Take me to the Retiro

If you're following me over on IG you'll know we have just come back from a short week in Madrid. The weather was sooo good, it was unbelievable! It was like summer in the UK. Perfect to boost the morale and recharge the batteries before exam season starts in school :(

We spent a fair bit of time in the gorgeous and iconic Retiro Park, like good tourists. To be fair we have visited Madrid a handful of times and by now we have seen most of the attractions, and with this kind of sun and warmth, the park was just the ticket. We met up with friends and their family and enjoyed a picnic under the trees by the Palacio de Cristal before heading to the peacocks area, and hey, we scored! A couple of them displayed their "wheel" for us, aren't they just pretty things to look at?
Of course with kids in tow we stopped at many of the play areas, and for ever the Retiro will stay in our memories as the place where our daughter finally learnt to do her own swinging - our big girl!
Later in the week we decided to go back and hire a family-size bike, which I completely recommend as it was great fun to go around and try to use up a few of the extra calories we picked up at the tapas place the night before.

my sun, my stars

Balloons, giant number four balloon, a pig cake, a tractor ride. Nothing was spared for the birthday party down at the farm on Saturday. We were blessed with a fantastic sunny weather for the whole weekend, which really made our celebrations all the more special.
It was the first time we organised a "party" for our daughter, so we decided to book it with one of the local farms we visited before. For a four year-old active animal lover, it was just the right choice.
I thought the highlight would be the private animal handling session, but it turned out the tractor ride  won it.
We had planned to bake a cake for the evening after the party, but the gorgeous pig cake we ordered for the party was so big we had loads left, so the homebaking will have to wait till next weekend when we have more guests coming to celebrate this special occasion.

We were lucky and grateful that the party turned out so well. Here are a few tips I picked up along the process:

* book your event WELL in advance - I mean at least 6 weeks. The farm party I booked was actually way more popular than I thought, and on the day I wanted there was only one opening left! 

*party bags - this was a gandma job, saving me time and hassle to look for all the bits and bobs. She got the plain bags (Hobbycraft I think), stickers and sweets. I am not one for too many plastic useless toys in party bags, so I was in charge of finding something not-too-useless. In the end I settle for a set of Frozen hairpins for the girls and one of those funny compressed face towels for boys, both from Wilko

*our gorgeous Pig Cake is from Marks and Spencer, they take an online order and then you just collect a day or so before the party, it was perfect

* the few decorations I got are from our local Tesco supermarket (the big 4 is not). I had literally zero time to do anything, so those paper balls were a blessing, and they are super easy to put up

* Finally, the ultimate alpha mum trick - I used my original guest list to write down who each present was from so that we can thank everyone individually. Simple but useful ;)

3 things to smile about #6

I am not one to linger too long here about my personal life, but let's just say that February was like the worst.month.ever. But hey, everything being relative, I have decided to focus on the positive, smile again, and try not to be too much of a miserable cow. 'Cos goodness knows only bad things happen to miserable cows. I'm all about the karma, baby!
So here are some of the things I have been smiling about these last few days.

A rustic bunch of flowers waiting for us on the table we booked at Cedar Farm in Lancashire. Early March seemed like the right time to put February behind us (you don't say, hey!) so we headed North and reconnected with our roots a bit. I just loved that bouquet and the contrast it made with the bluey-grey wall behind: simple, effective. I would have never put red tulips with cherry blossoms, but wow, don't you think?

Putting old bits of fabric together. Always good therapy, and what better to do put together a mother-daughter collaboration? Half-way through the preparations I realised I wouldn't have enough of the red spotted fabric and had to change, but it was still a nice little DIY thing to do.

don't mind me while I take a quick photo with bed hair, no proper background, and let's not even go down the lighting route :(

Last but not least, this absolute beauty from Zara. A cheap-as-chips, sure to cheer you up kinda bag, aka the perfect little picnic basket bag. It will be perfect for spring, summer, and may even end up with mushrooms in it come Autumn! I simply loved it as soon as I saw it on a parisian website a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I didn't order it straight away, and it got sold out online pretty quickly. Luckily for me, the Oxford Street branch had ONE left. Yay me!

An Epic Treat

Well hello long lost readers. It's nice to be back with a post full of memories from an epic birthday treat to Paris last month. Honestly, things have been slow and a bit unexpected lately, hence my absence here, but it's good to finally be able to take a few minutes and tell you about my special birthday. And before you get carried away, no, I haven't had a BIG birthday this year, but we did indulge a little bit more than usual.
So my lovely husband decided we should mark the occasion, break the horrible January weather and downy mood and have a mini break in Paris...yeah! Who am I to refuse this perfect invitation? So we set off early on Saturday, arrived in time for a Parisian lunch, and then went shopping for a bit. Well, I did most of the shopping and my dear half mostly tried to keep our three-year-old entertained in the meantime.
We booked in at the Regina hotel, right in the heart of Paris, just opposite the Louvres and a stone's throw away from Place Vendome. This location is perfect. Not only do you stay in one of the grandest neighbourhoods, but you're also completely central with access to everywhere super quickly (my shopping goals took me rue Vieille du Temple in the Marais, the BHV, and then to Boulevard Haussman for the bigger shops). The staff couldn't have been nicer either, which really helps when you have a toddler in tow.
We booked a Junior suite, and there was lots of space there, with a decent bed for us and a whole sofa-bed for our daughter (which magically appeared ready when we came back from the shopping). All in all, a fantastic place to stay in - and the art deco is just to die for. I wish we could stay there every time we visit Paris, it's a classic, classy hotel. We had a lovely stay there, and also a fantastic meal just across the river from it in Pierre Gagnaire's Gaia restaurant, an intimate and cosy place with fish and seafood on the menu. Everything was spot on, especially the dessert, which I summarised as a Mozart Kugeln turned into a cake - heaven for me, I could not have dreamt up a better dessert for my birthday.

On to Sunday then, and as you can see we didn't even try to make any efforts to curb our food intake, but hey, it's only one's birthday once a year. We decided to have breakfast at Angelina, as we hadn't been there for years. The cakes...OMG! In retrospect I think we should have waited until a bit later and had their brunch, it looked fabulous. Not complaining, though, breakfast was scrumptious. We spent the rest of our day in the Tuileries (well, until our fingers froze, the weather was wretched) and then headed to Orsay so I could see one of my all-time favourite paintings by Caillebotte - do you like it? Someone annoying said to me "oh but this painting is full of errors, the arms are all disproportionate etc" but I don't care (and had never noticed it), I find it really human and pretty. This time I even brought a small poster of it, I need to frame it now and find it a decent place on the wall somewhere.
Well, friends, as you can see, I have turned another year again, and this time we did it in style didn't we? Paris was an absolute treat. We are so lucky to be so close to it. I feel blessed and very lucky indeed.
Here's to another year hey?