floating bumper cars!

Inside the bouncy whale's mouth about to be swallowed up!

Jaime and Liam talking a ride on the runaway reindeer train!

Cheering the marathon runners on...!

A TVE helicopter overhead covering the marathon...

The Barcelona City Marathon was held yesterday. As it ran through our local park, we went along to cheer the runners on...

Malachy in his cap, keeping the sun off his lily white skin...

One of the nice 'little' yachts over in the harbour!!!

I know it looks like we're cheating here but, honest, we weren't!!! Liam was actually really good at this duck fishing game and won a prize of a zorro sword and mask set!

Liam in a sea of coloured balls...

My pink cadillac

The funfair is back down at the Moll de la Fusta again so we just HAD to take the boys over for a few fun rides!

Aina and Liam getting dangerously close to that sprinkler...!

We met Aina, who was on her way to a birthday party in the park!

Very expectant me!!!... not long to go now!

The lads in the park at the weekend

There was an old-fashioned bus show and ride in town last weekend. I couldn't get over the fact that even the old buses here are 'bendy buses'!!!

And Sean even got a perm and colour for the occasion!!

Graham and Hiromi did the patriotic thing and had a pint of Guinness, of course...

Sarah and Sean got all kitted out for the Paddy's Day Parade in Tokyo!!!

Nora, wide awake and looking the image of her father, Luis!

Rionna, peacefully sleeping through her christening...

This week we made apple and raisin muffins... mmmmm!

Liam out on the terrace stenciling Japanese characters with the magnetic board his cousins sent him from Tokyo

Willy Wonka has become one of Liam's new obsessions. He goes around singing "I've got a golden ticket" all the time now! And constantly talks about the different characters! This works in our favour as when he's being rude and bold we remind him of how obnoxious the Veruca Salt character is (the English girl who incessantly repeats "Daddy, I want it NOW!!!" and ends up falling down the bad egg chute in the Golden Goose room) and he immediately rethinks his attitude, reassuring us that he doesn't want to be like that 'bad girl'....!

Malachy engrossed in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory...

bubble bath boy...!

...

Jaime and Nacho chatting

We met Nico and family -Jan, Maria and Nacho- at the Festa too. When the party was over Nico and Liam were given a bunch of 8 balloons... by the time we got to our house (about then minutes down the road) only 1 balloon was actually left intact!!! By the way, happy birthday Jan! 1 today!

Festa goer and Jamrobber, Jaime...

We met Iago's little sis, and fellow Portal Nou goer, Noa at the Festa with her grandparents all the way from Galicia...

... here he is admiring himself in the mirror!!!

... as the theme was 'water' he got a blue raincloud in his left cheek... with a little sunshine peeking through...!

Liam had his face painted at the Festa de l'Aigua...

Communal collage in progress...

Liam put the first piece of crepe paper on this giant riverbed collage! Loads of kids took part and by the end of the weekend it was jam-packed with water and fish of all kinds! Such a shame my camera had run out of battery when we went back to see the finished work of art!

On the first afternoon of the Festa, it looked like the "Water Festival" was going to be washed out with rain... but the clouds gradually disappeared and we were able to enjoy the concerts. Here is a group of girls called "Las Migas".

Liam went for a jaunt around the Festa enclosure on his bike. Luckily, when the crowds started piling in we found there was a 'car park' for bikes and buggies!

Today is International Water Day and last weekend the Barcelona city council and water board held the "Festa de L'Aigua" over on the Passeig Lluis Companys. Here in Spain where water shortages abound in the summer, creating awareness of water saving methods and promoting greener attitudes amongst the population is very important! The Festa was great fun for the kids: with music, clowns, magicians, jugglers, face-painting and workshops!

Kisses on film

Kisses on film

Watch the video

Well, now that we've mastered the simple art of videoblogging, we thought we'd like to blow you some kisses...

Here are Liam and Malachy with their new cousin Nora.

Popcorn on Paddy's Day:...launching our videoblog!

Popcorn on Paddy's Day:...launching our videoblog!

Watch the video

This is our first JamRobbing VideoBlogging experiment! I wonder if it will work?!....

Kiss me, I'm Irish!!!

more shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day!!!

As everybody knows, last Friday was St. Patrick's Day! Liam and Malachy got St. Patrick's Day badges from Granny in the post and proudly wore them to school that day! At Friday lunchtime we gathered up all our green pencils, crayons, markers and watercolours and painted lots of shamrocks! Here's one of Liam's creations. As you can see, he can now write his own name! With no help at all!!

Malachy, Liam, Aroa and Claudia attently listening to one of Jaime's tall tales!

Aroa, Liam and Claudia looking at the hanging whale skeleton at the zoo...

We ran into Claudia and Aroa at the zoo with the mum, Clara, who's from Vitoria. These twin girls are exactly a month older than Liam and live over in the Vila Ol�mpica on the opposite side of the zoo to us. We also frequent the same area of the beach in summer and so we've watched the girls grow over these past three years. Now, we can just about tell them apart... that's Claudia on the left and Aroa on the right!

orang-utans... by far the cleverest apes in the zoo...! If they see you with food, they actually immediately grab some straw from the floor of their enclosure, climb up to the roof and push the straw through, pointing with their fingers in clear sign-language telling you that you can push the food through there!!! cheeky monkeys!

seeing double...