School Year End 2013

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I can hardly believe another school year has come to an end.  Grace and Tessa both had very good years academically and in their extracurricular involvement.  Tessa continued for a third year with her Rhythmic gymnastics which she really enjoys.  She is getting more flexible and really enjoys the performance aspect.  At the end of the year they did their big exhibition and it was great to see how all the girls grow and change each year.  This year Grace took modern dance and loved it.  She loves to dance at home and this gave her a new creative outlet.  In May her group performed 3 dances and she did really well.  In addition to this performance she and all the girls in her class auditioned for the big “Fiestas Colegiales” and they won the spot to perform in the main theater in front of 800 people.  Their dance routine was choreographed by one of the girls in her class and they had to practice independently at recess and lunch.  The results were fabulous and Grace is confident and really enjoyed performing.  Lastly she was also in theater this year and the short year end play, which her class wrote, was also great.  So we are feeling very fortunate for all the creative arts opportunities our girls are having.

In June Grace decided she wanted to celebrate her birthday in Spain for the first time.  She invited 3 friends to an Adventure park to go on the Sky Trail which is a ropes course.  Although it was a little scary all the girls, including Tessa, did really well and overcame some fears.  We then went to McDonalds and Grace received some lovely gifts.  Tessa’s social schedule has been very full as she received 3 birthday party invitations for the last week of June.  The nice thing is that our whole family is invited to one and it becomes a lovely end of the year party to see friends before we head to Canada. 

Aside from these events, we also had Anatolijus’ mom visiting from Lithuania, which included some traveling around Aragon, cooking some Lithuanian ethnic foods (Russian pelmeni J) with new molds Edita brought, some valencian paellas and some school art projects with the girls, for which Edita acted as support crew.

A special occasion this year was the INTERNATIONAL Padel Tournament in our apartment complex.  We, Canadians, being the INTERNATIONAL component.  Unlike last year, where Anatolijus and I came in second to last, this year, while Anatolijus lost again (must be nerves), I ended up packing a consolation round trophy!  So now we have 2 trophies won by foreigners in the land of Padel inventors (Anatolijus at the moment is also 3-0 in HP Padel tournament, hoping to clench another masters title this year).  Despite his loss, Anatolijus cooked a Valencian paella which was juried by the curious neighbours, who first could not believe he could actually cook one, and then the fact that it actually tasted like a Valencian paella!  So the cook-off was a total success, represented neatly by Canadian flag featuring Anatolijus.

So now we are starting to pack and make plans with family and friends at home and we feel very fortunate to have had another great year here in Zaragoza.