A French mom in LA... the sweet life in Southern California.: My Birthday

Wednesday was my birthday!

I would like to share

my special day with you.

I received those beautiful flowers from my parents-in-law.

Aren't they beautiful?

They look so lovely in our home, all decked out for Christmas.

I also received tons of birthday wishes
from my family and friends!

Every birthday and Christmas,

my husband and I give each other a wish list.

There were a few things that I wished for, indeed.

My sweet husband spoilt me again this year and got me all the things I wanted!

When I got up,

some delicious waffles and soft-boiled eggs awaited me,

along with a "Happy Birthday!", a big smile, a kiss and a warm hug from my hubby and son.

My husband had decorated our living-room with balloons,

a birthday banner

and the 3 of us had a little party hat to wear.

All in the theme of Jake and the Neverland Pirates-- our son loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates

and my husband thought it would make it even more exciting for James

to include his "little friend" in maman's birthday.

What a sweet idea!

So we had a little breakfast birthday party!

What are those 2 big presents?

After putting it all together, here is what those presents were.

The big blue present was an exercise bike!

I thought that would be very useful to me.

It is not always easy to go for a walk, hike or run in the morning.

James and I have a few morning activities throughout the week and when we have nowhere to go,

it is really nice to just stay at home, relax over breakfast and spend time together, before daddy goes to work.

With this bike, I can exercise anytime,

in the comfort of our home.

My husband and I already tried it and it works great!

I chose this particular one,

after doing a little bit of research online.

It always came up in the top 10 best rated exercise bikes,

with amazing reviews!

This bike is very affordable.

It is super quiet and has a very comfortable seat.

The computer is simple to use, the LCD display is easy to read and it indicates distance,

calories burnt, time, speed

and has a heart rate monitor.

The pedaling is very smooth.

It is compact and can be easily folded for storage.

It feels strong and stable.

It can be effortlessly moved from one room to the other, thanks to its front wheels.

The tension control knob allows you

to challenge yourself a little.

It even has a tiny compartment to hold my cell phone!

The assembly is straightforward, it took me less than 30 minutes to build it!

I think it looks good and I am really happy with it.

Great value for your money!

You may find it HERE.

The big pink present was an easel!

I have been itching to paint for a very long time.

Seeing James paint at his art class, made me itch even more!

I am not a painter, but I love being creative,

I want to explore my artistic side

and painting is very appealing to me.

I took a painting class last month.

An introduction to acrylic painting,

which I thoroughly enjoyed!

One of my sisters from Paris came along with me,

while on vacation here in Los Angeles

and it certainly was a wonderful experience together.

We both left the class with our own painting

and we learnt so much!

I did not know anything about easels.

I found an interesting website that had a handy overview of artist easels HERE.

I also learnt a lot on the BLICK art store website HERE.

I decided to go for an H-Frame easel.

The Richeson Dulce Easel is made in Lyptus,

the new concept in sustainable, noble hardwood.

Lyptus is produced in Brazil from forest plantations interspersed with native forest reserves

to ensure a balanced ecosystem.

I absolutely love it!

It is beautiful and very affordable.

Some H-frame easel can cost up to $1500!

I would also like to share with you

my very first painting.

I am quite proud of it!

I realize that I made a couple of mistakes,

but I still like it very much.

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." - Albert Einstein

Then I took our son to his art class, like every wednesday morning.

A class that I enjoy just as much as James.

It was a group project this time.

Mummies and little ones had to build a "Winter" fort

out of cardboard boxes.

The children thereafter painted it in white and winter blue

and decorated it with little squares of paper as snow and snowflake cut outs.

Here are a few photos that I took.
❤ Our little Matisse ❤

For dinner, my husband took us to a sushi restaurant.

I love sushi!

Yummy!

That's us!

We were seated next to a pretty Christmas tree.
That's my birthday card!

The staff was super nice!

They all brought us a huge fried green tea ice cream

and very enthusiastically sang the "Happy Birthday" song,

clapping and everything!

That was very sweet!

Later, I got more presents!

A coloring book for grown-ups and some colored pencils!

Here again I got inspired by our son.
Seeing him coloring for hours and having so much fun at it!

It is said that the act of coloring is not only fun, but can also be relaxing and bring about a happy emotional state.

Then my mum told me that she had received a coloring book as a gift from one of my sisters
and that she had started coloring and really enjoyed it.
I checked online to see if those books were available
in the States as well; and they were!

This coloring book may be found at
Barnes & Noble or
on Amazon