Carolina turns 6!!!!

It is still unbelievable to me.  My girlie is 6?!?!  How is that possible?????  I think every momma asks the same thing.  Time just absolutely flies by; and the older they get, the faster time goes (...or is it the older I get?!?!)

Carolina has been talking about having a birthday party with her class for about a year now.  It started last year when we were in the States and celebrated with her cousins.  She began asking if she could have a party for her friends when we got back to Spain.  Well, a year ago, it wasn't such a big deal, and I figured she would forget about it or at least that it was a passing thought.  No.  We kept hearing about this party she was planning (and inviting her friends to... MONTHS before her birthday!)  So when we hit August and she was still talking about this party, I told Wes we had to decide what we were going to do.

Honestly, we don't usually do big parties like that for the kids for a number of reasons.  One being that when you do a party here in Spain, you aren't just inviting 5 of their good friends... you are inviting all 25 kids in the class.  The second reason being that we have 4 kids; and usually if you start it for one kid, you usually have to be pretty fair across the board.  Well, that's not really been in the budget. :)  So we've always done something special for the kids to bring into school, and then we always do really fun days for the kids just with our family... and of course, the cake is always a really big deal. :) 

Maybe it has something to do with this little girl's sweet, unassuming innocence... or maybe it's her bubbling personality... or the fact that she's the only girl... or maybe that she's the youngest???? ... I'm really not sure; but 2 weeks ago, I found myself planning a class birthday party for Carolina's 6th birthday.

It took a lot of planning, and I really had no idea exactly what I was doing.  In Cáceres, most people rent one of those fun house places, with the ball pits and the blow-up obstacle courses.  The parents pay per child attending, and there are people on staff to watch and entertain the kids.  We never did it... it was too expensive.  But after this party, I now truly see the benefit of that!!  Here, we have found that most of the families host the parties in a public park.  It's cheap enough... and there's a place for the kids to play, so it makes sense, right??  Yeah, we forgot how unruly a group of Spanish kids can be. :)

I did all my planning, and had everything pretty much ready... I just needed to decorate the cake, frost the cupcakes and make the sandwiches the day of the party.  It's SO hot and humid here still (and our AC is nothing like in the States!) so I wanted to wait to do the frosting until the day of the party.  I thought I'd done well.  The party wasn't until 6, and I was planning on heading to the park around 5 to make sure we got a table.  I should have had plenty of time to get it all done.  But... as always, nothing went according to plan. ;)

Carolina wanted a cake with the theme from the movie "Frozen."  Thanks to Pinterest and lots of advice from my best friend Lara, I felt like I had the cake under control.  We are also now in a big city, so I could find extra stuff that I never could find before... like Marshmallows and fondant! :)  Well, the cake that I had decided on had shards of ice sticking up out of it, which had to be made (not bought.)  I decided I would make the "rock candy" before hand, so that I could just assemble the cake when I needed to.  Of course, when I pulled out my candy thermometer, the glass was broken.  Great.  I needed to get this puddle of sugar to hard crack stage... and now I had to do it without a thermometer! I googled how to distinguish 'hard crack' stage without a thermometer and got lots of advice.  It was my first time making candy like this, so I had no idea what I was doing.  It took me 2 tries, and I thought that was pretty good. :)  The first batch actually came out perfectly, but the color turned green.  The next batch, I waited until I was done boiling it and then put the food coloring in.  It seemed perfect.

...and I managed to get a pic of the cake before we left, thank goodness!

Well, when I went to assemble the cake, it looked perfect at first; but within 40 minutes of sitting out, all those shards melted!!... they were drooping over.  Apparently, I'd only gotten to "soft crack" stage, and not "hard crack."  Yikes!  So... I spent the whole morning making another batch of rock candy! I was still working on the cake when the kids got home from school.  Total disaster! :)  ... but I finally got the cake put together.

