It's Great when your Eight!

James turned eight last week. We had the "best birthday party ever" according to the 6 boys who came up to Powerscourt waterfall with us. We were blessed with the weather.  It was a lovely sunny and warm day in the middle of a week of cold weather. Powerscourt  for those who haven't been there is a very picturesque park in Wicklow. There is a lovely waterfall, river, hills and fields to play around in.

There was some extreme excitement on the car journey up with popcorn flying and boys screaming at other cars and 8 year old proclamations of love to our beautiful au pair Nuria. All very amusing. When we arrived the boys had scaled the mountain side next to the waterfall in about three minutes flat. At that stage we were wondering if we had made a big mistake to have a birthday party in such a place. However we managed to get a handle on the boys and they enjoyed climbing around the river bank and dipping their hair in the water. Meanwhile we fired up the BBQ and cooked hamburgers for the boys who then ran off to play a long game of football.  This was followed by another break to have some birthday cake.

Both myself and Gavin took the day off work and we were very lucky to have both Grannies there to help us as well as Nuria. We needed everyone we had to try and keep up with the boys and also to mind Lily as her leg is still a cast. She was very good on the day content to sit around and play in the picnic area.  This was great as she usually wants to run after the big boys.
After the cake there was more river adventure time with the boys getting into the cold water to paddle, getting shoes and trousers wet. We then had an Easter egg hunt to end the party. While we were getting ready to go home a big wedding procession arrived including a hummer followed by a horse drawn cart. A little surreal but exciting for the boys. 

Lily loved the "princess" bride and the "cinderella" carriage.  

She is still doing well with her cast.  She got a new hard pink cast the next day which she will have for 3-4 weeks. 

A Fractured Leg

Little Lily with her big cast.

Yes Lily fractured her leg last Sunday. She had a very awkward landing while jumping on the trampoline with the big boys, James and Paddy. We went to A+E in Tallaght Hospital that night and it turned out they couldn't see any fracture on her x-ray. However that didn't mean she didn't have one they said. We were to observe her and see if she would put weight on her leg or not. We took her home but she wouldn't put any weight on her leg at all for three days so I was on my way back to the hospital with her when I received a call from the hospital saying on review of the x-rays there was a fracture. So after a lot of screaming and three nurses holding Lily we got her leg straight and got a cast on it. Before she got the cast she was in a lot of pain but since she has the cast she has been in great form. We have been surprised at how well she has taken to it. She is bum-scooting around very efficiently. She can even get up and down the stairs. She is in suprisingly good spirits but I suspect that may be because of the large amounts of attention she is getting. We are not sure how long she will have to have the cast, maybe 3 or 4 weeks.

In other news we had a great St. Patrick's Day down in Ennistymon. There was a brilliant parade with local school children, tractors, donkeys and our favorite float which was a very realistic scene of turf cutting with a real turf fire and kettle on the float.

St Patrick's day 2012

Our favorite float from the Ennistymon Parade

Bama and the gang on Main St Ennistymon

Another picnic in the Burren, this time with toasted marshmallows

It's coming around to my busy time of year again with project assessments and fashion show preparations looming I have a busy two months ahead of me. However the next big thing to prepare for is James birthday in a week and a half. 8 years old!