Mother's Day

Mother's Day was yesterday here. Coincidentally, it was also the day we moved our clocks forward (which is bunk, in my opinion).

The kids took part in a Mother's Day assembly at school on Friday, which was adorable. They sang songs and presented little gifts they had made.

I received this decorative tile from Lily.

Butterflies, a tree, and sky

Miles made this lovely card.

During the assembly, Lily's class held up pictures they'd painted. We had supplied a photo of my face, and that's what she based it on. Here I am.

I was quite impressed!

Miles' class also painted pictures. Their theme was "My mum is good at..."  I have to admit, I was a little worried about what his answer may be. Yelling? Some household chore? No, I'm good at building Lego models. He's a sweet boy.

Check out the triangle hair

I absolutely love these types of homemade gifts. We didn't really do anything else to celebrate. I was unwell and on the couch the whole weekend, plus we'll just celebrate Mother's Day when the US does it. Matt has already made a reservation for dinner on that day in May. We normally don't go out on big holidays like that because it's so crowded, so I'm excited to be able to do it this year.

Happy UK Mother's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

And only one day late.

We didn't do anything special, and the kids' school didn't really celebrate either. Miles said they saw some things about St Patrick's Day, but that was all I got out of him.

I did plan a special meal though. Now, I've always known the traditional meal to be corned beef and cabbage, but that's not a thing here. It's difficult to find corned beef here, and I read that the Irish are more likely to eat bacon and cabbage. I wasn't feeling bacon and cabbage, so I made Guinness stew, and Matt picked up some fresh bread from a local bakery. It was all amazing.

And that was our St Patrick's Day. Well, it's not like we're going to take the kids on a pub crawl or anything, plus I hadn't heard of anything else going on around town. I hope everyone else had a much more exciting time!

Barcelona, Final Day (plus random city shots)

On our final morning, we ate breakfast on La Rambla. We sat down just as the restaurant was opening (around 9 am), and did some people watching as we ate. One thing Matt and I both commented on was how many American accents we had heard during our stay. There were several people out running, and the groups of tourists and locals slowly started appearing.

My breakfast- Parisian omelette (just eggs, really) and chips with coffee

Matt's breakfast- eggs, chips, and chorizo with coffee

On the way back to the hotel, we grabbed some churros for the kids.

Chocolate covered- tasted like Hostess donuts

Plain with no sugar for this one

Then we checked out of the hotel and wandered for a short time until our taxi arrived. The trip home was pretty boring (thankfully). We got home in time to eat and get the kids to bed in preparation for school the next day. Next time we will build a little more time in to adjust when we get home.

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That's all for the trip. I do have several pictures from when we walked around that didn't really fit into our stories from the past few posts. So here they are.

A terrible picture, but this was a rest area in the Amsterdam airport. It looked like a park setting, and had nature sounds piped in. The kids obviously loved it.

Every little alleyway had apartments or more shops

People would dry their laundry on the balconies, even putting up underwear where everyone could see

So many interesting buildings

Waiting for the Metro

La Rambla

La Rambla

Those last three pictures are of Palau Guell, another Gaudi-designed building, which was on the same block as our hotel. They do tours there, but we weren't able to fit that in.

I hope you've enjoyed sharing our first European holiday!

Barcelona, Day 4

One of the things Matt really wanted to see in Barcelona was La Sagrada Familia, a Catholic basilica designed by Gaudi. Construction on the church began in 1882, and is still not complete to this day. We wanted to tour the inside, but the website stated that there would be no loud noises, or running and horseplay. Our kids wouldn't be as sedate as that, and I am not going to be THAT parent. But we could still walk around the outside.

So we grabbed a few pastries and ate them on the way to the Metro station. The train dropped us off right next to La Sagrada Familia, and it was the most crowded landmark we saw the entire time we were there. I would definitely recommend buying tickets in advance if you ever plan on going. The outside is beautiful and intricate, and I would love to go back sometime to view the inside. And it's interesting to see the yellowed facade of the oldest parts, compared with less weathered sections of the new.

There were lots of souvenir stands set up in this area, and Matt and I decided that our souvenir would be a small piece of art. We didn't mind that it was mass produced; we just wanted a little something we liked as a memento.

After circling the church, we wanted to do more exploring, so we started walking in the general direction of our hotel. We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch, and that helped keep us happy.

Making shadow puppets

Hey, look, I was there too

After lunch, Matt led us to Placa de Catalunya, which is considered the city center. There were a few vendors selling snacks, water, and bird feed for the thousands of pigeons. (I'm really bad at estimating, but it seemed like thousands to me.) The kids chased the pigeons, and it was by far their favorite part of the entire trip. 

Clara had to get in on the action, too.

Then Matt bought a bag of birdseed for the older kids. They got a bit nervous when the birds flocked around them.

She kept shrieking, "Pidgey!"

Miles said he wanted to hand feed the birds, but did this immediately upon receiving the food

Placa de Catalunya is at the north end of La Rambla, so we just wandered down until we found La Boqueria, which is a large public market. There are various stalls selling fruits and vegetables, meats and fish, cooked foods and treats. We didn't see everything, because the kids were getting tired and wild, but it was a cool place to visit.

The kids had ice cream here, and Matt and I each had a snack (I had an empanada, he had some kind of fried chorizo ball). We took home a couple more empanadas, and some cactus fruit for the kids.

We rested back at the hotel for a while, then ventured out to let the kids pick out souvenirs.  Lily chose a flamenco dress, and Miles chose a stuffed poo. We tried to encourage a different choice for him, but he did not want anything else.

On the way back to the hotel, Matt grabbed some takeaway (some kind of Turkish wrap or something), and we settled in for our last night. The kids were pretty wound up, and didn't want to leave, so bed time was horrible. We were worried that no one would sleep well, since it was Saturday night and Carnaval was going on. And there was much more noise on the streets, but somehow the kids slept.