Frank and Donna visit Barcelona July 21th -25th

After Sandrine and family left, we had a couple of weeks with no visitors and so to keep the kids busy, I enrolled them in local summer camps.  Nathan and Ciara did two weeks of art camp at the local art school, and I enrolled Rylan and Cole for 4 weeks of soccer camp at the Can Vidalet soccer club not far from our house.  They only went for the morning 9am to 1pm so they still had the rest of the afternoon free.  At the beginning it was difficult especially for Cole and Rylan who were not used to playing soccer in Spanish, the kids were a bit rougher, there was some bullying and they learned lots of new Spanish swear words.  I didn't have high expectations for any of the camps, but I think it was a good experience for the kids at a very reasonable price: 36€/week for Ciara and Nathan's camps and 27€/week for Cole and Rylan's soccer camp.

My aunt Donna (my mother's older sister) and her husband Frank arrived on Tuesday July 21st.  They stayed with us only a few days on their way to the Shetland Islands where Frank is from.  Frank and Donna were planning on serving a mission for our church in September and they were called to the Toronto, Canada Mission, but a few weeks later they got a call from church headquarters and their call was changed to serve in the Vancouver Temple presidency.

Frank and Donna arrived during an extremely hot and humid week, temperatures in the mid 30s and with humidity it felt like the mid 40s.   We wanted to take them all over Barcelona, but the heat took its tole on Frank and he was not able to manage long outings in the sun.

We did take them downtown on the 22nd and we showed a few famous sights and then took them to the Museum of Ideas and Inventions http://www.mibamuseum.com/en/index.  This is mainly because the kids could get in free with their Super3 cards and we had never been to this museum before.  It was actually pretty fun.   The kids each got to draw a picture of something they would like to invent and then enter a contest to see if they could win a prototype and patent for their invention.   They had all kinds of crazy inventions on display, it was very interactive, but kind of small.  Not sure if I would pay full price for my kids 6€ and adults are 8€.   Frank and Donna enjoyed it, and at least it was air-conditioned inside.

Later that evening we took them to a local festival.  La Festa Major de Santa Magdalena, in honor of the patron saint of Esplugues.

People dancing with large heads

Watching the festivities.  Next to Bob is a Gigante, or giant, not a really tall woman.

Castellers

The following day, I took Frank and Donna shopping at the open market in Sant Ildefons.  Donna seemed to enjoy it a lot, Frank was fading quickly with the heat.  So in the afternoon, I proposed to take them to Decathlon.  Frank had a great time in Decathlon and bought all his gifts there to take back home.  All of our visitors so far have enjoyed shopping at Decathlon and every time I bring someone there, I always mange to find something that I need to buy.

The following day, we drove to Salou, near Tarragona.  Frank and Donna were going to meet up with Frank's niece who was staying at a resort near Port Aventura.  While they met together, I took the kids to one of the many beaches in Salou.  We settled on Platja Llarga which wasn't very busy and had some nice waves.  Later we met up with Frank and Donna along the Passeig de Jaume I, a very beautiful boulevard beside the main beach with parks and fountains and lots of tourists.   We had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach before heading back to Barcelona. 

We wanted to squeeze in just one more sight, so that evening we took them to the Magic Fountain show near Plaça Espanya.  It was a really busy evening, but I think Frank got some good pictures and then we headed over to Las Arenas, the mall that was built from an old bull fighting ring, to grab a bit to eat.

Platja Llarga, Salou

Lunch on the beach

The next morning Frank and Donna flew to London and then on to the Shetland Islands.  When they landed in the Shetlands the temperature was 12ºC, so between Barcelona and the Shetlands the temperature dropped more than 20º.

Visit with Sandrine and family July 3rd to 6th

Time to go back and finish writing about our summer.  A few days after Christine and her kids left for Germany, Sandrine and her family arrived.  Sandrine and Eric are originally from Marseille in France, but live in Brampton now with their 3 boys.  Their oldest boy, Alexandre, was best friends with Nathan, their middle child, Quentin, is the same age as Ciara and they got along very well too and their youngest, Tomas, was best friends with Rylan.  We spent a lot of time together when we were living in Brampton.  They always spend their summers in Marseille with Sandrine's family, so last summer we spent a few days with them up in Marseille which was really fun.

