October Break

As the kids are in a new school system, one that falls more into the British style, we have had to adjust to a new schedule - not just on a daily basis, but also as far as their school breaks.  A few weeks ago, the kids had their first school break.  Coming from a system that started in September with some long weekends thrown in regularly but no long break until December, it felt weird to have a week long break in mid October.  But given the kids started school in mid August, it was, in fact, time for a much needed week off.

I had originally thought I would take the kids away somewhere, Stockholm to visit friends or perhaps Venice since they had never been.  I thought maybe Rome.  I even thought of taking them back to Barcelona since their friends wouldn't be on break and they'd get to have a nice visit with them.  But poor planning on my end, expensive flights and swim classes and doctor's appointments meant that I couldn't pull it together.  Since we'd only been here just 2 months, it was not a bad thing to have to stick around.  We don't need to travel at every break.  It was one thing when we thought we were only going to be in Europe for 2 years, but now almost 5 years later, the urgency has diminished.

Since Josh was off the week before due to his surgery, I was on my own for planning the fall break. We overall took things easy.  Since nothing here opens on Mondays til around 1, we just laid low. Liam had a friend over and then we went to Almere to look at skateboard wheels for Aidan's skateboard.

Tuesday I had told the kids we would go into Amsterdam for the day.  Since Josh's injury meant that on weekends we couldn't do much walking, we hadn't actually been in to the city since before we moved here.  We have been to Amsterdam a few times over the years, but this would be our first time exploring it as "our" city.  We had no grand plan beyond getting breakfast at Sara's pancake house (our favorite) and perhaps a visit to Tun Fun.  We took the train in with Josh which was good - I knew we could do it on our own, but it felt good to know that Josh was an expert, so to speak, on getting us to Amsterdam Centraal.

Waiting for our train at Weesp

We went to Josh's office and I probably could have just left the kids there for the day as they had a "new" video game in the break room with something like 300 old school video games.  Alas Josh wasn't up for me leaving them ;)

Playing some kind of ninja game

We had our traditional breakfast at Sara's Pancakes - yum!!  And Aidan asked if we could go to the Apple store to look at new itouches.  Given he just got a new ipad this summer I really don't think we need to upgrade his itouch but I was willing to humor him.  And no, we did not upgrade it but left there empty handed.  

Blueberry and ice cream pancakes before 10AM... yeah that gets a thumbs up.

Yay Apple Store!!

However, it was a bonus that leaving the Apple store we happened across the American / British store. Yay!!  Happy day!!  The kids and I went (slightly) crazy at all the American "goodness".  Ok, none of it had any healthy redeeming value to it, but it was a piece of home and made us all happy.

So happy leaving the American store (100 euros poorer)

Of course, I didn't think of the fact that I would have to carry all this crap on my shoulder for the next several hours, but their smiles made it worth it and Aidan helped me out too.  Next time we should bring the granny cart so we can at least pull it along!  

In the end we did make it to Tun Fun.  There was a lot of whining on the 20 minute walk but I attribute that to rain and the ugly hungries.  They had a blast for a good hour in Tun Fun and then we headed back towards Josh's office before heading back home to Naarden.  Along the way we found an English comic book store which had to be explored (thank you Big Bang Theory for that new habit my kids now have).  It turns out there is also an English bookstore that I just found out about but I guess that will have to wait until our next trip into the city.

Wednesday Aidan had swimming but both kids had friends over.  It was a lovely, easy day and the kids were just great.  Made for a great day.  Thursday Aidan had an eye appointment but another mom had told me about the Lego World exposition being held in Utrecht, a city about 30 minutes south of us. Knowing the boys obsession with all things Lego, I knew we had to make this work.