I had set out everything we needed to take to the park with us... including the new cupcake holder that I'd found at 50% off! :)  I specifically left it on the table (instead of in the pile I had by the door) so that it wouldn't get broken or bent.  Well, of course, boys being boys... they started goofing off and knocked it off the table. Yes, it broke.  Of course.  Wes fixed it the best he could, and we all went on with the preparations.  Craziness!  I learned a long time ago that this is just part of everyday life with boys, and that I need to be more concerned with their hearts than the broken things.  That said, I was still pretty stressed! :)

We got everything packed into the car and went on our way.  The park is in the pueblo where the younger two kids go to school, so we had to take a terrible back road (really the only road that goes there.)  I never realized how bumpy it was!  I was holding the cake in my hands and the top layer just started slipping off the bottom... and there was nothing I could do about it!  Shrieking, I asked Wes to pull over so I could put it back together before it completely fell in my lap!  Literally, the road we were on is so narrow (sometimes you can't fit two cars on the road), so there was no room to pull over.  When he finally got off that horrible road, he pulled over and i just pushed the top layer back on top of the bottom... which, of course, scraped off all the icing from the middle and made it look like a waterfall. haha... oh, well.  At least I took a picture at home, right??? :)

Can you see the waterfall in the front? ;)... could have been a lot worse, I guess.

Playing while setting up!

We arrived at the park, and Wes left to go pick up ice and Carolina's present (a bike!), while the kids and I set up.  It was SO windy that I had to tape the table cloth down... and I was worried that cupcake holder (which was bent and not completely stable) would blow over... so, in the end, I didn't even end up putting the cupcakes on it.  It turned out to be a good idea, though... once those kids got there, they touched/took off every little decoration on the cake.  I can't imagine if I'd put the cupcakes out!! :)

Carolina and Diana

Pin the nose on Olaf was a big hit

jumping rope!

Our party favors were goodie bags: "Do you want to build a snowman" themed and filled with everything needed to build Olaf!  Everyone loved them... and as you can see, some sat down right then to build Olaf... and then eat him. :)

I did my best to blend two cultures.  It was interesting mix.  As I was talking to Lara and explaining what they normally do here, we realized the huge differences in the cultures.  Most of the time, we go to these parties; and there are just bags of sandwiches plopped on the table with drinks.  Lara pointed out that with Americans, the WOW factor... the presentation of the theme... is a huge thing.  With Spaniards, they just want to get together!  They don't care about presentation.  I did a little bit of a mix of both.  Carolina wanted a "Frozen" theme, so we did that; but I just stuck with normal Nocilla (which is like Nutella) sandwiches, chips and drinks.  I also added peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, since all of them have heard about it in the movies or on TV, but never tried one. haha... such an American thing! (Although I do realize that most of us would never serve pb&j at a birthday party! haha...)  Most really liked them, and all commented on how unusual the combination was.

After the party was over, I realized very clearly why Spaniards don't care much about presentation.  The food was moved, shoved aside, touched, dumped together... the table totally demolished once the kids started eating.  haha... my presentation only lasted a couple minutes after everyone had arrived. Good thing I didn't spend too much time on it! :)

All in all, it was a fun night. Carolina was thrilled, and that was our goal... although, I do believe we will think twice before doing that again. ;)

Back to School!

Out to ice-cream the last night before school starts!! :)  Weston's friend Gustavo has become part of the family.

It's unbelievable how fast time flies!  The kids went back to school today!  It feels early to us.  We expected them to start next week or the week after, because that's when we started in Cáceres.  But... no... they started earlier.  :)  Poor things.  There's no air-conditioning in the schools.  This morning when we dropped them off (before it even gets "hot" here!) it was stifling in those class rooms! 

Thankfully, last night, no one was upset or crying... which truly is a first in a long time.  Nathan actually said that he was excited about school starting, so that should tell us pretty clearly that this move has been a good thing!

Waiting for the gates to open at our neighborhood school.  The "line" was unbelievable!  First day of school craziness... :)

Nathan and Weston just inside the doors of their school: La Patacona

I think the last time we updated y'all, we had the 4 kids at 2 different schools; and we were praying for an opening for Jonathan in our neighborhood school.  It didn't look like it was going to happen; but at the very last minute, they found a "plaza" for him!  We were so thrilled... until Jonathan looked at us with tears in his eyes and declared, "I don't want to leave my school!"  Isn't it funny how we think we want something (like all 4 kids at the SAME school), and the Lord shows us a better way?

