Bonjour from Paris!

Bonjour Everyone! Haven't posted in ages I know .. :( But now we are in France, in Paris, the city of love and fashion and I am inspired to share the journey of our second year of home exchange with you all!

As you may know, last year we spent an amazing month in Barcelona and loved it and I am now a religious home exchanger! There are really only three ways I will ever travel again ...

a. home exchange (the obvious)
b. on points of any kind - airfare, hotel, coffee card (whatever it takes)
c. camping (I will get back to this one again, but if you read my post about our trip to St. John this January, you know why. Well, the St. John experience is now enhanced and reconfirmed by our amazing, no, AMAZING week at Huttopia in the Loire Valley, which I will review here later.)

This year, we found a nice French family with three boys, who live at 15 arr. (I am not going to spell this out) in Paris. All was agreed on Skype soon after our first contact. The general rule of the thumb is, that if you find some elements of your apartment in theirs on the photos, you will most likely be comfortable at your adopted place.

We exchanged keys at a hotel upon our arrival and here we are!

It's exciting to walk into somebody else's world and imagine and experience what it must be like to live here, to be a Parisian. To run across the street in the morning for a fresh baguette or a croissant, to sit at the corner bistro on one of those charming chairs by a tiny table watching the world go by or to type away on your computer by a desk with a clear view of the open glass doors of the ornate facade of the building across the street and its inhabitants. The young guy in shorts, who is constantly on the phone, the chubby lady in a dress who takes a cigarette break once an hour or the family that hopelessly tries to get their young child away from the open balcony door.

Argh Paris ...

A week and a few days in France and we are all fluent in "Merci", "Bonjour" and "Au revoire".
We walk self-assured, map-less, Lola skipping, London making the sidewalk pillars an obstacle course, camera hiding (mostly) in my large satchel (notice the choice of words here), I-phone ready for a quick photo ... Oh my! We could be easily mistaken for Parisians ... Well, not quite! We need a fashion upgrade! Badly! Ok, so we didn't come for the Dior fashion show that just happened today and J-Lo was there (don't ask me how I know all this and nothing about world news!) but we are far from locally looking.  Stretched out jeans and t-shirts (at least no sneakers) ... Is it just me, or the stereotype, or our general, collective lack of fashion esteem that makes us feel somehow less put together, less sophisticated (I mean that girl today with a black hat and style made me want to run back home, paint my nails, get a massage, splatter some Dior 5 all over my body and wear stilettos .. or at least my shiny self-made sequins Dolce fake pumps or something that would put us on the map as a non-tourist type ...  I was jealous)

Something stunk in our apartment ... After LoLo tested all the toys, took over a castle in a battle over a princess, built a car track looping four times in the air and managed to find a box of marbles that were now a hazard to life all across the three rooms, we opened the fridge.

Lola, opened the fridge and shining eyes and bushy tailed she whispered in my ear: "Mommy! There is pudding in there!" (Side note: we never buy pudding! .. This poor, pudding deprived child knew that the opportunity was here ... ). Then she closed the door, upon which an odor that would make a skunk seem a desirable perfume of choice took over the entire apartment.

"Was it you?"

We pointed at each other in disbelief at what our noses were experiencing.
"It must be from outside" .. I concluded, until the next time we opened the fridge and started a search of all shelfs, nooks and crannies of the fridge. Our 10 minutes search in t-shirts pulled over our noses (bank robber style) produced no rotten food of any kind or body pieces (as we started to suspect).

It was unbearable! We made cross wind throughout the apartment  and proceeded to open the fridge only with extra caution and solely in necessary, unavoidable situations ( f.e. when Lola wanted another pudding).

Until we found it! It sat on the middle shelf, wrapped in perfect crispy paper, in a perfect clean box with some fancy french wording ... It wasn't old, it wasn't bad, though it was definitely dead, it was the cheese the family left us as a gift. I caution you, we are HUGE cheese lovers, we've had smelly cheese, we've tasted a few that made us not breath for a few second taking a chance at fainting or even dying from the lack of oxygen, but never, and I mean NEVER have we smelled anything so atrocious, stomach turning, skunklicious in our lives!

Geoffrey placed it in a plastic bag, tied it carefully and took it to the garbage downstairs.
.. and it still smells!!!