So since we had to be in Hilversum for an eye appointment at 3:45, I took the kids to Utrecht for the opening at 10, knowing that Aidan's friends wouldn't be meeting us until closer to 12.  But since we had to leave by 2:30ish I wanted them to get to explore as much as they could.  And it was super cool! The complaint that Aidan had about Legoland was that there wasn't enough opportunity to just build. Here they had a place to build in every exhibit.  And yet neither of my kids really wanted to do it.  But they loved exploring all around the expo which was huge!!

Free lego guys!

Lego Star Wars - so cool!

Lightsaber battle!

This was a real guy not a statue

Same here

Caring big brother helping Liam

Bacon pancake

Old school legos - Aidan was shocked at what we used to play with ;)  No Star Wars legos for us!

Chima game - trying to find the chi

Aidan's friends from school met up with us and then the building commenced

Lego angels?

We made it to Aidan's eye appointment in the nick of time - still has to wear his glasses but at least his eyes haven't gotten worse.  It was raining on the way and we saw a rainbow which was cool.  We actually see them pretty regularly - if there is a silver lining to living in a rainy climate, it's rainbows on a regular basis.

The rest of the break was overall low key.  We did more than we had anticipated which was fun but exhausting.  We're looking forward to our Christmas break in just 7 weeks.  It's going to be an epic trip but I'm not ready to share the details quite yet but stay tuned.  In the meantime, we're enjoying fall foliage which we haven't had for the last 5 years and the change of seasons (which of course has made us all sick at one time or another).  

Besos,

Julie

Day 1...Into the Fire (Immersion 101)

As I mentioned in my last post, Josh went to work on day 1.  I could have killed him - angry doesn't even come close on that one.  I felt incredibly alone and abandoned.  There is nothing like being thrown into the fire and start our new lives by myself.  What could I do?  I couldn't stay home.  The kids had to go to school and I had to figure out how to function. And I had to unpack and get back to work.

Josh left at 7:15 - the kids and I didn't need to leave until after 8.  I suppose on a positive note, we get an extra 30 minutes in the morning that we didn't have in Barcelona.  It was raining off and on again like it did when we arrived.  An hour of sun, an hour of rain, an hour of sun, an hour of rain.  It goes on and on like that.  It's sunny one moment and pouring the next.

Aidan woke up and said we need to turn the heat on.  In August.  I can't say that I totally disagree (sadly it has since been turned on... in August I must reiterate).  Barcelona this is not.  Unfortunately I didn't anticipate it to be this cold in August and so hadn't located their cold weather clothes yet and shipped anything I had purchased.  In Barcelona they are normally in shorts until November.  Even in Boston, they would have been in them at least til mid September!

Breakfast in our new kitchen

In front of our house ready to go - notice the raincoats - good investment!

In front of their new school

Aidan's new classroom

Liam in his new class

Regardless, I had to send them to school in shorts.  Driving wasn't a big deal thanks to my GPS. Thankfully Josh had pre programmed pretty much anywhere I would need to go for the foreseeable future into it, including school.  Unfortunately the GPS got the school address wrong (the school was on the right and it told me to turn left - but at least it was the same street, though we were lost for a few minutes trying to figure it out) but thankfully had built in a few extra minutes into our trip to school not knowing what traffic would be like, etc.

I can honestly say that right off the bat, I felt better about getting the kids to school than I did in Barcelona.  I remember clearly the desperate feeling of not knowing how to navigate the public transportation to get Aidan to school his first day in Barcelona (the school had recommended he not take the bus the first few days but for me to bring him and pick him up).  In the end in Barcelona, I took a taxi.  On Monday, I drove and I felt pretty good about it.  We were there in 15 minutes even with getting lost.

Knowing that their school is also a Dutch school, I wasn't sure where we had to enter or where to go. We never received information on what to do upon arrival.  The good news is that it's a small school, only grades pre-k through grade 5 and only one section per grade.  So we couldn't get too lost.  But they had everything under control and very easily corralled all the new students into a lobby area - we must have all had that lost look on our faces.  Liam looked incredibly nervous and I don't blame him - this is his first new school.  Aidan looked in control, typical of him and maybe it's because it's the second time around he feels like he can handle it.  They then brought everyone upstairs to their classrooms where the other students and teachers were waiting.  Parents were allowed to go up with the kids - a challenge for me with 2 kids and only one of me.

