Day 32 - Carrowmore Beach

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I am not sure what the reason was, but we all slept in very late, and a brunch was more in order than a breakfast!  We had bought lots of very delicious blueberries from Lidl when we went shopping, so we decided to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast with our farm fresh eggs (thanks to the awesome hens!). 

mmmm...mmmm...Blueberry pancakes

mmmm...mmmm...Blueberry pancakes

By the time everything was cleaned and put away, it was already a bit past noon :). Since the sun was shining, we decided it was a great day to go to the beach.  

We went back to Carrowmore Beach, since we had seen a great alcove the day of the horse show when we walked on the beach, and we thought it would be a great place for the kids to play.

It was a perfect day!  Fairly warm for these parts, and the sky was blue with enough clouds to cover the sun now and then.  The sun, when it is not hiding behind clouds, is actually really strong here, and your skin can burn quickly if you are not wearing sun screen.  

Carrowmore Beach, with a view of Croagh Patrick in the clouds

Carrowmore Beach, with a view of Croagh Patrick in the clouds

At first, Hannah and I just played on the main part of the beach, as Daddy and Kian went to explore further down.

If you look in the first picture below, you can see the alcove in the right all the way back in the distance. 

To get to the alcove, we went mostly over sand and just had to climb over a few rocks, but it was not a tough task.  As we had thought, the kids had a blast playing here.  First, they had lots of fun "cleaning" the sand of the dead jellyfish that were stuck in the sand (these jellies were definitely not alive, so there wasn't a worry of them stinging the kids) but YUCK! I got totally squeamish every time they would shovel one up to throw it out of the way!!  At one point they even tried to make a soup out of them...or at least that's what it looked like to me....I looked from afar and was turning slightly green! 

We met with a nice family, coincidentally from New York City, with family in Louisburgh!  As we chatted about this and that, the kids had fun playing in the sand, and with two little doggies (Jack Russell Terriers), Pearl and Ruby.

Kian and Daddy braved the cold waters and went in for a dip! Brrrr...! Hannah also got brave enough to walk into the water and fill up her bucket by herself :)

Even Kian's Lego dude had a great time at the beach.

We stayed on the beach until almost 5 PM, when we saw dark clouds approaching and heard some loud thunder!  We quickly packed up and headed towards the path back...and were shocked to see how far up the water had come!  We had noticed the water gradually getting higher as we played, but the high tide was coming in fast, and most of the rocks we had climbed on (do you remember the rock climbing pictures from the Louisburgh Horse Show day?) were completely submerged under water! 

We had to climb a much higher and more difficult path to get back to the beach, but we managed to make it without any issues.

Lifeguard Red flag - conditions are not safe for swimming

Lifeguard Red flag - conditions are not safe for swimming

We made it back home just in time before it started pouring. Since both of our moms are big fans of grilling in all weather, a little bit of rain was not going to change our dinner plans.  We still fired up the charcoal grill and made delicious cheeseburgers.

Cheeseburger, hot dog, and homemade french fries :) 

Cheeseburger, hot dog, and homemade french fries :) 

The rain stopped shortly after dinner, and we were able to watch a beautiful sunset over the ocean before the kids were sent off to bed.

Gorgeous sunset over the Atlantic with Clare Island to the right

Gorgeous sunset over the Atlantic with Clare Island to the right



Day 28 - Louisburgh Horse Show

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The day started off with some rain, and it wasn't as beautiful as we had wished.  But the weather is very quick to change here, so we kept up hope that by the time the Louisburgh Horse Show would start it would be nice. 

Hannah had a great time playing with her princesses after breakfast.

As luck would have it, the rain stopped shortly before we headed out to the Horse Show.  
It was a big event with lots of horses and a variety of events. We watched a show where a few horse back riders were dressed as pirates and a few others as an army chasing the pirates. It was neat, and what made it even cooler was that the riders were kids probably 8-14 years old.

We also watched a few hurdle races which were very fun to watch, except when a young boy fell off his horse. Thankfully he was alright and was able to stand and walk off the course.  

There was also a small ring for a dog show and a sheep show, but we only stayed around those rings for a few minutes and then moved on.  It's worth mentioning that "our" sheep dog Sam won 2nd place in his class.