.. Oh ooohh ...  but I wanted to tell you all about our first day of adventure in Paris ...

We went to the Citroen Park and took a balloon up in the sky. We learnt that advance tickets are sold out for the entire month for the Eiffel Tower and that lines can be long and quite unbearable, especially with children, who are not so much amused mostly by the height or the construction of the building, so we won't see the tower once again but at least we got to see the city from high up ...

Always a reason to come back!

xox LV

     

And the Oscar goes to ...

We are having so much fun with these Oscars ... 

On the red carpet ... 

OSCAR

(Pssst don't tell LoLo, but it's a Barbie wrapped in foil)

And finally reporting live from the event:
https://vimeo.com/88031131

xxx LV

LoLo's Lemonade Stand 2013

We did it again! Yes, the "almost" famous LoLo's Lemonade stand. It is almost famous, because whoever takes a look at my blog and talks to me afterwards, they will surely mention THE lemonade stand (CHECK OUT LAST YEAR HERE), despite the fact that by now I've made/designed/crafted quite a few items besides lemonade. I feel that the lemonade stand somehow "talks" to people. I must admit, it is our most favorite family activity as a team. Basically, we are excited for two big events every year - Christmas and LoLo's Lemonade Stand. London loves tending the lemonade jug and Lola loves thinking up themes and how we could make it even more fun.

Last year we did the "standard" lemonade stand .. with lemonade, cookies and lemon bars. This year I bought LoLo the Pinkalicious Lemonade Stand book and so was our theme born. We decided to do a PinkDelicious Lemonade Stand.

Then we set off for the park ...

... little wagon filled with decorations, lemonade and lemon/strawberry cupcakes ...

I always think of things "lemon" to add to our store and so this year I made pink and white playdough, wrapped it all in cling film and filled the empty lemon shells with it ... I really adored them, but nobody else did :) or wanted to buy them at the end of the day,

so we gave it all away to kids walking past us ...

And we are on our way ... 

Marketing ... 

We've finally set up and waiting for customers ... 

From my Facebook wall on  the day of the stand ...
"As we were setting up at the park today a man came to us asking all sorts of questions (why we are doing this, how often, if the kids helped etc. ) .. he was talking so fast and emotionless, we thought he was there to throw us out from our spot, as there was another event happening just steps away. I was already preparing my inner tiger for the confrontation, when his face turned into a smile and he stuffed a 20 USD bill into my pocket with words "this is so wonderful what you are doing" ... We wanted to give him our entire stand with banners and pom-poms and LoLo (just kidding) and all, but he left and said he'd be back for a cupcake ... he was ... And you know it's not about the twenty ..."
This is where it all began ...

Selling it! ... 

A few details ... 

 ... US ... 

We had an AMAZING time! Thank you to all our supporters, customers and fan club :)

We will be back next year bigger and better and with a brand new lemonade theme ...
Now we are off drinking apple sider and hot chocolate :)

Don't forget to make lemonade any season if life gives you lemons ... 

Lo(lo)ts of lo(lo)ve, LV and the gang

LoLo's Circus and Carnival - 4th birthday party

Long time no see! That only means that I've been busy working on so many projects I could not find time to actually take photos and post until NO! Tararararaaaa here are the photos of LoLo's party, which would have been washed away had it not been for my quick thinking husband, who had a genius idea to ask a nearby hotel for a space. And there we were in one room instead of our spacious courtyard but ce la vie! With many adjustments and reconstruction we were able to have fun and enjoy another LoLo milestone ...

I found this old poster on the internet and edited in the words. I used picmonkey, the only editing program I can sort of use. 

The food table ...

Home-made: 

* Paper fans on the wall are from newspaper and card stock; The circle in  the middle is a paper plate trimmed to size.

* Tablecloth. Made from 99. cent plastic table covers that you can buy in any party store. The yellow and white were cut on the fold lines to 4 equal strips, shirred by hand and taped with clear tape to the bottom (red) tablecloth. Make this ahead of time if you are thinking about one for your party. It takes a while!

* Banner. Easy! Paper plates with letters printed from word on them (I have a silhouette that I can't use :); holes punched on two sides and tied together with a string. They work very well on the wall, but making them stand upright against the tablecloth was a challenge at time ...  

