Day 36 - Kickball

Four important things were accomplished on this Monday. 

1. The kids had fun swimming in the pool
2. We had a delicious lunch and dessert at The Creel (our favorite restaurant in Westport)
3. I was able to upload quite a few pictures and catch up a bit on blog posts (Thanks Creel!)
4. Kian learned how to play kickball

Spicy lamb naan pizza - It was scrumptious 

Little swimmers loving their delicious chocolate cake and milk

Hannah watching "Dora Saves the Mermaids" for the 10 billionth time :) as I type up a new post

One of the things we really love about The Creel, aside from it's amazing variety of food with great quality, is the atmosphere.  It is very relaxed and airy.  They have some normal tables with chairs,  and they also have some couches with coffee tables, which makes it a really great spot to just hang out.  Check it out if you are ever in the Westport area.

After a while, the laptop battery was totally drained, and the kids were stuffed with chocolate cake, so we packed up our bags and headed home.  I started working on dinner while Kian and Daddy started playing kickball.  Hannah was just walking around saying she wants strawberries, and she refused to believe me when I repeatedly answered we don't have any! 

She did eventually compromise and took a strawberry yogurt instead.

I joined the kickball game while dinner was cooking in the oven.  Hannah also joined the game after a while, but was having a hard time grasping the rules.  Kian was great at holding her hand and running her from base to base, and then acting as her shield if we tried to throw the ball at her in between bases :)

Kickball

Daddy on the pitching mound

Kickball

Kian getting ready to kick

Kickball

Kian shielding Hannah from me

Kickball

Hannah being silly & goofy

Kickball

Kian teaching Hannah, with lots and lots and lots of patience, how to play kickball

We all had a great time outside, and it was a bit after 8 PM when we came back inside and ate our dinner. Time flies when you are having fun :)

Baked marinated chicken thighs, baked potato, and a side salad

After dinner, the kids decided to make us bead bracelets to match theirs. 

Working hard at making bead bracelets

We are now all in possession of matching bead bracelets. Hurray!

Day 35 - Laaaazy Sunday

We woke up to a gorgeous sky, and thought we would head out to either Old Head or one of the beaches near us.  We planned to avoid driving by Croagh Patrick (which is on the way to Westport) since it was Reek Sunday and lots of people would be coming to the mountain for the pilgrimage. Then I opened the door and realized...brrrr....it was really much cooler than it seemed from the inside. 

And that is how our barely any plans turned into no plans.

Gorgeous view of the sky and ocean from the kitchen door

We lounged around the house for quite a while. I tried to upload a few pictures for the blog, which involves searching outside for a wifi signal from the main house, but the internet was not cooperating and so I abandoned that task to return to lounging about :)

We got a bit bored by early afternoon and went outside again. It was still chilly and windy, so my hubby's grand idea was to teach the kids how to drive a stick shift car : ) We have a huge "drive way", and there was no other car there, so they learned to start the car in the 1st gear, turn, and reverse a tiny bit.

Meanwhile, I was trying to check us in to our flight on Thursday.  The kids were having fun in the car, and I jumped out of my skin when Hannah honked the horn! :) 

Driving Lessons

Lesson # 1: Buckle up!

Driving Lessons

Kian at the wheel...Daddy at the pedals

We came back inside to continue the lazy theme.  I made some peppermint tea and cut up a fruit cake. Everyone had a snack, and we decided to have a family movie afternoon.

Afternoon snack

Toy Story 2 was the pick of the day.

Family movie afternoon - Toy Story 2

I made a quick dinner (couldn't be too extravagant or it would ruin the lazy mode) as the movie was wrapping up. 

Penne pasta with sauce and garlic bread

After dinner, everyone had enough cabin fever to get out and walk around the backyard for a bit. It was chilly, but the sun was casting some nice big shadows, so we started playing shadow tag and warmed up.

The kids had a blast being silly together and tackling each other.

