I once had a farm in Africa.......

South Africa. Wow. I don´t even know where to start.

Miguel had a flight to Mexico and wanted to change it for a flight to Argentina. When one of his collegues offered him this flight to Johannesburg, he accepted it because he thought it would be easier to trade for a Buenas Aires flight (Mexico City isn´t a favorite destination) . When we learned that the South Africa flight had a three day layover, we called up Mari to see if she could come stay with the kids. She came with her sister and we were free to go.

We left Monday night and arrived Tuesday morning. There is only 1 hour difference between Johannesburg and Madrid, so no jetleg to speak of. We spent the first day exploring the area and getting ready for our mini safari. One of the flight attendents had arranged to stay at a Wildlife resort one night so we decided to join them. We left the next morning, not before checking out the election results (YEA OBAMA). We drove two hours north of Johannesburg to a resort/game reserve called Detholo (http://www.ditholologdge.co.za/). We had lunch, sat around the pool and waited until it cooled off to go out and see the animals.

We also visited the De Wildt Cheetah Center

http://www.southafrica-travel.net/north/a_dewildt.htm

http://www.dewildt.org.za/ We took a tour and we even got up the nerve to pet one of the cheetahs.

We had a wonderful time. I would love to go back . I feel that I have only seen the tip of the iceberg and I would love to see more.....

Halloween 2008

Halloween was a big event in our house this year. We went to two different parties, hosted one here at home on the 31st and then Dani celebrated at school. I love halloween, but I was very happy to put away all the halloween decorations on the 1 November. The pumpkin bread I made from the jack o laterns was very tasty too.

First Party....Trick or treating

Here are the photos from the first round of trick or treating. We went to Humera, which is a city northwest of Madrid. It was just like trick or treating in the states. The police even blocked off the streets for us. We had to give 60 pieces of candy per kid beforehand and the organizes gave the candy to the people who wanted to give out candy. Then we went trick or treating to the houses that had balloons (or were decorated), Notice the cool wonderwomen outfit the first photo.

We went with Annie the devil, Eva the Angel, the twins in their poodle skirts, Oscar the firefighter and Dani, winnie the pooh. We had a great time!!

Dani at his school.

31 October

At our house with Pirate Oscar, princess Olivia, scary Carlos and cowboy william. Dani refused to get in the photo with Carlos. Our nieghbors get into the spirit and we have trick or treaters come around our neighborhood. For a second year in a row, our friends who live in Madrid (she is from Bellevue and he is Spanish) brough their kids out to go trick or treating. I think the kids had the more fun giving out the candy than going trick or treating.....

Last Party

The last party was on the 1 November. We went to our Northern Star´s playgroup´s Halloween Party. It was great because I could unload all the candy that the kids had collected the night before and all the candy I had left over. Dani loved the guacamole and the playdoh was a hit.

Dani at school

Here are some photos of Dani at his school. The school has a website and you can log in and see photos of the different activities. The webpage ishttp://www.eiacuarela.com/

If you are interested in seeing more photos of his class, drop me an email and I will give you the code to get into the webpage.

(He doesn´t like to get his hands dirty....)

Dani and the shape sorter

Enjoy!

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.......