*  Circus train. Made from boxes bought at Staples. The wheels are doubled black paper plates, the chimney is a toilet paper roll wrapped in yellow paper and another one wrapped in stripy paper. 

 * Photo. The picture is an enlarged black and white photograph from Staples and glued to a white foam board. 

I am very proud of the circus train, though London hated the idea of the animals and cages and I had to promise him that they will be let free once the party is over. The photo of them on the train is an actual photo from a train ride we took in Budapest past summer.  

* I made the stacked pom-poms with newspaper straps at the bottom

* I am pleased with my printables done with picmonkey.

Food: 

There was cheese, crackers, grapes, popcorn in a fruit barrel and hummus cups with celery and carrots and I baked cheese and chive biscuits (that came out yummy btw :).

I did not want to overload the kids with desserts and candy, so we had cream puffs and cookies with milk (that we forgot to serve until the last minute). There were also peanuts in bags and lollipops and mini chocolate coins at the prize table. We ordered pizza for a quick lunch and then there was the amazing cake that London and Lola's x nanny, Didi made!  I thought it was just the right amount of food for a kids party. 

We also had a photo booth. Though I did learn something .. don't make the booth adult size for a kids party! How about my jeans I am most proud of?? I bought them from a boutique in Carroll Gardens. The had my name written all over them and were on sale! Nobody wanted them for ages until I appeared ... Do not be mistaken! I wear them in the summer on a regular bases and get compliments all over the city. I've had people calling me wonder bread girl :)) I've gone back to the same little shop in hopes to buy another funky pair but they do not carry the brand any longer and I wasn't able to find them even on the internet .. :( 

By the way ... as it turns out nobody likes clowns! Many people are afraid of them, I just simply do not like them. The reason being that when I was growing up, my mom would take me to the circus all the time and when the clown came on stage I was expected to laugh and smile like all the other kids, but I never found falling off pants on a guy with a big red nose funny .. lol .. now maybe I would :))) My mom would always check if I had a smile on my face, which I never did for the clown and she'd proceed with questioning if I didn't like the show and why and so on and so on ... As a character I now think they are cute .. I mean how would anyone not like that huge rainbow afro??? 

The TATTOO station ... I bought circus themed tattoos from amazon. 

Another activity was the bean bag toss ... bottom right!

There was face painting by our talented aunt Janet. We picked five designs to make it easier for everyone. Rainbow really wasn't among the choices, but Lola insisted .. 

Activities we did: 

* Photo booth * Face painting * Tattoos * Bean bag toss * Pin drop * Coloring station * Duck pond 

And what we could nod do, because of the rain :(

* Clown race  * Hula hoop  * Hopscotch  * Bubble station  * Baby rug

Nana was in charge of the prizes! They included almost anything and everything you can buy at a party store and toothbrushes as papa is a dentist :)

I also made a circus sock monkey for the prize table .. How did she come out so cute?? 

The cake Didi made was AMAZING! It was like the Hungarian "dobos torta". Yumm!

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY LOLO!

Now, let crafting begin (again!)

LO(lo)V(i)E to all readers who stuck with me during all these quiet months!

Elvi

Strawberries & Snails Gardening Party - LoLo 3!

I've been so eagerly preparing for this party that I have not posted anything in ages. I started planning the festivities soon after I returned from my Paris trip - about a month before the actual date.

Ugy dontottem hogy matol magyarul is irok a blog. :) Udv minden uj olvasonak! (Elnezest az ekezetek hianya miatt, de igy sokkal egyszerubb). Nem igerem hogy szo szoros lesz a forditas, de igy ha barki meg szeretne valositani az alkotasaim egyiket itt meg tudja majd nezni.  

It's never easy to pick a theme for a birthday party, let alone for boy/girl twins, whose interests are a world apart. So, instead of asking what they wanted and getting 15 ideas all at once followed by a fight, hair tearing and various other ways of forceful persuasion, I picked the theme myself. Strawberries are such a wonderful fruit and they are plentiful in May, so I figured I would go with that. "We could eat them, plant them, draw them" I thought, but was reminded later on that strawberries are too feminine (apparently), so I needed to add masculinity to the mix for London's sake. My inspiration turned out to be sitting in a basket at Ikea (I hate to do the advertising for the store, as I am sitting here fuming over their terrible customer service, but Ikea it was.) I found a cute snail finger puppet, which became a part of the theme and everyones' give away gift.    