Sibling love at its best :)

Hannah, of course, had to say good night to Sam before we could come inside and get ready for bed.

Hannah and Sam

Lazy Sundays are the best!

Day 34 - Little Friends & Persian Food

After breakfast, Hannah wanted to earn her keep and wash the dishes, and hey there is no reason to say no to a happy child who wants to wash the dishes (mostly utensils)!  Yes she got plenty wet, but she did actually wash the spoons and put them on the drying rack.

Hannah washing breakfast's dishes

Our main plan for the day was to go back to Andrea and Mike's house and make a Persian dinner, khoresh bademjan (eggplant stew over rice) for everyone.  After a few around-the-house chores and preparing the eggplants in the oven, I put all the ingredients needed for our dinner in the car and we all headed to the Killeen playground for a bit before heading over to their house.

Once we got to their house, the two little girls went off to make trouble.  It's so cute how friendly they are.  Kian started playing with some of his toys, and Andrea and I started making dinner.

Ciara & Hannah giggling =D

Ciara & Hannah drawing

Kian was a little bored again, but honestly he was too busy earning tomatoes in Turbo on the iPad to even notice.

We were all busy chatting and cooking and chatting some more, and so we did not take too many pictures. 

We all ate dinner, had dessert, and chatted some more!

Eggplant stew & white rice

We ended up staying way past the kids' bedtime, but when you are in good company it's always hard to leave :)

Day 33 - The Croagh Patrick Pilgrimage

When we were first driving from Dublin to our farm house, we couldn't help but notice this very tall, perfectly cone shaped mountain about 15 minutes before arriving to Louisburgh.  We had asked the family who own the farm house what the name of the mountain was, and they told us that it is Croagh Patrick, a very famous mountain, and they explained some of the history.  This coming Sunday, the last sunday in July, is the annual Croagh Patrick Pilgrimage, in which over 25,000 pilgrims descend on the nearby town of Murrisk and climb to the top of of the mountain.  We've been wanting to climb the mountain since we first got here, but we didn't really want to do it when it's so busy, so we decided to hike the mountain today since the weather was nice and warm.  

For those wanting to know more about the history, as it's really rather interesting, here's an article from this months edition of "Ireland's Own" on the history and tradition of the Croagh Patrick pilgrimage.  

If you don't have time to read it, or find it hard to read from these pictures, here are some of the highlights:

• The tradition of the pilgrimage stretches back over 5,000 years
• It was on the summit of the mountain that Saint Patrick fasted for forty days, and is where he is rumored to have driven out all the snakes in Ireland (though no snakes were ever known to exist in Ireland, and the story is believed to be related to Christianity driving out the pagans)
• Over 25,000 pilgrims come to visit annually on the last Sunday in July.  Some venture up with bare feet, and traditionally they are supposed to start in the middle of the night..though both of these traditions are now recommended against for safety reasons
• There is a modern chapel on the summit where mass is celebrated and confessions are held
• There are said to be 365 small islands, one for every day of the year, in Clew Bay (which the mountain overlooks)

Today apparently is also a pretty popular day for climbing the mountain, according to the magazine it is known as "Garland Friday", and is when nearby residents typically do the pilgrimage.  I guess that makes sense for us, since we are officially nearby residents, at least for a little bit longer :)

We drove into town, parked at the local car park, and began our trip.  We were greeted early on by some signs explaining the pilgrimage and a statue of Saint Patrick.

Croagh Patrick

Sign explaining how to perform the pilgrimage

Croagh Patrick

Statue of Saint Patrick

With the mountain in the distance, we set off!

The hikers with Croagh Patrick towering above

Even with pictures, it's hard to see how difficult of a hike this is. To get to the peak, you have to first climb a long, windy path all the way up a first mountain, before looping around and going the rest of the way up the main Croagh Patrick peak.  It is a very rocky and steep path in parts, and we witnessed quite a few spills.

Try to follow the dirt path and you can see the way up

The way up was a loooong process, especially with two little kids.  There were a lot of people on the path, going in both directions, which made the atmosphere fun and full of energy, but occasionally difficult to navigate.  

