Frienship and "Girlfriends"

- Friendship isn't about who you have known the longest. It's about those who came and never left your side. - Anonomyous

I read a study once that indicated that women who have good girlfriends with whom they share life and have fun have lower stress levels and live longer, happier lives.  I count myself lucky to have some truly great friends.  Even though I've moved far away from some of them they are near and dear to my heart, as are their beautiful children.   

I think Kim and Jamie (with me (in that order) above) helped me discover what it means to be a real friend, how to love and learn from the ways we are different not just those ways in which we are similar.  How to share happiness and heartache.  I learned how to be a mom next to these two amazing women and am forever grateful.

Angela, with whom I always grow and am constantly safe.  I can tell her everything "like it is" and am consistently challenged to be better.

And our children, who make the bond that much sweeter:

 They can play and eat together.

Be (to borrow from Kim) "the six cutest children that ever were." 

Share a hug.

Or take part in good-natured competition.

I feel fortunate to have been able to visit with these friends on our whirlwind tour in the States, I hope it´s something we´ll be able to do again in the future.

Here's to all of us living a bit longer and, certainly, a lot happier.

XXX OOO

fly little butterfly, fly

We've kinda just been hanging out the last couple of weeks.  We're all officially out of school and we've been waiting for our adventure back to the States to start ... it's official countdown now, fewer than 18 hours 'til take off.

It's been so hot and since it's August half or more of everything is closed for the month.  That being the case, we've been doing a lot indoors or during the first part of the day:  zoo, science museum, beach walks followed by videos, baking and art projects.  Often I look at other blogs for inspiration with projects but every now and then I come up with something of my own.

 Getting started (and yes, it's that hot, just undies around the house for most of us).  I cut out some butterfly stencils and then taped some saran-wrap securely to the table on top of the stencils.  I left enough wrap at one end to fold back on top of the project when we were done.

 We mixed up some more "glue-paint" (white glue, water and food coloring) and used it to paste down our old scraps from other projects, collage style.

 When they girls were done with their designs, I folded the extra bit of the saran-wrap over the top (smoothing it carefully to avoid bubbling) then taped the edges with clear packing tape.

 The white stencil, or pattern behind is gone, and just the colorful outlines and collages remain.

 The tape and hanging them up turned out to be a really good idea, in this case...

 ...'cause the "glue paint" ran down the pictures and then pooled at the bottom leaving a really clear project, above.  I just trimmed off that bit where the much pooled and didn't have to re-tape the edge because it had dried quite well.

Aine's Butterfly

Aoife's Butterfly

 

It will probably be a while until we take on a project like this again.  We'll be really busy for the next month.  Our flight departs at 6.50 am tomorrow morning and it's going to be a really...long...day!  Our adventures include a stopover in Illinois to visit and give ourselves a break in all the travel.  Then, we'll head to the Pacific NorthWest to visit with Trish, Rob and to meet little baby Piper.  Then down to Oregon to work, work, work where we'll also have visitors (a grandma and a grandpa -- yay!).  Wish us luck! 

Abrazos.

un cap de setmana molt bo - a really good weekend

We were fortunate enough to be invited to spend the weekend with some friends in their family country house in the village of Arbeca in the Catalan countryside.  I didn't get nearly as many pictures of the highlights as I would have liked but I suppose that meant I was having too much fun just enjoying it.  It was so nice and we're still happily recovering ; ).  Ahhh.

For this post some guest writers are joining me because they have a lot to say about all of this --

Aoife & Aine:  We're going in the car to see Maria's little house.

Aoife:  We're still riding in the car.  I love Maria a lot and we're going to her house.
Aine: Hey, there's Maria's car (the little blue one to the right)!

 Aoife:  I liked playing dominoes.

 Aine:  We didn't do the horses one yet (that's still to come).

Aoife:  We're drivin' that truck.
Aine:  Where's Maria, Mommy?  I don't see her.

 Aoife:  I'm riding the horse that was at the toy museum. 

 Aine:  It went around.  Around.  Around.

 Aoife:  Here I am riding the Mickey Mouse thing.

 Aine:  For starters, I'm the one with blue and the really big smile.  We're riding with each other.

 Aoife:  We're going to ride with the horses and we're going to have lots of fun.

Aoife:  And I had fun on it.  And Maria had fun on it.
Aine:  Me too!

 Aine:  Daddy and Aine riding the carousel, the horses ... carriage!

