Hasta Luego Sitges!

Hola amigos!!!!!

We hope you are doing well!! We really miss everyone in Sitges and Barcelona. We're sending lots of hugs and kisses your way. I was hoping to post pictures of our hasta luego fiesta before leaving Sitges, but...here we are. We've now been back in the US 10 days and it's been a bit loco, to say the least! So anyway, for those of you who would like to see a few pictures from the past week: here is Caroline on her first day of pre-school, which was St. Patrick's day. She was thrilled to get a bag of sweeties! She told me tonight that she loves school, and her teacher said she is doing great!
When Luke came home from school we decided to go for a walk because it was the first day that it was sunny and warm! Luke is also doing SO WELL in school. He jumped right in and made friends, has a nice teacher, rides the bus, and really likes all of his classes. We really miss having him around during the day, but he seems to really enjoy school!
We were walking to a neighboring farm to see their pregnant sheep and some cows, and I got such a kick out of hearing Luke and Caroline talk about their days at school.
Okay, now back up a few weeks to our last week in Spain. Our pastor Dan and his wife Kathy from our church in BCN stopped by one day to bring Caroline home from a play date and take some filled suitcases for us!!! Their daughter lives about an hour from us in PA, and they were flying into Philadelphia the SAME day we were! How incredible. So they took 3 suitcases for us!
They're really great people...maybe a little goofy. :)
Taking pictures during dinner one night.
Other side of the table. I think Luke had already cleared his plate and gone to play.
When she wants her picture taken, we take it. :) Doesn't happen very often!
Luke went through a phase where he really didn't want to play in his futbol games, but the last few weeks we were there he really wanted to play, so we made sure that happened! His last game was the morning of our hasta luego fiesta.
After his game we went to the Palau del Rei Moro in old town Sitges to set up for the party. Miss Annette helped us to find this AMAZING place to have the fiesta!




Jackson LOVED the strawberries and cream.
People visiting in the outdoor courtyard.
This is the place where the castellers practice (the people towers). This net had a whole in the middle where the people climb up through to practice the towers.
Me, Ellen & Annette. Annette put us in contact with Ellen, Arthur & their boys when we first arrived, and they ended up being great friends of ours.
My American running friends - Ellen, Kim, and Suzanne, with Caroline and Kirsten peeking through.
Uncle Yves and Kim's husband Alvaro.
Jacqueline, Jim, Arthur, Daron & Nicole - their sons Dylan, Sean, Nathan, and Nil were all friends of Luke. They are from England, Australia and Germany - we just loved meeting people from all over the world.
Me, Lisaneas, Patricia and Brian - our wonderful small group leaders from Brazil.
Josep, Teresa, Miquel, Brian, Jackson and me - our special friends from Barcelona who taught us SO much about Catalonia and all of its history and festivals.
Miss Annette and her sweet little friend from Barcelona.
Annette made one of her amazing chocolate cakes complete with fireworks!!
Arthur & Ellen, great friends who were so easy to connect with. Their son Sean and Luke decided to have a sleep-over later this night, our last night in Sitges!!
Luke's friends Dylan and Nathan.
Pilar and Miquel - eating something good!
The kids had fun playing in all of the nets outside.
Me, Yves, and my Tarheel friend Sarah.
Around 5.30pm the castellers came to practice, and some of us stayed to watch - it was really interesting!
Some of the kids who climb up on the very top are really small. I didn't realize how much practice actually went into this.

Annette had also made cupcakes for the kids, which Luke was VERY excited about.

Jackson said "I wike these!!"

Miss Annette and Caroline.

So we will always remember!

Sunday morning we went to church in BCN to say hasta luego to more friends there. Miss Anca was the kids' teacher that morning.

We went out for lunch with Anca and Bogdan, our Romanian friends. Luke and Bogdan were playing futbol at the table. :) Every Sunday during the greeting time, Luke would say "Mom, I'm going to go find the futbol player!" He and Bogdan would talk about whether their teams won that week.

