Paris in Spring - Gehry, Stadiums & Le Corbusier

I started my birthday off with sore calves and a Starbucks coffee for "Trysh" and then headed towards Jardin d'Acclimation to see one of Frank Gehry's latest projects, Fondation Louis Vuitton.  I didn't go inside but I probably should have.  The line was really long and I hadn't gotten my Paris Museum Pass yet so I was picking and choosing which places I wanted to pay extra for.  If you go to Paris, you definitely want to get a museum pass.  I only got a 2 day but probably should have gotten 4 or 6 so I would have been a little freer to go in any of the museums.  The pass saves you money by not having to pay for each one individually and you also get to bypass the long lines (that is worth it in itself!).  

 I love how this building appears to be sitting directly in the water.

 After Gehry's building, I was on a mission to see some Le Corbusier.  Rather than walking the streets I walked the length of Bois de Boulgne so I could enjoy gardens, Lac Inferieur and Lac Superieur.

 At the southern end of Bois de Boulogne lies Hippodrome d'Auteuil which is still an active horse racing venue.

 As I continued my walk I stumbled through Jardin des Poetes which included several sculptures and placards of famous French poets.  This bust of Victor Hugo by Rodin (known for "the Thinker") was one of the garden's centerpieces.

  Just a little rugby stadium.  The recently renovated Stade Jean-Bouin.

Stade Jean-Bouin sits adjacent to Parc des Princes which is the home of the Paris Saint-Germain soccer football team.

Just past the stadiums is Boulogne-Billancourt which is one of the most populous and wealthy suburbs of Paris.

 You can't tell in this picture but the green is small tiles.

 Le Corbusier's Molitor building which houses his studio apartment on the 7th floor.  His apartment is open for viewing but only on Mondays and that wasn't really working with my schedule so I had to settle for the outside.

 I wasn't really sure what this building was and I was a bit confused by the name since I knew that Le Corbusier's building was also called Molitor.  I just did some research and found some really cool info.  Watch the video under "legacy."

 Since I had walked as far south as I could before crossing the Seine, I headed back north towards Maison La Roche which houses Fondation Le Corbusier.  

  My walk the rest of the way back to the hotel was mostly residential.

After another long day of walking, a delicious dinner of mussels and creme brulee hit the spot for the birthday girl!  33 is looking pretty good so far!

Celebrate: Dakota Turns 7! And Starts 2nd Grade!

As usual, Dakota's birthday and the start of school coincided - which is crazy to me because my nephew just started yesterday and we are already in week 5.  Hard to believe.  Dakota was really excited about school starting, in fact, she actually missed it all summer.  She absolutely loves school and I am thankful for her eagerness to learn.  She was a little nervous on the first day because she has a man teacher this year and I guess that seemed a little unorthodox to her.  When I picked her up she said, "He is so sweet!" and has really enjoyed him so far.  She also got accepted into the gifted program and will have a few days a week where she participates in an alternate class that will hopefully challenge her a little more.

 I'm pretty sure I was half this height in 2nd grade.

 First year with short hair - she got gum stuck in it and thought she could cut it without me knowing.  She cut out a HUGE chunk and I could have easily gotten the gum out if she would have told me.  So this was the fix.  It is definitely easier but I think it makes her look older...sniff.

Look how much she has grown up since last year's first day!

Dakota really is such an amazing girl.  I get frustrated over the normal attitudes that come with raising a little girl but other than those expected annoyances - she is such a big help and blessing to us.  I really am so proud of her and who she is growing to be.  

This year Dakota fell in love with Legos - especially Lego Friends.  She got a few sets for Christmas and has since become fully obsessed.  In fact, she currently says she wants to be a "Lego Maker" when she grows up.  I tried to explain that's kind of what I do only with real buildings but I think she meant she wants to get paid to play with them all day.  She can be entertained for hours with her sets, following every single little direction and if she messes up, she will start over.  All of that Lego love lead to an obvious theme for her bday.  We decide to invite a few of her closest girlfriends for a small, at-home dinner and play time. They ate, built a few Lego sets (although I don't think her friends are into them as much as she is), had their nails painted, watched a Lego Friends cartoon and just did whatever little girls do best, which involved a lot of squealing.  I don't think I'm going to be ready for a slumber party for a while...

 Lego offers lots of free downloads which is awesome so I took one of the printable invites and added all of my own text in Photoshop.  I also printed some of the mazes and coloring pages for the girls to do at the party.

 We've already established that I am not a great cake decorator so I went simple here; although I still about had a catastrophe trying to get the 7 to stand up after it fell off of it's base which was already embedded in the cake.

Little ponytail holder "lollipops" for favors.  The girls also got a small Lego set.

  We quickly constructed something to hold forks but the rest of the island was covered with her big Lego Friend sets as decorations.  Her smaller sets we put on the table for the girls to build.

The girls took over the dining room table and it was so cute.  Dakota requested:  chicken nuggets, macaroni & cheese, strawberries, blueberries, green beans and rolls.

I love these two girls.

Celebrate: Sage Turns 1!

The little girl that has been filling our last 15 months with extra smiles turned 1 on April 18.  I know this is a little late but I can't imagine not documenting it.  Her party was simple and we are thankful for those that could celebrate.  In proper Trish fashion, I missed photographing some of the details (food, favors and friends) but enjoy these sweet pictures of the birthday girl!

 Her Invite.  I printed it double sided on white card stock and mailed it like a postcard.

 About as fancy as the decorations got.

 Simple Cupcakes.  Dakota even helped make them.  We also made some creamy lemon pies and had munchy food like skinny pop and some fruit.  I think.  I honestly can't remember.  Ha.

 While the weather was pretty, it was prime pollen season and everything outside was yellow (fit with my color scheme!).  We decided to stay indoors to keep the littles from crawling around in the dust and I just set up a quilt with toys.  The bigger kids headed to the playroom to do their thing.

 Not quite as dramatic as Corban's first birthday cake but she definitely enjoyed it.

 Poppy was working in London so he and Grammy couldn't make it to the birthday party but thankfully we were able to Facetime with them so they could say hello.