So, we spent some time in the mountains a few weeks ago. Some of our best friends from Austin were visiting La France and hooked us up with a slightly extravagant chalet tucked away on a hill in the Alps. I'm not much of a mountain (or nature) girl, but it's hard not to feel the magic that radiates from being in a valley full of sunshine surrounded by colossal, snow-capped mountains. Our visit there definitely brought out my inner hippie.

Exploring Paris with a toddler is interesting. Avienne has a pretty hefty appetite for physical adventures and human interaction. She enjoys social settings so much, even if only to sit and observe others. Riding the métros, busses and trams all over the city with her by my side has been a much different experience than what I remember from my past solitary commutes. She treats everyone like someone she knows and it makes for a somewhat shocking experience for some Parisians. On our very first métro ride together, we sat across from a woman who made it known that she was very offended that I allowed my kid to sit across from her AND that I crossed my legs which she felt extended into her "territory." I couldn't help but laugh at the poor woman, but managed to keep my cool. Another woman sat down across from me who was extremely and abnormally kind to both me and Avienne, and I reminded myself that Paris is full of extreme personalities such as these. I mean, isn't the whole world somewhere between very kind and very rude? We've thankfully avoided other encounters with the rude since that last atrocious one, but I'm sure it won't be our last. 

Besides our adventures on public transportation (and there have been many), we've been bouncing around from café to café in hopes of finding our new coffeeshop hangout. Our weekend mostly consisted of discovering new-to-me restaurants and coffee shops and enjoying delicious meals and beautiful places in the process. We spent most of Saturday writing on walls and admiring the Jeff Koons exhibit at the Pompidou museum. We found a nice brasserie [not so] nearby for a very French lunch, followed by a long walk through the Tuileries with a sprinkling of a mini brass band concert and some fountain-side sailboat watching. According to my iPhone, we walked over 9 km (over 5.5 miles) that day, and boy, could I feel it!

We love New York. Really love it. I wish we could live there, but things like preschool and toddler soccer are forever wait-listed and just too dang expensive for us to even seriously consider living there. So, we go when we have a good excuse and let ourselves pretend like we live there for those few precious days. 

Last weekend, Gui's mom and sister were visiting his aunt and uncle who live in the city, so we decided to meet up with them for a few days of their stay. We hadn't seen them in person since January, which feels like a lifetime ago. They Skype with Avienne nearly every weekend, so it wasn't a huge surprise when she saw them in New York and went a little crazy-happy with the hugs and smiles. It's the first time she's really been old enough to get excited about traveling and seeing relatives. 

It was really cold for the first 2 days and rained cats and dogs on our last day, but the weather is part of what I love about New York, and for me, cold and rain just mean more time spent at our favorite restaurants and coffee shops. We stayed in a different area than usual and discovered some new great restaurants and neighborhoods. As creatures of habit, it's hard to get us to move out of our comfort zone, but we managed and succeeded in falling in love even more with our favorite Stateside city.

: : Plenty of walking and exploring . . . 

As I was scrolling through my pictures for this post, I noticed there's a very common theme going on with us lately. It's feeling like summer is wrapping up and we're living like fall is a day away, I guess hoping to coax the seasons into changing.  

We're taking advantage of occasional rain showers to cool things down enough for us to enjoy an evening bike ride. 

I've been putting our oven to work roasting late summer vegetables and baking everything under the sun, including a massive fig tart.  

I've also been regularly working little-by-little to finish up some hibernating knitting projects, but after learning a new craft this past weekend, my needles have been temporarily replaced by a borrowed loom.  I can't tell you how gratifying it is to finish a scarf in under three hours.  If you ever get a chance to take a weaving class, do it! It's incredibly easy, and I doubt you'll ever regret learning how to turn yarn into fabric.  

And finally, Avienne has been learning so many new things lately. Walking is her biggest accomplishment of late, but she's also so close at perfecting her dismount.  It's so cute (and slightly terrifying) to see her spin around from wherever she's sitting to get her feet down first, then smile and clap with pride when they hit the floor. She's becoming a real toddler, and it's so bittersweet.

The weekend after Avienne's first birthday, we celebrated with a party at our house with friends and family. Our place is pretty small, so I was a little worried about how everyone would fit and if anyone would be uncomfortable celebrating in our cramped quarters. It was definitely cozy, but we managed to fit in and enjoy the company of friends and family all at once.

I started planning Avienne's birthday about a month in advance. I'm not really good at picking themes, so we thought it would be nice to have folks over for our favorite mealtime - brunch. I dusted off all of my crafting supplies and rediscovered my creative side when I set to work on the party invitations. I had so much fun making them, I even started daydreaming about having a greeting card business. (Maybe someday!)  We invited a handful of friends over who have babies, too, so we figured having a party at 11:00 versus later in the afternoon would suit their weekend schedules better.  In the end, I think it worked out pretty well for everyone.

I mixed up some fruit, bought a few Mexican pastries, croissants and beverages, but the breakfast tacos that my amazing mom whipped up earlier in the day were hands-down the highlight of our brunch spread.  You really can't beat homemade breakfast tacos in the morning.  After a grueling week of cake taste-testing, I settled on a vanilla and strawberry cake from Capital City Bakery.  It was pretty delicious, but next time, I'll order a much smaller one - we have so much cake stuffed into our freezer right now! Avienne had her own smash cake, too, but she hardly smashed any of it.  I think she may have had her fill of cake a few days before when she had her first cupcake.

It was a fun time, and I'm glad so many of our closest friends and family were able to spend some time celebrating for Avienne's first birthday.  Next year, though, I'm designating someone else photographer! These were the only decent pictures I was able to snap during the party.