Feliz Cumpleaños

June 14, 2008
Asier helps prepare the birthday cake and tries out some face painting ideas for his big brother’s 5th BIRTHDAY PARTY!
 
                   
 
 Gabriel celebrates his birthday with his nursery friends.
 
After so many rainy days, we celebrated Gabriel’s 5th birthday Spanish style in our communal garden on a beautiful warm and suuny spring afternoon.
 
We had expected 10 chums from his nursery class to join us ,making 12 in all. As the first first families arrived to drop off their kiddies, it looked like the great exodus from Egypt. People just kept arriving and I am kissing and greeting mums and kiddies  thinking, "who are all these people!" There were 19 kids in the end including  a couple of wee brothers and sisters and a baby. Some of the mums and dads stayed and helped out and we had a great time.
 
Beginning with face painting and ending with a " piñata" a paper mache type model filled with sweets and party goodies,which Edgar makes each birthday, this year a football, which the children hit with a stick to break and then collect the goodies as they fall. It was fantastic getting to chat to the mums and dads of Gabriel’s nursery school chums and to see how happy he is.
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Countdown to Christmas

December 2, 2007

20 eager small fingers excitedly opened the first advent calendar envelope on Saturday. I know eating sweets before breakfast isn’t very PC, but it was worth it to hear the boys excited chatter. Day 1 of an advent calendar is always trial and error with a 2 and a 4 year old. Modifications were in place for day 2.  I popped a second sweet into the remaining 23 envelopes, as well as to avoid the replay of a confused and very upset 2 year old unable to understand where his sweet was as his brother happily munched!!

It is amazing how quick to tots will move through the morning routine knowing there is a sugar fix ahead. Day 2: we moved the advent calendar slot to after breakfast and before brushing teeth, for all you dentist friends out there. Lovely! 

Preparing for celebrating Jesus birthday this year has been meaningful and special. It trully feels like the excitement of building up to a birthday as we bring new ways of celebrating together this special month into our family.

 

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Granny and Grandpa

November 9, 2007

How would you spend your time if you were 4 or 2 years old and you hadn’t seen gran and grandpa for 15 months? Gabriel(4) and Asier(2) enjoyed a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks with their Scottish grandparents doing the simple things of feeding the ducks, lots of ice-cream eating, the park and picnics etc this October, while Edgar was in the Canaries for a 2 weeks church mission.

 

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Pirate picnic in our lovely communal garden, enjoying warm sunny autumn weather. 

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It’s all downhill from here!

September 20, 2007
7 minutes downhill by scooter from our flat,
through the park and in the school gate 
 
Gabriel has thoroughly enjoyed his first week back at Spanish nursery, with the same teacher Conchi and classmates ( 20). The teacher moves with the children to a new classroom.
 
Preparation for nursery involves buying scuff friendly shoes, painting ‘babi’s’,  or aprons, and ordering the books for english and maths courses.  Each family also pay  a one off payment into the class fund for the teacher to pay for photocopies, art materials, materials for the fancy dress parties, school shows  etc which are bought by the teacher herself each year. In this the public and private system are the same. Uniform in the public schools is not worn, except for the painting aprons from age 3-5 in nursery stages.
 
 
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Last weeks of Summer.

August 25, 2007

Well the new diary is bought for the school year sept 07-june 08. Rather nice it is, but so far empty.

Summer holidays are winding down as the weather cools and first signs of autumn are already around. 2 and 1/2 weeks left of hols, at least for me and the boys, Edgar has been back working since mid august. Some of his time is being taken these weeks, hunting down good visual youth resources and  video editing, for use in seminars, talks for youth events this term.

This week I will begin to plan the programme for the preschoolers sunday school (ages 2-4) for our church here in Villalba. We are looking for a new teacher for this year to substitute the lovely Lidia, who is in England learning to speak Queen’s english and study. I begin teaching an hour’s english every morning for the next 2 weeks, to 2 neighbours girls, Irene and Nuria.  That will help get into the swing of preparations for the autumn term. It is always hard to get down to it when you work from home.

There are some great family activities to look forward to in the last couple of weeks of school holidays before Gabriel returns to nursery on 12th Sept: special storytelling/puppets in the main library, and a mini celtic connections weekend, of pipes and fiddle concerts, some free in the local parks. See you there Jimmy!emoticon

 

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On Your Bike!

August 16, 2007
Villalba Family Cycle Run
 
Villalba bikefest 
 
You have heard of the Tour de France and possibly " La Vuelta" .Well yesterday just before 10am yesterday morning, Gabriel, Jane and Asier set off with the other cyclists of all shapes and sizes on bikes of all shapes and sizes for  our first annual ‘"Tour de Villalba." Edgar was official photographer and back up team. 2.5 Kms of committed peddling from Gabriel and Asier’s running commentry later, we sweated into the main plaza to collect our prizes and enjoy a cool snack. 
 
"Hey mummy, we are winning last"  shouts a triumphant Gabriel, who only hours earlier was talking about taking hands off the handlebars and collecting his piston cup ( mmm mixed metaphors there!) as he sailed first accross the finish line.
 
" Not quite last, darling, there are about 6 people behind us." We finished the race, we collected our freebies and even carried off 2 rucksacks in the ’sorteo’, prize draw.  Several times classic sermons about finishing the race came to mind as we struggled with a couple of slow hills.
 
Uncle Norrie, you would have been proud of us! What a fantastic morning! 
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Cool at the Pool!

August 5, 2007
While Edgar was being kept busy by 70+ hormonal 13-17 year olds on the national GBE camp, 19-28 July, Jane and the boys were practicing their newly aquired swimming skills to show off to dad on his return home. As the temperatures began to rise into the 30’s there was no better place to find rest from the heat, chatting and playing and having picnics with mums and toddlers chums of the last 3 years.
 Gabri goggling at the pool!
 

Jane’s close friend Tracy from Blackpool is heading back to England  29th August,with husband Ainsley and Madison their 2 year old. They are still settling the matter of Ainsley’s new job and are expecting their second baby mid December.

Tracy's farewell dinner 

 On 28th July, a tired, tanned and happy Edgar arrived back from national camp - this year held near Guadalajara, near Madrid. The camp went well, many teenagers coming from Christian families but still searching for God to be real and relevant for them.

Less than 24 hours after his homecoming, Edgar recieved a tragic phonecall: the father of Andrés (14) was killed in a road accident while taking himand a friend home from our camp.  Edgar saw Andrés and his mum Carmen at the funeral but are  are still in hospital with cuts to hands and feet.  Andrés. A double tragedy,  Andrés first dad died in an accident, and his step-dad had been married to his mum just 3 years. It seems so unfair, and it is true what the bible says that we will have to wait till the end of time for everything to be put right in this broken world of ours.  It hurts deeply in the meantime, and  God weeps with us too.

Jane had tough  but serious conversations about the challenges to faith during such circumstances with friends from mums and toddlers.

 

 

 

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