We've been able to do a little more adventuring around our area of Spain. Over Memorial Day weekend we took a short trip (barely an hour away) to Seville (or Sevilla depending on who you talk to or what sign you see :) still don't know which way is actually the correct way!). We only spent the one day but definitely have to go back because there's quite a bit to do there! We should have looked up more about what to do there but we kinda just went and did what came to us which went pretty good! We really wanted to go in the cathedral...it's phenomenal...but the line was sooo long! So we went on a carriage ride around the main areas...which the kids LOVED...they loved the horses and the open carriage so we could see everything. It was pretty fun! I wish we had a better driver though :( he was kinda rushed and just breezed his way past everything while other carriages were taking their time. But oh well...we saw where all the main sites were and it was fun.
After the carriage ride we got some lunch and then went over to Real Alcazar, which is a royal palace, and is the oldest royal palace still in Europe. It is the Royals official residence while in Seville (the upper rooms anyway). According to Wikipedia it is renowned as one of the most beautiful palaces in Spain. While I haven't seen any other palaces I have to agree it is BEAUTIFUL!!! I absolutely loved it. There were amazingly detailed tiles everywhere and arches and carved columns...it was a maze of gorgeous rooms.
Then you leave the main building and enter a maze of gardens! Literally :) Evelyn was so excited to go in the actual maze garden. There were fountains everywhere and pathways leading through different gardens. It was HUGE! You could walk around those gardens for hours. It was a great place to go though with the kids, which has been a concern or ours...what nearly 3 year old wants to go on a boring museum tour where they can't touch anything? but here it was all free to wander around and the kids ran and looked at everything and it was great. We didn't do anything else there (except eat some ice cream of course ;) ) but soon will go back!
Another short trip we went on was to go to Arcos de la frontera, which is a beautiful village up on a cliff/hill and is just a short 40 minutes away! We are going to have to go back there too because the weekend we went was Easter weekend and the main part of the town was blocked off for a "bull run", which wasn't the expected bull runs like you think of in Spain...this was just one bull running through the path it was allowed...there were people in with it but mainly just would jump up on the fence before it got to them. The bull wasn't too "charge-y". We didn't actually see the bull run but saw the area it ran through (it was SO CROWDED) but a friend posted a video so we saw the actual bull on that. We mainly just walked around a little bit, got a snack, and went back to our place. It was a nice drive though!
May/June was spent mostly getting settled in our house, with a couple little trips like above, and the kids were still in school! Evelyn had a bit of a hard time getting used to school here, which was totally understandable, but eventually got in the rhythm of it, made a new best friend, and ended the school year pretty good! She had a spring school dance show where each class performed a dance they learnt. It was so cute! I'm used to a spring concert but these Spanish schools really work at these dances! They did so good and it was so cute. Evelyn's class did a "twist" song.
Not too long after the dance concert, Evelyn had her Kindergarten graduation! We've gone back and forth and talked with her teacher and finally decided to keep her with the class she's with. When we got here they put her in the cinco anos (five year old class), which after awhile I learned that is what they consider kindergarten...which in the states she would have started this next school year due to her birthday...but here their cut off is different so yeah...I'm not worried about her starting first grade because she totally would have been able to start kindergarten last year and first this year. Our only concern is the Spanish aspect of it since she doesn't know it. But her teacher she had here said that she was doing really well in understanding them by the end of the year and she feels Evelyn would be totally fine. So this summer we kept her in the summer school program at her school so she can keep being around the Spanish teachers and hearing Spanish. She hasn't really started speaking around us but every once and awhile she'll say something.
 |
| waiting for the graduation to start...it took forever waiting and during! They had the LONGEST slideshow ever AND they didn't even end up showing the whole thing! :/ and it was HOT in there...no bueno |
 |
| the two kindergarten classes (one on each side) |
 |
| watching the never ending slideshow |
 |
| these two were a bit crazy! |
 |
| yes her uniform was a bit too short for her :) she borrowed it from a friend because we hadn't bought one yet and Evelyn was way taller! |
 |
| Evelyn's best friend here! They are going to be in the same classroom next school year which I'm super glad about! |
 |
| Evelyn's teacher! She was so sweet |
 |
| Another friend in Evelyn's class (She's the one we borrowed a uniform from :) :) :) ) They moved a couple weeks later though so that was sad! :( |
Evelyn is growing up so much though! I still can't believe that I have an almost 6 year old! She's so tall and lanky and so smart! She's doing much better at reading now and LOVES to write...she's always writing in her notebooks and practicing her letters (they really do a lot of writing her and still teach cursive!). She's always asking us how to spell things she can't sound out and is doing so good.