There are 14 kids in Aidan's class, a switch from last year where he had around 20.  Liam, on the other hand, who had always been in the small class (last year was 14) was now the opposite, with the largest class in school of 20 kids.  And I thought Benjamin Franklin was small in Barcelona!  So there are 14 kids in grade 5 (year 7 at this school) and 20 kids in grade 2 (year 4).  That's it.  I'm going to say we will get to know everyone really well here.  The school doesn't feel like BFIS did but it's only day 1 so we'll give it time.  Apparently they have a ton of after school activities so that would be different from their old school in a positive way.

I met a very nice couple who had also just moved here as we were getting ready to leave.  Their son is in Liam's class and they have been living abroad for a while as well.  I chatted with them for about 45 minutes.  Lovely people and hopefully a connection made already.  It felt really good to meet people off the bat as I don't feel quite as alone and it's only day 1.

I was feeling pretty good considering the circumstances and the day before knowing that I successfully dropped off the kids to school and met a new family.  So far so good.  Then I got home.  And I couldn't open the front door.  Induce meltdown in 5, 4, 3...

I called Josh freaking out.  He offered to come home.  I told him I didn't want to see him now or any time soon.  I think he realized that he should not have gone to work on our first day.  He admitted as much.  Didn't make me any less angry though.  I spent a good 10 minutes trying to open the front door, practically in tears.  And of course, it was raining out.

Finally, I gave up trying to open the door and went next door hoping perhaps someone would be home that could help me.  I figured maybe there was something different about these Dutch doors as compared to any other door I've ever used?????  The benefit of being in a country where many people speak English is that I suspected that my neighbor would speak it and in fact, he did.  And coincidentally, he had also lived in Spain with his wife for 6 years and had just returned back about a year ago.

He helped me with the door - turns out that something is weird with our lock and you have to pull it towards you as you unlock it and then push it in.  Very strange but now I get it.  It seems that the door automatically locks when you close it too so I need to be conscious of making sure I always have a key when I leave the house.

I chatted with my neighbor for a bit.  Really nice guy and felt like perhaps I made a second connection for the day.  All in all, not bad for day 1.  But by now it's 10:30 and I had to leave at 11:30 to pick up the kids at noon since the first day was a half day.  I accomplished basically nothing on day 1.

I picked up the kids and they had a great first day, a huge relief for me.  I'm not sure what I would have done if they'd had a bad day though.  And don't get me wrong, we've still been having meltdowns about how sad they are that we are no longer in Barcelona - it's all a part of the grieving process for each of us.  And we went through the same thing when we left the US years ago as well.

I'm still not feeling great about everything but much better than I did yesterday.  I feel like we made a lot of progress in just one day and we're already more immersed than we were in Barcelona at this point.  It feels less scary than Barcelona did early on and so I need to take that as a positive.  There are still many things left on our to do list such as BSN numbers (social security), getting signed up for sports, converting my license, etc etc and so I don't think we will really feel settled for several more weeks but we are making progress.

On a random note, I found out that while some stores are open on Sundays here (nothing in Barcelona was open on Sunday other than restaurants), most places don't open til 1PM on Monday, everything closes by 6PM during the week except Thursday where they are open later.  So we'll have some new schedules to get used to here as well on top of everything else!  But on a positive note, I won't have siesta to contend with!!

Besos,
Julie

Where to Live???

So right now our plan is to focus on an area called Almere which is about 20 minutes east of Amsterdam.  It's not 100% sure yet since we haven't seen any properties in person there yet, but this is where we are leaning.  While we have truly enjoyed city living, a first for all 4 of us, the time has come to move back towards the burbs.  Primarily because the kids' school is in this town and as there is no bus system, they will be taken to school by yours truly...hence living in the same town as school.  