Jonathan outside his school: Ausías March

After praying through it, we realized that although we never would have chosen it this way, it seems wise to keep the kids in the schools they have been in.  God knew.  Jonathan has thrived in this school.  There are only 15 in his class, and it's a pretty calm class on top of that.  His teacher has commented on his ability to pick up Valenciano; and we have all been impressed with his music teacher, who has brought out a side of Jonathan that we have never seen.  This is my child who has a very hard time sitting still for any length of time... but if you put a recorder in his hand, he will practice for an hour without stopping! :) His teacher has commented on well he does with music.  I think Jonathan has found a piece of himself at this school... the 6th graders ask him to play soccer with them during recess... he is able to be his own person in this school and do things that he might not be able to do if he had older brothers in 5th and 6th grade. :)

Walking to school (after parking the car) in Alboraya

The other thing we realized as we began praying, is that all of our relationships have come from this school (Ausías March)... NOT the one in our neighborhood (La Patacona.)  It's kind of strange, really.  But the neighborhood school is much larger and it feels big city... busy families, parents not present, no one stands around talking; there's a get-in, get-out mentality... whereas the school in the Alboraya feels like a family, everyone knows everyone, etc.  We have seen the Lord working in relationships in this schools; so in addition to Jonathan wanting to stay, it made sense to continue these relationships!  So in the end, we decided to keep Jonathan and Carolina in their same school (since Carolina is always happy no matter where she is!)  Although it makes it harder logistically, we know that the Lord's hand is on this, so we are trusting that He knows best!  From the start, going to Ausías March has never been our idea... but rather the path the Lord chose for us.  Obviously, He has a plan!... and we are grateful for it.

Vacation in Cáceres

We took a week vacation and went back to visit all of our friends in Cáceres in August.  It was SO fun to be back.  It's amazing how much it still feels like home.  The place itself was so familiar; but it was the people, especially, who made it feel like home.

We had the chance to spend some time with Francisco and his family.  His daughter Patricia was in Weston's class when we lived there, and Francisco has been so faithful to keep in touch with us while we have been gone.  For those of you who heard Wes speak while we were in the States, this is the friend who told us "I don't want to lose touch with Wes... there is no one like Wes!"  We were thankful to share stories and life together for a couple days. 

The kids playing Clue

Patricia and Carolina

Dinner with Francisco and María Jesús

Swimming at their house in the "campo"

Dinner in the courtyard

As we ended the night and we were saying goodbye, the kids spontaneously started dancing.

It was such a fun ending to a great day with friends

 They are all saying "patata" which is their version of "cheese" for the camera.

We also had the chance to get together with some of my girlfriends (and their families) that I used to do coffee with everyday. Toña (my sweet friend who got saved when we lived there) and Pepi and their families met us our first day there.  It was SO fun to fellowship with them again, and the kids had such a blast together. We miss them all so much.

Weston and his best friend Marco (Toña's son)

Jonathan and Fernando (Pepi's son)

Carolina and Inés (Toña's daughter)

Weston and his buddies going to the movies

BK for dinner!

Jonathan and Inés who were in the same class together

We also spent a couple days with David and Marisa... our friends that we always used to go on excursions with.  We decided for old times sake, that we would go on another excursion together; so we headed out to a natural swimming pool in Extremadura.  It was so fun just to be able to hang out again. 

Dinner at David and Marisa's house

The natural swimming pool

Ice Cream!

Weston and Juan... who was so little when we left a year ago!

Me, trying to capture these special moments...  behind the camera is right where I like to be! ;)

We were also able to see some of Carolina's friends from her class and Jonathan's as well.  We were out everyday, all day... not getting back to the apartment we were staying in until after midnight on most nights.  It was such an amazing week of reconnecting and making new memories.  It was a fun week for all of us.

Carolina and Helen

Carolina and Paula

Jonathan and his best friend Nicolas