Mad for Madrid

We’re enjoying our time so far here in Madrid. It’s a bit colder than we expected, but we’ve had fun going to the zoo, the botanical gardens, taking the train to the old city of Toledo, checking out the street markets and, of course, taking advantage of plenty of good eats!  Here are a few pics from the first few days:

               

                                                          Having Thai food…hmmmmm!

Out on the streets with the crowds.

                                     Ryan enjoying a little stroll at the botanical gardens.

Ryan and Dadda

                                        Family pic overlooking the old city of Toledo.

Checking out one of the flea markets.

Mr Monkeyman in front of the Palacio Real.

 

                                                        Momma and her boys.

Ryan sportin’ his gear from the flea market.

                     

                                                 Brothers – no need to say more!

International Day

We went to International Day at Nicholas’ school.  There were about 20 different countries represented and each had a booth for info and food.  We loved the Indian food, and I, of course, loved trying the desserts from several of the countries.  I worked the American booth for awhile where we were serving chili, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies.  The kids were in a parade and did some performances. 

Here we are at the Angolan booth.  Nicholas tried their national fruits’ popsicle and I got some yummy coconut dessert : ) Ryan loved looking at all the people and colors.  Of course he loved the food too…three cookies : ) The Indonesian booth gave me a cool hand fan!!

Nicholas and I enjoyed getting shortbread cookies from the Scottish booth and we picked up some cool trinkets at the England booth.

Happy Halloween

 

We had our Halloween carnival at the complex on Saturday.  It was so much fun!!  Nicholas was a toucan and Ryan was a monkey.  I was sad that I didn’t get to do my usual dress up this year, but our shipment still hasn’t arrived.  I was in charge of the cupcake walk and all the kids had a blast hunting for eyeballs, bowling, picking up spiders, and, of course, eating.  I hear I’m in charge of the carnival next year…yikes!!  But I love Halloween.  Hope you had a fun one!!

Ready for Church

 

 

African Treasures

During our trip to Johannesburg we visited several markets that were selling traditional hand-crafted items. Carrie went around finding the things she liked and then sent me behind to “bargain” for them. She doesn’t like that part.

 

Below is a wooden salad or fruit bowl with Zebras painted on it.

The round thing is a painted ostrich egg. Next to it is a necklace Carrie liked that is made of what looks like to us little acorns strung together with beads.

Our favorite…and perhaps you can quickly tell why. This is carved from stone and represents our family, eternally linked together as one.

 

Up Close and Personal

The animal experiences available in South Africa are amazing. We visited the Lion Park and the Croc Farm in Johannesburg and got to touch and interact with lion cubs, a baby crocodile, a couple different pythons, a corn snake, a turtle, and a bearded lizards. We passed on the tarantulas. The boys LOVED it! Carrie even surprised me by letting the guy put the yellow python around her neck – this is a girl that hates snakes, but she also says she needs to surprise me every now and then.

           

Around the House

 

    

Our Angolan Family

We couldn’t make it without help from our great “team” here.

Felipe, our driver. Beatrice, Ryan’s nanny. Mize, our maid.

Carlos, our gardener.

A Regular Zoo

 

 

One of our neighbors gave us this great banana tree last week.  It should produce next year.

Okay, Mike gave in and said we could get a chicken for Nicholas.  So here it is…all I can say is it’d better produce or it’s outta here.  Produce eggs that is, not chicks : )

Here’s Feather… Cheerio’s inspiration!  Cheerio wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t seen Feather 8 years ago in Scotland.  And to think we met up again in Angola.  It’s a small world!!

Life so far in Angola

Sorry no pictures this time. I thought I'd just post a little bit about life here in Angola. We've only been here two weeks, but we feel like we've adjusted pretty well so far. Here's the pros and cons : )

Pros:
1) The boys are doing well...Nicholas likes school and is slowly adjusting to the all-day time schedule. Ryan is growing like a weed and has started sitting up now - Yay!!
2) The church is more organized and populated than we expected. In fact, it's amazing, but there was a family we met in Scotland 8 years ago when we were there for a summer. It was this family that introduced us to Westies. Well, guess where they are now? Here!!! And their Westie is still with them. In fact, we're going to be exchanging dog sitting. How amazing is that...Cheerio's inspiration in Angola...what a small world. There is a primary with about 40-50 kids in it. And there's even a nursery....yippee!! Since there a 3 or 4 expat families here, we're thinking about having Sunday school in English for the kids and then joining the Portugese kids for singing and sharing time. I was called to be the pianist so I'm excited to get everyone singing!!
3) The recreation center here in the compound just opened...it's beautiful!! A nice fitness center, pool, two playgrounds, tennis courts, soccor field. I went swimming this morning and it was so nice!!
4) Having a maid, nanny, gardener, and driver. And cook : ) I talked my maid into cooking dinner 3 times a week :)
5) Great neighbors. There are 80 homes here and most families have kids. So it's great for the children as they have lots of playmates. Plus everyone looks out for each other and there's lots of social activities.

Cons
1) Having a maid, nanny, driver, and gardener : ) You're probably thinking...come on, how spoiled is she. Well folks, it is hard work keeping everyone happy, working hard, on time, fed, etc. You'd think I'd have lots more free time right? Well, half the time I spend getting stuff for each of them to do (plants to plant, food to cook, cleaning products to use, etc). And you're never alone in your own house. But I can't complain...I've been blessed to find good help and I literally could not do it alone. I always griped about how tiny our house was in CA, but it's overwhelming have a big house. There's no way I could keep it clean with Nicholas and Ryan needing lots of attention.
2) Most things are spotty and of poor quality. We have a 2.2 million dollar house, but something's always breaking. Plus, the telephone service isn't great and internet comes and goes. The electricity goes off several times a day here.
3) Having to use cash for everything. No credit cards here so I'm constantly paranoid someone's going to steal my purse.
4) The malaria risk. Enough said!

Well, Nicholas is about to arrive on the bus so gotta run! We'll post some pictures soon!!! Gotta show you the banana tree we planted last week!

Nicholas’ First Day at LIS

We caught the bus early this morning at 7:20 to get to the international school.  This is what I got of Nicholas.  He was a real trooper and told me he wanted to stay all day (until 3:00) on the first day.  It took him just 5 minutes to warm up to the classroom and find the trains : )  Looks like he likes school like his mama : )

 

Saturday at the Beach

 

    

Chevron has some beach areas on a small island near Luanda. It takes about 15 min drive and then 20 min boat ride to get there. They have umbrellas, picnic tables, BBQ and a few beach houses with ping pong, pool tables, and areas to rest. It’s pretty typical for the expat families to spend their Saturdays here on a nice day. One of our neighbors went with us today, and we had the place to ourselves. It wasn’t sunny, so that may have deterred some folks, but I didn’t mind (since me and the sun should not be seeing each other much), and the kids especially had tons of fun playing in the sand and finding shells and coconuts. Ryan got fussy because he skipped his naps, but he loved the wind blowing in his face on the boat rides and smiled the whole way. If I were him, though, I’d be fussy too if I had to wear the blubber vest (infant life vest), which is pretty restrictive.