Lily Turns 4!

This month brought lots of celebrations including our wedding and lots of visitors but not to be forgotten in the middle of all that fuss was a little girl's big 4th birthday...

Lily talks about her birthday/birthday party on most days of the year...who will be at her party...what type of cake will she have...which dress will she wear etc.  She regularly plays games that she is having a party with her imaginary friends, 'Baby Giraffe' and 'Emmalay'.  So we did feel a bit of pressure to have an exciting party.  With all that was going on I wasn't sure we could pull it off however I think we did in the end, thank God. 

When Lily woke up that morning, put her hands in the air and said "it's my birthday yay! Have my guests arrived yet?!" So we had to explain that parties don't start at 7:00am and she would have to wait until after lunch.  It was a rainy day, as much of June/July has been and a couple of her favorite friends, Grace and Ciara were on holidays but luckily everyone else could make it and in fabulous party dresses too!   

 Can't you just feel the excitement...

 ...and the love!

  The first event of the party was a flurry of admiration for each others beautiful party dresses upon arrival.  Then face painting provided entertainment for a while after which the new toys were shown and shared, including a toy barn and animals, crowns/jewelery, and the lovely Lalaloopsy doll.  In between the showers they even got a chance to have a go with the new bubble machine outside. 

 There were a couple of special guests at this party including Auntie Alicia over from California and Uncle Simon over from Florida.  It was a treat to have them both there.  Simon was our savior on the day as while the the kids were having pizza he provided top class 4-year-old entertainment, including stories, jokes, and tricks.  The girls were fascinated and enchanted by Simon and the high pitched squeels coming out of them was hilarious and unforgettable.  We all agreed that Simon should try a new career as birthday-party-entertainer.

 The party flew in and we never even got to organise party games but there was of course time for what Lily had been waiting for all year- chocolate cake and the happy birthday song!

And not only was there cake, there was ice cream cones with sprinkles on top, Lily's favorite at the moment!

Lily at 4 Loves: 

*pink, purple, sparkles and fluffy things.  

*Jewelery, crowns, wands, hair accessories, nail varnish, make-up

*plastic high heels, sunglasses, fairy dresses, wings, handbags

*dressing herself everyday, creatively...layering is key, shorts or skirts under dresses, socks on top of tights, vests over tops, dresses on top of two t-shirts

*jumping on the trampoline, riding her bike and scooter, tackling her brother

*animals especially little cute ones and most especially Skippy, James rabbit

*films including Tin Tin, Puss in Boots, Arrietty, any princess/fairy film

*painting, drawing, colouring, face painting

*playing tea parties, dollies, doctors, marbles

*beaches, parks, rivers, nature

*picking flowers and giving them to people

*imaginary friends -Emmalay and Baby Giraffe

*making people laugh, shocking people with bum bum/poo poo comments or fighting comments like" I am going to destroy that boy doctor's heart" and "I'll put mackers (smack/manners) on that doctor" after her broken leg

*Dancing to Jedward, singing along to Gorillaz

*stories and story books

*asking questions like why do people need houses? why do people need brothers? why do people need skulls?  Why do people need hearts?

*talking and not letting anyone else talk, talking nonsense like "my legs are tired, my eyes are tired, my nose is tired but my speaking is not tired.  My blah blah blah is not tired"

*mixing up words and making her own words...'sparking pot' = parking spot

 

*cuddles, kisses and tickles

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!

Christmas 2011

The big surprise for James and Lily this year...

Christmas day started with James waking at about 6am and running down to find a massive box with a Trampoline in it and a special note from Santa warning that parents should not be expected to build it on Christmas day (Thanks Santa!) James had asked for two large Halo sets (Halo is lego like but with soldiers) on his letter to Santa this year and although I warned that Santa only brings one large gift to each child there was definitely some initial disappointment when he found only one set. It was quickly outweighed by acceptance and excitement over all the wonderful stuff in his stocking.
Lily didn't get up til about 7:30am which was just enough time to help James construct his Halo vehicle (Halo: not as quick to assemble as Lego). Lily got what she asked for: a "Pinktop" (which means pink lap top) a pink phone (plastic) and a snugly blanket. She had been asking for just a Pencil until a couple of weeks before Christmas when she found out Nuria was getting a pink lap top and a pink phone for Christmas. Needless to say Lily had to get the same things as Nuria.



