The cookie baker

While Dani was taking his afternoon nap, Oscar and I made cookies.

Pocoyo Event and the McDonalds

Last Sunday, Dani and Oscar got dressed up in their favoritie cartoon character outfits and met one of their favorite characters, Pocoyo. For you who don´t know this cartoon, it consist of four main characters, Pocoyo, Pato (duck in spanish), loula-a dog, and Elle-the elephant (oh, how can I forget Sleepy Bird, ok, five characters). It was created in Granada and then sold to the BBC (hense the name Pato). The kids just love it. It is so simple but funny.

Dani dressed up as Winnie the Pooh and Oscar as Handy Manny. We met our friends Amber and Antonio and their twins, Adrianna and Noa and our other mutual friends at the event. Group photo: Adriana, Eva, Noa, Oscar and Dani, and Annie.Afterwards, we went to McDonalds to celebrate. The twins are in Dani´s Monday morning music class. Dani doesn´t go to his daycare Monday mornings because the two of us really enjoy the class and seeing Amber and the twins. The toy surprize in the Happy Meal was a star War´s lightsabor. The kids had a lot of fun on the way home.

"How old is Dani?" "Two!!"

On Sunday, we celebrated Dani´s second birthday. After being witness to too many crazy birthday parties, we decided to keep the event low-keyed.


We invited the usual suspects:


The Neighbors (Maite, Luis, Diego, Raul //Jose, Guytane, Solene, Diego)
The Family (Sonia, Juan, Alejandro and Miguel Senior)


It was enough people to create havoic and have a good time. I made a NY Cheesecake and Miguel senior brought a Black Forest Chocolate cake. All the kids ate peanut and butter sandwiches (including Raul!!) and we sang happy Birthday to Dani in two languages. What a great time.

Picnic in the Pines and the Vuelta de España

Last weekend was an eventful weekend in the Codes Bodien household.

On Saturday we packed up the kids and a Spanish picnic (no sandwiches, only tortilla) and spent the afternoon outside at a picnic area that Miguel had seen on the way to his sister´s house in Pioz.

Sunday, we watched the Vuelta de España (the Spanish version of the Tour de France) race by our house. I had seen a couple days before on TV that it was going to pass through Torrejon de Ardoz. When I saw the route, I couldn´t believe that it was going to pass by the roundabout close to our house. So, we rang the neighbors doorbell (this type of thing is always better with a crowd) and went out into the roundabout to cheer the cyclist on. There was a father who was with his kids and he was cheering on everyone, the police, the ambulances, the repair cars, etc. We really got into it!! I think the kids enjoyed the motorcycles and the helicopters more than the actual race, but everyone had a great time.

First Day of School

1 September 2008


Dani and Oscar´s first day of school and our first day of freedom in the morning.

Dani started at the daycare that is just around the corner from our house. Oscar went there so we know the teacher and the owners. Dani is there from 9am - 1pm. He eats lunch with his little friends and then I pick him up and take him home for his nap.

Oscar is in Spanish Kindergarten. It is his last year at this actual school and will start next year at the Big Kids School in another part of town. He was excited to see all his friends. He has the same teacher that he had last year. This year, the kids will learn to read. His favorite thing is still recess. Somethings will never change.

Puerto Rico

or as Oscar says, Puerto Rrrrrrrrico.

Miguel had a 5 day flight to Puerto Rico and orginally, we had contracted his mother to take care of the kids. Due to unfortunate circumstances, she couldn´t take the buggers, so we had two options. Take the kids or Miguel goes by himself. I wasn´t going to allow Miguel to have 3 full days of pool and beach without me, so we packed up his suitcase (we fit everything in one, unbelievable) and decided to take the whole family. We didn´t tell Oscar anything because our plan was to "say goodbye" to Papa at the airport and if there was room in the plane, we would go with him. So, at the end, there was room and the Codes Bodien family flew with Papa to Puerto rrrrico.

The flight was interesting. Dani is not a good traveller. He screams when things don´t go his way and gets bored easily. Oscar is a champ. Plug him in to the TV and he could be there for hours. He had a couple books that he read and a puzzle, so he was happy as a clam. Dani, on the other hand, wasn´t. Oh well, it was only 8 hours....

We arrived all in one piece. The hotel was in the Isle Verde, which is outside of San Juan. It had a wonderful pool and of course, right on the beach. We arrived around 9pm so it was bedtime for all of us. The kids woke up around 4am but then went back to sleep until around 6am. Needless to say, we were one of the first people down for breakfast.

