It’s not enough nowadays to simple have a birthday party you also need to celebrated in school with all your friends.. Lucky for me I had to go and entertain 23 kids for one hour.. Yes, lots of fun…. I brought them snacks and candy and read them a story..

For the most part they paid attention but really, the rest of the time they spent yelling, screaming, crying, laughing, fighting with each other, asking me questions, telling me they had to go pipi or caca, singing, dancing, talking, climbing, painting, playing with toys, spilling things….ALL AT THE SAME TIME!! I definitely would not make it as a kindergarten teacher for more than 10 min…

Overall, the kids had a great time.. I guess.. and I have a huge headache. I’m glad the next birthday is not until December!! I think I will have time to recover…maybe…

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You would think she was turning 21, the way Isabella and all her little friends celebrated this special day. Saturday afternoon we had the big birthday bash for Isabella who turned 4. She had been sick the day before but that didn’t matter a bit when she woke up on Saturday and told us she was ready for her party.

She specifically asked for a princess cake and lots of balloons..We obliged on both accounts..She was quite pleased with the turn out and her gifts..She played with her friends and simply had a blast..The adults also seemed to have a great time..(there was lots of alcohol of course)..

Well, until next year I guess..

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I guess Marco and Isabella are at that age where birthday parties are part of our daily routines. But you don’t realize that parties not only take time away from you they also take money away for you. Last year I realized that I had to incorporate in our financial budget a birthday budget.

Yes, I know it sounds a little ridiculous but think about it, we have 2 kids, there are about 20 kids per class, about 10 friends in the urbanization and unfortunately or well many would think fortunate, our kids are very popular and invited to every single freaking birthday party in town.

Now, let’s do the math. 2 kids times 20 classmates each = 40 kids + 10 urba friends = 50 kids. Ok, now each gift cost an average of 15 euros so 50×15=750 euros a year in birthday gifts and average of 62.5 a month. so, there you have it.. Aside from the mortgage, gas bill, electric bill, phone bill, food, car insurance and so on we now need to add a birthday party fund.. and lets not even talk about their actual birthdays, where an average party costs about 200 bucks x by 2 and now your total birthday deal is almost a grand a year…

Those of you who don’t have kids yet, this gets you thinking huh?? its not just diapers and formula, with each stage there are new costs..

This month so far we have gone to 2 birthday parties and Marco had one today and Bella has one tomorrow so we are right at the 4 average that I budgeted..so if anyone else invites them this month we will have to pass…

Wow! I can’t believe I’m actually writing this blog. What a day, it is Halloween and even though its not a big holiday here, actually it is not even a holiday at all, the actual holiday is tomorrow November 1st called “all saints day”, a day of the dead, where you should go to the cemetery and place flowers on the tombstones of relatives that have past away…

Anyway, I decided it would be fun if I organized a Halloween party in our urbanization to show these Spaniards what Halloween is all about..My neighbors were not that sure at first but after a little persuasion they all contributed. We made Halloween food, we all dressed up and we even made a haunted house.

We had an awesome time and the kids loved it!! They had a blast.. they loved the haunted house, the little ones were petriffied… I don’t know how I pulled it off, party organizing is not as easy as it sounds..but, it was a success, Bella couldn’t stop crying and Marco punched a volunteer scarer in the haunted house because he was soooo scared..hahahahaa.

Overall, we had a great, great time.. I want to thank Cristina for her awesome food, Eugenia for her creative drawings, Elena and Jose for their Spider cake, Arancha and family for joining in the fun, Melissa and Alex for scaring and kids as well as decorating the haunted house, and all the kids who made the night so special.

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Ok, all you Americans are probably wondering..what the hell is an urba party. Well Urba is short for urbanization, a very popular word herein Spain since most Spaniards live in apartments which form an urbanization, something like a small community. Well, the city hall allows all urbanizations to have a great big party once a year (in the summer) meaning everything goes, music, fireworks, anything you want, and the pesky little neighbors that always complain about everything (we have a couple here I will be writing about later) can’t say shit!! it’s actually quite funny.

Well, this weekend after the election of the new community president and leaders (I was voted for my block) we planned a weekend feast. it all started Friday afternoon with games for the kids. All of a sudden we looked around and there most have been 30 plus kids from 3 years old to 12 just running around like crazy. They all participated in the games, played dress up and won prizes, then we set up a mini theater and sat all the kids down with popcorn while the adults had dinner, a huge pot luck.. with beer and all sorts of drinks. Al around 4 am we all crawled back to our apartments. (kids included).

The next two days were similar, the men had a soccer match, there was a tennis match, the women played cards, the men poker, we swam in the pool, overall the kids had a great time and I can’t complain.

I was the official photographer but I’m ashamed to say that when downloading the second batch of pictures I overrode the first batch which was the best of the first day. I’m trying to recover them but I’m not sure I will be able to. But I was able to save the rest..

see pictures here

Well, its all over.. Marco and Isabella are all done with school. They are officially off for two plus months.. they are so excited, and so am I..hahahaa… I love to spend time with them but by the end of the summer I can’t wait until school starts again. But, for now they are free from early mornings, extra curricular activities and they have to look forward to days in the pool and beach and long summer nights, eating ice cream and playing with their friends.
I started their summer off today by having a mini pool party in our pool. Marco invited his best friends Marcos, Alvaro, Roberto & Javier and they had a blast. They swam, played soccer, ran around, they were just so happy, it was great to see.

Isabella also had her friend Pablo from her school who happens to be Roberto’s little brother.. so she was thrilled.
Here they are all eating Popsicles and making a mess.

I’m exhausted but very happy to start the summer. I wish all of you a great summer too. What plans do you guys have? Please comment and let me know. You can see more pics here