Casa de Campo

We found this beautiful park last weekend just outside the city that is so beautiful and so quiet it was nice to have some room for our family to run and play. Not having a car here in Spain makes it feel like we are confined to the city, but this park is just 2 train stops away and gives us some relief from the noise and busy of the city. Thank goodness for the wonderful train system.

This is often what Erich is doing. Carrying one of the two boys.

Boys exploring and enjoying some freedom. They need more open spaces at this age.

Enjoying our walk around the lake.

Train station at the park. It is an outdoor station and more what I pictured before I came here. I am sure more are like this once you get out of the city and the train stations are not all underground.
This is a wall at the Imaginarium Toy Store on Serrano. It was such a cool wall. The whole thing is covered in the chalk board paint and look at that beautiful chandelier. It was a awesome toy store and amazingly had reasonable prices. It is located on the most Posh street in Madrid for shopping and all the children in this store were dressed to the nines. I saw a child throw a fit over a miniature motorcycle that he wanted. (The biggest fit I have ever seen. )One that the children can ride on and the dad just took out his wallet and bought it on the spot. He didn't even go to the register. The child even screamed at the employee when she was trying to take the tags off. I told Erich if our boys ever did something like that we would be instantly out of the store. My first thought was "that child will always throw a fit when he wants something." As parents we wonder why children act the way they do maybe it is partly our fault. Enough of my soapbox, I was just shocked to see the father give in to the boys tantrum in that way. Other then that we had a great time playing with all the fun toys in the store.

Plaza de Cibeles with the beautiful Palacio de Comunicaciones. This is the headquarters for the Spanish postal service.