Another Fantastic Weekend!

One thing I love about living in Barcelona is that there is always something to do!  We had another great weekend, but first I wanted to post some pictures from a few weekends ago.  These are pictures of what the girls have dubbed "Pigeon Park".  It's actually "Plaza Catalunya" and very beautiful, but you will see from the pictures why the girls gave it that name.

The pigeons would swoop at your head!

Of course Kaylee was running after the birds and screaming at them.  Our area of the plaza was cleared of pigeons pretty quickly.

See?  No more pigeons.  Good girl Kaylee!

On to this weekend:  Friday night we drove into Sitges (the town to the South of our home) because Kaylee said she missed Taco Bell and I knew that they had a mexican restaurant.  We had a great time at Bar Panchito...we were laughing really hard...so hard that Ryan and I were crying and other tables were turning to look at us and they were smiling.  The food was pretty good.  Not spectacular, but good enough.  We then took a stroll through Sitges and just HAD to stop at a gelateria (ice cream shop).   I have some good pictures from that stop.  My favorite is the one of Ryan being goofy.

Vanilla with cookies

Vanilla with cookies

Rocher...so good!

Mr. Bananas had banana split

Saturday we went to Mira Vos for some tapas.  I love that we can sit on the beach and eat lunch outside in late October!  When we were finishing up, a man was walking around selling roses.  Ryan bought the girls each one and the rose guy gave me one for free ;o)  Here are some pictures from our lunch:

Such a silly guy <3

I love this one with the shades!

Kaylee wanted a close up of her rose.

Later that evening, Kaylee wanted to walk out to the 'light house'.  It's nothing like the light houses in the US, but it is a light on a small pillar.  Buy anyway, there was a full moon and the light from the moon shining on the water was just breathtaking!  Ryan tried taking pictures of it with his phone, but they didn't turn out too well.  I'm sharing them anyway, but we've talked about walking out there for the next full moon with a good camera!

Also, this is in our garden in our side yard.  I just wanted to show that it is October 24th and we still have hibiscus blooming!

Falling for Fall

Sorry.  No pictures from this past weekend.  But I will give an update (I guess that's better than nothing).  First of all, the girls had a short (very short!) week of school.  They had Monday and Tuesday off last week for Hispanidad.  Hispanidad is a celebration of Hispanic Heritage.  All of the Hispanic countries celebrate this holiday (as far as I know).  But, as the title says, it is definitely fall here.  The girls allergies are proof positive.  Wednesday morning, their first day back to school after the long weekend, Kaylee woke up with white lips and a terrible tummy ache.  She actually spent some time in front of the toilet...unproductive though, thank goodness!  So, I got the added bonus of having the girls home an extra day!  I wasn't going to send them to school just in case it was a stomach bug and not upset tummies from drainage.  The girls were back to 100% after lunch time and were both back at school the next day. 

On to the weekend...There was a conference this past week for Brightpoint and a lot of 'out-of-towners' were in Barcelona.  There was a final dinner Friday night that Ryan asked me to tag a long with him.  After the dinner we stopped at a club called "Salsafels" and did some dancing :o)  There were some really good dancers there!  Ryan even mentioned something about trying to find some Salsa lessons, ha!  But it was fun. 

Saturday, we went to Cornella (where Ryan's office is) and stopped at El Corte Ingles because the girls needed some long pants.  Kaylee didn't have any long pants for school and Alexis needed some long pants for PE.  Since we were in the area, we ate at our favorite Japanese restaurant:  Wasabi.  This time, we opted to sit at the 'buffet' (which was the conveyor belt).  Kaylee wanted to grab everything off of the belt!  But it was fun to watch the different dishes go by and pick which ones we wanted.  It wasn't all sushi either.  There was some Dim Sum, dumplings, pork, chicken, salad, soup, lots of cooked seafood, croquettes, yakitori, noodles...the list goes on and on.  It was difficult not to eat too much :oP.  After lunch we did our shopping and tried a new grocery store.  This one was much more to my liking!  It felt much closer to a Target than a Wal-Mart to me.  I didn't feel all stressed out when we left either.  Too bad it's not closer to home!

Sunday we went to church and came home for some Pollo Asada and Spanish Rice. Yum!  We enjoyed the sunshine up on our terrace and went for a 2 mile walk on the beach.  Then we came home and had a family work out!  After walking two miles, the girls put on their work out clothes and did some lunges, pull ups and sit ups.  Then we got really crazy and went for a family run!  We have an 800 meter loop and the girls ran it with us TWICE!  We did take a nice long break between loops, but the girls both ran a mile.  I was talking to them as we were walking to school this morning and they both said they want to run again tonight! 

So that's what we've been up to recently.  We're having fun...missing everyone, but having fun just the same.

Rainy Day in the Big City

It was a pretty rainy day this morning when we left for church. We had a wonderful "Harvest" service where we all brought in some nonperishables for the homeless of Barcelona. We hadn't planned anything for the day, but since it was raining and the girls had a few extra days off this weekend, I suggested we head to the aquarium. It took a little convincing, but eventually everyone was game! We had to sit through some terrible traffic. But at least there was some nice scenery along the way:

I just love the old buildings here

A statue we passed on our way to the aquarium (and a tourist bus)

Once we finally arrived at our destination (it was only an hour and a half trip from church-which should have only been about 20-25 minutes) we were STARVING! We had a hard time deciding where to eat and we ended up at a tapas restaurant near the aquarium. It was called "la terraza Sweet Tradicion". We ordered Patatas Bravas, Nachos, Croquettes, Calamari, and Chicken Nuggets (It was all delicious). The girls each also ordered a very rich hot chocolate! Here are some pictures of us at the restaurant:

Just before we were finished, I noticed that they had musical instruments all along the bar!

