dress up at down time

There aren't too many toys in the apartment and the television is pretty much only in Spanish so when we are at home, my sister and I use our IMAGINATION. We are INNOVATIVE.

Today I am wearing a lovely fleece evening gown. No it isn't Lanvin or Dior, it is a Qantas blanket with a Zara belt.

with likes, 

from Phoebe

Desayuno de Cabra (breakfast de goat!)

As you may have noticed previously, we get very excited at breakfast time here. Today was a special day because Leo sat in the high chair for the first time. He was very happy about this. Our table is such a mess because we all like to eat so many different things even though it's all about goat cheese today (queso de cabra) to go with our fresh bara (baguette).

Today I'm eating Roncari Blue which is a strong tasting roquefort blue sheep's cheese, and also little Babybel cheeses which have their own little wax seal.

Olympia's favourite cheese is Garcia Baquero goat's cheese slices. She has this everyday and she puts the slices on fresas (strawberry) jam

Mum is trying a new cheese today. It is goat cheese from Muntanyola. She is eating it with honey (mel).

 Leo is having baby porridge and sampling small bits from everyone's plate.

Dad is having his favourite goat cheese Soignon Saint Maure, a French cheese. Cheese is called fromage in France, which is a bit similar to the Catalan word for cheese, fromatge, which is different to the Spanish, queso - confusing! He is also eating a local delicacy called sobrassada, which is a bit like jam made of meat. It makes him happy.

We are listening to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDTZ7iX4vTQ&ob=av3e

Pumped up kicks by Foster the People is my favourite song at the moment.

milano comes to barcelona

Our friend James came to stay with us for a few days. I really like James. He is studying finance in Milan  (he has a lovely girlfriend already) and he brought some really delicious Italian pastries.

We made sure we introduced him to special Spanish things like xorcata, and showed him some of the sights in Barcelona.

We had a tapas lunch in the Boqueria, Barcelona's most famous market, we visited some Gaudi buildings and the Cathedral cloisters and even managed to get to the beach again.

We even helped James study for his 'derivatives' exam. Apparently this has nothing to do with a 1980s revival as Mum and Dad thought.


likes,
from Phoebe

water, water, everywhere...

All over Barcelona there are public water fountains where you can fill up your drink bottle or let your dog (or Dad) have a drink.

This one is in the cloister of the cathedral in Barcelona, where 13 geese live. Santa Eulalia was 13 when she became a saint, so there is a goose for each year of her life. My Grandma Chris brought me here when I was only Leo's age.

This fountain is in Tarragona, in the old town near the cathedral. When we came by the next day somebody had written graffiti on it!

likes,

from Phoebe

Espadrilles

This week we all bought espadrilles. These canvas slipper shoes have been made in this part of Spain since the 14th Century. This shop is famous in  Barcelona for selling Espadrilles.

The soles are made from rope and they come in lots of different colours. I chose pink and my sister chose orange espadrilles.  Dad picked light green, mum picked dark green, James who is visiting from Milan picked blue and Kimberley who is visiting from LA picked red.

the dark crystal

Dad went to the markets at Placa de les Glories, a large open bric a brac and antiques outdoor market that runs a few times a week. He bought some pieces of agate, some quartz as well as some ammonites.

The ammonites are crustaceans that lived millions of years ago and their fossils are like beautiful snail shaped stones.

The mountains in Catalunya are very rich in minerals so we have seen a lot of crystals, quartz and ammonites since we came here. We visited the Museu Blau de les Ciències Naturals (Natural History Museum) to see their collection of fossils and crystals too. There was a lot to see.

Afterwards in the museum shop we bought our own crystal Christmas tree set so we could grow our own crystals.

The cardboard tree slowly drinks the special crystal food and the crystals begin to grow on the branches.

It takes a full day for the crystals to grow. When we woke up the next day, this is what we saw..

Halloween

Last night was Halloween and we decided to get into the dead souls spirit. Today is All Saints Day and it is a public holiday. Dad bought a pumpkin to carve a Jack O'Lantern for us.

We put a candle in it and turned off the lights. It was really scary.

Mum bought me a witch's hat to wear and Dad drew a spider on my face.

My sister didn't like any of the Halloween costumes in the shops. She picked a musketeer costume instead. We went out trick or treat-ing. A lot of people couldn't understand what we were saying but my sister went into every shop and waited until they gave her something. 

We didn't ask the police for anything.