We were glad we packed our little first aid kit, not for our own family thankfully, but early on there was a woman who had fallen and cut open her knee, and we were able to provide Neosporin and bandaids to our fellow hiker. Thankfully that was the worst of the injuries we saw. 

On a side note, one of our new friends, Mike (Ciara's dad) is on the mountain rescue squad. They have to deal with a lot of injuries on the mountain, especially on the Sunday pilgrimage, and to get injured people down they either have to airlift them via helicopter (if the weather is good), or more likely (when the weather is bad) need to have about 6 to people carry them down on a stretcher.

Croagh Patrick

Early on in the hike, you can see it was quite busy

Croagh Patrick

Mommy and Hannah on the rocky path

Croagh Patrick

Getting higher!

Croagh Patrick

One of the many breaks.  Just a little left to the top of this mountain!

Croagh Patrick

Kian checking out his progress

Croagh Patrick

This is as high as we made it.  It was about an hour or so left, and apparently at the end it is VERY steep, so probably for the best we turned around.

As we continued our climb, we started to realize we were not going to make it all the way to the top.  Both kids were doing all their own walking, and they were getting very tired, especially Hannah.  We set a goal to make it to the top of the first mountain, where it flattens out before looping around and continuing to the main mountain.  At long last, we made it to our goal, and were rewarded with spectacular views of Clew Bay.  In all, it took about 2 hours, with multiple short rests and a small lunch break on the way.

As high as we made it.  Clew Bay is below, with some of the 365 islands visible.

The way down was much faster, but not much easier.  Since it was so rocky, it meant lots of slipping and sliding.  Most of the falls we witnessed were people on the way down, so we were being very careful.  We held both kids hands the whole way, and while Kian was able to keep his balance and had a lot of fun, Hannah was a bit wobbly and had to be carried in some parts.

Croagh Patrick

Kian was so fast going down we had to wait for Hannah to catch up :)

Croagh Patrick

Mommy and Hannah making a cautious trip down

Croagh Patrick

Cooling down in a little river on the way down

At long last, we made it to the bottom.  The kids were great troopers and deserved a rest :)

Little hikers, big mountain

And were well rewarded with ice cream from the welcome center!

Hannah finishing Kian's ice cream and her own

After finishing the hike, we made our way over to Andrea's house for another playdate with Ciara and Roisin, and met their dad Mike.  They have a very nice house with lots of fun toys and a dog, including some of the same awesome Ikea toys our kids have, so the kids were all having a blast and didn't want to leave.  Hannah and Ciara were especially good together, and went off playing together like little girls do.  

Hannah and Ciara seemed offended to have their playtime intruded on with a picture

We all had so much fun, we setup more plans with them for dinner tomorrow at their house! We're going to make Persian food, yum :)

After leaving, we went to a local restaurant in Louisburgh, called A. Gaffney.  This restaurant is owned by the family of the people we met at Carrowmore beach the other day, and so they had recommended it to us.  It was a nice restaurant with very yummy seafood, and was a great way to end this fun and action packed day.

A. Gaffney

A. Gaffney

Delicious seafood platter

Day 32 - Carrowmore Beach

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

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

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. 

Carrowmore Beach

Hannah having fun with her sand toys

Carrowmore Beach

Hannah and I attempted to make a giant mermaid kingdom

Carrowmore Beach

Hannah adding ears and teeth to the Kian and Hannah I drew on the sand :) 

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! 

Jellies

Kian totally excited about having been able to pick up a jelly with his shovel! 

Jellies

Hannah poking the jelly tops with the stick...eeek!

Jellies

Kian and Hannah contemplating the best approach to move the jelly in question

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.

Beach fun

Hannah making sand angels :)

Beach fun

Kian hanging out with Ruby and Pearl

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 :)

Cold Atlantic

Daddy and Kian testing out the water...It was chilly and 'invigorating'!

