The title of the post gives this away really. We are celebrating the birthday of my wife in Bilbao without the children. And while we miss them, it has been great to get away from them. And they have been kind and in the days leading up to our escape, they have made it easy for us to abandon them (to the care of my Mother-in-law who has come up to look after them) by bickering.
My wife had an amazing birthday party with a band playing, though rain had caused an issue with it. It was great to see so many people come to see her on her birthday and the location was as fantastic as the band.
Sadly, I was working for a lot of her birthday, but we did get to go out for a meal and the children came along, and behaved. But after that, the bickering started between the children.
The day before we left, they argued and on the morning that they left, they argued. And the updates on the arguments continued while we were in the airport. But our holiday had begun, and we landed in Bilbao yesterday. As the Guggenheim Museum is closed today, we had to visit it yesterday and we both loved it. We had tried to take the children to art museums before, but it is not something that they like so being able to spend time without two bored kids there was an experience we savoured.
Today, we have sampled foods, been on a tour of the city, and are now relaxing on the rooftop terrace. We are back to reality tomorrow, and while we do miss our children, it has been so nice not to have to mediate between them for over 24 hours!