Summertime. Or not.

Well the first week of the Summer holidays has been a complete wash out. Vivi is teething so not sleeping too well, and Amelie just doesn’t sleep. Coupled with the Confederations Cup which a certain 7 year old ‘HAS’ to watch (like if he doesn’t his head might fall off or something equally terrible) and everyone is tired, grumpy, extra hungry and has no energy to do anything. And that’s just the kids. I’m all of the above and pregnant. Which is worse.

One of our bucket list items was the ‘great Clev Bake Off’. I have to say that I cheated massively here. I bought a bog standard packet mix and told Luis to follow instructions and make a cake. I didn’t go in to the kitchen for 30 minutes while mixing was happening. I did the oven bits and then left again for decorating to start!!

Dont be fooled by the sunlight pouring in – it was sunny and rainy at the same time!

All Luis had to do was add water, so he used the Pyrex jug and the tap and practically every single spoon and dish in the kitchen….but he made a cake!!! I’m trying to teach him how to read instructions and read the kitchen scale (which is old fashioned, not digital). Its one of our summer aims. 

He mixed all the icing himself too – just icing sugar and water, mixing until he got to the right consistency. He even let his brother and sister help with the decorations!!! 

The cake tasted ‘interesting’. In my opinion you can beat a proper cake made from scratch. BUT he did great, and I’m proud of him for doing something on his own! he even cleared up!!!

We had a little burst of Sunshine on Monday so went to Dun-na-Si which is an Irish Heritage centre in Moate, just near us. It is undergoing major renovation at the moment and a wildlife area and children’s playground are being built. At the moment because of the works going on they are not charging entrance! 

Amelie and Maxi exploring a Fionn Machsomething, house. Used while there were battles being fought.

Irish history is rich in myth and legends which I am keen to learn more about, however, not on this trip as I had 4 small people with me. Reading anything about anything is near impossible when they are about!!

It was great to be able to get out for an hour (before the rain started up again) and let everyone run off some steam. 

This is an early stone farm house. Maxi walked in and said “we have this table, but ours has paint on”!! I explained to them that 100 years ago if Daddy was a farmer we would all live in a house like that. A big kitchen was the heart of the home. None of them were too keen and were much more interested in the goats outside!!

We would very much like some goats outside our back door.

Ok this is a completely rebuilt Connemara fisherman’s cottage. I want this. But in Roundstone bay. It has 2 rooms and a loft. Beautiful! Be still my beating heart.

 How idyllic. I dream of one day spending summers with my big rambling family in a little cottage like this.

Roses round the windows and doors. 

 All it needed was a little cafe table and chairs on the front lawn, and some soda bread and homemade jam. Also a nanny hidden inside who would look after the kids while I read a magazine and looked stylish out front.

I had to take a picture of this ‘Scary Mary’ as Luis calls it. Over here it is not uncommon for houses to have holy water by the door, sacred heart pictures, or Our Lady pictures and statues. Luis finds the old fashioned Mary’s particularly horrifying so we have affectionately named these ‘scary Mary’. I’m sure as a mother of a son who was surrounded by 12 men all the time she would understand the humor!!!

Peekaboo Amelie!!! Is her outfit not just AWESOME. That coat is age 9-12 months. And she is wearing cowboy boots and some 6-12 month tights. Why get dressed from your own wardrobe when you can raid your baby sisters??? 

Funny and true story. The thing in the back that Amelie and Maxi are climbing is a trailer with wheels in the middle, just the two wheels instead of four at each corner. It was tipped forward. Maxi and Amelie made it all the way to the top when Luis ran over yelling ‘mum take a picture’…

 I wasn’t watching and instead taking the above photo of the cute ducks and yelling something like “be careful it will tip back”

 I hear an almighty crash and turn round to see the underside of the trailer and NO children. Luis had climbed up and tipped the trailer back sending everyone flying. Its a miracle no one was standing under it as the weight of it would have crushed them. Of course I can laugh about it now but at the time it was quite scary and I was once again mega pissed about the children not listening to me. ever. 

As a punishment I put them in the pigsty. 

Amelie obviously wanted to know if this was piggy house then where was the piggy, specifically ‘piggy on the fire’

After this the heavens opened again, so it was off to Supervalu to do a shop and then home for more film watching. We are revisiting some of the late nineties/early noughties classics like ‘parent trap’, ‘freaky Friday’ ‘babe’ ‘Beethoven’ and today’s offering which is ‘the sandlot’. I also recorded ‘Angels in the Outfield’ and ‘Lassie’ for later this week. Lassie is the best film ever. I’m pretty sure with all this agricultural show visiting, and animal related film watching that when we have our house we will end up with chickens, goats, pigs and dogs. Then we really will have a mad house!!!

(This was last week. We are going into week 2 now and  we are having a heatwave! wahey!!! More about that next week though most likely as the ole blog is a bit behind!!)