We hosted the Wards on Christmas day and everyone enjoyed the amazing "bronze turkey" that we cooked this year. Even Paddy who had a very high temperature in the morning seemed to fully recover for the Christmas evening festivities. There was all the usual turkey, ham, stuffing, cranberry, gravy, Brussels sprouts, Christmas crackers (which Lily particularly enjoyed), jokes, paper crowns, prosecco, Christmas pudding, cake and presents. James' faith in Santa was restored when his Granny's present turned out to be the other Halo set that was on his Santa list. You see Santa knew that the granny was getting the other set for him so that's why Santa didn't bring it.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the post Christmas holidays from work and school. Santa brought James lots of 'make and do' type of toys which has kept him completely occupied every day. There were days that even TV was forgotten about. Thanks to the fine and mild weather the Trampoline was erected on St. Stephens day and has been used at least five times a day since on the dry days. What's nice is the two of them seem to really enjoy going on it together. Considering their age and gender difference there isn't a whole lot of things that they enjoy doing together so this is a wonderful surprise.

Last week we managed to fit in a family trip to County Clare and we even had an amazing spontaneous Spillane family gathering and feast on New Year's Eve in cousin Dashiel's house. There was a wonderful game of charades played after dinner. James loves charades even though he has a way to go on knowing what actions to do to fully embody his thing. Lily surprised us in being able to join in and did quite well for her age. However we have always said she has powerful 'dramatic skills' for her age so maybe that's why.

When we arrived back from Clare we still had a week of holidays left which we spent catching up with friends, going for walks, playing with every new toy and relaxing. We are all back to the grindstone tomorrow but fully refreshed and revived after a restful winter break.

Last but not least a big welcome to Lucy's new baby boy born today!

Halloween

Hello again. We have all settled down now after a couple of months of adjustments. First back to school for James with a later finish time and starting football after school. Also Lily started play school one day a week. Then I went back to work with more hours and a second class group to teach as my dear colleague Marion retired. Luckily Nuria, our lovely au pair, arrived back to us to help with everything. As they don't celebrate Halloween as much in Spain Nuria has been really enjoying the festivities here in Dublin which are gaining in momentum each year and have nearly reached American standards.

Nuria (in the middle) and her friends Ester and Christina as Bees going to a Halloween party

We celebrated Halloween well this year starting with decorating our windows properly last week thanks to many supplies sent over from auntie Alicia! We also got sent an angel and a ninja costume from uncle Simon which got the dressing-up started a week in advance. James managed to do a lot of his pumpkin carving himself this year and got seriously stuck into scraping out the guts! He also helped with the making of his soldier costume sewing a few seams on the machine by himself. Lily changed her mind several times about what she wanted to dress up as. She wore her angel costume to her play school party which went down well with the other princesses. I had assumed she would want to be a bumble bee as she loves and copies everything Nuria does but as the colour pink is of paramount importance to her a pig was the final choice. Not shy at all to knock on doors Lily did extremely well at the trick-or-treating and she had a well rehearsed snort ready in case anyone asked for a trick. However she got stage fright when a trick was requested on two occasions.

Tank Commander James

Lily the pig

Ninja Paddy going for the punch while tank commander has a munch on a twix

We ended our Halloween celebrations with some sparklers and a night walk to the local bomfire.

Three Three Three

Lily turned three while we were on our holidays in Ennistymon/Lahinch. The day was long anticipated by Lily. Last years birthday party made a very big impression on her especially the part where everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. She talked about the song, the cake and candles a lot after that. If we played with stickle bricks or play dough or whatever we always had to make a birthday cake and sing the song. So just when I thought the birthday fascination had faded James' birthday party brought it all back and the "When is it my Birthday?!" questions started coming at regular intervals. Since she doesn't have an abundance of patience I gave her no advance warning that the big day was so close. I simply mentioned it when she was in bed the night before. In the morning when she came down the stairs (these days she sleeps in late) I said "Happy Birthday Lily!", she answered "..but where is my Happy Birthday?" So I brought her into Bama's front room where there was a table set with all sorts of pink things, balloons, presents etc and then she said "Oh there is my Happy Birthday!"

We went out to dinner that evening and then went to the play park. She didn't want to leave so I thought to help extract her I would mention the cake (which I hadn't yet iced). This I am not so sure was a good idea. She was tired and had been waiting for this moment for a whole year so she quickly worked herself into a frenzy when she got home as she had to wait while I iced the cake. This was way too much to ask...so we went ahead and stuck the candle on the cake and continued with the proceedings. We gave her a big slice and her mood quickly changed back into sweetie pie mode.

Cake number 1


Two munchkins picking at the cake.

Cake number 2 (well really cake 1 iced) and more munchkin fingers.

Take two on the birthday proceedings.

Then a few days later when we were back in Dublin we had a small family Birthday party where she got another go at the song, cake and candles!

Cake number 3.

At the party she got her present from Mammy and Daddy which was a balance bike. She was delighted and is aspiring to keep up with James on his birthday bike.

As it happened on the day of her party James lost his first tooth. He had been waiting a long time for this watching his cousin and all his friends loose numerous teeth before him. Although he has questioned the probability of whether the tooth fairy is real or not many times before he was quite happy to suspend his disbelief on the day as he had heard from his pals that your first tooth gets you 5euro from the (real or not real) tooth fairy!

Summer is Here, Summer Weather Still to Come.

"You know it's summer in Ireland because the rain is warmer" I heard that quote recently and thought...well said!



Summer holidays have arrived for me and will arrive for James in a couple of days. The weather has been cool with regular wind and rain. We haven't spent much of our time in shorts since April but we are still holding out hope that we will get some summer weather in July and August. Luckily with the light staying around until after 10pm lately we have gotten lots of bright evenings to spend on the green area at the end of our road christened "The Grassy Knoll" by Gavin. James has taken a shine to his bicycle that he got for his birthday and spends many evenings on it or playing football.

James has been very productive lately with assorted "projects" as he calls them. He loves drawing and spends hours drawing stick men in wars/battles and scenes of general destruction. He has taken to making books with his drawings and enjoys writing stories to go with them. He also spends time making army related objects out of wood, thanks to Uncle Joe and Auntie Jessie for the carpentry kit given at Christmas. Anything to do with constructing things/army stuff is tops for James at the moment. We had some serious inspiration a couple of weeks ago after visiting the NCAD (Nation College of Art and Design) end of year exhibition where he saw a textile artist who's subject was army figures photographed and made into fabric. This has started a whole new craze for James. Setting up army figures in scenes and photographing them. He has branched out into lego figures as well. Here is a little selection of his recent "work" in a slideshow.



The other major love at the moment for both Lily and James is Jedward. For those who don't live in Ireland Jedward are a pop sensation born on the English X-Factor program. They are twins (John and Edward) from Dublin and they are very funny, entertaining and cool if you are 7 or 3. I insist you check them out if you have never heard of them, link below.

Spring is Here

Grandad Jim

Long time no post.

It has been a sad few months as we lost our beloved Grandad Jim a week before Christmas last year. His passing has left a gaping hole in our lives and a feeling of bewilderment. Life seems to be dramatically different in so many ways.

I learned recently that Jim didn't like glowing eulogies so I won't go on too much but I wanted to say that Jim was always a loving, welcoming and supportive "father in law" to me. He was uniquely loving and tender with babies and small children. I discovered this trait in him when James was born. Since then I have been moved by Jim's enthusiasm for and admiration of his grandchildren. From the time Lily was only a few months old she showed signs of favoring Jim above anyone else and as she got older this continued. If Jim was in the room with her it was as if nobody else existed. Jim's interest and wonderment of his grandchildren was a wonderful gift to them and I am glad that both of them got to know him so well.

The good news is that we are having an unusually sunny springtime. This is helping us get up and out and enjoy our days. Luckily it was sunny too for James' 7th Birthday party where we entertained 17 children at our house! We spent plenty of time preparing the entertainment... target practice, obstacle course, waterbombs, pinjata, pass-the-parcel, treasure hunt etc. Not to mention sorting the food (two vegetarians, one non-wheat, one non-pork, one non-beef, 1 non-dairy, and 1 nut allergy!). In the end most of the boys time was spent divided between playing football and Lego- 7 year old boy favorites!

Here is a slideshow of the past few months starting with Lily's "grumpy fairy" at Christmas, some sunny February days in Lahinch Co Clare, James party, more sunny April days in Lahinch, Easter Sunday picnic and egg hunt in the Burren, Moher hill pet farm and tide pools and swimming at Clahane.

Snow, snow and more snow!

A week of snow in Dublin (the biggest snowfall in living memory apparently) has filled our week with adventures of all types. Unlike last year's cold snap where we got over a month of scary compacted ice, this week we have had lovely deep powdery snow falling every day. This has been very exciting for the kids. And just when James thought things couldn't get any better, his school closed down for three days.

We have learned lots about snow this week starting with trying to figure out how to make a snowman out of powdery snow. It took a couple of attempts but we got there in the end.





We figured out what kinds of things are good for make-shift sleighs. We tried laundry baskets, plastic tubs, surfboards and we aren't finished trying yet. We experienced what it is like to be in a car that's wheels are spinning in place, we witnessed many cars attempting to drive our ice-rink of a road (about 2 inches of compacted snow). They slipped, slid and spun as they made their way to the main road which had a bit of salt on it.


I figured out how long it takes to walk to work in the snow with a two year old and a six year old, result: over an hour (usually takes less than 20 min). We figured out how to get to my work on the bus by going quite far out of the way and transfering once. That took about an hour and a half. The kids liked these adventures and James especially liked coming into work with me as he got to watch movies, play computer games and was given chocolate from Bernie in the canteen.


The snow is here to stay for another week at least or so we have been told. And while it has been great fun in many ways it has also been very difficult to visit grandad Jim who is very sick. Luckily he has a lovely view of snowy dublin and the sea from his fifth floor window and thankfully we are within walking distance of him.

We did miraculuosly manage to make it down to co Clare last weekend for Gavin's cousin Vinnie's wedding party which was brilliant!


I will leave you on a happy note with this image of Vinnie and his lovely new wife Amy, who hails from Flint, Michigan... and won't even mention the scary IMF/ECB bank bailout stuff.

Two Ninjas and a Lion

A couple of pics from Halloween

Summer Is Over

I've been very slack on my posts lately. It's a sign that we were too busy having a great time this summer. There was a lot of lovely weather, especially in June and August and we spent most of it mastering our picnicing technique. Beaches, parks, pet farms, islands, you name it we picniced there this summer. The best part of the summer was of course the visit from Auntie Alicia! We got her for about 6 weeks which was both a luxury and a pleasure. She unfortunately experienced some on the worst weather of the summer during July but benifited by getting some of the classic Irish experiences such as rainy picnics and beach trips.
We miss her loads since she left but luckily we have been occupied by settling back into school, work and creche.

Here are a few pics from the fab summer 2010 including pics of:

• A visit from Naomi, Adam and Luke
• A trip to the pet farm in Co Clare
• Bama's Birthday
• Lily's Birthday
• Dressing up
  
• A trip to the Aran Islands
• Rainy picnic at the Burren
  
• A trip to the Zoo with cousin Paddy
  

"My Do It!"

"My do it", "My have it", "My eat it", "My get you", "My Mammy" and the big one "My turn" seem to be the sound track to our lives at the moment. Lily is advancing quickly with her words and her ability to boss everyone around. She has her own way of expressing herself already. She likes to double everything like "car car", "pasta pasta" or "more more". She can be very polite and likes to add Mammy to everything for example "please Mammy" "KanKoo Mammy" "Welcome Mammy" and even "Bless you Mammy". She quite regularly mixes up the order of things Yoda style like "Sit down me". She also adds her own nonsense parts to sentences like "Ina Daddy going?" meaning where is daddy going or "Ope-it-a-my" meaning open it. And as she gets more advanced in her sentences she not only adds nonsense, she adds in some fibs too like "Sadie hit me all the time"-Sadie is her doll, and "James pushing me around"-when he is not.
Some of our favorite Lilyisms at the moment are:

"dappy"=Nappy
"shoeson"=shoes
"diff one"=different one
"dab o dee"=cup of tea.
"Daddy doe"=Daddy and "Mammy-o"=Mammy and "Dosh-y-doe" or "Jis"=James
"Speedge Bob"=Sponge Bob
"Pinknink"= Picnic
"Piggy bank"= piggy back

Another Lily behaviour of the moment is that she won't leave home with out something or should I say lots of things; for example her "pram" with 10 dolls in it... or her "Dora bag" stuffed with dolls, balls, blankets etc. seen below.

James finishes his first year of school next week. He has grown up so much this year. He has finally stopped clinging to his Mammy. I still expect him to be stuck to my side and am surprised when he is not. Recently I went to his sports day in school and on a field trip with him and he more or less ignored me and played with his friends the whole time. I was delighted! He seems confident and independent and he has lots of friends. What more could you want for your child.

I leave you with some clips of Lily singing and a short clip of James' school play where he is being helped along by girl in his class.