After spending the winter renting in Spain, it was time to say goodbye to my Mum and Rob, but gladly they had decided to return again for the winter this year and for longer! 
To say our farewells we arranged to meet in Algarobbo Costa for a meal but when we arrived alot of the restaurants were shut. We found one offering Menu Del Dia and it fulfilled our appetite while the sun blazed down on us. After the meal we walked along the beach front when all of a sudden we could hear some very loud music being played so we kept on walking to find out where it was coming from. Our search lead us to the Port of Caleta de Velez where we found a large crowd of people getting down to the sounds of the Beatles, we were stunned! We stayed a while and watched on as they danced the afternoon away it was thoroughly entertaining 
The next day Paul caught a flight back to the UK for some very important business meetings, alot rided on them. It was the first time we had been without him since moving over and after 3 long nights we were all super excited to see him. Luckily his parents had a similar flight which arrived shortly before Paul's so they all arrived together. Paul was very pleased with the way the meetings went and felt certain it could be a success.
Chloe's birthday followed on the Sunday and she wanted to go to Torre Del Mar and hire the electric Go-karts, on a beautiful morning, this is what we did. I hadn't expected to have a go but they were alot of fun. We followed this with a lovely meal at El Charco again for a lip smacking steak, great food and staggering views of La Maroma (with snow on the top!!) and Lake Vinuela.
February is Carnival month in Andalucia, the school had some strange ideas for costumes which i'm still not sure about. Chloe a carrot and Olivia a fish..... Luckily Maria they're wonderful Spanish teacher helped us get the costumes started. I'll let you be the judge of them. The school had a parade on the 20th and the village had a fiesta the following Saturday evening, which involved another procession and a animation show in the Town Hall for the little ones. It was so nice to see everyone taking part from little babies to the very senior.
(apologises for them not being portrait again!)
Before moving to Spain we had been warned (and terrified) of the Processionary Caterpillar and being right on the edge of the National Park full of Pine trees we knew it was somethign we would have to contend with. Once we spotted a nest that was it we agreed no more walking Ted through the park until we were certain they had gone. After a couple of weeks and having noticed tens of nests down by the Lake and getting really fed up of the same boring walks I thought i would check out the trees on our normal walk, I could only find two and keeping Ted on the lead for the majority i feel we are safe. I have no idea why we only have 2 nests but Ted and i are very happy that we can return to walking our beautiful walk daily.
Down on the coast in Torre del Mar they have the most wonderful promenade where you can walk for miles along the coast, having watched many others do this when visiting with the girls we decided to go on our own while they're at school with Ted and try it out for ourselves. We set off in a easterly direction on a beautiful, bright morning and strolled all the way along to Caleta de Velez. We did have to stop a couple of times for Ted so he could lay down in the shade, it wasn't particulary hot but staffies do not cope well with the heat mainly due to their short hair. Once at Caleta we stopped at the port for a quick drink before heading back to Torre stopping for delicious Tapa on the way. It ended up being a good 4 miles walk and my legs were starting to ache. The promenade was starting to fill up as we left.
The school hols followed and the girls were thrilled to have a break, not just from school but from the large amount of homework they have everyday. On the first day we decided to take them to the caves at Rincon, no not Nerja, Rincon, yes they may not be the same as the famous Nerja caves but we enjoyed it just the same and to be honest the girls seemed more interested in these than at Nerja. When we arrived we found alot of people waiting outside and the gates locked. After 10 minutes or so the police pulled up with some council workers and it emerged that whoever was supposed to open up didn't have the keys. So they then proceeded to cut the lock with bolt cutters and break the lock! Once inside the gate they couldn't get into the office either so they then got a angle grinder and broke there way into the office too!! Honestly only in Spain!! 
We had great weather for the school holidays and we made the most of it including a trip to the playa at Torre del Mar.
Andalucia Day was part of the holiday week and the local restaurant had asked me to work behind the bar again and i agreed this turned out to be a very bad decision. Firstly i hadn't realised what Andalucia day entailed here and second reason it was a boiling hot day which meant everybody came out to party so of course that meant that the restaurant was inundated with people so i literally didn't stop for 6 and half hours straight. Worst of all Andalucia day here is all about horses - my favourite thing in the whole world!! There i was stuck in a bar with a tiny window which if i stood on my tip toes i could see maybe a tail of a horse or a hat of a rider 
Never again will i work at the restaurant, it was bad enough being crazy busy but when you don't understand all the language (especially the growly Andaluz that is spoken here) it gets very frustrating for me and the Spanish.
On the Friday we had our dreaded Residencia Appointment at the police station it was something we knew we needed to get done especially with Brexit looming and were keeping everything crossed that it would go through with no issues. We did pay for help getting all the paperwork correct and present and we had their assistance at the meeting but still we were not counting our chickens. Amazingly after many hours wondering if we would be granted residency it was all complete within a few minutes and they were also able to get the girls there's too without a seperate appointment. It was the best possible outcome we could now relax a bit knowing we were now legal residents. Happy, happy people.