Viva Espana!

I love Spain. 

That about sums it up.  You take 13 people who pretty much have not seen the sun in 6 months, and I tell you, it's like a drug.  You don't know how much you miss it until you see it again.  See, when people warned me about the London weather, I thought surely they were exaggerating.  Brits in particular love to wallow in the sheer terribleness of the forecast.  But they were not joking.  Not even a little bit.  So, as soon as school gets out - we are off!  To sunny Marbella, Spain!

Marbella is on the coast, and is a gorgeous beachfront city which meanders up on to a luxuriously green hillside.

We stayed about 10 minutes from the beach - in a house tucked into the hills.  All we really wanted was a spot to bask our lily white bodies in the sun.  I'm pretty sure when all of us pasty white people were sunbathing together it caused some kind of a reflection that could be seen from space.  This place was just the ticket:

And of course, what would a vacation be without the Goulds and the Walkers?  This is pretty much what we did all week.

 These two have a nickname at TASIS - "The Frat Boys".  I have no idea what they have done to earn this:

Occasionally (or way too often, if the scale is to judge) we were roused from our sun induced stupor to eat.  We had a fabulous chef who cooked all sorts of local favorites!

And we did venture out for one day on on a Catamaran and a little ocean adventure!

Which the kids loved. 

Everyone got to try the Banana Boat!  And I mean EVERYONE.  There are not pictures of me, Shauna or Paulie that will be made public.  It is impossible to look cute on a Banana Boat after the age of 35.  But the kids managed nicely:

The kids learned how to jump off one end of the boat and swim under it to the other side.  I did not teach them this.

And then relaxed for some (blessedly unsuccessful) fishing from the back of the boat:

Other than our boating excursion, we only ventured out one other time - to the beach!

I ask you, why do children enjoy grovelling around in sand?  How is this comfortable? They have sand in places where there should be no sand.  But yet, every time they see it they wallow in it like baby pigs in warm mud:

I like the beach - but I enjoy it more from a safe, sand free position:

The end of the week was especially sad, because we were saying goodbye to our amazing friends Paulie, John, Eva & Alex.  They moved back to Texas, and it was really hard for everyone to say goodbye!

 

 Sometimes in all the changes of Expat life, you meet people who immediately make it feel like home.  We will miss you, Goulds!

But we will always have the best memories! 

And that ends Year 2 of our Expat Adventure!  Who knew when we took of for our "10 month" tour in Dubai that it would come to this?  Next stop: California for the summer!

Friends Forever...Party Together!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY T & G!

As most of you know, Taylor and Georgia have been buddies since age 3 in Miss Traci's Montessori classroom. It is only by the happiest of coincidences that they were reunited in England!  In celebration of 6 years of friendship, we decided to join forces for their 9th birthday!

There are not a ton of party venues in England (which, I have come to realize is a good and a bad thing.  It is hard to have a kid party - but then again I don't have to spend a 5th year in a row at ArtZone).  So, we decided to do an at-home party, making use of our indoor pool one last time before we move houses.  People always ask where we get our ideas for parties, and it's pretty simple.  We steal them.  So, here's a total shout out to both Debi Thomas and Caroline Kitchen for the ideas for this party - which featured a Candy Bar:

 

And a Foam Pit:

What Shauna and I didn't realize is that we had inadvertently created a kind of Hedonism for 9 year olds.  All the candy you could eat, coupled with the conga in the foam pit. 

Plus a dip in the pool:

The kids totally learned life skills, though.  Like how to eat a giant laffy taffy and tread water without getting your candy wet.  Just replace the taffy with a beer and they are ready for Vegas:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Foam Party Pit, it's basically a device where they blow foam using this:

To provide this effect:



I think the original intent of the Foam Blaster was to get single people all wet and slippery in places like Ibiza and Mallorca - or maybe South Padre Island.  But hey, kids totally love it.

Here's G's great buddy Kate - who just moved back to California.  We will miss you!

We love you T and G!  May the wonders of life never cease to amaze you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY G & T!