Cold Atlantic

Brave Hannah filling up her bucket

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

Lego Dude

Hanging out on the sand

Lego Dude

Soaking in the salty Atlantic water

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

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 :) 

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

Day 31 - A Day of Mishaps

Another day in which we had every intention of getting out of the house early, but again for some reason this task took a while. Eventually the kids ran out to the back of the house to play on the lawn.

I washed and cut up some delicious fruit as a mid day snack for everyone. 

Midday snack :)

I came back inside, and shortly after heard Kian run in with a piece of paper.  "Mommy", said Kian, "Richard drew Hannah and I a picture of Sam so we don't forget him when we go back home". 

Picture of Sam drawn by Richard (Sam's owner)

We finally managed to get out of the house and head towards the playground. Unfortunately, it started raining.  With the way rain comes and goes here, we decided to go towards the playground in Louisburgh (a different playground than last time) and see if the rain would clear up by the time we got there. 

The playground seemed like plenty of fun, if only the drizzling would go away. Since we are too stubborn, we just put on our rain coats and continued with playing. In hindsight, we should have just abandoned ship and gone back home...

Both kids wanted to be pushed on the swings. Sure we said. 

Hannah being pushed on the swing by daddy

Shortly after all sorts of craziness happened.  Kian was trying to jump off the swing, since according to him he was all done swinging, but a combination of trying to jump while swinging fast, and a wet slippery swing, sent Kian flying off and landing on his chin! 

AAAA....As we rushed towards him to see the damage, Hannah fell off the swing! 

Seriously?

Kian's chin thankfully was just a bad bang up, soon to be a nice bruise, and Hannah was pretty unscathed. 

We headed back home to ice Kian's chin with our ice pops :) 

Kian stopped crying, and almost forgot about it after 20 minutes or so.  He decided to color a Batman picture for Richard, as a thank you since he drew the Sam picture for him and Hannah.

Kian showing off his Batman picture before giving it to Richard

And you know what happens after a boy colors a Batman picture? But of course, he will want to go and dress up as Batman and jump off rocks!

The serious Batman face!

Batman gliding

Thankfully, the gliding didn't end with a new injury.

And such was the story of a the day of mishaps. 

Day 30 - Ciara & Hannah's Playdate

We had a nice and slow morning without having to rush anywhere, and with no particular plans in mind for the morning.

Hannah was getting very excited about her playdate with Ciara. We met Ciara, her mom, and her baby sister Roisin at the playground about 2 weeks ago, and even though Hannah really wanted to play with Ciara, they were both being too shy at the time. 

Our guests arrived in the early afternoon, and Hannah showed all her little princesses to Ciara and the two of them started to play so nicely together, as if they have known each other for a long time. 

Ciara and her mommy were kind enough to bring us fresh baked cupcakes, which the kids enjoyed very much. 

While the grownups chatted and the little girls played, Kian was a bit bored, but he liked hanging around little baby Roisin.  She is 5 months old and liked hearing Kian's stuffed animal dog, Boney, bark :) 

Ciara and Hannah feeding baby Ginger

After our awesome playdate, I made dinner.  Marinated chicken thighs baked in the oven, along with rice and some mushrooms with a side salad.  The kids really liked the chicken, which made me happy since otherwise they just had to eat plain rice ;)

Chicken thighs baked in the oven atop rice with a side of mushrooms + a side salad

After dinner, the kids enjoyed a bit of chocolate cake and raspberry swirl ice cream that daddy was nice enough to buy for them yesterday at the store.

Kian loving his slice of chocolate cake

Hannah enjoying her delicious dessert

After the dinner and dessert festivities, we headed out to the backyard to run around and play.

Hannah visiting her friend Sam, who came to watch us play.

Kian, I mean Superman, and daddy played soccer for a while.

Superman getting ready to kick the ball.. it's never a fair match when you're up against Superman!

And of course Superman won! 

GOAL! YAAAAAAHHH!!!