May in Madrid

 May is a month of celebration in Madrid.  The San Isidro Festival is always a lot of fun.  The girl's got to dress up in Chulapa costumes for school.  They were so excited and so cute we had to take pictures of these little guapas!

 The rose garden in Retiro park is one of my favorite things.  I loved running around the park, and finally getting to the rose garden, which would come up at about the half way point through my run.  It was so fun to see it change, and gradually go into full bloom.  When it is blooming it is absolutely stunning!

The kids riding their bikes and scooters into school...they have a very nice dad, who then had to cart them back home after dropping them off.

 Marcus and I became Real Madrid fans while living in Madrid.  We finally made it to a game!  It was one of Real Madrid's last games of the season, and there wasn't much riding on the game, but it was a blast.  We sat in the crazy fan section, and we had a great time.  We left Chanting Ohohohoh, ohohohoh, ohohohoh Christiano Renaldo!  Such a fun time.

 Saying goodbye to Madrid was not easy. Their were several thing that we wanted to do including have a last meal at some of our favorite restaurants.  We had to go to La bola again, and have Cocido.

 We were also told we needed to have a Spanish treat called a torrija before we left.  We set out one Saturday afternoon after the kids had tennis to do just that.  We showed up around noon or one, and we could see the gate on the store was half closed.  I turned to Marc and told him we'd missed it. They looked like they were clearly closing.  Marcus yelled out, Jokingly, "NO!".  The sweet owner was right there and laughed a little and asked what we wanted.  Marcus told him we'd been told he had the best Torrijas in the city and we'd wanted to come try them.  He reopened his gate and told us to come in.  In that moment I panicked because I realized we didn't have enough cash for much, and they didn't take cards.  I was literally digging through my purse trying to find any piece of change I could so that we'd have enough to pay for the Torrijas the man had just reopened his store to make for us.  The owner was the sweetest old man you could ever meet.  He talked to the girls, and was so sweet.  I finally got just enough change but when Marcus tried to pay him he said that the girl's smiles were his payment.  He then told Marcus that he and his wife were never able to have children.  That they'd tried for years, but it wasn't meant to be.  He said that he loved being around kids, and seeing ours had made his day.  Walking out of the store as Marcus told me everything he'd said I felt both grateful and guilty.  Our walk to the store had been less than peaceful and on the walk I found myself feeling stressed out and frustrated.  But this sweet interaction made me feel so grateful for our sometimes crazy life, and so grateful for kind people like this man.  He was so incredibly sweet and generous.  We never want to forget him!

 We went to the Ferria de los Libros in Retiro Park.  We let the girls both choose 1 book, and then we sat down in the grass to read.  It was a lot of fun!