Spring Break

Hola Amigos!

Esta vez, para varear un poco y ser justos con nuestros amigos que solo hablan Espanol, he decidido hacer el post en Espanol (so, for our non-Spanish speaking friends, this time around you guys will have to decipher it!). En fin, pasamos nuestras vacaciones de primavera -lo que seria la Semana Santa de descanso- en la Isla de South Padre. Este sitio queda a 5 hras en coche de Houston y para nosotros de Texas nos resulta "cerca" -algo quizas increible para nuestros amigos de Espana :) Los ninos estan muy acostumbrandos a este viaje asi que no dieron nada de lata y llegamos enseguida. Queda en la pura punta de Texas, a 30 minutos de la frontera de Mexico en el Golfo de Mexico.

Esta semana de "Spring Break" suele ser la mas popular en la Isla de South Padre, lo cual quiere decir que hay muchisima gente joven y cada vez nos parecemos mas viejos nosotros que no compartimos de esos habitos de gente loca.... por esa parte, no es la semana ideal para visitar, pero podemos ajustarnos un poco para evitar el flujo de gente (tanto en la Isla como en el puente para cruzar la Isla, que se vuelve un embotellamiento horrible de horas de espera) y asi la pasamos bien.

Para los ninos, la playa y el mar es magico y les encanta estar ahi. Francisco le tiene miedo al mar asi que el si se queda perfectamente contento en la arena. Antonio, por otro lado, le encanta estar en las olas. Esta ves todavia estaba un poco frio el agua, y mas que eso, habiamos visto bastantes agua-malas (Portuguese Man-of-Wars) que tienen un veneno horrible y peligroso en los tentaculos asi que por lo general nos quedabamos en la playa o en el jacuzzi!

No pude resisitr tomarle foto a Francisco en su traje de banio! es un osito empanizado!! La tentacion de morder esas piernitas es muy grande...

Los ninos la pasaron genial construyendo castillos de arena conmigo, mientras que Fede llevaba a Antonio a brincar en las olas.

Todos los dias era la misma rutina, desayunar y salir a la playa. En la foto arriba Ale y Francisco estaban tomando el te en el balcon (yo espiando!).

Cuando se cansaban de la playa, teniamos la opcion de estar en la piscina -aunque el agua estaba bastante fria!

 Todas las tardes, mientras que dormia la siesta Francisco, nos poniamos a estudiar. No podia dejar pasar toda una semana sin aprender!

Antonio esta leyendo muy bien y aprendiendo a tocar la guitarra. Alejandra acaba de aprender a andar en bicicleta (sin ruedines) asi que tambien esta feliz.

Gracias a Dios, pasamos una semana muy linda en la playa y ahora estamos de regreso en Houston para empezar de nuevo con los estudios y el trabajo. 

 Esperamos que pasen una Semana Santa muy santa y una Feliz Pascua. Los echamos de menos mucho!

Un Fuerte Abrazo a todos,
Los Martinez

Antonio's 7th Birthday!!

Hello everyone!

Antonio turned 7 on February 23rd and we were able to celebrate it a number of times (lucky kid!). That Saturday we had cake with the immediate family. Uncle David gave him a great guitar and Uncle Fern (pictured below) took the time to teach him a few chords.

Then, the following day we celebrated with our friends Suneet, Randeep and Rohan (seen above and below).

Then the following Saturday, March 3rd, we had a little party for him with friends and family.

It was so great to see some of our longtime friends whom we had not seen since we returned to Houston. We organized a terrific soccer game and then a baseball game!

The kids gobbled up the chocolate cupcakes....in particular a little munchkin we all know:

Thanks for everyone who came out to celebrate and to our loved ones and friends in New Jersey, San Francisco, Spain, UK, Mexico, Colombia, Brasil, Chile and all over the world --we wish you all could have come!!!

Love from the Martinez Family to yours!

Camping in Texas

Hi Everyone! This past weekend we took the kids on their first camping trip. Some dear friends of ours, the Prado Family, invited us to their ranch near Navasota, Texas to go camping in their property. Saturday afternoon we loaded up my uncle Alf's SUV and the five of us, along with his two youngest kids (Maria, 11, and Pablo, 9) headed an hour north of Houston to Navasota.

As soon as we arrived, the kids were in heaven. Lots of wide open space, the peace-filled countryside, cows, horses, a cat and a dog. Fede and Alf set up the tents near a creek as we hung out at the Prado's home and fed the cows and a horse. The kids were literally tickled pink by the cows' long, wet tongues and Antonio was brave enough to let the horse munch the grains straight from his hand.

Pictured here are the kids with the Prado's youngest member of the family, Barbara, who's 16. She was sweet enough to take us to feed the cows and the horse.

After seeing the animals, we drove to the camping grounds and started our fire with the help of the kids...

Here we are getting our dinner ready: charro beans, "chori-pan" sandwiches, hotdogs, corn on the cob, and smores.