The Horse Show was just above a beach called Carrowmore. We headed towards the beach to check it out and see if it was a good beach to come back too with sand toys. Carrowmore is one of the beaches closest to us that has the blue flag status.

It is definitely a gorgeous beach. 

After enjoying our walk and "climbs" on the beach, we headed home and made spaghetti for dinner.  Our spaghetti monster, Hannah, was very excited and thoroughly enjoyed her dinner. 

Spaghetti Monster!! 

Spaghetti Monster!! 

After dinner, we made peppermint green tea and had our family movie date night.  We watched Toy Story (1).

Movie Date Night - Toy Story 1 with peppermint tea :) 

Movie Date Night - Toy Story 1 with peppermint tea :) 

A long, eventful, and fun day.  We reaaaaalllyyyyy need to go grocery shopping tomorrow as the fridge is practically empty!  Off to Westport we go tomorrow!

Day 27 - Rivers and Civilizations

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After being away for 4 days, we planned to just hang around the farm and relax.  It was a gorgeous day with blue skies and beautiful white clouds. 

View from the backyard...Just gorgeous!

View from the backyard...Just gorgeous!

We visited the mommy chicken and her little chicks that are growing up very quickly.

Mommy chicken and all her chicks. 

Mommy chicken and all her chicks. 

And the kids spent a while playing together with their toys.

Kian: Hello Princesses
Hannah: Nooo...you cannot come in...aaaaa
Kian: Why? I am a good guy...I am Bruce Wayne.
Hannah: Oh!!! I didn't realize it's Bruce Wayne...come in come in...

Hannah and Kian playing together

Hannah and Kian playing together

The kids also played on the iPads for a bit.  We got this new app called "Montessori 1st Operations".  It is a great app for teaching simple math, and Kian likes it a lot. Yay for educational app!! 

Kian playing the 1st Operations game

Kian playing the 1st Operations game

Since it was so beautiful, we couldn't stay put all day, so we decided to walk to the beach near the house before dinner and play for a while. The walk is about half a mile, but it is very peaceful and you rarely see a car to by.

When we got to the beach, we saw a vast area on the sand covered with some odd looking twirly things. At first we thought it was garbage...maybe strings? We were shocked to find out that it was actually just sand! We later witnessed the creation of these "strings" occurs when water would randomly push through small holes in the sand and create these shapes.

The water under the sand is actually from a river that is a small distance away from the ocean. There were terrible storms around here in December, which apparently damaged most of the beach.

One of the sand formations we saw on the beach

One of the sand formations we saw on the beach

Because of the river, the sand is very wet and you only have to dig a little bit to have a pool of water.  We started off with just a little pool for Hannah to play in, but then my darling husband had this crazy idea of digging a river all the way to the ocean.

This would have been totally fine if we start just a small distance away, but noooo...we started off at Hannah's pool which was quite far from the ocean. Kian had fun helping us build dams along the way.

A few times I was ready to give up, but we finally did it and managed to connect our river to the ocean :) Yes sometimes we are bigger kids than our children.

This ended up resulting in a good lesson for Kian, though. After we built the river, we explained to him how the first civilizations in the world were built around rivers and why.  

After the digging and the history lesson, we all headed back to the house to have some dinner and rest our arm and shoulder muscles from all the digging :) 

We are hoping for great weather tomorrow for the Louisburgh Horse Show.

Day 25 - Inch Beach & Festive Killarney

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We all woke up very well rested and happy knowing that we did not have a far drive ahead. We left the Kerry Ocean Lodge after breakfast, once again without having a place booked for the night. We figured we would take a risk and just go to Killarney and find a place later in the afternoon.

We started off by driving towards the Dingle Peninsula, since we wanted to check out Inch Beach. 

On our way, in the town of Killorglin we came across a statue of a goat wearing a crown. Otherwise known as King Puck. According to a sign near the statue, "For hundreds of years, a male mountain goat has been enthroned as King of Puck Fair in Killorglin town. The Puck Goat reigns over the fair held on August 10th, 11th, and 12th of each year. King Puck is a symbol of a vast traditions whose origins are lost in the mists of time."

