A Spring recap!

 

 

February was Ownie's first Birthday. The Birthday Ring that Opi brought back from Germany came out. It's still mostly me that gets a kick out of seeing it...though both kids liked blowing out the candle.

 

 

A rather unprofessional-looking robot cake was made. Tasted good though! 

Woolly pants were worn...mostly by Ownie thank god. Children grew and played and learnt to walk...

Some of us briefly channelled a "Miami Octogenarian"  look for a while....thanks Mam!

 

Flowering red current (one of my favorites) blossomed outside the house. Smells like cat wee but it always remind me of the time I was falling in love with my husband...am not sure what that says about us!

My best friends came to visit!  They've been multiplying too!

 

Ownie and I had a fantastic trip to Cornwall. It's such a cool place. For instance at the town where my friends live they have a bubble room just for babies (and their tired Mothers). Some of my favourite people live there too!

To cap it all off a purple hen came and laid a bunch of colourful eggs on our table! Hope she comes again next year, although all that messing with dyes and three year olds wanting to be involved and dyed eggs being thrown across the room I'm not sure she will...

Play dough time!

Another rainy day, another indoor activity! Lack of clothing while making it was Maisie's nod to the summer. Making play dough is the perfect impromptu activity, as all the ingredients are usually to hand. We got the idea from this lovely blog.

Play Dough

2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 cup salt

The salt is to preserve the mixture and like Erin I didn't have enough so I just stuck in a little bit. We mixed everything together and heated it in a pot until the mixture clumped together in the middle of the pot.

When it cooled a bit we added some food colouring and mixed it up. Sticky and fun!

 

Truthfully though, our play dough didn't turn out that great. It was too sticky. I was too impatient with the cooking I think! Sometimes I have this problem with the simpler things...yesterday I made THE worst rice crispie buns ever and I burn the porridge more mornings than I'd care to admit to. So the play dough was more fun to make than to play with. But the making of it was fun enough to want to try again and hopefully a little more expertly next time!

On the beach...

We took a little holiday to Tramore recently. Our first as a family of 4! Clonea Strand is a beautiful beach outside Dungarvin. When we got there it was actually sunny, so we built a little sun shade for the sleeping baba.

I find it impossible to stop staring at him...so why try?

Rockpools were discovered, crabs were found, sandcastles built, it was a wonderful day.

Back on Tramore Beach a gypsy princess was seen dancing across the sand. She was accompanied by her faithful friend Murphy. As always partly delighted and partly tormented by her games. 

 

Here's hoping we'll get a few more beach days in the midst of this rainy Summer we're having!

Identifriday!

Cepaea hortensis - White-Lipped Snail and Helix aspersa - The Garden Snail

Homo sapiens- Little Girl!

Another garden favorite around here is the Snail! These gastropods were found during a recent dig around the garden and then joined us for lunch! Ok....I can see one of them has gone missing in the picture above but I can assure you Maisie is eating an almond in this shot!

Both these species are very common and Helix aspersa is actually edible although considered more of a nuisance in gardens than a tasty treat!

Hope you're having a great Friday!

Rainy Day.

Another rainy day! There's been a lot of them recently.....but what better excuse for a tea and biscuit party!

Our usual chocolate walnut cookies and the totally yummy peanut butter cookies.

Some ingredients were tested along the way....

Maybe these rainy days aren't so bad after all!

It's the little things...

.........enjoying the last of the daffodils.

...........loving  the grand stretch in the evenings!

...........giving Murphy his 'bath'!

.....watching these seedlings grow and looking forward to seeing them bloom...Hugh' favorite flower!

.......exploring and wondering where our beach went after all the recent rain!

.......spotting the first swallows arriving for the summer.

.......eating many many of these muffins due to all the left-over porridge around lately.

.......getting seriously excited about all the new little babies arriving later this Summer and Autumn!

......watching my 'littlest thing' grow bigger by the day!

All these little things are brightening up my days!

What doing doing?

When Maisie was younger a common phrase that was heard throughtout the day was 'What doing!?'

Then it turned into 'What doing doing?' (much to the amusement of our friend Labhaoise!)

So here's some stuff she's been getting up to lately......

this moment...

{this moment} - A Soulemama invention. A single photo that captures a moment from my week.

 

this moment...

{this moment} - A Soulemama invention. A single photo that captures a moment from my week.

Halloween!

Halloween went by in a blur! I knitted Maisie's witch's hat last year and knitted, then felted her witch's skirt for this year. When I find my scribbled notes, I'll stick them up.

She loved her costume and looked darned cute, might have to make her another, not black, one!

We had a fun day, dancing in the puddles, feeding the ponies down the road from my parents house and admiring the berries and litchens becoming visible on the trees. Then some last minute pumpkin carving happened followed by trick or treating with Maisie for the first time. Such fun!

puddle photos thanks to Hugh!



Hope you had a wonderful Halloween!