After dinner one of the Prados, named Andy, took the three kids individually on horseback and they were absolutely thrilled..

 

The kids were so happy eating smores after dinner and sitting around the campfire. It is noteworthy to mention the spectacular star-filled sky that we were privleged to see.... it's something that you can only see outside of the city, on a crisp winter night. Then followed a very chilly night (upper 30's) and the sound of coyotes and the Prado's beagle took off after them!

 

Daybreak brought with it beautiful tones of pink and orange, and the wonderful sight of Alfredo reviving the smoldering campfire with new twings. After enduring a night of cold, to warm near the fire brought to our minds that the small pleasures in life are truly magical.

After we packed everything up, we were treated to a delicious breakfast at the Prado's home of scrambled eggs and ham with Venezuelan arepas filled with cheese. Then it was time to hit the road back to Houston.

Hoping everyone is well,
The Martinez Family

Antonio's First Day of School

Hello Friends. I'm still deliberating as to whether or not to write in Spanish or English (or maybe both!). Anyway, after a couple of weeks trying to homeschool Antonio, and him begging us to put him in normal school, we decided to give school a shot. What can I say? I must not make a very good homeschooling mom...

He misses the atmosphere and the competitiveness of a school setting. On Friday we got the papers to enroll him, submitted them on Monday, today we took him to be tested and by 10 am he was meeting his first grade teacher: Mrs. Knestar. She seems very friendly and kind, and I think she will help him with the transition. Above is Antonio in front of his new elementary school. Today, being his first day, it will be interesting to hear how it went! I know he will have much to say about the differences between school in Spain and in the U.S.

 

Aside from the big news about school, the smaller day-to-day stuff has included hanging out with the family, going on bike rides (the weather couldn't be better!). Grandma Martha's specialty is homemade playdough. And, honestly, despite the mess --or-- precisely because of the mess generated they have a blast making playdough!

With the abundance of parks all around us, it has been easy to find new places to take the kids to play. In Madrid, we got used to sand-based parks (no gravel, no bark) and so it was a welcome sight to once again go to parks without sand!

ok, time to go make lunch. Hope everyone is well,
The Martinez Family

Touchdown in Houston

On January 10th we said goodbye to Brighton-Hove and to our family there, and began the last leg of the trip -of a 16 month adventure- that would finally take us home to Houston. The kids were so excited that day. Antonio, in keeping with tradition, wore his school's exercise uniform (in honor of his friends in Madrid). We hung out at Heathrow Airport in London for a while, snapped a couple of cute pics with the Tower of London Beefeater Bear, as well as the one below, before boarding United Flight 5 to Houston (yup, that's a picture of the airplane that took us home!).

Antonio was soooo eager to see the cockpit but unfortunately he wasn't able to ask the captain if he could go see it, still the flight was a smooth one and everyone did great.

Touching down in Houston brought with it a deep sense of relief, accomplishment and happiness. To be greeted at the airport by Grandpa Fernando and his ever-radiant smile was just the icing on the cake. That evening was full of laughs (provided by uncle Fern) and yummy tacos (thank you Grandma Martha!) and we have really settled in nicely with Martha's family as our temporary home. They have been accommodating in every way, shape and form and we are truly grateful to them.

One of Antonio's goals was to get his bike out of the storage unit and learn to ride without training wheels. The day after we got back, Fede solemnly went out for one of those important Father-Son moments to "teach him to ride a bike" and to his amazement, as soon as Anto got on the bike, he just took off! "Bye dad, thanks for the help!"  

We had a week of chilly weather, but today was absolutely glorious - perfect, sunny, and 65 degrees- it's hard to beat that. I am still ironing out the school situation and for the mean time, I am homeschooling the kids. It has gone better than I anticipated, although we are still trying to solidify our routine.

Finally, I want to take a moment to look back on our weeks in Brighton and add a few pictures of the fun times we had with the Zapata Family there (and of course to thank them for having us in their home).

Anytime we took a picture of the 5 kids, all of us would fast-forward to 10 yrs from now and think how great it will be for them to see these pictures when they were little.

Knowing that we would be living so far away, we knew that we had to capitalize on our final stay in Europe to visit with family and make these special memories.

Among the most memorable outings was ice skating at the palace (above). The kids were really excited, until they actually got on the ice and realized how tricky ice skating is! After the initial shock, we were able to help the older ones enjoy themselves....not as much could be said for Francisco and Eva who refused any more of this ice skating torture nonsense!!

I'll leave you with one last picture of Brighton, which I believe captures some of the quintessential qualities of the place: the elegant, perfectly uniform cream-colored Victorian row houses with the ocean view in the background and the fading afternoon sunlight...

This will probably be my last post in English, as now that we're in the states, my lean is to start writing in Spanish so that our friends in Spain and Colombia can follow the blog more easily.

cheers to everyone,
The Martinez Family