Busy day

Rebecca has been waiting for appointments for herself and Theo to get their TIE (residencia) cards, due to a mix up she had less than 24 hours notice to obtain a new padron from the town hall and get passport photos done. Goodness that was a challenge, Theo was not going to cooperate for the photos so we had to leave it. We arranged to go the next morning at 8am (even though they didn´t open till 9.30) to try again, then we thought about it and found suitable photos of him that we put on a stick and the very kind gentleman in the photo shop just manipulated them so they were the suitable size etc phew. That was service with a smile

We were stressing a bit as Theo had a bad night, so we all did, and he doesn´t like being contained in his car seat.  We tried to make it an adventure, pointing out diggers, lorries etc and do you know, he was as good as gold, chatting away for most of the hours journey to Alicante. Once through the initial proceedure in the foreign office they were called straight in, unlike us where we had to wait 90 mins. They had a ticket each but luckily the desks were next to each other, Rebecca had to put Theo down for fingerprints and signatures and Theo decided it was snack time so proceeded to take out all his snacks and arrange them on the chair to decide. So the next person had to wait while this was all packed away again. I would have loved to have seen their faces lol, anyway all done now, in the system, just a 6 week wait for the actual cards. Theo was very good on the return journey too and certainly deserved play time.

Chris has still been painting away, usually each one takes about a month, this one was from a view he has had in his mind for ages, looking into Benissa to the church

He decided to paint a fantasy one next, you have to look carefully but there is a cat and birds and other shapes hidden amongst it

Right, chicken roasting, need to prep the remainder now

take care

xcx

Mixed bg

It´s been a mixed bag here, our new fridge freezer finally arrived, unfortunately the fridge compartment is not as deep as before so having to get used to it. I think it will need a change of ordering habits and mindset, but so nice to have everything chilled again without the long walk.

Rebecca and Theo have been up to stay a couple of times, we pick them up on a Friday afternoon and they stay till Saturday about 6 when Antoni picks them up. I love spending the time with both of them and it gives me the opportunity to play with Theo whilst Rebecca catches up on some much needed sleep. It is also good from his point of view as he doesn´t always need Mummy there the whole time. He loves his time in the kitchen, even if it´s just because Yaya wants a cup of tea and he helps with the tea bag. We have chamomile tea and he has taken quite a liking to it, great in the afternoon to help him unwind.

This week I seem to have a bee in my bonnet, needed to declutter, it´s when you discover boxes in drawers with only a few items in them (mainly model helicopter parts) and the inevitable why are we keeping this. Papers in files dated 2005, really! way passed the 7 years, we have a very old fashioned cylindrical  log burner that came out of the casita years ago, so I´m hoping we can use it to burn the papers rather than shred them.

I moved on wielding the paint brush and roller, I can only do a little at a time, and have to ration out the spoons (energy taken) but the arches in the doll house area have been painted, along with the stair well and one stair wall. Think I shall have to put the larger roller on a long handle to do the tops, no way am I going up a ladder!

We have a little water feature that we brought with us, yes all those years ago, bought from the Brannam pottery in Barnstaple which started n 1848, they were having a closing down sale which was sad, I suppose it must have been 2005. Anyway I wanted to get a solar powered pump just to give a little trickle and to aerate the water to avoid mosquito lave. Didn´t get round to it, but for Christmas Chris bought me one.

He had other plans though, he collected rocks from around the place and built a super pond. It´s built on the tiles in the courtyard with a layer of lining, then sand and another layer with more rocks around the edges. So now I have my water feature, much better than I envisaged and it´s free, when the sun comes out lol

 The wonderful thing is it has already been visited by dragonflies and even a few very brave birds have swooped down  oh and the furries thick it´s better than their fresh water bowl.

Picking up stitches for the collar of Theo´s jumper, but not much else in the crafting

take care

xcx

2nd birthday

 Monday was Theo´s actual birthday, he went to nursery in the morning, where they presented him with a cake with 2 candles, but he just looked at it quite bemused, not quite getting the concept of blowing.

We visited in the afternoon, after nap, such a smart little feller

He saw his pile of presents, did a little dance, then proceeded to hand them out to everyone as he did at Christmas, aww bless.

One of our presents was a duplo space shuttle set as he loves the story of going to the moon. Mum and Dad has been collecting duplo bricks, wheels etc and he loved them, he is so into building things, especially aeroplanes.

We stayed for a couple of hours, he was getting tired, so time to wind down and bed routine. Yeah good luck with that! He was up in the night nearly every hour, then 2-5am wanting to play with all his goodies, then he flopped. His head must have been so full of everything, poor Mum!

Yesterday I went down and stayed for the afternoon, playing, or rather building loads of stuff, so Mum could have a well deserved sleep. He is quite content to build on his own too, letting his imagination take him as he played. He is learning that brick aeroplanes don´t fly, hard to learn what you can and can´t throw.