When the name of Almere has come up around locals, Josh has said he kind of gets the impression that it's just not all that.  But it's not because it's not a good area.  It's just new.  Like literally didn't exist before the 1970s.  You see, the Dutch are famous for their ability to reclaim land from the sea.  They have been doing it for centuries.  And Almere is a prime example.  It did not exist until they reclaimed it.  And so nothing in the town is more than 40 years old.  

For the Dutch this takes away an important element - history.  Much of the Netherlands is filled with historic, old buildings.  And for something to be only 40 years old with no architectural significance is well... boring.  But for Josh, the kids and I, we're ok with boring.  Sure it would be nice to have a nice old world Dutch home.  But I can guarantee that old world home won't have double paned windows to keep the chill of winter out (not to mention lower utility bills), or a yard for the kids to play in.  We will hopefully have both.  And with that, we're good.  We can always take the train 20 minutes into Amsterdam for our taste of history and beautiful architecture.  

Josh went to visit the school today for the first time.  It went way better than I expected.  I don't know why I didn't expect much because the people at the school have been nothing but lovely.  I truly think it's the name of the school (Letterland) that keeps putting me off.  It's poor marketing but that does not mean it's a poor school.  If anything, Josh said they are very up to date on technology in the classrooms with students having laptops, every classroom having smart boards and much of their homework will be available online.  In addition, the classes are small.  With only 140 kids in the school (pre k-grade 5), there is only one section per grade and often 20 or less kids in a class.  That means a lot of hands on attention with the kids.  It also means that they won't have a lot of choice when it comes to who they want to hang around with but that might not be a bad thing.  

Josh also said that as he took the train along the countryside that it's all very green, beautiful and somehow reminiscent of New Hampshire without the mountains.  So I'm very interested to see what that's like.  Apparently there are bike trails everywhere which will be important since I think we are going to have to ease into this biking thing.  It's not that we don't know how to bike, but kind of like the motos here in Barcelona, the Dutch take their biking very seriously and VERY aggressively.  We need to "train" the kids on how to ride their bikes correctly on a path, bike lane and eventually, in the city. Hell, I think Josh and I need to train ourselves too!!

We're off for our house hunting trip in just a few weeks and while I'm still quite nervous about all that needs to be done in the next 5 weeks, I'm also excited to see what this new home (as in town, not just the house) will look like.  Will it remind us of being home in Boston?  Will we be in more of a neighborhood where the kids can run outside and play?  Or will we find ourselves in an apartment near a park instead?  Will we be able to bike to school each day?  

All I know is that this move is going to be night and day compared to Barcelona.  Not just because we've done this before and have some expectations of how things will proceed from here.  But also because it's going to be such a different culture from Spain and from the US.  We have to learn all about the good, the bad and the ugly of a whole new place.  It's exciting and daunting but I think we are all starting to look forward to the next steps.  Even Aidan has been on board in the last few days mentioning that he's spoken to a few friends at school that are from the Netherlands and they were telling him about some traditional Dutch food.  He's excited to go the International Food Fair tomorrow night at school and check out the Dutch table.  I'm proud of him for taking the bull by the horns and investigate on his own, utilizing the resources he has at his fingertips at school.

So the countdown is on.  There are going to be a ton of posts coming at you in the next weeks and months.  I've got to finish up these Barcelona ones before we leave (and keep getting distracted by these Netherlands ones!)!!

Besos,

Julie

And Our Next Move Will Be To....

First off, let me premise this by saying this has been the LONGEST seven months known to man.  Ok, known to me.  And Josh.  Let's not forget Josh.  He's been traveling back and forth to Amsterdam literally every week since the start of November.  It has been a lot of wear and tear on our family and at times I will admit I had doubts about us coming out of it whole.