Nem egyszeru szulinapi partyt csinalni ikreknek, de ugy hogy lany/fiu ikrek meg nehezebb, mivel annyira eltero a ket kis egyen erdeklodesi kore, hogy kozos nevezore sosem jutnank. Igy ahelyett hogy 15 otletbol vivtuk volna ki okollel, hajtepessel es harapasokkal azt hogy autos vagy babas partynk legyen nem kerdeztem es en valasztottam - az eper temaju bulit. "Majd epret ultetunk, eszunk, vagunk, festunk" - gondoltam en egeszen addig amig nem informalt ferjemuram, hogy az eper tulsagosan noi szymbolum ... Ferfias inspiraciomra egy Ikea kosarban talaltam egy lila/zold ujjbab csiga szemelyeben, amely a kesobbiekben a vendeg gyerekek ajandeka egy reszeve valt ...     

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing ... 

LoLo's STRAWBERRIES AND SNAILS gardening party ....

Tehat holgyeim es uraim ime az Eper/Csiga szulinapi party kepekben ... 

Party table in preparation with daddy Geoffrey in sight

Keszul a party asztal Geoff apaval a kepen ...  

I have to point out things I like and I don't like also .. See the burlap? We could only get the gardening kind, which has large gaps in the weaving and so the skirt of the table is see through 

(I don't like it! .. Should have put a pink tablecloth underneath the burlap ... Or if you would like the burlap look make sure that you buy the coffee bag kind and not this one. ) 

Ime az asztal, de be kell vallanom hogy nem tokeletes :( ugyanis a szoves a zsakon nagy lyukakat hagy, igy atlatszo lett :(( Ha zsakkal szeretnel asztalt teriteni ne a kerteszboltban vasarold a zsakot hanem mint en tettem. A kavezsak (peldaul) sokkal alkalmasabb ... bar en ezt eddig nem tudtam ... 

Table still in preparation ... We were waiting for the cupcakes to get to the place ... 

Meg mindig nem keszult el az asztal .. varjuk a sutiket ... (cupcakes)

Arrived! Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese and strawberry frosting and a gummy strawberry on top. I like cupcakes in flower pots, but hated the idea of anything baked into the pots (or tins). God knows what chemicals are these things treated with, 

so all I did was insert the cupcakes to place ...

Megerkeztek! Epres "cupcake" eper-turo kremmel a tetejen es eper gumicukorral diszitve. Jol mutatnak a sutik a pici cserepben es sokan ebben sutnek is, de en inkabb papirban sutottem - sosem lehet tudni milyen vegyszerrel vannak a cserepek bevonva ...  A cserepek peremere szalagot ragasztottam hogy mutatosabb legyen.

LoLo's delicious strawberry/chocolate cake. A gift to LoLo baked by Edit, third year in a row. 

THANK YOU!

LoLo keresre sutott eper/csokis torta. Edit immar harmadik eve sutotte meg LoLo szulinapi tortajat ajandekba. KOSZONJUK!!!!

The MENU: Strawberries and whipped cream, savory muffins (feta, sundried tomato, basil muffins), mini crustless vegetable quiche, PBJ and cream cheese/strawberry slices sandwiches, strawberry cupcakes, baby carrots, celery sticks, baby tomatoes, baby bell cheese and cake. I really wanted to serve vodka/strawberry lemonade but there was no way of transporting the large glass dispenser to the park and we would have been probably also arrested for serving alcohol, 

so we didn't (but I really wish we did :))) 

A MENU: Eper es tejszinhab, sos "muffin" (szaritott paradicsom, bazsalikom, feta), mini zoldseges/tojas "quiche", PBJ - mogyorokremvaj es lekvar valamint kremsajt es eperszeletek szendvics amiket virag kinyomoval vagtam ki, babarepa, celler, baby paradicsom, baby bell sajt es torta. Igazabol en meg vodkas-epres limonadet is szerettem volna felszolgalni, de nagyon nehez lett volna a parka becipelni a tobb literes uveget teli itallal, na meg az USA-ban tilos nyilt helyen az alkoholizalas, igy netan meg buntetest is kaphattunk volna igy sajnos a felnottek is dzsusz dobozokkal iltottak szomjukat :) 

    

I cut out the sandwiches with a flower cutter. 