Caroline had fun hanging out with Anca.

Crazy pirates!

Sweet Jackson.

We had such a fun time, it was hard to say "hasta luego"! We then went back to Sitges to meet with our landlords, pack up the car, say a sad hasta luego to our neighbors, and head to Madrid for the night. Our flight was 11.30am out of Madrid on Monday the 9th.

We finally made it to Madrid around 2.30am! After a couple hours of sleep and a few issues at the airport, the kids and I finally got on the flight to Philadelphia. Brian wasn't able to get on our flight, but was able to get on a flight into NY 2 hours later, and we were all together in PA later that night.

Caroline reading the safety instructions. :)

Luke was happy to be going back to Pennsylvania to see his cousins...

but sad to leave his friends in Spain. :(

Amazing views of mountains as the plane left Madrid.

And more snow-capped mountains.

Now that we've been back in our house dealing with mice and their deposits, along with other difficult things in the house and yard, life in Sitges seems like it was a dream!!! We feel so blessed to have made so many amazing friends in the time we were there, and we really can't wait to come back and visit you all.

God bless you all!!

Con mucho amor,

Tonya

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Last Visitors, Birthday Party & Carnival

Hola!!


We had a great time with our last visitors, my crazy aunt and uncle Toots & Dale. :) Here is my favorite group shot from their time here.
They returned from Italy late on February 18th, so on the 19th we had a relaxing day. We got ready for futbol at 5pm and went to the field, but there was no futbol that night! We don't always know what's going on. :) So we drove them up to the look-out point where the kids and I started our hike the other weekend to show them the views. It was a beautiful clear day.

View of Sitges at dusk.

Grown-ups and big boy Jackson.

Nice shot of Toots and Dale.

Family photo.

Brian saw where someone carved Caroline 2008 into the wall!

Since there was no futbol, we went home and made our paella and sangria dinner. After dinner we went into town to meet up with our friends Gina & Kathryn, and happened to be at Cap de la Vila when the parade announcing the arrival of the king of queen of carnival went by.

Jackson on Gina's shoulders. Gina also flies for Atlas with Brian, and lives here in Sitges.

Kathryn & Toots.

Dale got some pictures up close.

Queen's float.

Late night ice cream before heading home.

Friday morning we took them to the tour of Codorniu.

Painting from before the Frenchies made them change the name from champagne to cava.

Same tour guide we've had probably 10 times! He tells the same jokes every time. :)

Cutie-pie Jackson. He couldn't wait for the train ride.

Looking down a corridor of aging bottles.

The train ride through the "caves".

Sr. Codorniu's first grape vine covered in copper.

The next day was Caroline's 5th birthday party at the beach!! We had it at the same place as last year, and had another gorgeous day. What a lucky girl.

Two friends Molly & Mya.

Emily, Ruby & Caroline.

Sweet Caroline!

And her pirate brother Jackson. :)

Luke & Jack with their friends Gabriel & Sean. We'll miss their family a lot.

Birthday girl - she said it was the best birthday ever.

Teresa and Miquel sharing a piece of pizza.

Easy entertainment for a birthday party!

We had a treasure hunt for the kids, where they each had a treasure map and had to find their hidden treasure. Here Gabriel is finding his inside the wall. :)

Hunting more treasures.

Caroline's turn! The older kids helped the younger kids read the directions, it was very cute.

Caroline and Mya.

The Dads had to get involved because we couldn't find two of the treasures that we buried!

Miss Annette made an amazing pink cake just for Caroline - she loved it!!!

Yum, yum. It didn't take long until it was completely gone!

Caroline opening her pirate costume, how fun.

She received so many sweet and generous gifts.

Pinata time!! Dad didn't have time for a princess creation, so her art project from a few months ago had to do. :) He painted a princess on the other side which was beautiful.

Sweet picture of Emily and Caroline.

Toots, Dale, Yves and Brian.

Maresa trying to get some candy out of Jackson.

