Nathan's 9th Birthday!

Nathan turned 9 on May 4th.  He is a Barça fan, so he requested a Barça themed cake.  We did the best we could... :)

As we have mentioned before, big huge birthday parties at the big play houses are the norm here for birthday parties.  No on ever does a party in their home, and they always invite the entire class.  Well, that's one custom that we have not yet absorbed into our family. :)  With 4 kids, I'm not really sure how we would fit that into our budget, especially as there are about 30 kids in each class.  SO... we continue our tradition of family birthday parties.  For Nathan's birthday, we decided to let him invite a friend.

This is Adrian, one of Nathan's best friends here!

It was a very fun day celebrating Nathan!

Visiting Valencia

As we have been praying about where God wanted us in our second term, we have been visiting different cities (after tons of internet research, of course!)  This was our Feb. visit to Valencia with all four kids.  It was fun to see how the kids would navigate the city, but it was also a bit harder to see all that we needed to see.  In the pictures below, you'll see the amazing mix of new and old.  I love that Valencia has both parts... one very, very modern part; but also the very historic parts, as well!

One of my favorite pics of Carolina with her daddy! :)

Valencia has so much charm...

so typically European

Lots of "plazas" everywhere

and of course, the "motos"

The beach was cold, but of course we couldn't resist.  The boys had fun playing soccer.   I love the mountains in the background!

This is the City of Arts and Sciences

It's an amazing area of very modern buildings.  They house the science museum and the aquarium is nearby as well.

There is a huge riverbed that runs all the way through the middle of the city.  They drained the river and now use it as a green area.  There are bike paths and parks... it's beautiful, and it's a great way to get from one end of the city to the other without cars all around!  I love it for the kids, since it's all pedestrian.

For some reason, it's a bit hard to see in this pic, but there's water all round the building.

We really enjoyed our time in this big city!

Easter 2013

I figure pictures are better late than never, right?  Here's some shots from Easter of this year.  The kids had a bad rash (that we never quite did get diagnosed...) so we were all home for Easter this year.

The beginning of our Easter egg hunt!

The each had their own colors to look for...

The one how found the white egg got to open the gift that we had for all of them.

Well, I didn't quite get the picture before they started opening... but these were chocolate bunnies!

A different version of Twister... :)  This was their gift for Easter. We had lots of fun playing, but we had to take turns.  There wasn't quite enough room for all of us. :)