King Puck

King Puck

A view of the Killorglin town

A view of the Killorglin town

We made it to Inch Beach not too long after. The beach is really very beautiful and definitely deserves its blue flag status. We all had a great time running around and playing in the sand. 

The kids and I also decided to do a little bit of yoga. I even attempted a handstand transitioned into a bridge/wheel. I did think about it for a while and wondered whether or not I could pull it off, but then I decided I wouldn't know unless I tried. 

Seeing my warm up exercises, Kian wanted to try a handstand too, and with a bit of help from me he succeeded and thought it was the funniest thing to see everything upside down :) 

After lots and lots of playing, in the early afternoon we decided to just eat at Sammy's, a restaurant that is right on the beach before heading to Killarney. 

After lunch, we got in the car and headed towards Killarney. The kids fell asleep in the car, which was perfect because they were quite tired from playing on the beach.  The drive to Killarney was only about an hour or so, and once in town we realized there were some festivities going on.  It was the last day of the horse races in Killarney, which is also known as "Ladies' Day".  On Ladies' Day, the women who want to take part in the competition dress up, and the best dressed lady wins. They also have other categories like best hat, etc. 

We saw lots of fancy dresses and very, very high heeled shoes.

There was also a bike race in town the week before, so there were no lack of decorations on the streets as we drove through in search of a bed and breakfast that could accommodate a family of 4 on such a busy night! 

Thankfully, after only asking a few places, we found a lovely bed and breakfast called Kingfisher Lodge within walking distance to the center of town, for a very good price.  It definitely didn't hurt to be spontaneous with this one. 

After resting for a little bit, we put on our shoes and got out to see the city. We were given a piece of advice by the B&B owner to be inside a restaurant before 6:30 PM since everyone from the races would likely be arriving around 7 to eat. 

We found a restaurant called "The Flesk" and luckily they were able to seat us right away.  The restaurant was packed, but everyone around us was so sweet. 

The kids were busy with their coloring pages as we ordered some delicious food. 

Kian and his coloring page at the restaurant :) 

Kian and his coloring page at the restaurant :) 

We had conversations with a couple from Pennsylvania who were in Ireland with a tour group. Then we talked to an Irish couple who were really sweet to the kids. We also chatted with a couple who were sitting behind us who had travelled to Ireland from Sydney, Australia. 

It felt like we were out to dinner with a few acquaintances :) 

Then our dinner arrived and it was perfectly delicious.

As we left the restaurant, we could hear music not too far away and then we saw that everyone had gathered on the street and there was some sort of dance competition going on. The music was so upbeat and fun, and even if you weren't in the dancing circle you couldn't help but dance a little bit to the beat.

Kian dancing on daddy's shoulders :)

Kian dancing on daddy's shoulders :)

On our way back to the Bed and Breakfast we stopped at Murphy's, an ice cream shop with lots of interesting ice cream flavors. I got the Irish Oats which was yumtastic! 

With our bellies full and our legs exhausted we went back to the B&B for a much needed night of rest.  So glad we arrived into town on such a festive day. 

Day 21 - Louisburgh Horse Race

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On Sunday morning, we woke up to rays of sunshine creeping through the windows. I decided to take advantage of this and go for a nice run. The pet lambs came to see me off, and I was on my way. I was able to go towards the the ruins of a stone church that I had seen from a distance before. It was a very uphill road, but it was totally worth it.

Church ruins near Devlin

Church ruins near Devlin

Once I got back home, Kian, I mean Batman and I decided to visit the pet lambs.

Batman visiting the pet lambs

Batman visiting the pet lambs

If you ever get a chance to pet a lamb/sheep, do it and don't hesitate for a second. They are so so soft and wooly :) After our visit, Batman, "glided" down the hill.

Batman "gilding" down

Batman "gilding" down

Then it was time to say good morning to Sam. I don't believe I mentioned this before, but Sam has two different colored eyes, one brown and one blue! 

Sam checking out Batman's cape

Sam checking out Batman's cape

We also went to visit Blackberry, the hen that is sitting on eggs now, but her bucket was covered and we did not want to bother her. 

After all our visits, we headed back inside as daddy also seized the opportunity to go for a run. While lunch, was being prepared, the superheroes and super villain had a battle around the house.