Our days consisted of beach and pool. The kids loved the pool.

Dani wasn´t a fan of the beach. At first he was afraid of the waves and didn´t like the texture of the sand. After a couple days, we convinced him that it wasn´t so bad and he finally went down to the surf. Oscar loves the beach. We made sandcastles, airports and just had a great time with hotwheel cars.

One day we took the bus down to Old San Juan. The buses were free so everyone and their grandmothers were on the bus. It was crowded but the kids were great. We got to the city and walked around the wall for a while, and then went to the Pigeon Park. Dani fell down admist all the bird gunk so we had to find a store to buy him new shorts (notice: he started out with blue ones and ended up with tan).

The El Moro Fortress was neat. We decided not to go into it because we were coming back with my family in November and it wasn´t too stroller friendly. The kids loved the trolley that we took back to the bus station. I think it was the highlight of their trip. Such simple pleasures.

The flight back was uneventful. Dani and Oscar both slept and I actually got to eat a meal and sleep myself. The crew was very nice and it was the last flight for one of the flight attendents. He had worked for Iberia over 35 years. There is talk that Iberia is going to get rid of this line/trip. I certainly hope not. I would love to do it again, but maybe, without kids.......

Oscar´s Summer Festival

On the 26 June, the Escuela Infantil, (Oscar´s preschool) had their end of the year festival. Oscar and his classmates dressed up like Aladin and Jasmine from the Disney movie and sang a song and then danced. A lot of the parents made the comment that they had never seen a blue eyed, blonde haired arab. We celebrated the end of the year with a lunch at Burger King. See you all in September!!

Can you see Oscar? He is the tallest kid in the class. His dance partner was Luna. The kids at Burger King. Dani is on the left, with his new haircut.

Hombres G

I have a life. I have decided that I needed to go out and get one so I did. Last night, I was out until 2am at a concert with a group of Moms from Oscar´s school. It was the fiestas de Torrejon and the group Hombres G, a group that was popular in the 80s here, were playing. I knew a lot of the songs because Miguel loves the group and plays their CD a lot. So, when I was invited to go with the girls (and a couple guys), I decided, what the hey, and did it. I didn´t know all the words, nor did I know some of the songs, but it was fun to be part of a crowd and jump up and down and belt out the parts that I knew. This group of women are a kick and I really love hanging out with them. They have such energy and have such fun.

New York, New York

New York City, 13-15 June

Have I mentioned that I like the Airbus 340? Well, our latest trip was New York. Miguel´s mother, once again, flew down to take care of the kids while I went with Miguel on one of his flights. We had a great time. We got in Friday evening and went for Cuban food. Yum. We drank a couple of mojitos and then crashed. On Saturday, we met up with my University of Washington friend, Mary Tang for breakfast. After breakfast, we did some shopping (gotta love that strong Euro) and then took the subway down to Ground Zero. It was a humbling experience. We proceeded to walk through Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. It was hazy but we did see her. We had beautiful weather- hot but not too hot. We took our time just walking around. We caught the subway back up to Times Square and back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel just in time. A huge thunderstorm hit New York and it rained for close to three hours.

The crewbus came to pick us up and the thunderstorm followed us to JFK. It was raining so hard cars were passing through puddles that came halfway up their doors. When we got to JKF, we found the airport closed due to the thunderstorm. We sat for three hours in the airport and waited for the storm to stop. Once the storm let up, the airport started working again...cleaning the planes and unloading the luggage from the incoming flight. After loading the passengers, we sat on the tarmac for two hours waiting for our turn to take off. There were 80 planes ahead of us. Needless to say, I didn´t eat dinner because it was 2am when we finally took off. I put in my earplugs, put on the eyeshades and slept the whole flight home.

Miguel asked me if he could take New York off his list of request. Are you kidding?? There is still so much more to see and do.

Florida

Florida May 2008

I am so far behind on this blog thing that I am just going to post our photos from our trip to Florida.We had a great time even though it was hot. The stuffed animal that you see is Trufo, the mascot from Oscar´s school, that came with us to Florida. Dani, we found out, disliked the beach. Oh well, it can´t be for everyone...

On the plane. The kids were so excited about getting on the plane. Miguel and myself, on the other hand, were not. The kids were champs and did remarkably well.

We rented an apartment in Vero Beach, Florida. Oscar and Trufo are on the balcony. It was very nice. Beach access and a pool. What more could you want...

Oscar got to pet a crocodile.

We even played mini golf.

Our family on the boardwalk. Oscar and Trufo in the cockpit on the way home.