The Eiffel Tower

Here is the view from our kitchen window. In front of our house, the city of Torrejon is building an Europe Park. We get the Eiffel Tower. We saw a model of the park and we learned that there will be:

Tower Bridge,

Brandenburg Gate

Windmills

Viking Ship

Roman theater

Fountain of Tivoli (a fountain in Italy)

Puerta de Alcala

And many many more. We will keep you posted!!

Fiestas de Torrejon October

On the first weekend of October, Torrejon celebrated it´s patron Saint. (Notice all the purple and gold...have I told you about my life revolving around purple??)

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People come and bring flowers and there is a celebration all weekend long with free paella (for those who wish to stand in line for hours) and bouncy castles for kids (another line). So, we went down to the plaza and soaked in the culture. Instead of standing in line, gave the kids the option of bouncy castles or balloons. We were very happy that they picked balloons.

Oscar´s first day of school

Well, Miguel has these photos. I will post it when I get them...
Oscar started school on the 15 September. Thankfully, the cast was off and he had had time to get used to walking again. He was super excited because this year he goes to the big kids school. I wasn´t super excited because it means I have to drop off Oscar and then drive to the other school and drop off Dani. Oh well, I guess I will live. He was excited to see all his friends again. His backpack weighed a ton because he had to bring all his books the first day.

Books in Spain. Don´t you remember the days that we got our books at school, we checked them for problems, covered them with paper and then gave them back at the end of the year. Well, that doesn´t happen here. Here the parents buy the books. Here is how much we paid for books this year.

Dani 150 euros ($225)
Oscar 250 euros ($375)

Yikes. That is a plane ticket somewhere. I couldn´t believe it. Oh, on top of that, we have to cover all the books with plastic. What for?? It isn´t like the siblings are going to use them. They are books/workbooks. Plus, we have to buy supplies (crayons, pencil sharpeners, etc) that we know are going to disappear in the black hole of the classroom.

Oscar´s Foot

After dropping Dani off at school, I decided to take Oscar to the doctor. Oscar had fallen off a big toy (while sliding down the fireman pole) and had hurt his foot. He claimed that it didn´t hurt (ha ha) and Miguel took him to the doctor. They took an xray and couldn´t find anything wrong. Rub this gel on his foot and it should be better. Well, Miguel went flying and it wasn´t getting better so I decided to take him to the doctor again. This time we saw the bone specialist and WITH THE SAME XRAY saw the bone that Oscar had broken. So, he put a real plaster cast on him, we rented crutches and ala we were free to go home. Can you imagine an active 6 year old with crutches?? It was terrible. He was excited because he got to watch a lot of tv.

September

First Day of School for Dani!!

Here is Dani with his fellow colleagues Hector Ruiz and Daniela de Pablo. They are the siblings of two kids who are in Oscar´s class.





Here are the six of them. Raquel and Hector, Oscar and Dani, Daniela and Javi.

August in Torrejon

After spending July in Seattle, we had to head home (to the heat). We spent the month at the pool or at home, trying to keep cool. The kids went to Asturias to spend a week with Abuela Mari (while I went to New York with Miguel). We also went to the Fiestas in Alcala de Henares, Miguel´s father´s town. Here we are, at the fiestas. The kids had a great time. As you can see, Oscar is in the stroller because he broke his foot a couple days before jumping down the fireman´s pole, instead of sliding down it.