OUR HANDSOME GENTLEMEN

Look out GQ. Here come Charlie and Clark. It is no suprise that I found them surronded by five single ladies in the church hallway today, all who wanted to give them a kiss. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Wilcken for the cute outfits.

CHARLIE TURNS 5

After months of asking if it was his birthday yet, the day has almost arrived. Check out Charlie´s birthday invitation below for his birthday party on Thursday. Pretty much what the invitation says is that we are going to have a Superhero party where the kids will train to become Superheroes. (I am just glad most of you don´t speak Spanish well enough to know that there is an error in the invitation. ) More pictures to come after the party.

IT´S A DIRTY JOB

It´s a dirty job, but somebody has to eat toast with Nutella.

July post coming soon.

JUNE 2010: SUMMER BEGINS

Summer gets off to a slow start here in Spain because school doesn´t get out until the later part of June, but we took our first trip to the beach on June 9th, which is a holiday here in the Region of Murcia. It was a ward activity and we had lots of fun. It seemed to be a cloudy and windy day, but it was a good thing that I smathered sunscreen on the kids and myself because lots of people got fried including my sister-in-law. In the end, only my shin on my right leg got burned and to this day you can still see the tan line or should I say burn line.

One of the kids´ favorite activities throughout the year is to play superheroes and June was no exception. Clark loves dressing up in Charlie´s costumes. Normally Charlie is Batman, Clark is Spiderman and Leo plays the bad guy.

In June we also had fun times at the park, at home and with the cousin but the best day was the very last day of June because we rented a van and traveled to Madrid to pick up Grandma and Grandpa Wilcken who came to visit for three weeks. Although we arrived late to the airport because we forgot to check which terminal they were arriving at and G & G were worried that we had had an accident and that we were at the hospital, in the end it was a wonderful reunion; the start of great family adventure traveling around Spain. More to come in the post for July.

On the beach with friends.

Everyone crashed after the long day at the beach.

Our superheroes.

Charlie with his best friend Dani on his last day of school.

The cousins looking cute as ever.

A fun day at the park.
Everyone fixing their bikes. Do we have some mechanics in the making?

MAY 2010: An unauthorized haircut, a 2/3 birthday and a special announcement.

It took me longer than I had hoped, seeing that it is the end of June, but here is my review of May.

May was a good month. Nothing really exciting but some good family time. As you may have noticed in the pictures of Clark in former posts, we have been letting his hair grow out because Leo loves the curls. I love them too ,but it was getting to the point that even in the most "macho" clothes people were calling Clark "guapa" instead of "guapo". I mentioned several times to Leo that we should cut his hair and he refused everytime. Well, I took things into my own hands and with a little help from Grandma Yolanda, we trimmed Clark´s hair: not very much but enough to make a difference. Of course Leo was mad at first, but he got over it, if not he wasn´t going to eat dinner for some time. Some people still make the mistake and call him a her, including my doctor, but now perhaps it is just because he is just too cute. However, now that it is getting hot, I think it might be time for another unauthorized hair cut perhaps a buzz cut.

One of the first Saturdays of May we helped put on a Super Saturday activity for all the young men and women of the stake. There were probably 150 young people at the activity. In the morning Leo and I organized a workshop and then at lunch time we helped herd the young people to a grassy hill in the city where we ate lunch. I didn´t realize we were going to do this so we all got sunburn including Clark. After lunch they planned a dance but nobody was dancing so they asked me "the party game girl" to organize some activities. So off the top of my head we played several games including " Do you love your neighbor" and "dance with balloon between your forheads". In the end, it was a success and several people commented how much fun the kids were having. I think perhaps it is better that they ask me to do these things at the last minute so that way I don´t have time to stress.

Just like last year, Charlie wanted to celebrate his birthday at school. When it is his real birthday school is still not in session, so we celebrate it another time of the year. Last year was March and this year was May. I couldn´t go because of work but Leo´s mom and sister, and nephew and Clark all went and by Charlie´s request they brought sandwhiches and home made cookies to share with the kids. (No rules about homemade items here). Since Charlie had his birthday now he says all the time that he is 5, (Mom, remember I had my party), plus he reminds us that he can do all the things that other 5 year olds can do.

During May. our stake also organized a activity to celebrate the family. Everyone from the stake was invited to a park in Murcia, a city nearby to participate in family games and events etc. Since the park was right next to a rest home, each family was invited to go and bring an elderly person to enjoy the activity with us. Leo went to pick up someone and he felt drawn to an elderly women in the corner. He started to speak to her and she was very cold and didn´t want to leave, but he spoke awile with her and little by little, Gregoria started to warm up and finally decided to come out. Well, in the end she had so much fun with us that while the rest of the people went back to eat, she wanted to stay with us and even ate a plate full of Ecuatorian food. When she finally went back she cried saying it was the best day of her life. For us, as well, it was a very special experience, especially considering the fact that I didn´t want to go to the activity because I was in a very bad mood. After being with Gregoria I couldn´t help but feel better.

Perhaps one of the reason why I was a bit grumpy was because I am pregnant and the first few months I always have mood swings. Yes, for those who don´t know, we are going to have another little one at the end of December. We are very excited and can´t wait for the new arrival.

Clark before hair cut (bhc).

Clark (bhc) eating lunch at the grassy hill.


What a cutey!

Balloon between forhead game. Leo acting as judge in the the red shirt.