Hmmm...he's thinking about it!

Mya and Caroline reading a book while we were cleaning up.

Jackson playing dead in the sand. :)

Now Luke is reading to the girls.

Saturday night our sitter Gabriela came, and we went out for dinner at the port with Toots and Dale. We had a great time!

We ate at Laury's, which was recommended by Yves. The food was wonderful.

Sunday morning I realized I had my camera in my purse so I took some pictures at church. :) Here is the choir.

Moses leading a great song by Kirk Franklin.

Our favorite band member Bogdan, from Romania. He and his wife Anca always make a point to say hello to the kids, they're very sweet!

Bogdan with the crew.

Jackson teaching him how to make a good pirate face. :)

After church we went up to the castle/fort on Montjuic. Here crazy Dale is trying to keep the kids out of a watch tower. There is a funny video of this below.

The soldiers and the watchtower.

View of the city from the top of the castle. You can see La Sagrada Familia in the distance.

It was a bit windy up there!

Picnic lunch enjoying the sunshine!

We then hopped in the car and drove up to our favorite castle in La Bisbal, just off the Costa Brava. We had made reservations for Toots and Dale to stay there, so we hung out for a while and then went to find a hotel that was a bit more kid-friendly. :)

Jackson playing with Tootsie.

We climbed the tower at the castle and Caroline wanted to take a picture of her puppy up there.

Group photo on the top of the castle!

Brian had a liking for the stuffed antelope (actually, I don't really know what it was), and the kids thought this was hilarious.

Jackson was completely enamored with the soldiers in the display of the Battle of Waterloo. He kept asking which ones were the good guys, and which ones were the bad guys.

Toots and Dale in front of the castle.

We saw a gorgeous sunset from their terrace.

That's my boy, drinking his coffee!! We had a nice breakfast at our hotel in the morning.

View from the breakfast room.

This is actually Hotel Llafranc, which we had found and stayed in with the twins when they visited a year ago! It was fun to go back there.

We then drove back to Sitges, and Caroline had fun checking out all of her new birthday gifts. So cute!

Going to Spanish class later that day, now we have two pirate girls! Caroline wasn't really in the mood anymore. :)

While they were at Spanish class, Dale was chased around town by a lion. Toots and Dale stayed home with the kids that night so we could go to small group. The next morning they left for the US. They were able to take two checked bags and our two Sitges paintings for us, which was such a blessing. While they were at our house Brian and Dale got a lot of the painting done, and Toots was always cleaning up after us. Thank you guys SO much for what a huge help you were. We had a blast with you!

Later that day was the kids Carnival parade, so we took the crocodile, lion, and two pirate girls in town.

The kids had fun checking out all of the costumes.

Even Darth Vader was in the parade!

Jackson was more interested in fighting.

Caroline was busy throwing confetti.

Scary lion.

Cool pirate ship float.

Caroline loved all of the pretty costumes.

The parade is over, and the street is covered.

Brian's first carnival parade - he was thrilled. Ha ha.

Luke had missed a few weeks of futbol due to the flu and Caroline's birthday, and the time we went and there was no futbol - so he was really excited to play again!

Jackson was happy to be at futol again too. :)

Luke's team won, and they stood and clapped as the fans cheered for them. It was very cute.

I love how the boys help to clear the field after the game.

Yeah Luke! We are sooo proud of him. :)






I can't even believe it's our last week in Spain. We will really miss all of the wonderful friends we have made here. We are in the process of selling things, giving things away, and packing up. Our pastor and his wife are actually flying into PHL the SAME DAY we are to visit their daughter in Pottstown, and so they brought 3 suitcases over today for us to fill. What a blessing. Things are coming together! We just found out tonight that Annette was able to get us into the Palau del Rei Moro in Sitges for our Hasta Luego Fiesta this Saturday, so that will be a very special time I'm sure. Brian arrived today, so we're looking forward to doing a few more of our favorite things in Sitges this week. Have a great week!

Con mucho amor,

Tonya