This summer they decided to do a road trip around Spain, so naturally they planned to spend a few days with us in Barcelona.   They arrived on the evening of July 3rd from Granada.  The next day, we took them downtown to see all of the typical famous sights of Barcelona.  It was really hot and we did a lot of walking.  The highlight of the day was swimming in the pool in La Mallola.

The following day was Sunday, so we advised them to go to the Sagrada Familia in the morning and then we would meet up with them in Parc Güell in the afternoon.   Sunday was an even hotter day, and everyone was hot, tired and thirsty in Parc Güell.  Fortunately we found some public fountains so that we could refill our water bottles.

Melting in Parc Güell

Gaudi's famous dragon

Funny faces at the summit of the park

They had to be back in Marseille on July 6th, but since they would have to drive up Costa Brava to get to France, we took them to a beach near Playa d'Aro, called Cala Belladona.  It was a beautiful day and we brought our cool Decathlon Easy Breath snorkels so that they could try them out.  Eric is a very resourceful guy.  He caught some sea urchins, cut them open and all of us got to eat uni sashimi on the beach!

Rylan with a sea urchin

Eric cutting open the sea urchin

It doesn't get any fresher than this!

Maybe my new favourite beach in Costa Brava

Cole and Quentin trying to catch fish

Rylan and Tomas

Nathan and Alex, guess who's had a growth spurt

Ciara playing in the sand

First week of School

Well, I have a lot of catching up to do on the blog.  It's now the first week of September and the kids have started school again.  And this year, Ciara is back in school full-time.  After our brief experiment with full time homeschooling and then the rest of the year part-time homeschooling, it feels a bit strange to not have any kids at home during the day.

The first day of school was Sept. 1st, earlier than last year.  Most kids in Catalunya will not start school until Sept. 14th or 15th.  I was nervous, especially for Ciara and Nathan.  Ciara because she is starting middle-school (grade 6) and Nathan because he is starting HIGH SCHOOL (grade 9).  It's crazy to think that I am now the mother of a high school student!

Well it seems that I had nothing to worry about.  Ciara was super excited to go back to school.  I was so impressed with the way she prepared her backpack and chose her outfit and everything.  Bob gave all the kids a blessing on Monday night.  It is amazing how each of them has matured over this past year.

And the first day of school was great.  Everyone came home happy with their new teachers and classmates.  It seems like everything is back to normal with kids from the neighbourhood stopping by every afternoon.  Ciara and Nathan are back doing judo and of course next week Cole will start soccer practices again which he is really looking forward to and Rylan will continue with flag football.   And this year Nathan will start seminary!!!  We are still not sure if he will be doing early morning seminary or after school.  There are only 3 other kids in seminary in our ward.  One of them does it at home every morning with his mother, the other two will do it with one of the other wards that meet in our building.  We are hoping that Nathan will be able to do early morning, although it will be hard for me, as I'm not a morning person :(

Also, Ciara on her own decided to try-out for the cheerleading squad on Friday.  Tomorrow will be the last day of try-outs and then she will find out if she makes the team.  She has been practicing faithfully all weekend.  I really hope that she does her best tomorrow at the try-outs and doesn't get nervous.

After my brief experience last year homeschooling Ciara full-time and then the rest of the year homeschooling part-time, it feels a bit strange to not have any kids at home during the day.  But, my friend Manju, who is also from Canada, will be homeschooling her son Asvin this year.  He is in grade 6 and doing a British Columbia curriculum.  Fortunately for them, the BC government supports homeschooling parents.  Gives them all the curriculum and books, provides them with a teacher to Skype with every 2 weeks and even a grant to buy other materials they might need.

So I have offered to help Manju by doing a writing class with Asvin every week.  I just remember that when I was homeschooling Ciara full-time I really appreciated all the extra help I got from other teachers and parents.  It will be good for me too, because I enjoy being involved with homeschooling.

As this may be our last year here in Spain, I hope that the kids have a good school experience and we will of course try to use all of their holidays in order to explore more of Spain and other parts of Europe.