 |
| she's come home more than once with a superhero face painting :) she's having so much fun at summer school! |
Andrew has been going to a "guarderia" which is basically a daycare type of place for the kids that aren't old enough to go to the "infantil" program at school (which starts at age 3). The owner/teacher there speaks 100% Spanish with a few English words. He loves it though and has a lot of fun and has started saying a few Spanish words here and there...he says "aqua" more than he'll say water. And the other day I found him counting his cars in Spanish...his favorite number is cinco and he's super cute listening too. He's finally started talking a ton since we've moved here and is making full sentences and just repeating any word he can now. Right now he's going through a huge repeat stage and when we say something, he'll repeat it in a question form...like I'll say we're having pancakes for dinner and he'll say "Pancakes?" and we'll say yeah...and he'll be like, "ohhh, yeaaahhh", in a tone that sounds like "oh, yeah, duh...I got this". It's pretty funny. he does it all the time. He's still on a way different talking track than Evelyn was at his age but he's really doing great in other areas. He's definitely going to be an athletic little guy...he can kick a soccer ball pretty darn good and loves to go dribble the basketball with Mark outside and is pretty good at it for nearly 3 year old using an adult sized basketball! But I'll leave more of his "advancements" for his 3 year post in a couple weeks (crazy I know!!!!!).
 |
| he's still having troubles going to bed and getting up way too early...so one morning I woke up to this :/ not much room left for me I tell ya! |
 |
| still need to invest in some boy dress up ;) |
 |
| movie date! :) |
Elizabeth is growing and learning like crazy! I'll post more on her next month when she turns 18 months but she is so much fun and has such a great little personality! She's getting so big and totally out of her baby stage of life. She's really trying to do anything and everything on her own and copying her brother and sister, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. Both her and Andrew are doing the whole "mine" stage...which Andrew started and she followed pretty quick. She's trying so much to talk more now and is repeating anything she can too. She's going to follow more after her sister I think in the talking category. I feel sad that she's out of her baby stage now though but love the stage she's at because she can do her own thing and play with the kids and hold her own. They all play so good together....60% of the time anyway ;) I love watching them all play though and it's so nice to let them do their thing without the baby putting everything in her mouth or being knocked around by Andrew. :)
Mark's been doing well with work...super busy with a couple big projects and being asked to be in charge of bigger things every once and awhile, which is good! I think he's going to do well here and really show what he can do. He spends most of his time at home with the kiddos and we've been able to go out quite a few times for date night which has been fun. There are some really good restaurants around here and one night we even went to the drive-in movie on base which was super fun!
I've been pretty busy too...mostly playing chauffeur to the kiddos for school still, finishing up the house....almost done! I've slowed down a bit in august- less motivation in this heat! :) I've done quite a few projects though and am loving the area we are in and love our house! This summer hasn't been too bad heat wise really...we've had some super hot days but then it goes back to decent or a really nice, perfect day and back and forth. So we've had lots of fun on the nice nights going out and grilling and enjoying the nice beach breeze we get!
We also had a Ward Campout one weekend...we all went for the beginning but I left after awhile to take Elizabeth home to sleep...no way I was camping out with her when we finally had her sleeping through the night (which we finished nursing not too long after we moved in our house...she was NOT happy about that at all and was so mad at me! But she got over it and finally started sleeping through the night! woohoo!). The other two kids had fun with Mark though. :)
I've also had quite a few sessions here so far...the sunflowers bloomed at the end of spring/beginning of summer so those were pretty popular to have a session in. I'm not as busy with sessions as I'd like, but I've still only been here for barely 6 months so I'm trying to keep myself aware of that. But I've made some big changes to the way I do things which is sometimes hard to book people but the people I've booked have been amazing and so appreciative of the work I do and value what I do so they've been totally worth it! I'm super excited for my time here in Spain in some many different ways with photography being a top one! It's so gorgeous and I'm excited for what I can learn here.
Here's some of the sunflowers I did for us :) I love them :)
No comments:
Post a Comment