But we have.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel and we are sooooo close to it.  Things are finally starting to fall into place.  As I mentioned in one of my last posts, we've been waiting for the last several months for a contract to move forward with a potential move to Amsterdam so that Josh could go from interim CTO to just CTO - permanently.  If for some reason that didn't work, we were slated to go back home to Boston.  But we didn't know which one of these was actually going to happen as there were a lot of logistics to work out.  If I had to give odds, I seriously couldn't.  One moment I would think Amsterdam was going to happen and within the next moment, I would think, nope, it's going to be Boston.  I truly couldn't figure out which way the scales were tipping.

It's been a long 4 months of waiting since they asked Josh to stay on full time.  But about 2 weeks ago we finally received the contract and OMG what relief it was to finally have some direction for our lives. It was right around the time we were feeling pressured by the kids' current school to pay up for the matriculation for the fall.  The timing could not have been better.

And as of this week, Josh signed that contract and so we will be moving to Amsterdam at the end of this school year.  Amsterdam.  Not Boston.  Not home.  And things have been moving at warp speed ever since.  Within hours of Josh's acceptance we were contacted by movers to start the quoting process - and in fact have already met with one mover and have another two to interview this week.  We have started speaking with the people who will help us with the relocation about places we are thinking of living (inside or outside the city) and getting our lives started in our new country.  And we have been speaking with the people who will assist us with our exit from Barcelona, our home of the last 4 1/2 years.

So Amsterdam.  I'm sad, excited and terrified about this idea.  I won't lie, part of me was hoping that we were going home.  I miss home.  I miss our family and friends.  I miss my house and our stuff (that has all been sitting in storage).  I miss the "normalcy" of our lives there.  But at the same time, I'm excited that we are embarking on another adventure.  And what an amazing opportunity for Josh!

This is going to be completely different than when we left for Barcelona.  We are older.  We are wiser. And we have different expectations than we did the first time around about our adjustment since this is our second time around.  In a way this is a good thing - we know how hard it was the first time, so we'll be prepared.  And at the same time, it's almost scarier because I do know the challenges that are ahead and know that there are plenty of obstacles and challenges to face and a completely different culture than that in Spain to adjust to.

The kids are surprisingly on board with everything.  Liam lives in the moment and I don't think he fully gets how soon this is happening.  He's not thrilled with the idea of leaving but nor do I think he gets that it's in a matter of weeks, not months or years.  Aidan initially told us "You are ruining my life!  I grew up here!  I love it here!  And I want to live here for the rest of my life!".  Then I showed him a real estate website and that it looks like we could have a house with a yard instead of an apartment if we choose to live near school.  Yeah, we all have our price.  That was Aidan's.

But that doesn't mean that the adjustment is over for either of them.  I know that we have a long road ahead for ourselves and the kids.  More so me and the kids.  Josh is like a chameleon and has this crazy ability to just adjust no matter where we go.  It does not phase him.  I wish I could be more like him.  I, myself, have moments where I'm super excited.  Then that evolves into overwhelmed.  Then into moments of I don't want to go, what are we thinking??  And then right back to excited.  So I'd be stupid to think that the kids are going to just accept it and move on.  Sure, kids are flexible, but we've done this once and we've paid the price.  And I know it's just not that easy.  It took Aidan THREE YEARS to decide he liked Barcelona (and need I tell you to go back to his statement above to see where he is now?).  He's older and more mature now and totally gets it.  But the moment he leaves his friends, yet again, is the moment that the shit is going to hit the fan.  And it's not going to be pretty.  I'm sure our trip to the States this summer and knowing we aren't going back, is not going to help things with him.

