There are two canoes at the barn for general use - all the kids have been much better and more able to use them than expected (at times a little too good as they race out of our reach/their depth etc) but they’ve been really good fun.

The weather has been mixed so we’ve been looking for things for the kids to do that doesn’t revolve around swimming in the river. Yesterday we went to a ‘tree climbing’ park where they have cables running from tree to tree and the kids (and adults) have to make their way around a course whilst attached by a harness. There were course of varying difficulty - all the kids did the fist course but Gabriel, as the oldest, had been given a ticket for the next course up. When it came to doing it he couldn’t get past the first hurdle as he just wasn’t tall enough, so he went back down and Quen and myself continued - half way round we saw another boy having the same problem but a monitor came to help him along so he could have done it afterall - although I think he would have struggled. Here’s some pics of Gabe in action - and one of Quen that he wanted adding.

Gabriel’s counting his money - we just got round to repaying him the money we had to borrow when we were on the ferry back from Mallorca (they didn’t take cards on the boat and he and Olivia were cash rich from holiday money). We’ve been a bit rubbish at paying him back so he informed us that he was giving us a day’s grace after which he’d be charging 1 euro a day in interest! That got him his money back at least!

He’s planning on putting 20 euros into the bank - where they’ll give him another 15 for opening an account.

It was under pressure from Gabriel that we put adsense ads on his site - unfortunately they’re are not performing quite as well as he’d hoped and it’s going to be some time before he gets his first $100 cheque! He’s always squirreled his money away, unlike his sister who has a hole burning in her pocket as far as money is concerned.

It’s big - I had to scan it in three goes - so am posting it as a thumbnail. Gabe thinks this is almost as good as Grandpa Mike’s painting of Vilanova (which is very good!)

Today is the last day of Gabe’s sailing course - he’s asked if he can do it next week as he doesn’t want to finish. When asked if he’d learned anything or was just having a good time he said the latter, which kind of put the nail in the coffin of doing another week. It’s an expensive way to have a good time and there’s lots of other ways of doing that. It’s been good though, we’re really pleased that he’s enjoyed it.

Gabe’s gone exercise mad - he wants a six pack and keeps asking me to show my muscles (not much to show!). Yesterday we went for a run together, with Olivia on her bike. It went well, we drove down to the beach front and ran along the promenade. It was about 7pm and very busy but that didn’t matter. We ran along the front and back again to find Jo. Gabe did better than I expected and even wanted to run back to the house with me but we decided that it was too late/too far, especially as he was going to be starting his sailing week today.

This morning he was up at 6:30 am along with his little clone Esmé with no signs of tiredness, unlike me, ah to be young again!

His sailing course starts at 9 am and finishes as 6pm so we’ll see if that tires him out!

Gabe and Olivia broke up for holidays in mid-June and have off until mid-Sept, so a very long summer holiday.

We’ve learned from the past and have tried to break the time up this year. As such Gabriel started a judo club in the first week of July, which went down well. He decided he wanted to do it and was very good about going into a strange place with a lot of people he didn’t know. G is naturally shy but will push himself to do things that he finds difficult - good lad! He learned a lot quite quickly and was soon showing us moves he’d learned.

After a week of Judo we went to Mallorca for a week with all his uncles, aunties, spouses/boyfriends, and nana Pauline on the Andrews side. We were in a great location for the kids - private pool and one minute away from a nice beach and bay. He bought himself a dinghy with holiday money given by his great grandmother, went snorkelling and also fishing (Shaun and Nic bought him and Olivia a fishing rod) which was a big success. We managed to catch a fish at the last minute before having to pack everything away.

We’re back in Vilanova now and he’s back at Judo this week. Today his friend Ivan is coming round for lunch and then they’re off to the pool in the afternoon. Next week he’s on a sailing course with Ivan (I’m not jealous, honest!!!) which he’s really looking forward to.

These clubs are an expensive commitment but a lifesaver really - the kids would be tearing their hair out (and ours) if they were left to their own devices for such a long time.

a picture I made on www.helpthehoneybees.com: