around here...

 stocking fillers for my own stocking (I didn't want to feel left out, so I treated myself)

 making a dollhouse family for the kid's present

 Benny was in hospital getting grommets put in his ears.

 preparing for our wee Christmas party

 baking her class a cake instead of giving cards

 finishing off our angel for the tree

body, head and wings made by Rebe, dress made by me and Benny and all threads snipped by Joa.

Today is Rebe's last day of school and then the festivities can begin :-)

sandcastle competition

Yesterday was the annual sandcastle building competition on the beach in our village.

Although the weather was looking dodgy, we packed our raincoats and headed down to join the crowd.

After building for 15 mins the heavens opened and the rain tipped down,

it was a shame and lots of families packed up and left. We stayed though and kept building,

This was made slightly difficult with the one man demolition crew we had with us. Just at the point when we were going to rebuild our castle for the third time the novelty races began so we headed over to join in.

The sack race was very hard for Benny and he stopped after a few feet.

Rebe flew it though and won her heat by a mile,

to go on and win 2nd prize in the final, where she was the only girl running!

Next was the three legged race, something the kids had never done but seen in 2 of their favourite books; Dogger and Milly Molly Mandy

I love this picture of them together, and they did great, they came second!

After that was the wheel barrow race that they also entered together and lastly the piggy back race.

They were by far the youngest team and certainly were a good foot smaller than the other competitors. I saw the stewards of the race ask if they wanted to go on some bigger boys' back instead of struggling together, but they said no that they wanted to stay together (heart melts!). They got a few meters head start but in the rush of the race they got knocked over. After a wee cry they picked themselves up and we went in search of the picnic.

After hot dogs and juice was the prize giving:

(I truly love this picture, it is a real glimpse into the relationship I have with Benny, I will treasure that I captured this moment!)

Each second of the race and prize giving were recounted on the way home and the medals were only taken off in the bath, to be put back on again over pajamas :-)
It was a lovely day out, rain and all!

catch up...

Wow, it's been ages since I've been here. It's been a busy week and here's a little of what we've been up to...

My mum came for a visit. It is always so lovely to see her and be with her. We all love her so dearly and Rebe has a very special relationship with her. Look what she brought for me... I'm so delighted with it...what a saddo ;-P

On our first full day together we spent the morning at Lisselan gardens. It was just a glorious day and we had such a lovely time exploring.

Playing pooh sticks

Watching the world float by. There was a sweet little ginger cat that followed us all the way around. It was so gorgeous and we had it completely to ourselves. This is definitely a place we need to spend more time at.

On Thursday it was St Patrick's day. Bubs made an Irish flag cake with the kids and little flags to wave.

She was a bit disappointed with the parade. I think she was expecting lots of exciting floats rather than a wee old lady with a zimmer frame dressed in a tu-tu and a cement mixer. It was still fun though :-)


All this loveliness was seen through a fug of tiredness though as our littlest man has been very busy...

Going from crawling to cruising and also teething very hard. Tooth number three is here and number 4 is causing him great trouble so our nights have been very disturbed.

Here are a few other pictures I'd like to share...

a beautiful duplo flower made by Rebe, this has pride of place on our table. I am so in awe of how this girl can create with duplo!

This is Benny's invention...not quite as beautiful as Rebe's but more functional... a snotter catcher. Simply stick some sellotape over your nose and tissues and nose wiping can be a thing of the past!

He has also been wearing a skirt for dancing, to experience 'the twirl'. I too think it's unfair if only girls get to twirl! Benny is growing up so quickly, he's now completely nappy free having decided he doesn't need them at nights anymore.

We've been playing 'Beetle' a lot in the evenings. All you need is your chart, some paper and pens and a dice. Here is our chart, you need to roll a 6 to get a body, a 5 for a head, 4 for each leg, 3 eye, 2 antenae, 1 mouth.

It's so fun to see how the beetles come out...

hmmm, not sure this is optimum playing position...

We've lots of plans for Ostara today which I'm sure I'll share with you soon.

hugs

good fun

On Saturday we went here, to the Engage Arts Festival. It was loads of fun, we met up with some friends (so great to see them). There was lots to look at and do... It was very 'green' and there were lots of interesting green innovations and demo's. We looked at people making wee houses out of willow, there were puppet makers, a make your own pizza then fire it in a mud oven, re-fashion t-shirts, some stalls with local organic produce.

The kids painted some plant pots.

Benny just loved this and spent a good 20 mins painting his, he used up loads of paint so really got his 2 euros worth ;-)

There was an open singing session, which was great and I would've joined in but I had a boy on the boob at the time.

This was a really cool wrought iron stand, I love the fire bowl! Something I'd love to get at some point!

Rebe also made a little pipe cleaner man. This activity was run by a 10 year old boy. He was so cool, really in charge of it all and great at teaching the kids how to make the little men.

The weather was just glorious too and when we had exhausted the festival we went to the park for a good play.

Today after dropping Rebe to school and doing our daily jobs Benny and I went out for a walk...this is all Benny wants to do at the moment and periodically puts on his hat in the hope we'll be going out.

We collected lots of things on the beach and Benny stuck them on a page when we got home, including a snails shell and a good few crab claws (makes an interesting picture...lets hope it won't smell).

Look at this boy smiling at his mama! Hope you all had fun weekends too! x

*sigh* it's the weekend

We had to go into town today to the library and health food shop, so I thought I'd bring my camera to show you this tree, inspired by mamauk's post here. The picture's not great, Joshua was wiggling about in the sling, but look at the way it is growing out of the 'boundaries' set in stone by the town...

It is oozing out, as if someone has poured this tree in here and it has over flown.

I've never seen something solid look so liquid before. I love this tree!

This afternoon we attended the children's event of the Courtmacsherry Storytelling Festival. There was a lady with a guitar who sang some great songs, mostly old children's songs from the north of Ireland, and there was a man called Jack who told 4 stories all together. It was story telling in the traditional sense; with morals and repetition, not from books but from legend and passed on through generations, where we could join in and shout out. It was great. Rebe in particular loved it and although Benny was quite tired we did stay until the end. I'm so glad we live here and get to have experiences like this. We walked home along the beach watching kite surfers make 2 metre jumps into the air.

I also got to do this today...

yup, she finally let me wash Mio (it was only because he'd been pee'd on but still he got a wash).

The last thing I want to share today is that Joshua is finding his hands. He's been trying to touch things for a few days, I can see the determination in his face when he's looking at the buttons on my shirt, but he's not been able to make his hands move...

but he's getting there now and today he was touching and grasping things. I'm so pleased for him, another wee milestone in his life.

We're going to have a lazy day tomorrow, just some making and baking and probably lots of knitting and duplo... good old weekends!