We have a school lined up for the kids.  It's not our top choice school (they are on a huge wait list for it) but I think it's going to work out just fine.  The issue with most of the schools in the Netherlands, as I see it, is this whole half day Wednesday thing.  Yeah, not only is their school day 45 minutes shorter than it is in Barcelona (but more on par with the US than we are here), they get out at noon every Wednesday.  I'm hoping that Wednesday is considered an activity day or something, kind of like in France.  I guess we'll learn more about that as it gets closer. And because we booked our flights months ago, we didn't realize that school would start earlier - as in August 18!  I booked our flights to return to Europe (figuring better to buy round trip just in case) to arrive on August 20th!  So we had to change that this week too, because no joke, we otherwise had to deal with the truant officer.  Yeah, they take school pretty seriously there.  But now the kids will be there on the first day (we arrive the day before) - they will be exhausted but they will be there!

So like I said, we have a school lined up.  And we're getting bids from movers.  And starting to talk with the relocation people.  So things are starting to happen.  There is still so much more to do on the backend like cancelling gym memberships, utilities (but timing them just right), bank accounts, home repairs, home inspections (very rigid here and our landlord currently has 4 months of rent in a security deposit), figuring out our plan with the car and/or turning it in early, getting medical records and so much more.

And that's all before we leave for vacation and then home.  We will be on a cruise for 2 weeks and then heading straight home for Boston (just the kids and I on the Boston portion as Josh will come back here to finish up any last bits of details in BCN and then head for Amsterdam) for 5 1/2 weeks.  During that time I will need to clean out our storage unit, determine what is getting sold and what is coming with us to the Netherlands.  I will need to do the same with our house while also managing any repairs that need my supervision.  The kids will be in overnight camp for 3 weeks which will help alleviate the stress of getting things done while trying to balance their schedules.

We are hoping to do a house hunting trip during the second week of June (which is only 4 weeks away) so that Josh can move in mid July or August 1.  We have bank accounts to set up, social security numbers to get, a car to buy/lease (depending on the outcome with our lease here) and of course, a house to move into and unpack (let's be realistic, Josh is only unpacking the essentials until I get back at the end of August).

So while are lives are (finally) moving forward, they are going to be rather chaotic for the next several months.  But the light is at the end of the tunnel and we have so much to look forward to.  We still have more visitors coming to Barcelona.  We have a trip to England the first weekend of June.  Our house hunting trip the second week of June.  Our cruise of the Baltics (including St. Petersburg, Russia) the first two weeks of July and of course, our trip home.  And then we will be focused on starting our new lives in the Netherlands - learning a new language, adjusting to a new culture, meeting new people and hopefully making some new friends.

And I have to say once again how proud I am of Josh!  He has worked incredibly hard to get to where he is today.  He is a brilliant man an I'm so happy he has the opportunity to take on this new and challenging role where I have no doubt he will thrive!

When we started this journey 5 years ago, never could I have foreseen where we are today.  What was originally supposed to be a 2 year ex-pat assignment has turned into a life changing experience that we will never forget.  We are thankful for all the love and support we've had along the way - we couldn't have done it without you!  And with that, I'm going to need a new name for my blog - so anyone who has recommendations, I'll take them!

Besos,
Julie

Sant Jordi 2014

While every holiday here is incredibly fun and full of life, there is no holiday in Barcelona that compares to Sant Jordi.  It is by and far my absolute favorite.  For those that might not remember, Sant Jordi is Barcelona's answer to Valentine's Day only bigger and better.

Instead of the traditional Hallmark card, roses and chocolate, it's a bit of a twist here.  Combined with International Book Day, the tradition is that men give women a rose and women give men a book. This can be a friend, a family member or someone you love - it does not matter.  It is all inclusive.

The legend of Sant Jordi is about Saint George (Jordi here in Catalunya) rescuing the princess from the dragon.  So much of what you see during the day is images of Sant Jordi and the Dragon.  When Sant Jordi stabbed the dragon.  In the spot where the dragon's blood spilled, a rose bush grew.  And Sant Jordi plucked a rose to give to the princess.  As you walk down most every street you are confronted with table after table of either roses or books. And as you near the center of the city, these tables become larger and larger and become tents filled with people, authors and books.  Roses everywhere but not just real roses but roses created by artists - jewelry, puppets and more.  You can tell they've had to get creative over the years in order to differentiate from the competition.