 Aine:  I don't see Nuria and Isaac.

 Aine:  Now I see them.  There's Nuria and Isaac and Maria and Aoife!

 Aoife:  We had fun on the horses and I got the purple balloon, Maria got orange and Aine got white.

Aine:  Those are the chickens and roosters.  They're a little the same.
Aoife:  But they're a little different.  'Cause the roosters have a crest.
Aine:  And the chickens go, "Bawk, bawk."  The roosters go, "Kikiriki, Mommy."
Aoife:  You mean, "Caca-doodle-doo."  ... and that babies say, "Pio-pio-pio."  And the chickens lay eggs for the babies to come out.
Aine:  And we get the eggs and eat them up.  Like we did this morning.

 Aoife:  We were picking tomatoes in the garden.

Aine:  It's Maria's little house.  We're playin'.

 Aoife:  It's Maria's little house (all four stories of it).

 Aoife:  We were peaking out the door to see the flowers.

Aine:  We each had our own umbrellas.
Aoife:  And this is of us seeing the really old castle.

 Aoife:  Jumping.

 Aoife:  And petting the horses.

 Aine:  I have my baby and my hat and I didn't want to pet the animals.

Aoife:  That's a picture of us leaving and wanting to go back home.
Aine:  And we sleeped in the car 'cause we were sleepy.
Aoife:  'Cause we did lots of things.


Aine: My favorite thing was riding the horses and the balloon and the toy museum.

Aoife:  The most favorite thing that I liked was riding with the horses and getting a balloon and going to the toy museum.

Some quick notes:

Arbeca is about an hour and a half drive away from the city, so it was a quick easy get away.  Nuria is Ana´s, Aine's teacher, sister.  Maria and Aoife are in the same class at school, and great friends, as you can see.  This is the home that their mother grew up in and it now serves as a great little family retreat.

The ruins we went to are Iberian and nearly 3000 years old, so I suppose "old" is a bit of an understatement.

We ate a ton of great food including the best paella we've ever had, made at home by Nuria -- she even made the fish stock to cook it all in from scratch!  We also had the best baby clams we've ever had the next day at lunch.

The village was fantastic, the neighbors incredible.  We came home with fresh eggs and tomatoes that the children gathered plus a full tray of fresh, delicious nectarines.

It was a wonderful time and we feel so fortunate to be making such great friends.

Peratellada - Cadaqués Get Away: Part II

While Grandma and Grandpa were here we all managed to get away for a weekend, despite any other business or chaos ; ).  We visited an old favorite (Part I pics, from 2006, are at the end of the post) and had a nice time showing some old and new Favorites around.  XO

Cadaqués -

 It was sunny.

 The streets were beautiful.

 Picturesque European waterfront -- plus a cute kid and her mommy.

 Someone loves the camera ...

 ... and the camera loves her.

 Gotta get in a silly shot.

Peratallada -

We stayed in the same "rural tourism" farmhouse as we did 6 years ago.  It was as lovely as we'd remembered and totally new with the kids.

 "Kikiriki!"

 They LOVED standing at the window in the morning and calling back and forth with the roosters.

Daddy about to enter after packing up the car in his "La Roja" t-shirt.  Totally appropriate since Spain kicked butt in the Eurocup later that day!

 Licking pretend "chupa-chups." 

 Outside our flat in the greater house -- precious.

 The barn -- so much fun for kids of all ages (er, cough-cough, Grandpa -- okay, Mommy too).

 Lovely girl, chow time for the cows behind.  From what we could tell, it was always chow time.

 Now, that's a proper farmhouse door!

 The village of Peratallada at a distance.

 Yes, those are giant bales of hay behind our lovely daughter.

 The farm (and Grandpa) at a distance.

Part I:  James and I got away for a long weekend during the winter months when were lived here in ´06.  It is one of the trips we remember most fondly of all that we've taken.

 From the same vantage point as the "Peretallada at a distance" picture taken above, just a slight turn.

 The village at sunset.

 Cadaqués by day.

 It was much colder ...

 Windier ...

 Rainier ...

 Yet, so amazing!

Yes, definitely amazing.

I'm sure we'll be back, probably to the same little farmhouse.  We'll probably wander the same little streets, and it will probably feel like the same sweet respite as it did the first two times.  It will also probably be as equally different and new as each of the first two times.  Well, I suppose that could be said about a lot of things.

Talk soon!

Xxxx