Spring #2 2016

As shown in the following pictures, Spring in Madrid has been busy, yet not too busy to enjoy the Spring wildflowers. Now if we could only pick some. 

Family from my mom's side are serving a mission in the Cape Verde islands off of the African coast and were in town for some training. We had such a good time catching up with them and they even treated us to ice cream.

 Family Day at El Porvenir 

This was the 2nd annual Family Day set up by the PTA at the kids' school. 

I was in charge of the 3-legged race. Kamree and her friend Tessa and Morgan's friends, Hugo and Alex, the 2 tall boys, are getting ready to race.  (Brent and Kaiya are hiding in the background). 

Mason and his friend didn't fare so well in the 3-legged race, but Mason couldn't be beat in the sack race, even by Morgan.

Morgan had not been feeling well and sat during most of the activity which these sympathetic girls took advantage of. 

Kamree

A couple of months ago Kamree's friend, Tessa(the blonde) was the star of a funeral scene in a movie based on the book, "La Isla de Alice". Kamree and their friend Sharon got to be extras during Tessa's scene.

This was the flashback scene which was the funeral of the father of Tessa's character. 

Kamree was invited to Parque de Atracciones , an amusement park for Tessa's birthday.  She had the best day since she was completely spoiled.  

 

Kamree was as lucky as Kaiya and was able to be baptized on her 8th birthday.

We had cupcakes and ice cream for Kamree's birthday with a few fruit and veggies mixed in.

The sister on the left is very musically talented and she put together a very beautiful musical number for Kamree with her companion and the other 4 Elders.


Kamree invited her two best friends from school and their families to her baptism.  They were very excited for Kamree and sat in the front row with her.  

 She is going to really miss these two and they will her.  

Kamree had a birthday party about a week after her birthday with her two besties.  We ate at KFC on our way home from school and then walked to our house for a few activities.  

  

 

The girls did all sorts of crafts, beginning with shrinky dinks.  

The Boys

Each Saturday, beginning in March, has been spent at the baseball fields. This was taken between games. Morgan is in the back and Mason is the 2nd from the right.  Baseball is now finally over giving us our Saturdays back!  

Brent was the coach and pitcher during this game.  (That is Mason)

Mason got to hang out with his friends during Morgan's games. They usually played soccer, and ate junk.  


Mason and his team won most all of their games and won the championship.

This was the scene 5 times during Morgan's final championship game and Morgan was always involved, three times running to 1st base, once sliding in at home and once tagging a boy running to second.  Most of the time the call eventually favored Morgan including in the video below.  

It is difficult to see clearly from the video's view so here is what Morgan says happened, As he tripped and flipped over the first baseman, who dropped the ball. Morgan apparently landed on the base, rolled off and then touched it again with his hand to be sure. They called Morgan out until he and his team contested and Brent mentioned to the coach that the base path had been blocked.  

This was by far the most tense game of the season but the Pirates came out on top and won their championship.

Mason was the only one that had his birthday party on his actual birthday.  Mason has been very blessed to have some super great friends this year:  Titus, Jared, Grant and Kyle.   

We took them to a park so they could play with these large bubbles, rocket balloons, helicopter balloons and make and fly paper airplanes, and gliders.

It was Morgan's birthday too but he didn't complain and offered to help Mason and his friend play some park games.  After pizza at the park we returned to our home for cupcakes and ice cream.

A week later,  Morgan got to have his party, which we did at the same park as Mason's but with more tween style activities which meant they couldn't be pre-planned.  

After the usual "futbol" and Spanish tag, Morgan taught them how to play ultimate frisbee, which they all loved.

I had bought water balloons thinking that would be the perfect activity to begin the party with on a warm June evening, but after the 1/2 hour spent filling a cooler full Morgan politely said we shouldn't do them because the kids will likely get in trouble.  Parents aren't too keen on their kids getting wet here.  Brent pulled out a couple to throw at Morgan after he climbed this tree during a game and I couldn't say no when his friends begged to join in.

 

Here is a video of some of the attack.

You can't have a birthday in Spain at this age without getting a new soccer ball and he received two.

Everything Else

 

This was Kaiya's special activity, going to the stake center for a fireside by Elder Bednar and getting to shake his hand.  Sadly Morgan was too sick to join them.

 
These were my two special events. The first was standing in a Black Friday style line for the grand opening of this electronic store.  The first 100 got gift cards and t-shirts, I got 20 Euro.  Lines are difficult in Spain so I was a little worried how it would work, but they were on top of it.  An hour before the opening they began getting everyone's info and handed out numbered badges so that those arriving later couldn't jump the line.   The other event was getting my first pedicure in Spain with my two American friends and then we went for dinner.  



We spent a Sunday afternoon with one of the American families the day before they were leaving to return to the US.  The kids have so much fun together as you can see here.

In fact we all have so much fun together.  We've made so many amazing memories with them in Spain they feel more like family.  Ironically we all are returning to the US this summer. 



Kamree and Mason both got passes to Madrid's Snowzone for their birthdays.  

Mason felt like a pro since he just went in December, and Kamree did very well also.  

Now I had better get back to work packing more boxes!