(This is a ‘May/June’ catch up….written but not posted….more to follow……)
May is BIG in the Edmeads house – both the girls were born in this glorious month, and here is it just beautiful at the moment – settled warm days, cool nights, pool just warming up enough to chance it without neoprene protection from hypothermia…
So birthday parties were easy for our first year in Spain – POOL PARTY!!! Cue: lots of wet towels all over the place and trails of popcorn through the house thanks to the ensuing movie night til late. We had a lot of visitors around that time too, thank you to everyone that was here making it special, and many thanks to all that sent cards and gifts – they were very spoilt and felt totally celebrated.
The 18th of June rolled around very quickly, marking the last day of school until mid September! After only 12 weeks immersion in spanish school, the girls amazed us again by getting 80%+ in their end of year tests, making us so proud of them as always. Even more important they have both worked really hard and are going up to the next class in September -Yay! (here in Spain if you don’t make the grade you can be held back). Their Spanish is very good already, Sadie now chats in it – she forgot the word ‘felt-tips’ the other day, could only remember it in Spanish! Fin is also doing great and knows quite a bit more than she lets on, as we discover whenever we’re in shops or I need help with translation of school letters. She has so much confidence now – will happily chat in Spanish to our customers and they think that’s very cute of course!
They had an ‘end of year’ Carnaval at school, a sort of Year 6 revue, but involving the whole school, with the Year 6’s as the much celebrated ‘stars’. Got the letter 2 days before requesting ‘just a simple costume required of the ripped clothes you just have lying about’ and had the usual “oh and btw I need white gloves as well” from Sadie THAT MORNING!……..she did a ‘Cirque de Soleil’ type gymnastics thing and Fin’s lot were re-enacting Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. It was brilliant and looked like a great finale to primary school for the top class. As 95% of the Yr 6’s will go around the corner to the Instituto next year it wasn’t really a sad occasion at all! We were there most of the evening and then walked to the seafront and had chips on the beach for supper…
They have also done performances with their dance school and stage school, both fab and both girls were very thrilled to be part of a proper production in a full on theatre, costumes, hair and make-up etc, hanging out with 40 odd other kids in the dressing rooms under the stage (can you imagine??!)
For dancing Fin’s urban/street ‘funky’ set was amazing, and Sadie looked adorable dressed up in a Mary Poppins outfit, and then a tailcoat and top hat for tap. Peter Pan (drama) was absolutely magical, both were magnificent, delivered lines with inflection and sufficient volume and generally had a great time. Sadie in particular has a long career in am-dram ahead of her I believe, no nerves whatsoever!
Both shows were in Alcalali – a tiny town inland with only a pharmacy, a florist, a hairdressers and, oh, a full size theatre!! We went with some friends and had a couple of beers and very nice tapas with the children between performances (€30 for 4 adults and 3 kids). The following Saturday they also did the Gotta Dance and Peter Pan pieces in the Javea International Festival – one of the major fiestas of the summer, and as it’s Spain they didn’t even start until 9pm! The standard of the shows was just amazing, and the attention to detail incredible.
After school finished for the summer we went and picked up two little babies – kittens – that the girls had been promised since before we went travelling. They are adorable, brother and sister, very tactile and playful and have settled almost immediately. Poor things have already been loved to an inch of their lives, and are great for getting the girls to do anything! They’re only little – about 10 weeks now – so stay mostly in the kitchen, but early mornings and in the evenings we let them come in the sitting room – so exciting, they leap about for hours. The house is surprisingly kitten-proof having no stairs and lots of doors to shut.
So that’s about it, we are flat out busy with work, school, small animals and social engagements,
All love CRFS xxxx
