School Dance Festival 2017

The kids school had their annual dance festival in May. The kids had a lot of fun participating. Unfortunately, I can't get the videos to upload (so you'll just have to watch them when we come to Utah, Mom. Same for the ones of Ginny and her play), but here are some pictures.

Ginny's class represented Mexico:

Ezra's Birthday

Ezra turned 6 a couple of months ago, shortly after our Barcelona trip. It's hard to believe he'll be starting first grade next year. He seems so grown up lately in many ways. He measures almost exactly 4 feet now, and is now in the 85th percentile for both height and weight, so it looks like his height has caught up! He is doing really well in school, and is still very friendly and social.

He had a very fun birthday including opening his presents first thing in the morning, taking cupcakes to his class at school, and celebrating in the afternoon with his best friend from our apartment building.

He received a ukulele from G and G Lindstrom, which was exactly what he wanted!

And Aunt M and Uncle L sent him a book to help him learn to play.

Erik and I gave him a pokemon book and some legos.

Celebrating with his friend, Caleb.

And celebrating later when Erik got home from work. He decorated his own cake with a Sonic theme.

After Ezra got his ukulele, I purchased another so we could all learn together. It's been a lot of fun!

Barcelona

I am so very behind on this blog, so here goes some catch-up. Over spring break, we joined up with Erik's parents on a trip to Barcelona. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to spend the break! As usual, the kids were great flyers, and they pulled through the first day of jet lag better than I did.

There was a lot of beautiful and unique architecture in Barcelona, and plenty of little parks for the children. We also went to the beach a couple of times, where the kids picked up as much sea glass as they could find. I can't remember the names of all the places because it has been too long. Maybe I can get Erik to caption all these pictures when he has a minute (i.e. never!), but until then just know that these were all taken in or near Barcelona. :)

 Here are the highlights in pictures:

This one was taken outside the walls of some castle. We didn't go inside (long, long lines), but it was fun to walk around it.

I think this is a museum. Maybe an art museum?

Pretty views.

This was taken in the courtyard of a church where there was going to be a choir performance, I believe. We did not stay (kids), but we did take a pretty hike nearby.

These next few pictures were taken at the end of the hike.

These next few are views of the church from the hike.

The beach! The water was still too cold for swimming, but the kids enjoyed dipping their toes in.

This was one of the animal statues at a park we visited.

Erik and his dad got to attend a soccer game, which Erik was very excited about!

On the way to Parc Guell(?), there was a very steep hill we had to climb. Luckily, there were a few of these steep escalators to help us get all the way up.

A random building we thought was pretty.

Another church.

One of several small parks the kids enjoyed.

Beautiful streets. This type of street with all of the little shops and restaurants is my favorite part of any of the cities we've visited.

Another park.

This and the next few were taken as we walked along a city wall. I can't remember the name of the city. Just that we traveled a little ways to get there.

Crossing a bridge at the same city as the wall (I think).

A very fun swing we discovered!

Another fun building!

Park, obviously.

This park was right in front of the apartment building we stayed in. As usual, Erik found us a very nice apartment to stay in--close to plenty of grocery stores and bakeries, and close enough to make the train convenient.

We were in Barcelona over Easter, and on Good Friday the church across the street from our apartment building performed the Stations of the Cross in the park. This was the view from our window.  I love all of the Easter celebrations that go on in Europe. I always think we should make a bigger deal of Easter (the spiritual side, rather than the Easter bunny side).

This was taken on our way up to the castle? I think. There were some very pretty flower beds and trees.

These were outside the castle.

Inside the church where the choir was going to perform.

Hiking.

Playing with the bubbles at the park.

Hiking up to the crosses.

View from Parc Guell.

More inside Parc Guell. Sorry these are so out of order.

A drinking fountain. Always helpful!

More church.

More park. I think they were playing here while we were on our way to the beach.

More beach.

So, there you have it. Our Barcelona trip in pictures! I really should write these things down as I go so I can be more specific when I finally get around to blogging about it. But at least I've got this one down. Just a few more posts to come and I'll be up to date again!