I finished his little jacket, which will be ideal when the weather gets warmer, rather than jumpers.

I will finish the jumper on the needles then probably another jacket. While I was waiting for nap time to finish, I started a heat mat/wash cloth using cotton yarn. Ideal in the bag on the go project.

take care

xcx

Party time

All the Christmas decorations have been packed away, lovely to have them but  too much after a while. Every time Theo came to visit he would always look for the tree then say goodbye to it when he left, so cute.

We seem to be on a roll with appliances going wrong, the vacuum cleaner started to overheat without too much work and wasn´t doing its job. Have now gone for a cordless one that charges, so much suction and being hand held and more upright saves the back and is so easy to use. Then my hand held mixer kept spitting out the whisks, I don´t have the effort or inclination to hand beat mixtures, so that was another buy.  Then Chris decided to investigate before it was disposed of, turns out 2 screws had worked themselves loose, oh well, I can lend it to Rebecca as her´s is in storage.

Theo and his Mum came up for a while Thursday afternoon, we made scones together, although I think Theo was a bit tired and his heart wasn´t in it. He did come out to the garden to help me hang the washing, passing me the pegs, as we were counting them I asked for 2 more please, he just said ´mas´(more) so sweet.

Rebecca and I spent Friday morning in the kitchen, whilst Theo was at nursery, We made a large victoria style sponge and chocolate cupcakes, also whipping up vanilla buttercream for the main cake and chocolate for the cupcakes. She will decorate it once home to the theme she wants, although we improvised and used digestive biscuits and made our own chocolates for decoration. So glad I bought the new mixer.

Yesterday was Theo´s 2nd birthday party, although the actual day is next week, It was being held in a lovely park near Javea, lots of wooded areas, a huge playpark, DIY bbq block and loads of picnic tables dotted around. seems to be the place to go for a party. We took a box of goodies for the table and began to decorate the area as best we could before Theo arrived. Luckily it was reasonably warm with some sun. Surprising how long it takes to blow up balloons. He loved the balloons in his favourite colours.

There were only 4 kids in total but I think that was enough for Theo as he seemed rather overwhelmed.

More edible delights arrived with Rebecca, including the cake. The kids were all given a polystyrene  aeroplane, quite robust, which went down a treat as it kept them amused for ages, especially when they got it stuck up a tree and watched with glee as Antoni tried, very successfully to retrieve them. They enjoyed taking the planes up to the top of the play equipment as they flew better from there. Pass the parcel was a bit of a flop and a few tears, opps, the bubble machine was loved, but the bottles of blowing bubbles mostly ended up on the floor. We stayed for 2 hours, by which time the sun had gone and it was getting really cold, but a good time was had by all.  Theo didn´t want Daddy to fly his plane he wanted Yaya so that was fun too.

This was his cake, a lion, he loves lions and tells you how they roar.

 I tend to keep moulds etc, these were from a box of chocs given ages ago, came in just the right size for the eyes and nose, the ears were digestive biscuits cut down with a cookie cutter, and licorice for the rest. The cupcakes were supposed to represent the mane. Theo loved it and it all tasted lovely too.

More fun to look forward to next week

take care

xcx 

Taming the wilderness

We had a lovely Christmas day, Theo was in awe with the pile of presents and took delight in handing them around, but bless him, when he was given one, he sat and opened it then proceeded to play with the contents. He was quite happy and certainly not demanding another one to open. His main present from his Mum and Dad was a kitchen, which he loved, our presents were centered around that with pots and pans, utensils and play food and a tea set so everyone had a play cup of tea, he will certainly get many hours of fun from it. I think all his help in the kitchen, baking etc made having his own rather special.

Unfortunately a few days before the event, our fridge freezer packed up. The freezer was still working but frosting up badly, but no cold air was being pushed up to the fridge. Tried allsorts but to no avail. Luckily we have a fridge in the Casita, but it was a real pain having to trot back and forth. We are finding it difficult to find a replacement as we are restricted to a certain width, something no one obviously thought about when the kitchen was originally built. The only way will be to take the back door off. Still hunting. Then our mircowave gave up, but that was easily replaced.

We are having quite a mild spell at the moment, so I took the opportunity to go and prune the rose bed. Huh, bit off a bit more than I could chew as it was so overgrown, persisted though and quite pleased with the result, although there is still a little to do.

So todays project was to tackle the area by the pool, right mission...

This area had some really nasty thorny stuff but managed to get it out

The vine still needs a chop, but definitely an improvement

More to do tomorrow

Did take the opportunity to sit in the naya in the sun for a couple of hours, knitting another jumper for Theo.

Wishing you all a Happy New year

take care

xcx