There were two baskets: peanut butter jelly and cream cheese/strawberry slices sandwiches. 

A ket fonott kosarban mogyorokremvaj es lekvar es kremsajt es eper szeletes szendvics talalhato.   

My talented friend, Bird from Bird's Party created all these wonderful printables (including this banner) - also third year in a row .. We basically don't do parties unless Didi (Edit) and Bird are involved :))

Baratnom, Bird keszitette a grafikat a nyomtatott papirdiszekhez (szinten immar harmadik eve) 

Nalunk nincs buli Edit es Bird segitsege nelkul :) 

Before all the baking was done I did some sewing ... 

Strawberry pillow for Lola and the snail (Crafting Tilda's friends) for London. 

The picture is a cork board covered in strawberry fabric with tissue flowers creating the #3

A sutes elott nekilattam varrni ... 

Az eper kisparna a Lolae, a csiga a Londye lett ... Az eper, a kisparnan kivul focilabdakent is mukodik mint ezt kitapasztaltuk ...  Egy tablara raragasztottam az eper anyagot es zold szalvetaviragokbol ragasztottam ra egy harmast. 

The netting was bought at Ikea and I added the bunting and ribbons. Now, this was quite a project as I hand-sewn all bunting to the frame for the fear of getting caught in the net like a mermaid ... 

A halo szinten az Ikea-bol van. Varrtam ra kis zaszlokat es szalagokat. Hat ez egy eleg nagy munka volt, mert nem mertem varrogepet hasznalni hogy bele ne varrjam magamat a haloba mint egy hableany.  

Tissue paper pom-poms are a must for an easy and impressive decoration. 

Szalvetabol keszult pom-pomokat egyszeruen lehet elkesziteni es nagyon mutatos disz.  

Everybody loves balloons!

A lufikat kicsit-nagyok szeretik! 

The take-away gifts. Water bottles stuffed with gummy strawberries and a finger puppet snail. 

A partyzok ilyen ajandekokat kaptam bucsuzoul a cserepes/nevvel ellatott/ kidiszitett eperpalanta, luficsiga es nyalokaviragon kivul ... Szines flakonok gumieperrel toltve es csiga ujjbabbal diszitve.   

Perhaps the most popular activity was picking flowers from LoLo's garden ... I was amazed how all these 3 year olds caught on to the fact that the center of the flowers was a lollipop immediately .. :)

Talan a legsikeresebb a gyerekek koreben ez a LoLo viragkert volt. Meglepo, hogy a gyerekek milyen hamar eszrevettek, hogy a virag belso resze nyalokabol van :)  

LoLo's flower garden

LoLo viragos kertje 

Flower picking was followed by decorating flower pots with foam stickers. 

All in preparation for the strawberry plants ...

A viragszedes utan cserepet diszitettunk szivacs matricakkal, hogy aztan legyen mibe ultetni az eperpalantakat 

We also had bubbles, did face painting, played with a ball, learnt a song called "A Little Seed" to which we were introduced by a local children's band Rolie Polie Guacamole and momma made her debut as a balloon artist making everyone a balloon snail of the color of their choice. 

A sok finomsagon kivul volt meg buborekfujas, arcfestes, jatszottunk labdaval (koszi aki hozta :) es megtanultunk a Rolie Polie Guacamole egyuttes dalat. Mama debutalt mint gyakorlott lufimuvesz es mindenkinek luficsigat is keszitett.  

Face Painting ... Arcfestes ... 

According to LoLo, there is no party without a party hat!!! (If this one reminds you of a paper cup it may not be by coincidence)  

LoLo velemenye szerint a party nem party party kalap nelkul, igy keszult az is fiuknak es lanyoknak kulon. Itt Miki viseli a fejfedot (ha poharra emlekeztet a kalap az nem veletlen ;)  

And for the girls with tissue pom-poms on top ... 

Es lanyoknak pom-ponokkal diszitve ... 

THE END ... LoLo party next year!

Jovore itt ismet .. LoLo Party!