Tag Archives: Spain

These CRAZY caterpillars!

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One of the nuisance animals in southern Spain is a caterpillar.

Not just any caterpillar.

We have one in particular called the Processional Pine Caterpillar.  Now this may come as a surprise but they live in pine trees (shocker!). The processional part of their of name is where it gets interesting.  The walk all together lined up in a little (or rather long) line.

It’s pretty interesting actually, they only come out during this time of year so you know when to look for them.  The funny thing is this I’ve lived here for 3 1/2 years and this was the first spring that I actually saw them!

Now as cool as they look the problem is that their little hairs cause lots of problems in people and pets if they are touched (or eaten by your dog!) They are super irritating and I’ve heard of people having them in a jar in the house and the hair still irritating their eyes. They are bad news, health wise!

Also if your dog gets the hairs in their mouth it can actually cause the tongue tissue to die! Crazy! Thankfully we have NO pine trees near our house, just palm trees with their own sets of problems!

If you happen to see any of these caterpillars, look but PLEASE don’t touch!

It’s the little things {lilies & long weekends}

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My beautiful Valentine’s Day flowers are opening up and look (and smell) FANTASTIC. Seriously our WHOLE house smells like flowers. Why is it that every time I have fresh flowers in the house I always vow to make more of an effort to buy them more often and I never do!Image

We are also looking forward to this nice long three day weekend.

Monday we are scheduled to have a power outage for almost the entire day.  They need to do some repair work on a utility pole and it will leaving the housing section of the base with no power. Seriously what the heck would I do all day? Clean? Yuck! So I am taking the kids on a field trip to Vejer de la Frontera. Should be a fun quick trip!

 

Linking up with Lindsey from Hello Hue!

 
Hello Hue Little Things

It’s the little things {spicy & sweet}

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Wrapping up a fun week and just wanted to recap some of the little things that made my week!

First off I did a little Valentine’s decorating, I found this cute printable online.  I love all of the holiday subway art that is free online… I have a frame by my front door and I am planning on just replacing the image according to the holiday/season!

Also found a cute ceramic white heart bowl and filled it with peanut butter m&m’s (terrible, terrible idea, I can’t leave them alone)

I also picked up these super adorable votive holders… I have some red candles in there for the holiday (Yankee Mackintosh) but I think they may find their way into my bathroom when I’m done with them on the entryway table.

Next up a little hot sauce making!  My husband has a habanero habit that was supplied for quite awhile by pepper plant that was growing peppers constantly.  We stuck them in the freezer for a rainy day (or a cold winter’s day).  He generally will eat them straight up (I’ll stick them whole into a pot of rice so they cook without making everything else spicy) but also loves hot sauce.  He had ordered some but half of the bottles broke en route so we wanted to try a homemade recipe.

Out comes a bag of frozen peppers: Chopped of the stem and added them to some cooked carrots, onions, garlic and lime juice.

*For the love of God, make sure you do NOT get any of the juice on your fingers. It does NOT wash off and you will regret it when you rub your eye an hour later… I learned my lesson the hard way a few years ago*

Everything gets tossed in the blender. I left the seeds in for heat, but if I had a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth I would have strained this to get any remaining chunks out.

The finished product! It’s very orange and apparently VERY spicy!

My daughter did also decide to start puking right before her basketball skills assessment this morning… And daddy had taken her. This happened in the gym. On the bleacher. And on the basketball court. Honey, I am so sorry you were on parenting duty this morning and had to deal with it on your own!

Linking up with Lindsey from Hello Hue!

Aisle to Aloha

Plaza de Espana, Sevilla, Spain

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When my mom came for a visit in September one of our day trips was to Seville or Sevilla (seh-vee-ya).  Sevilla is only about an hour or so from Rota and makes for a great day trip.  I had been wanted to go to the Plaza de Espana for ages and we finally got the chance to go! I tell you, nothing gets you out and about like having people visit you!

Oh this is one of my favorite places… I had no idea how beautiful this building was going to be or how HUGE it was!

Here is some background information on the plaza in case you were interested.

We're here!

 

We happened to go at a perfect time, there weren’t many people there and we had the chance to take one million pictures!

Even the light posts are beautiful!

There is a little moat/river/waterway between the plaza and the building and you can rent a rowboat for a few Euro… I highly recommend this, it is a LOT of fun… 

We're on a boat!

Oh this girl... she kills me.

 

Photobomb! He did this about 20 times... I forgive him because he is adorable.

 

I liked hanging out in the shade under the bridges. It was REALLY hot...

 

The bridges all had different tile work. So pretty!

 

Not pictured on our boat ride… constant fighting about WHO got to hold the oars and help row… also complaining about how hot it was and were we done yet…

Time to cool off with some ice cream...

One of the things I love about Spain and Europe in general is how they assume you are not an idiot.  See the railing above? A child could easily fall into the water. But guess what, they assume you will be watching your children! 

(See also: German Zoo missing fences with only plastic strung from post to post, hotel in the Canaries with open window on the fourth floor with no screen or bars, alligator farm with minimal safety measures. Gotta love it)

Happy girl, Mimi let her pick out a fan!

All around the plaza are sections dedicated to each province in Spain.  Of course we had to take pictures in each area that we love!

Cadiz! Home sweet home!

Barcelona, we've been a couple times, I love it there!

Canary Ilands, aka Las Canarias! Go there if you can, we LOVED Tenerife!

 

A big door mommy, take a picture!

 

M hanging on one of the bridges...

 

Fab floors

 

Mom posing on the steps

 

I love this type of stone floors... simple idea but lots of hard work!

 

 

 

 Now off to search for something to eat!

Just about ready for a party over here…

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A little rainbow cake action...

Been super busy this week getting ready for M’s 10th (TENTH!!!!) birthday party… She is having a slumber party and is was going to be low key but I kept finding ideas, and it turned into a rainbow birthday.  I’m having a blast but killing myself as there are just not enough hours in the day! Right now the cake is made, house is decorated and the room they are going to sleep in is clean and ready for sleeping bags!  Just need to find time to finish shopping for the take home craft, shop for the rest of the groceries, and get the food made!

T minus 17 hours and I still need to find time to sleep and work in there!

 

Tissue paper pom poms hanging...

 

Some cute garland that took for-EVER!

 

I’ll post more pictures after the party!

 

Sick day… well, sick afternoon

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I am sick.  Wasn’t feeling great this weekend but was hoping I was on the mend.  I made it through half a day of work and then called it quits.  Sore throat, sinus pressure, I was a hot mess and not the most welcoming sight at a reception desk! So home I went.

Of course M had an orthodontist appointment scheduled for today but my husband said he would take her if I just picked her up from school and had her ready at the house. So I go to pick her up and of course, OF COURSE, her appointment is almost the same time as the spelling bee that she happens to be an alternate in. She is not happy. I am feeling like a parenting failure because I didn’t have it marked on the calendar. I don’t even know what an alternate DOES!  Now if she was for sure going to be in it I might have called to cancel the appt (just so they can write bad things in my file and take another 2 months to get another appt) because the winner of the spelling bee gets to go to Germany (with a parent excort! For free!)

Lesson learned: For God’s sake, write EVERYTHING on the calendar! My old brain remembers NOTHING!

Now off to drug myself so I can hopefully function tomorrow!