After lunch we waited in line to go into the Aquarium.  From what I've read, this is supposed to be the best aquarium in Europe.  They definitely had lots of fish and the girls really had a great time!  Here are some picture highlights from our visit:



Kaylee sharing a kiss with a fish



A couple of Tiger Sharks

This tank was full of these guys.  They weren't very big though.

I though these jellyfish looked like fried eggs!

After touring the inside of the aquarium, we stepped out on the terrace to see what the outdoor scenery was like.  And how fitting...in the picture below is the monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus:




They also have a cable car that runs above the city.  The girls have both said they'd like to ride in it at some point in time:




Also out on the terrace was a seahorse that the kids could climb on:




The girls also enjoyed climbing through the shark jaw at the entrance as we were leaving:




I'd say this picture is evidence that the girls had a good time:


I love our spontaneity!  However, I think I may need to keep an extra pair of shoes in the car because I was wearing heels all day.  My dogs were definitely barking at the end of the day.  But it was definitely worth it!  Plus, it would be nice to take pictures with something other than my cell phone, but at least I had that :O)

Open House at the BSB

Today was the primary school's open house. Once I collected the girls from their teachers, we went in the entrance to the primary building:


On the second floor, was Kaylee's classroom-Year 2A with Mrs. Brooks and Mr. Gross. Kaylee had a fun time showing us around her classroom. This is where she puts her bag and lunch tote in the morning:



Here is her first piece of artwork-a self portrait. One of her classmates had to write a note about Kaylee and that is to the left. If you can't read it, it says, "Kaylee is my friend. She is very pretty."

This school does something similar to Harry Potter. The entire school is divided into different houses named after types of trees. Alexis is in house "Chestnut" and Kaylee is in house "Pine." Throughout the week the students can earn points for their houses and there is an assembly at the end of the week to announce that week's winning house. Also at the assembly, a select few kids get a "leaf" stating some accomplishment for the week. It's really quite nice...I love this system of teamwork and praise. Both Alexis and Kaylee got "leaves" this past week. Here is Kaylee's - "Kaylee - for being very brave in your new class."

Next we moved up to the 3rd floor to Alexis's class room - Year 5B with Ms. Cosgrove. I think Alexis could have spent 2 hours showing us all the things she does and enjoys about her classroom! It is a very organized room...you know I like that! But here is her peg to hang her bag and lunch tote:

(Did you notice all the Greek books on the shelf...yes she is loving her History lessons!)

I was just so proud of this! Below is her timed multiplication test. This was the time that Ms. Cosgrove announced to the class that only Alexis scored 100 out of 100! You can also barely make out the time of 6 minutes and 6 seconds too.

We also stopped to look at Alexis's pretty artwork...a still-life, or 'observational art.' It's very pretty!

And here is Alexis's leaf. It reads, "Alexis - A leaf for working very hard and having a positive attitude to her new class and new school. Well done."

One of the other moms in her classroom came up to me and introduced herself and said that her daughter just adores Alexis...and that everyone in the class does! What a wonderful thing to hear from another parent!

Thank you all for praying for Kaylee and her adjustment to school this year. As you can see below she's definitely hanging in there!

Something....

I felt like I should give a little update since I don't talk to a lot of readers everyday.  Pretty much Mom is the only person I talk to everyday...and Dad a little bit before he's off to work.  Which talking to them every morning is really, really nice.  I think it's keeping me grounded.  Sorry, I digress....

School is going much better for the girls.  Alexis is beginning to feel challenged again with her school work in all subjects with the exception of spelling.  But, she fortunately has inherited my ability to spell (I thought about misspelling a bunch of words in that sentence) and spelling is an easy subject for her no matter what school system she's in.  I think it has a lot to do with her reading ability as well.  But, they are working on the same multiplication tables that she worked on last year.  That was a weak spot for her and I think that doing them again and building her confidence is going to do wonders for her.  It was difficult for me to see the difference in her attitude last year when she was in the MAP class.  She was so down on herself and her self esteem was just so low.  I didn't like seeing her feel that way about herself.  Mostly because I think she is the most wonderful person in the world!  She truly is and anyone who knows her thinks highly of her.  But I can see her gaining her self confidence back.  She is most likely the smartest person in her class.  But at the same time she is learning new things and gaining a wealth of social and cultural knowledge.  That girl has a keen sense of right and wrong.  I wish I could have had her as a friend growing up....what a great influence she would have been!

On to Kaylee...it's no secret that the transition has been difficult for her.  Leaving Nursery School in our home church with teachers who were more like family....only going to school three days a week for two hours at a time and switching to a strange environment where most of the kids speak a foreign language and being at school for 7 hours a day 5 days a week....I would have a hard time adjusting!  Lunch time seemed to be the most difficult for her.  She was always worried that she would be the last one done eating.  So to solve the lunch time tears, I began packing fun lunches for her.  Kaylee eats like a bird most of the time anyway, and the kids have two snack times during the day as well, so I felt comfortable just packing a cereal bar that she loved and some crackers or breadsticks and a piece of chocolate.  It broke the cycle of her crying and this past week, I've been able to pack some more nutritious items in her lunch.  I had also promised Kaylee that if she went an entire week without crying at school that we would take her to Planet Bowling.  This past week she did it!  She went the whole week without crying at all at school and we just rewarded her tonight with her bowling party.  We invited some friends to join us and we had a great time.  We also got the girls some patatas bravas to munch on (that's french fries with ketchup and mayo...sometimes they'll have a spicy ketchup too).  The girls had a great time...and we adults did too!

So, in a nutshell, that's what we've been up to.  There were some other things going on too like a flat tire and visits to the chiropractor, but that's just boring stuff...