzie Homemaker and made CJ a batch of tasty Dirt and Worms cupcakes to take to work. His office was doing a Halloween luncheon and they were supposed to have trick or treating in the afternoon.  These came out so cool! They are just basic devil's food cupcakes with vanilla frosting on top, sprinkled with cruched Oreos and with a gummy worm stuck on top! Fun!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Celebrity due date club + 5 month belly pic

Look who else is due in February... The little munchkin is in fancy company. Haha...

Beyonce

Hillary Duff

Jennifer Garner

Jessica Simpson

There are a few more but I wasn't quite sure who they were or they were guys (so not so glamorous...) so I did not post their pics.

And last but not least, the celeb you all know and love to follow (right?... haha...)

Me at 5 months.

 Slaving in the kitchen... well not really. I like cooking. :)

AIWC hike - Vineyards of Canton Vaud

After attending the Expat Expo last month I decided to join the Ametican International Women's Club of Geneva. They offer all kinds of fun activities to the members, language lessons, bridge club, book club etc. One of the activities I jumped right on was the Friday Morning Hikes.

Here are some photos from last weeks trip. Typically the group meets up at the train station, we take the train to a village nearby and walk through the foothills, vineyards, villages etc and then take the train back to Geneva.

This particular hike was through the fields of Canton Vaud, the neighboring Canton. The weather was gorgeous though really chilly. Good thing I brought my hat and gloves. SO much fun!

I love freebies!

One of the advantages of working for a baby products company (or another division within the same Corporation) is that you are typically able to get some amazing deals on the expensive baby gear which most parents want or need to have.
Our company offers a lot of really good deals through our employee purchase program and we are definiely planning on taking advantage of those offers.

Now, an even better deal is when you actually get those expensive baby items FOR FREE. That's right - FREE! We recently scored some fantastic items, which we would have had to purchase as some point in near future.

My company, Baby & Parenting Essentials which owns Graco, Teutonia and Aprica, participates in a Worldwide Baby Products Trade Show every fall in Cologne, Germany. We always send samples of the new lines, new styles and fashions, some of the good ole tried and true favotites, and basically try to pick up as many new orders as possible. The samples come from the US (Graco), Europe (Graco & Teutonia) and Japan, (Aprica). Yes, we have our fingers in everything...

This year a bunch of US Graco products were sent over here to be presented to some customers from France and Russia, who are interested in ordering the US range for its pretty colors. After the show they had all that stuff left over, and since they are not allowed to sell it here in Europe as is (due to EU compliance needs), the VP of Sales told me I could pick whatever I wanted and they would ship it from the show to the Geneva office for me.

Oh my!!

Well last week all my requested items came in and it was a blast putting them together and playing around with them. It felt liek early Christmas!! Here is what we got:

A Travel System (stroller + infant car seat)

A 4-in-1 convertible high chair (this grows with the baby and has a base that can be strapped to a regular dining chair as they get bigger).

And a convertible car seat (good for a child up to 100lbs - I almost could have fir in that before being prego!!)

So cool! Two things are wonderful in this entire sitiuation: we are going to save a ton of money thanks to their generosity. And also, we no longer have to worry about how we are going to transport those particular products from the US to Geneva. We were determined to get US compliant gear since we will be moving back in a couple of years and we don't want to have to replace everything - and it does not seem like the local authorities will give us grief about using US stuff. Instinctively, US regulations are a lot more stringent than EU's though it can be different in some aspects (hence my earlier comment about B&PE not being able to sell US range Graco as is here in Europe...).

And here's us having some fu with all our new toys... errr... our future kid's toys that is. :))

Walking around Geneva - Something is happening on the Bridge

I've decided to start a new series about the things I see while wandering around Geneva. I've had more time recently to enjoy life, and I've been walking a lot, as means of staying in shape. My old days of running like a maniac are temporarily suspended. Anywho, we'll see if I can keep this going...

So here is something I saw one sunny day while crossing the river on the pedestrian bridge. I don't know if someone jumped, dropped something important - like an expensive watch or a dog - in the water... I just know there was a serious looking crew of Police with dudes on speed boats and divers in gear. Pretty cool... Judging by the interest amongst the public it must have been something interesting...

Pregnancy pet-peeves

Since we got pregnant, I've been visiting the pregnancy website The Bump quite often and reading stuff other women post on the message boards. It's a pretty good resource if you want to ask a question of those who have had babies recently, or if you think you have a weird symptom, and want to see if anyone else is experiencing it too. It is also a good place to vent, if something has annoyed you, and it seems like there are a number of those things happening to us prego ladies.

I have this story to share from last week. I met a friend of mine here recently to do something, and she asked when I was due, so I told her in Feb, and she proceeded to tell me that I was NOT SHOWING AT ALL!

Uhhmmm, really? What would you call this???

I just laughed it off and did not continue that train of thought, but it kind of ticked me off... What do you expect a pregnant person will look like?... Like a bloated whale from ears to toes? Or to have a huge belly right off the bat? I would say that what I look like is quite normal and appropriate for about 4.5 months. And you really can't mistake the belly for anything else. I HOPE!!!! It is way past the stage of a beer belly or too much to eat for dinner.

In any case that made me think about the other very common vents I see on the The Bump and I compiled a list of things that I think I would personally find annoying if they were to happen to me. Now mind you none of this actually happened to me yet, everyone around has been so wonderful, so I feel very blessed... Also, I do realize these are pretty superficial so take them with a grain of salt...

1. Being inundated with uninvited advice, especially if said advice has no medical grounds or is completely based on superstition or old wives tales (we all know how much those are worth in light of the recent gender reveal... haha).

My take on this: I am working with a highly qualified Swiss Medical Doctor and he is taking extremely good care of me. He gives me all the necessary info to ensure a healthy and successful pregnancy. And he is much more qualified to tell me what to do or not do than me, you or the next random guy... For any weird side questions I may have, I can ask him myself or google it. Oh plus I am obsessively scientific in my approach to everything. I love researching things and finding scientific reason and proof for what I need to know or what is going on. I have low tolerance for superstition.

2. Having the belly touched, rubbed, patted, etc. 

Ohhhh this would drive me nuts! I have a pretty strong need for personal space. This may seem standoffish, but that's just how I am. The stomach area to me is a pretty private place, and expecially now that it is so prominent and sensitive. I'm really protective of that spot. I know that some women don't mind that, or even invite rubbing and patting. I REALLY don't like it and I don't even like to touch other people's prego bellies that much. I usually feel like I'm intruding on them. To all those who think I'm weird - think about how you would feel if people randomly started grabbing your private areas... Not so nice now, huh? Haha....

In any case - I am so glad this has not happened to me so far!!!

3. Being told "You look HUGE!!" Now I know that the exact opposite happened to me, but what made me think about this?

Next time anyone back home will see me I will be sporting a huge belly. True. However, hopefully the rest of me will still remain fairly normal. I think telling me how huge I look would only make me sad and self-conscious. I have always been skinny and proud of it. I am ok with gaining weight now, since that's necessary for the health of the baby. But the last thing I would want to hear would be that I look like a whale... haha... It's not like I can do anything about it...

Again, I feel really blessed that the only thing so far has been on how you can't really tell I'm prego. I guess better that than to be told to my face I look like a whale, right?... Haha...

Have a great day everyone!

Facebook Funnies

I have been noticing a lot of funny pciture posts on Facebook from a lot of different people. Here are some gems I just had to save. Enjoy with your mornig coffee!

Here's a special one just for CJ...