DAY 32: LUCAS’ BIRTHDAY-
While we were in Paris, Lizzy’s Lucas turned 8! When we returned, he had his birthday party. His closest friends (which included my Lucas) were invited to his home for lunch. I took Jaime and Marta home for lunch with me, after which we picked up Paloma and met the party in the park.
There, Lizzy was locked in an intense water balloon battle with her 9-year-old boy Danny. So of course, I offered my services in trying to peg Danny with a water balloon. Sweet succes.
Angela hung up this cool game between two trees. She filled these balloons with rice and other stuff and attached them to the string between the trees. She then blindfolded one boy and gave him a stick. The point was to pop the balloon and spray everyone with the rice. A very strange form of a piñata, but the kids had fun!!
Afterwards, we ate cake and taught the kids how to play Kick the Can (of course). We had so much fun and Lucas had a great birthday.
DAY 36: TOLEDO-
The weekend after Paris, we decided that we wanted to take a day trip outside of Madrid. Alvaro mentioned Toledo, which was only a quick ride on a speed train. Randomly, Lizzy looked at me and said, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun if we did a girl’s day? Let’s bring Anna and Marta.”
The parents of our families were so skeptical about the idea. “They are going to get so tired, you won’t be able to see what you want to see, blah blah blah.” But once we get an idea into our heads, we just need to run with it.
So we left early on Saturday morning with plenty of snacks and water packed with our girls in tow and set off. This was the girls’ first speed train ride, which was really fun to see how excited they were.
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| Girls on the Trolley Ride |
When we got to Toledo, the girls immediately saw a trolley tour ride around the city and they just HAD to go on it. Eager to please and do something unbelievably touristy for once, we bought tickets and went on the tour. Each of the girls got their own headphones, which they plugged into the trolley to listen to the history of Toledo (kids version, of course). It was a fun ride, and the girls thought they were so cool, it was hilarious.
FUN FACT #33: El Greco was born in Toledo, Spain. One of his most famous paintings was one of the view of Toledo which we saw while on the trolley ride with the girls. Although Toledo is much more developed now than it was when El Greco painted it in 1596, it was a cool thing to see.
When we got off, we were back in the main square where a very nice homeless woman was making giant bubbles for the kids for money. So OF COURSE Marta and Anna set off running for these bubbles. I swear, they must have been sticky for days afterwards. But the woman even let the two of them use the bubble maker and make their own bubbles! We gave the woman some money and set out to find the Toledo Cathedral.
FUN FACT #34: Toledo is known as “The City of the Three Cultures” because of its historical co-existence of Muslims, Jews, and Christians.
Of no great historical significance, I will not go into detail of the Toledo Cathedral, other than it looked a lot like many other cathedrals I have seen in that it was unbelievably beautiful. We gave Lizzy’s phone and camera to each of the girls, and they ran around taking pictures of every brick and cross in the building.
When we left the cathedral, we went and found a restaurant to eat lunch. We told the girls they could get anything to eat that they wanted, which definitely gave us even more brownie points. After lunch, we got GIANT ice cream cones and the girls went back to the bubbles lady.
We convinced the girls to walk around a bit with us, and we found hillside with an escalator. And I mean, the longest line of escalators that took us up the back side of Toledo. Obviously, the four of us went alllll the way to the top, and then allll the way to the bottom. Which took us about 15 minutes. YOLO.
A short day, we returned on the speed train back to Madrid. The girls regaled their families with tales of the day, which pretty much consisted of how much fun they had playing with bubbles. Here we are, trying to culture them, and all they care about is bubbles. Classic.
FIRST WEEK OF FULL DAY SCHOOL:
So this is now how the day works.
8:00 AM The monsters awaken.
8:00-9:00The monsters attempt to eat breakfast, brush their teeth, make their beds, get dresses, and pack their backpacks. Which essentially means that I run around with Pilar telling them to do all of these things about 20 times before they actually do them.
9:00 Pilar takes Lucas, Marta, and Jaime to school in the car. I walk Paloma to the nursery school (2 blocks away) and drop her off.
9:15-9:30 I walk to Lizzy’s house and meet her oustide.
9:30-10:30 Lizzy and I walk 2.5 miles through Retiro Park to Sol where we are taking Spanish classes.
10:30-11:30 Class
11:30-12:30 We walk 2.5 miles back to Lizzy’s house and buy bread for the kids.
12:45-1:00 Pick up the 6 kids for lunch.
1:00-3:00 Normally, we all have lunch at Lizzy’s house, but occasionally my kids and I take the bus to our house and back for lunch.
3:00-5:00 Kids are back at school. Pilar picks up the kids from school at 5, I pick up Paloma at 4:30.
4:30-? Pilar usually stays with the kids for a while at school and makes sure they get to their respective basketball practices, music lessons, etc. while I play with Paloma until they come home.
6:00-9:30 Kids do homework, take baths, and play with me until we have dinner. Then its time for bed! Then we do it all over again tomorrow.
DAY 57: MARTA’S BIRTHDAY-
I swear, this girl has been harassing me about her birthday since the first week I arrived.
“Deanna, you going to be at my birthday?? Please??”
So of course, I went. She invited maybe 5 friends and a few of her cousins to an ice skating party outside of Madrid. Walking into a hockey rink again was like heaven on earth.
FUN FACT #35: I was 14 when I got my first job. I was the pro-shop/concession stand girl. I sold skates for public skating and dreamt of one day driving the zamboni. To this day, my whipped cream spirals on top of hot chocolate are nothing short of LEGEND- wait for it… DARY.
The skates here were not exactly prime. They were more like ski boots, with plastic and buckles instead of leather and laces, but the smell of the ice was magical either way. We had fun skating around. Marta and Lucas were actually quite good! Luis had to help Jaime quite a bit, and even Paloma went out on the ice!! We had a really fun time and Marta had an amazing birthday.
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