My friend Jodi is in town and her timing could not have been better because I have spent the last few months holed up in our apartment during the day.  With beautiful weather on Sant Jordi, it was a perfect day to walk around town to see what was going on.  We walked from my apartment in Gracia down to Placa Catalunya - normally about a 45 minute walk but much longer when you take time to smell the roses (ok that was a really bad pun).  We took our time walking around and checking out all the sights along the way.  Not to mention there were huge crowds of people once we got to Passeig de Gracia - it was hard to walk at much more than a snail's pace at times.  I'm pretty sure all of Spain was in the general Placa Catalunya area which could explain a bit about the economy here since these people were obviously not working!

Sant Jordi cupcakes...unfortunately they did not taste even close to how good they looked.  But they were pretty at least!

Flowers and Catalan flags

Placa de Vila de Gracia - there were book sellers surrounding the clock tower

Take your picture as Sant Jordi and the Dragon

The puppet I bought Liam - the dragon goes in and out of the rose with a stick (the stem of the flower)

Catalunya (Independence flags) flag cookies with roses

A lot of booths we saw had propaganda about freeing Catalunya from Spain...in addition to selling roses and books. This tee shirt says "Make no mistake.  I'm Catalan and so I'm not Spanish"

Catalan independence and standard flag bracelets made from rainbow looms - I told Aidan he's missing a whole market here!

Finally a booth with books in English...too bad they are all tourist books!

Even El Corte Ingles was sporting it's Catalan flag during the celebrations

After we made our way thru Placa Catalunya, I had to make my way up to school for the kids' annual Sant Jordi festival.  Again, this is my favorite of all the performances they put on each year.  It is traditional, it is adorable and it brings a tear to my eye every year as I think of how lucky we have been to have the opportunity for our kids to go to such a wonderful school that does these kinds of things.

And while the Sant Jordi festival is LONG at the boys' school (it was 2 1/2 hours and there is no seating for the parents so you are standing the whole time), it is worth it and so much fun!

Liam loves any reason to celebrate!

Heads of school and the Spanish/Catalan teachers starting the festivities!

Liam's class coming out to do their performance

Liam is the first child on the left in the blue shorts

http://youtu.be/cGr5thCILPQ

Liam's 1st grade class performance

And here comes Aidan's class!

Aidan is at 12 o'clock in the plaid shorts

Now at 5 o'clock...

http://youtu.be/6EgDnXMUJeo

Aidan's 4th grade class performance

There was even a casteller performance from some of the middle schoolers!  This is no easy feat!

No festival is complete without a gegante (giant)!  In our case, it's Benjamin Franklin (the boys' school is the Benjamin Franklin International School)!

As always, the most fun performance and definitely not traditional is that done by the 11th graders. Each year, they do their own interpretation of the legend of Sant Jordi...with a modern twist.  It's a lot of fun to watch and while it would be tempting to grab the kids and go after their performances are done, we'd hate to miss out on this!

http://youtu.be/F3dFXVYEObE

11th grade dance - to the tune of Cotton Eyed Joe

That was it.  It was a fun day had by all and with love in the air, I should also note, that on a rare day that we walked home, Aidan decided to tell me that he has a girl that he likes in his class.  He wanted to know how he could tell her he likes her and if she would be his girlfriend.  OMG where does the time go?  How can my baby be at a stage where he likes girls?  We had an awesome and mature conversation the whole way home from school.  And while I'm sad that mom isn't the love of his life any more, I love this young man he is becoming.  What better day to talk about all different kinds of love than Sant Jordi??

Liam with his rose/dragon puppet that I gave him - it was a HUGE hit!

My baby isn't a baby any more!

Besos,

Julie