Charlie, the birthday boy, getting ready to hand out the food.

Charlie´s classmates eating the cookies.

Clark was in heaven and even started to write on the chalkboard, as if he were the king of the classroom.

The boys in the playground area. Javi and Clark didn´t want to leave and Charlie felt very special to have his family there, but finally they were kicked out.

Charlie climbing the tree at the park in Murcia during the family activity.

The whole family with Gregoria.

At a park nearby.

Unfortunately, at the park there was no picnic table or grass so we had a picnic in the gravel. Most parks don´t have grass here becuase it does not rain enough and watering is too expensive. It is at times like theses that I really miss my Oregon.

APRIL 2010- A REAL BANG

So I sit here at the computer while my three boys are crashed out on the couch and floor. We just got back from a long day at the beach and we are all exhausted but I just had to take advantage of this opportunity to work on my new goal. I am tired of always being behind in this blog so my new goal is to do at least a monthly review so that we have some kind of record of all the things that happen to us during the month. Considering the fact that it is already June and I am just doing the post for April, I am still a bit behind but I am confident that I can finish this post and and do the post for May before July even gets here.

Well, here it goes! April was a good month: of course because it is my birthday but also because it started off and ended with a real bang, literally. Since Holy Week was the beginning of April this year and here in Spain Thursday and Friday of Holy Week are bank holidays, we got to spend some quality family time together. On the 1st of April Leo decided we needed to go on an adventure. Since the city where we live, Cartagena, is located in a very strategic location, throughtout history it has been important location for the the armed forces of every civilization that has occupied this part of the country. Even during the Spanish Civil War it was considered a an important location. For this reason there are several forts, ancient and not so ancient, built on top of the mountains that surround Cartagena that were used to locate the enemies and protect the area. Leo had heard that one of these forts built during the Civil War was built like a medieval castle, so we decided to go visit it with Leo´s mom, sister, nephew and cousin. We didn´t know exactly where it was. the directions on the internet were not very good and the person we called just could tell us the general area were it was so in the end it took a lot longer to get there than it should have, but we had fun along the way. In our adventure we first stoped to have lunch on the beach, then we started to look for the turn off to the fort again. We missed it the first time as well as the second time going by, but after turning the wrong way and literally almost running into a shephard and his sheep, we were finally able to get some good instructions and we found the turn off with out any more problems. It was a very steep road and a bit scary at times considering how narrow the path was, but it was well worth it as the pictures below can testify.

lunch at the beach

At this fort there are still 3 huge cannons. I am sure during their day they caused a few big bangs but luckily today they are just decoration.


The whole family on top of the cannon.

Sometimes it was a bit scary how steep the drop-off was near the cannon.

The three cousins together.

The medieval fort.

Enjoying the beautiful views.

The entrance of the fort.

After we got back to Cartagena we dropped off Leo´s cousin and stopped to visit his aunt and uncle. When we left to go home Leo and his mom took the three boys in one elevator to go to the car but unfortunately the elevator got stuck. Although later we were told we should have never taken the boys out in case the elevator had started again, luckily nothing happened and we were able to get the crying boys out and then Leo and his mom only had to wait 30 minutes for the technician to come and let them out.

On one Saturday in early April we took the boys to a park where they had set up some attractions including a small car rollercoaster. We put all three boys in one car but in the end the operators had to stop the ride because Clark was crying so much.

Charlie was swallowed by a giant Bart Simpson.

All three once again entered a fun house with lots of balls but the operator had to enter and save Clark as he was drowning in the pool of balls.

Charlie had lots of fun using the trampoline and got some good air.

As I mentioned before April is very special because it is my birthday and this year was even more special because I received some very nice birthday wishes from people here as well as family and friends from the other side of the ocean. (You got to love Facebook) It was also special because we celebrated my birthday three times. First we had a intimate celebration with the immediate family. Then with Leo´s mom and sister we went to an American restuarant to celebrate and then on another day by Charlie´s request we went to Burger King to eat with our extended family plus Leo´s aunt, uncle and two cousins and then we went to bowl and play a few arcade games. It was a very good night. I don´t know if it was because everybody was being nice to me because it was my birthday, but I beat everybody and even scored over a hundred, which for me is a good bowling night. In the last frame I got a strike and a spare. Yeah me!

The whole family bowling.

Clark was in heaven with the arcade games.

Actually I think all three of my boys were in heaven.

In late April, Charlie went on a field trip with his class once again this year to the learning farm. They took 300 kids from the ages of 3-6 to this farm and I guess it was a success because at least all the kids returned home safely. Charlie is good friends with the boy next to him, Jose, but his best friends, Dani, is the tall boy behind him.

Charlie was gone from 9am until 4 pm and then we picked him back up at the school. Clark was excited to see his brother although he did try to escape through the gate of the school without anybody noticing. Good thing I saw him escaping from the corner of my eye.

After we picked Charlie up we got back into the car and we were waiting at a red light when a mother who had just picked up her son, did not see us and backed right into us. Our car was already pretty dinged up from other incidences but since this time it was somebody elses fault, the insurance covered the repairs for the bank portion of the car and we paid for the rest to be fixed as well. The car now looks brand new. Who new someone running into you could be a blessing in disguise.

Well, there it is. My review of April 2010. It was a good month which started with a bang or should I say a cannon, and ended with one as well, that is a banged up car. Stay tuned for May.