We Love Our Little School

We feel so fortunate to have found an absolute gem of a school -- we'd be hard pressed to find a better school anywhere and, the added benefit to us, the girls are already speaking Catalan and Spanish.  Aoife is quite the little linguist; any native speaker who gets the chance to interact with her can hardly believe her progress, and neither can we!  Aine is already able to tell her teachers what she's done over the weekend and sing countless songs.  We are so excited!

Part of what is absolutely wonderful about our school is the sense of community.  There is always something going on in which everyone has the opportunity to participate: children, teachers, auxiliary teachers, parents and other staff all!  Here´s a bit of the fun and wonder! 

 Aine all decked out after the school Carnival parade.  The girls' had fairly simple costumes this year, Smurfs ... err Pitufos ... err Barrufets.  Barrufets, yes that's it!  Aine, what a super-dee-duper-cutie!

 The girls together, post parade.

 This is the first and only time Aoife has EVER let anyone come near her with face paint.  The fact that she let her teacher give her both blue-flushed cheeks and glasses speaks volumes for both that magical woman and this school!

 During carnival week the girls got to participate in different fun, themed days.  This was both Pajama and Crazy Hair Day!  Yes, she's that cute!

 Three tails for little sissy.

A couple of sweethearts all ready to head of to school.

 Aine from the back.

Aoife from the back.

 

There are other less elaborate but equally meaningful activities that get sprinkled through the year.  There are a couple picture below ... and a couple more to come ...

 Aoife got a wonderfully sweet little book sent home one afternoon which she was to share with the family and then make an illustration of what she thought the main ideas were.  It was a little challenging reading such a long story in Catalan, but Daddy translated into Spanish to make sure that everyone (ummm, Mommy) would catch everything.  (I must admit, my Catalan is coming along pretty nicely too, my comprehension at any rate.)  Anyway, Aoife's illustration is above.  She totally got the central ideas, and it's pretty stinking cute too!

 The book and instructions.

The climax of the story. 

The really cool thing is that each student gets to bring the book home, complete their drawing, send it back to school and then it becomes a sort of quilt at the end of the year when students revisit the book and put them together.  So lovely!

Aoife´s class also has a mascot, Piu-Piu.  She got to bring him home one weekend and take care of him. 

The final version of Aoife´s poster to take back to school also had Catalan descriptors.  I got brave and adventurous.

 Aoife, Piu-Piu and her Vella Quaresma (another fun lovely experience).

More fun at the park ... with Piu-Piu ... Yay!

In the coming weeks Aine will get to be Student of the Week -- la Protaganista -- and the entire school will have their end of year, "open-doors" party.  We'll look forward to sharing some of that, too.

We miss you!

XO

This and That

As always blogging is proving way more difficult than I'd like it to be.  We're going in so many different directions, doing so many different things, it's hard to find the time.  

Anyway, here's a bit of this and that in our world over the last couple of weeks.  Here's to more coming soon ...

Over our Spring Break we hit up a lot of museums, cheap entertainment, and so many were super kid friendly.  Below are pictures of the girls hard at work constructing their own architectural endeavor to add to a growing city at one of the local art museums.

Our construction site.

The building.

More and less sure about this picture ... and the rest of the growing city, behind.

We've also continued with our hikes.  It's really convenient to get to the "mountains" and there are kid friendly paths.  The girls love it and so do we.

Cool and confident.

Our little shaman ; ).

Looking up.

Such a beautiful day!

Hi.

Somebody loves her Daddy!

Post hike snuggles.

Post hike grub.  Cool crisp beer and freshly roasted calçots with romesco sauce.  Yum.

And on to other things ...

The lights of Christmas ... I've never seen them anywhere else like I have in BCN, and it is amazing.  I know I've been promising a post about the rest of our Kings celebration but we might all just have to wait until next year.  In the meantime, we do have a lot of wonderful things to share, we hope you'll stay tuned ; ).

We love our purple.  We loved this tree all winter ... we got to see it early and often when it got dark by 5pm!

Happy New Year ... and that it is! 

Cheers,

The Stuhans XO

Aoife Will Be 4 Years Old in a Week!

 

Our darling little Aoife is going to be 4 years old a week from today.  It's completely wild and wonderful all at once.

She´s grown a lot recently.  She's bigger, more beautiful (if that's possible), smarter--certainly--and her little spirit is just awe inspiring.  We are so proud of her.  And so very much in love.

Ready to burst.

Part of her little room, all ready to receive her (even if she did sleep in a bassinet in our room for the first 4 months).

 She's here ... we're exhausted, she's tiny and adorable.

 Early conversation(s).

 Less ...

... and more peaceful.

 She's one ...

... so much fun ...

 

... and the apple of Mommy and Daddy's eye. 

Two!

 

 

 

Best big sister ever! Ahh, I love those squishy little faces!

And a natural born dancer, or possibly Kung Fu fighter.  My money´s on the former.

Three!

 

Happy girl.

Happy moment.

 

Continued, Best Big Sister Ever.

In the first picture of a post there's a little hint of the things she's up to these days.  Reading and writing are to of her favorite pass-times.  She knows and can write all of her letters and can spell a lot of words:  all the names in the family and some sight words.  I am not formally teaching her any of this at this point because I know it isn't necessary, she's just that interested.  She has been drawing lots of family pictures recently, too.  The progression has been incredible to watch, we all currently appear in appropriate color schemes and appropriate sizes : ).  She loves to explore and build and of course sing and dance.  She's an absolute joy.  

As James said earlier, in the odd time you have to pick her up after she's fallen asleep and move her to her bed, it is the most magical, wonderful part of your day.  I imagine the opportunities for things like that will only continue to be fewer and farther between ... perhaps that will make them all the more magical.

Happy Birthday, "Beanie".  We love you!

Kings Part I

So, I've been promising this post for a while ... and it will have to come in installments, so many pictures to go through : ).

 Grandma came to visit and we did lots of stuff together.

Including eating lots of good food -- like this, the Tortel de Reyes or Kings Cake.  There's something sweet and wonderful to go with every holiday around here.  It's a wonder we've all actually lost weight.

 Getting ready to dig in.

 Aine found surprise number 1, the dried bean, she was supposed to pay for the cake...

 ...but we let her wear the crown.

 Yum.

 Yep, I'll second that: Yum!

 Daddy found something...

 ...hey, what is that, Daddy?

Ah, the King, how appropriate.  But, he didn't get to wear the crown.  We made him pay for the cake.

More to come.  Look out for the next installment when we take to the streets to see the parade.