BLAAAAMMMMM....

BLAAAAMMMMM....

KA-POWWWW!

KA-POWWWW!

Lunch was served...chicken noodle soup with bread and lots of fruits.

Chicken noodle soup with bread and fruit

Chicken noodle soup with bread and fruit

After lunch, we all got ready and headed down to Carrownisky Strand for the Louisburgh Horse Race. Yay for sunshine and blue skies!

What a wonderful family event. There were bouncy slides, a face painter, balloon animal makers, food, ice cream, and more. There was also an area for people who bet on the racing horses. We found out later that the horses come from all over Ireland for this race. 

Batman

Batman

Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty

There was a small admission fee for adults, but a good number of the children's activities were free. 

Yay balloon doggies! 

Yay balloon doggies! 

It seemed that the races were on every 15-30 minutes. It was really neat to see horses race on the beach. 

Racers coming down the beach

Racers coming down the beach

Kian was also able to test out his driving skills on the go-karts. He only crashed a few times and had a blast :)

Vrrrrrrooooom...Vrrrrrooooommmmm

Vrrrrrrooooom...Vrrrrrooooommmmm

Back home, we continued enjoying the beautiful day and grilled some burgers for dinner, while trying to get some internet access.  The chickens were extremely interested in the laptop and hung about for a bit.  This picture would make for a great meme...caption suggestions anyone?

Chickens checking out the laptop

Chickens checking out the laptop

The cheese burgers were served with a side of home-made fries, or chips as they say here.

Cheese burgers & chips

Cheese burgers & chips

After dinner, Kian and Daddy played some soccer in honor of the final world cup game, as Mayflower continued her munching on grass. 

Kian catching Daddy's attempt at the goal

Kian catching Daddy's attempt at the goal

Then we all watched the final game and cheered for Argentina :( We were bummed out that they lost, but I was glad Kian stayed up and watched the whole game with us, even though Hannah didn't quite make it to the end before asking to go to bed.

Thank you sunshine! We had a lovely Sunday being outside.

Day 18 - Carrownisky Strand

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You remember that brown irish soda bread? Well apparently the chickens can eat it too. Except it needs to be soaked for 30 minutes in water. We had a bit of left over from an older batch so we decided to soak it up and feed it to our awesome chickens that give us eggs every day.

Kian happily took on the task.

Kian about to feed the soaked up bread to the chickens

Kian about to feed the soaked up bread to the chickens

Then we visited the hen that is now sitting on some eggs. This chicken was getting "broody", as they say here. She kept trying to sit on the egg(s) in the egg bucket (the chickens have a bucket in their shed where they go to lay their eggs, if there is already a chicken in the bucket they lay the eggs around the shed).  So now this chicken has her own bucket with a few eggs that she is sitting on. She started on July 7th and we are hoping to see some baby chicks hatch on the 28th! I'll keep you posted on what happens.

Mommy to be? We'll find out on July 28th.

Mommy to be? We'll find out on July 28th.

It was a nice enough day by Irish standards. About 20 C and partly cloudy. Time to go to the beach. This time we headed to Carrownisky Strand. There is a surfing school on this beach and you can rent a wet suit and surf boards. No, we did not go surfing, but we did see many more people than on Silver Strand.

Since Hannah has been watching "Dora saves the mermaids" over and over and over again, we felt like it was our duty to build a mermaid kingdom :) 

Then it was time to soak our feet a little bit. 

Kian waiting for the next wave

Kian waiting for the next wave

Kian running away from said wave that got his pants almost all wet

Kian running away from said wave that got his pants almost all wet

Hannah also got brave enough to chase the waves, or was it vice versa?

Hannah running away from the waves

Hannah running away from the waves

We had a great time just running around and then of course collecting more seashells. Once we got back home, the kids were allowed some screen time on their iPads, as we cooked dinner. They decided to play together (the same game at the same time on each iPad) and were all sorts of silly.

Kian and Hannah playing on their iPads

Kian and Hannah playing on their iPads

We had charcoal grilled steak with fried onions and potatoes and a little bit of mushrooms. 

