Sunday, 19 June 2016
Half Term Ireland
One of the downsides with having a child in school is that we're restricted to school holidays. This means lots of traffic, busy airports and usually highly inflated prices. This time, we "only" had the traffic to contend with and we nearly didn't make it. We'd allowed ourselves two hours as buffer and left Sheffield at 9am and the ferry was leaving Holyhead at 14.10. When we got near Chester, the traffic on the motorway just ground to a halt and looking at the traffic news, it didn't look any more promising further ahead. So we left the motorway at the next exit and navigated our way on rural roads through northern Wales. At times I felt like a lorry driver and it was very close - but we made the ferry with 5 minutes to spare. Way too close for comfort!
The crossing itself was smooth, apart from a delay and we spent our first night in a rented apartment in a newly regenerated area in Dublin called Grand Canal Dock.
Ireland showed itself on its sunniest most beautiful side during our holiday and on our first morning, we walked down to the canal side and bought some breakfast which we enjoyed in the sunshine.
We then set off down to Carrick-on-Shannon and arrived at Ruth and Tony's just after lunch.
We had a few amazing days in Kilmore where we met all uncles, aunts and cousins apart from Jackie (who was en route to San Francisco) and Kathy, who lives in Kilkenny. Not bad going!
Vera got more presents and a further two birthday cakes and she got to spend some quality time with her younger cousins. Grace, Luke and Lily now have two donkeys living on the farm, who like bread very much :-) and Vera and her cousins spent lots of time playing outdoors, having a shop, water fight, arts and crafts, you name it!
It was also so lovely to bring Alfred to Ireland for the first time. A tinge of sadness as always that Joe and Olivia are no longer with us and did not get the opportunity to meet him... But we are so blessed to have a large, loving family so there was enough kisses, cuddles and attention for our little boy!
On the Thursday, Ruth, Kym, Enda and the four of us drove down to Strandhill , near Sligo. We nearly had the whole beach to ourselves and apart from a little bit of a breeze, it was truly glorious! Vera managed two ice creams from a cool ice cream parlour and we all had a late lunch on the beach side before heading back.
On Saturday morning, we headed back up to Dublin and stopped for lunch at our friends' house. Edwina and Emer had kindly also invited Emma, Aoife and Joanne and their children so at one stage there were nine children under the age of six running around - a lot of energy!
In the afternoon we headed north to Donabate to see Tom and Ger and their girls Emily, Lucy and Julie. Vera was delighted to play with her older cousins and they enjoyed meeting baby Freddie. We all enjoyed a BBQ outside and were so well taken care of.
We had an early start on Sunday morning and got the the Swift ferry back to Holyhead - mere two hours. Such a nice way to travel and so glorious to pack a suitcase and not have to worry about how much it weighs.
We had a much smoother drive back home again.
What a week! Lots of family, food, sunshine and freckles - the best kind of holiday!
The crossing itself was smooth, apart from a delay and we spent our first night in a rented apartment in a newly regenerated area in Dublin called Grand Canal Dock.
Ireland showed itself on its sunniest most beautiful side during our holiday and on our first morning, we walked down to the canal side and bought some breakfast which we enjoyed in the sunshine.
We then set off down to Carrick-on-Shannon and arrived at Ruth and Tony's just after lunch.
We had a few amazing days in Kilmore where we met all uncles, aunts and cousins apart from Jackie (who was en route to San Francisco) and Kathy, who lives in Kilkenny. Not bad going!
Vera got more presents and a further two birthday cakes and she got to spend some quality time with her younger cousins. Grace, Luke and Lily now have two donkeys living on the farm, who like bread very much :-) and Vera and her cousins spent lots of time playing outdoors, having a shop, water fight, arts and crafts, you name it!
It was also so lovely to bring Alfred to Ireland for the first time. A tinge of sadness as always that Joe and Olivia are no longer with us and did not get the opportunity to meet him... But we are so blessed to have a large, loving family so there was enough kisses, cuddles and attention for our little boy!
On the Thursday, Ruth, Kym, Enda and the four of us drove down to Strandhill , near Sligo. We nearly had the whole beach to ourselves and apart from a little bit of a breeze, it was truly glorious! Vera managed two ice creams from a cool ice cream parlour and we all had a late lunch on the beach side before heading back.
On Saturday morning, we headed back up to Dublin and stopped for lunch at our friends' house. Edwina and Emer had kindly also invited Emma, Aoife and Joanne and their children so at one stage there were nine children under the age of six running around - a lot of energy!
In the afternoon we headed north to Donabate to see Tom and Ger and their girls Emily, Lucy and Julie. Vera was delighted to play with her older cousins and they enjoyed meeting baby Freddie. We all enjoyed a BBQ outside and were so well taken care of.
We had an early start on Sunday morning and got the the Swift ferry back to Holyhead - mere two hours. Such a nice way to travel and so glorious to pack a suitcase and not have to worry about how much it weighs.
We had a much smoother drive back home again.
What a week! Lots of family, food, sunshine and freckles - the best kind of holiday!
Vera 5 years old!
Vera has so been looking forward to turning five, like most of her class mates and a few weeks ago it was finally her turn. We had a party on Sunday 29th for twenty of her school and nursery friends at Whirlow Hall Farm, and we were lucky that the weather was great so we could all be outside and do a farm tour. I've been meaning to write a lengthier blog post about British childrens' birthday parties as they are truly bananas (when you compare to Sweden).
It's a case of keeping twenty children and their parents happy for two hours and of course, the birthday girl!
Once home after the party, she got to open a few presents, any more and she won't appreciate what she's actually getting and opening.
On her actual birthday and as per tradition, we woke her up with a tray of birthday cake and juice and her presents! We all went downstairs where she happily opened all her gifts - she is a very lucky girl to have such lovely family and friends!
At 9am we took off and left for Ireland - Vera was spending her birthday in three countries: England, Wales and Ireland - as well as on a ferry!
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Tuesday, 7 June 2016
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)