Pausing To Admire A Bee On A Thistle.

Freddy's First Communion

 After three years of catechism, Freddy had his first communion this Sunday in Cascais.

There was a professional photographer hired for the mass, which is a good thing because this is the best shot I got as Freddy walked in at the beginning. He was out of view for the rest of the ceremony. 

Traditional Portuguese guitars plus teenagers singing beautifully made exceptional music throughout the mass. Priests are pretty much all the same to me, and I tend to just tune out the many masses that I have sat through since marrying Pai, but I actually liked and listened to this priest. He also did Zita's first communion and I remembered him straight away. He is funny, brief (can I get a hallelujah?), and engages the children throughout.  

 I don't know the technical term, but Freddy was a "collector, " looking cute as can be. Mooj laughed that he always volunteered to collect too when he was younger so he could get up and walk around. Smart boys.

Lunch was arroz de marisco from Mar do Guincho and two big tubs of Santini for dessert. That has become our formula for formal entertaining as one can just not go wrong with that combo. 

I forgot all about making a cake until just before church so I quickly whipped up a lemon cake and frosted it with our go-to white frosting and strawberries when we got home from church. 

Our glassware and china casualties were lower than usual with only one wine glass and one Visa Alegre plate broken. 

The last family members trickled out around 4:30 and the big kids followed right behind them for a swim until early evening. 

The professional photos are not up on their site yet, but I'll post them as soon as I have them. 

A Boy And His Cat Having A Nap

Freddy Had a Birthday

"16, 12, 9, and 2." 

That's what I have to get used to saying now that our Freddy is 9. 

Sebby is his number one fan. 

We kicked off Freddy's birthday celebrations with presents and breakfast at our house. 

(THOSE PHOTOS ARE NOT ON THIS COMPUTER AND I'LL NEVER GET THIS PUBLISHED IF I WAIT TO TRANSFER THEM ONE BY ONE) 

His favorite presents this year were his new FitBit Flex and a National Geographic book called "Weird But True." He read the entire thing from breakfast until before lunch. I have to remember to pick up a few more in the states to bring back as gifts. Kids LOVE these books. 

Mooji got him a Billabong t-shirt and a moon ball

Zita gave him a clip-on bed lamp 

Seb gave him popsicle holders for freezing smoothies (with a little help from me :) )

His birthday party started at 3, and after I assured my mom that no one shows up on time in Portugal, five people had arrived by 3:01. 

 The kids spent their time either swimming or playing football. It sounds like an easy party, but lots of kids in the pool gives me an ulcer. Mooj was my lifeguard as well as our meet-and-greet at the gate person. What a good sport our Moojie is.

 Selfie time.

All of the kids had so much fun doing jumping shots off the board.

 I tried Seb in goggles. That didn't go over very well.

Three hours felt so so so very long, but the best part was when the very last guest left, Freddy remarked that the party passed in a flash. He loved it!

The cousins came for cake the next day followed by what was supposed to be Vietnamese spring rolls for dinner. I couldn't find the paper thin spring rolls, but Freddy is such an easy going guy that he didn't mind and was happy to default to tacos.

I put Freddy's height and age into the the height predictor and it says he will be 6´5" (plus or minus 2 inches in either direction), which was hard to believe until yesterday when we walked out of Sport Zone carrying his new size 42 shoes. 

I can't wait to see what his tenth year will bring. He'll change to a much bigger school, start a new level in cello, play a few more tennis tournaments, get working on his jumping serve, and just last night he asked to learn a few chords on the guitar. 

Boy do we love our Freddy bear. 

Before School Cello Practice

 "Recital- June 12. Test June 2. Practice More!"  This is the message written on Freddy's sheet music that I only noticed this morning. 

 How long that has been written there, I have no idea, but gracious do we need to step it up. Freddy has kind of fallen into the I'll practice when I feel like it routine. That translated to once or twice a week. 

He's such an early bird with lots of time to spare in the morning so for two days now, he's been practicing after breakfast. 

Fingers crossed he'll get his two songs down before the test. 

Life Is A Beach

There is no better exercise than taking Seb to the beach. He runs like a puppy that has been crated all night. 

We leave by 10am and arrive home tired out and ready for calm. He loves to make "letters" in the sand by imitating letters that I write. I can't think of a better pre-school classroom than the beach. 

Hot Days Call For Watermelon