Charcoal fried steak with fried potatoes and onions

Charcoal fried steak with fried potatoes and onions

One of my favorite things about cooking all this homemade food and eating all meals as a family is that the kids have been trying all kinds of different foods that they would usually say no to or make a face at back home.  Kian tried fried onions and Hannah tried and LOVED mushrooms. 

Hurray for being adventurous :)

Day 12 - Happy 4th from Silver Strand

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We started off our day by going to Westport for some real grocery shopping. We had heard from one of the neighbors that Lidl has great prices, so off we went. We had fun shopping, and since by the time we finished it was after lunch time, I let the munchkins split a chocolate chip muffin before we got back in the car.

Happy kids

Happy kids

I think I should mention that we are both getting very good at driving this stick car on the "wrong" side of the road. Hopefully I am not jinxing us. On the drive back the rain stopped and we had plenty of beautiful sunshine. 

Once we put all the grocery shopping away we decided that since it was a beautiful day we should head to the Silver Strand beach which is about 6 km from the house. The road to get to Silver Strand is even narrower than the roads around the house, and there were some sheep that were just hanging out on the side of the road. Keep in mind that this is meant to be a 2 lane road! 

The road to Silver Strand

The road to Silver Strand

Once we arrived, we were completely wowed by the scenery. There is a long sandy beach, about a 5 min walk, before you even get to the water. We have heard that the water comes up and covers the entire sandy area when the tide comes in, and some people who park too close have even had their cars swept away. 

At first we were all alone on the beach before just a handful of people arrived. Although it was a bit chilly, we had a great time running around, writing and playing in the sand.

Happy 4th of July from Silver Strand

Happy 4th of July from Silver Strand

We came across quite a few purple jellyfish in the sand. Apparently the purple jellyfish don't sting, but we stayed clear of them anyways, although I'm not sure if they are even alive if they are out of the water.

Purple Jellyfish

Purple Jellyfish

A bit further down there are some small pools that have formed in the sand and the water in them was actually fairly warm.

The small pools/streams on the beach

The small pools/streams on the beach

Kian had a blast running from puddle to puddle and splashing around. He even fell down a couple of times but didn't mind it one bit, despite the cold winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean.

Kian with Batman in one hand and Robin in the other having fun in the small pools

Kian with Batman in one hand and Robin in the other having fun in the small pools

Meanwhile a bit further away from the water, Hannah was having a great time with her sand toys, although she was not so jazzed about the wind.

Hannah holding on to her hood

Hannah holding on to her hood

Hannah playing with sand. She can be entertained with sand and rocks for a long time :) 

Hannah playing with sand. She can be entertained with sand and rocks for a long time :) 

I also had fun on the beach and took advantage of the hard sand to do a few yoga poses by the water. 

My attempt at the wheel. It still needs work!

My attempt at the wheel. It still needs work!

The two Supermen returned from splashing in the pools and posed for a photo.

It's bird. It's a plane. It's Superman...wait there are 2 of them :)

It's bird. It's a plane. It's Superman...wait there are 2 of them :)

We all put on our flip flops and ventured down the beach to climb up a small hill for an even better view of the ocean.  Before there were some sheep up there, but they came down long enough for our photo.

Views from the top of the hill

Views from the top of the hill

Munchkins and Mommy (Would you believe the sheep can climb up here? We had to look out for sheep poop!)

Munchkins and Mommy (Would you believe the sheep can climb up here? We had to look out for sheep poop!)

The 120 degree panorama view from the top of the hill

The 120 degree panorama view from the top of the hill

Hannah and I hiked back down the hill and once we got past the pools and back on the beach, I took a picture of the Supermen. If you look carefully you can see both of them on top of the hill. 

Supermen on the hill

Supermen on the hill

Shortly after, as it was getting closer to dinner time, we started to head back to the car. On the walk back Hannah had a blast collecting seashells. We kept hearing her say, "Guys wait wait wait" as she would stop to pick up a new seashell. 

Hannah showing one of her collected seashells

Hannah showing one of her collected seashells

Once home, Hannah washed all of her sandy seashells.

A small part of Hannah's seashell collection

A small part of Hannah's seashell collection

We all had tomato soup with bread for dinner. We were too hungry to take any pictures.