Allie in the South of Spain

Summer is coming to an end and I am not ready. I am never ready. It means going back to work and our usual routine. Although July was not great for us (Jose and I worked part time for the first three weeks, we painted our apartment the last week and had a lot of not super things happen/bad news throughout), August ended up being pretty wonderful. So all in all, it balanced out. This summer has not been as hot as summers past and yet it is the first time that we have taken FULL advantage of our pool. We have been swimming almost every day and it has been a life saver. If I had to pick a theme for  this season it would be bathing suits and Frozen since both have accompanied us throughout. I have that damn movie memorized by now and so does Vera. The girls probably watched it five times on our drive to and from France to visit Jose´s sister and family for the first two weeks of August.  We went to Paris for the first half of August and stayed part of the time with Miri...

I am back again for another update on the happenings around these parts and honestly there is not much to report. We have had a strange spring here in the south of Spain when it comes to weather (very cool and rainy) and the girls have been sick on and off so we have been taking it easy. We went downtown Seville to see a few processions on one day of Holy Week. The girls were not impressed so we didn´t last very long. Laura and Vera looked cute though!  We went to a few different ferias, both in Mairena del Alcor and in Dos Hermanas. Vera and Laura LOVE wearing their flamenca dresses. In fact, given the choice they would probably wear them every day. We have also been to a bunch of birthday parties of the girls´friends (they have a serious social calendar, highly in demand). Jose and I have been starting to plan our summer since we will be staying here in Spain. We are trying to take advantage of our time here to work and get some projects done around our ...

It is official, we have 2 two-year-olds at home and although I was afraid, very afraid, things have been pretty good so far. We haven´t had many meltdowns or tantrums but we have been hearing a lot more NO! The girls want to do stuff for themselves and they have their own ideas about everything. Laura and Vera have been talking a lot more in general, too. They are still mixing languages and using their own twinspeak but have a lot more words and are making short sentences.  We hosted a birthday party for the girls at the beginning of the month and invited both family and friends. We ended up having a lot of people come and I think everyone had a good time. First we had a paella with Jose´s family and then later cake and treats with the rest of the guests. Vera and Laura had a blast playing in the bouncy castle and ball pit. It was a great day that started with birthday pancakes and ended with two exhausted toddlers and two wrecked parents. On the actua...

A few years ago, before I turned 30, I created a list of thirty things that I wanted to do before my next big milestone birthday. I had a lot of fun creating the list, revisiting and revising it and of course, crossing things off. That list helped me focus my goals, what I wanted to do, see and accomplish over a few years. It was a good experience for me and I have been throwing around the idea of doing it again. I recently finally decided to try to do the same thing before I turn 40 which is still 8 years away but is looming out there in the future. At first I thought making a list of forty things I wanted to do, experience, try, accomplish, see, etc. would be easy. Turns out in some ways it was, I mean, I want to visit more than 40 different places. But my idea was to try to focus on more than just a travel bucket list. I wanted to include goals for different aspects of my life. It actually had taken since about the start of this year to come up with my first definitive list of wh...

I figured that before this first month of this new year ended I should probably post about our adventures during Christmas and the holiday season (mostly before I forgot what everything we did and who we saw). So here goes: Jose and I being teachers have a nice long break from work during Christmas and this year it started on the 22nd, a Friday. That day at our girls´daycare the fantastic and ever patient women who work there created a living Nativity scene with all of the children so we dressed Laura and Vera up like shepherdesses and in my opinion they were the stars of the show. I know that every parent thinks that and realize that they were being plied with cookies and cheetos to sit there nicely, but they looked so damn cute! A bonus was the chocolate and churros that they served all the parents after the "performance." We had basically just enough time to get everything organized and prepared for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day which we always celebrate ...