Rainy/Sunny weekend at home

I've been asking around, and apparently this is an unusually rainy Autumn for Seville. It only adds to the echoes of homesickness - the palm, orange and lemon trees, the tile roofs, the groves of eucalyptus and olive and grapes when you get out of the city... the Mediterranean climate feels like home of course, and now the rain! I have Los Altos weather on my phone and it's been identical to Seville's - one day in the 70's and then a few days of downpour. What is different is getting around in said downpour without a car. :)

Here is our version of the minivan- we were out of food so we biked together to the grocery store and filled the bike trailer (you can see it's full of bags) on a rainy day.

And this is our commuter car - a cheap stroller which is broken as of yesterday, covered by an umbrella. I don't think you can tell how hard it was raining when I took this picture. When I arrived home it was as if I had showered in my clothes. My jeans were falling off, they were so heavy with water.

The ever-in-the-know Martens found a shop with hand-sewn Flamenco dresses - the kind the Sevillanas wear, not the touristy ones - running a 50% off sale!! It's clearance season, as the women and girls wear their special dresses in the Spring during the Fairs, so I guess the new ones come out in January. We went shopping together and found the girls their special dresses, the one special souvenir they had been begging for since we arrived in Seville.

It was hard to choose between all the amazing creations!! Now the girls are begging me to get one! Maybe if they sign a contract that we will be a Flamenco family for the next 5 Halloweens.

Sophie tried on many dresses, and I had my eye on a creamy lace one with sea-colored ruffles that exactly matched her hair and eyes.... but she wanted fiery red and classic Seville polka dots.

Is this not every girl's dream? To come out of a dress shop with your own huge bag.

Three things I'll look back on with nostalgia in this photo: Stone and I at the market (I pick him up from school at 11:00 now, so we have 3 hours of Mommy time each day. He is doing much better with that schedule), the image of the Virgin Mary watching over the butcher shop on the back wall (she watches over every square inch of every surface in this city - sometimes many pictures of her are on the same wall), and Stone's face reacting to the bunnies hanging from hooks above the meat counter. There's Peter, and Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail.

Stone drew this picture of a dog yesterday. I am stunned! His drawing and writing interest and skills have not developed gradually, but rather, turned on like a faucet. 

"Jesus coming out of the tomb. Mary is in the front crying because she doesn't know yet."

"Aliens scaring people"

Last night we invited the Martens over so the big girls could watch Harry Potter 4 (Lucy and I just finished the book!). The little ones watched Ice Age on my bed.

Stone still wears camouflage pants/shorts/shirt whenever they're clean (or if not, whenever he can salvage them from the dirty laundry and put them on before I catch him). He actually did hide from me for quite awhile today with those pants on!

Sophie and I went on a special date in the rain this week - we went to the famous La Campana bakery for pastries, and then to the Alcazar Palace and then to buy her flamenco dress (she didn't come on the big girl shopping trip because it was too late at night, so we got a special day-time date the next day!). Our umbrella was stolen (or we choose to think it was accidentally taken by a confused fellow customer) while we ate. Thank goodness Erik bought us really great rain jackets with hoods.

My princess in the palace

And today: SUNNY!!! Oh how glorious to see warm light on the buildings and our faces again, and to walk in the door without needing to peel off soggy clothes. I took the kids souvenir shopping for cousins and to lunch by the cathedral. This is everyone posing with a picture of "Flat Aaron" - Aaron Clarke is doing a project for school so we're taking "Flat Aaron" around with us. 

Lunch at a sidewalk cafe next to the cathedral with my four lovies.