WELL DONE THOSE BOYS !!



Well what a weekend - I usually don't get partisan on here but this weekend was amazing you see we are HUGE rugby fans in this house we have been supporting the Irish Rugby team for many years now to the extent that my girls could tell you every players name and position number !! ( Caitlin has a soft spot for Peter Stringer and Brian O'Driscoll)


This is CJ in his jersey.
We have followed every match in this and every other Six Nations, so Saturday was crunch time, the beer was in the house, the phone was off the hook and the snacks were plentiful while we hunkered down to watch Wales v Ireland in the most nail biting match I have ever seen.
Well I thought my heart would stop so many times during the match it wasn't funny, in fact I had to leave the room for that last penalty and was hiding in the kitchen behind a cushion and we cried tears of joy when they won, they totally deserved the Grand Slam.
So today when asked what I wanted to do for Mother's day I could only think of one thing and that was to go down to Dublin and welcome the team home in the manner that heroes should be welcomed.
Off we trundled into Dublin with the other 17,500 people that had the same idea as us, when we hit Dawson Street the party had well and truly started.

Wow I didn't know you could cram that many people into that street but apparently you can. It was heaving and poor Caitlin being a tiny person couldn't see a thing, I hoisted her onto my shoulders and handed her the camera and told her to keep snapping for all she was worth.

And she did - this is one of her pictures.
After all the celebrations we headed back to the car via Trinity ( mainly to avoid the crowds) and showed Caitlin some culture as well and then did a bit of shopping and headed home.


Becca was unfortunately not with us as she was off on a girlie weekend with her best friend - I think she regrets it a little though after all this was history in the making and you should never miss that.

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY - we went to the parade in the beautiful sunshine. Thank goodness it was a great day.


It has been awhile since we attended a parade to be honest, the girls haven't been involved in one recently and the town doesn't have one here. So we went down to Kells in County Meath to the local parade there this afternoon.

Caitlin donned her usual green and of course had the green ribbons in her hair. Becca actually wore green too although she of course though the whole thing was "SO torturous ! " But the girls were happy to see their riding school in the parade and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was also in the parade.

Yes the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the film - it was a bit odd to see it among the usual marching bands and tractors but it was something different at least.


Becca had the dentist yesterday and she is still not finished, she has more problems with the baby teeth -this time it is the top ones, they are not rotten or anything like that, no they are totally healthy but they are sinking (can they be sinking if they are going up?) again and may fuse with her jaw so they want to review and possibly remove more of them. Ironically she has prematurely got her wisdom teeth which fit in where the teeth on the bottom have been removed so she doesn't have too many gaps. Poor kid it does feel never ending !!

Caitlin and I have been making cookies again - she nagged me to death about it so I had to give in !!
These are snicker cookies as Caitlin calls them - peanut butter and chocolate spread make these totally tasty.


We made two batches and still have more mixture left over, my waistline will suffer I am sure.

For Jo who wanted the recipe and asked so nicely :) - here it is

Ingredients -
4 oz unsalted butter (softened)
7oz plain flour
3oz soft light brown sugar
1 egg
2 desert spoons chocolate spread
2 desert spoons peanut butter
3oz caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
optional chocolate chips ( the kids had eaten them so we had none this time )



Preheat the oven to 180 c or 350 f or gas mark 4

1. Cream the butter and both the sugars together in a large bowl with a electric whisk until creamy
2. Add the egg and the chocolate spread and peanut butter into the bowl.
3. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the bowl mix in with a wooden spoon. Stir in Chocolate chips.
4. Place 6 heaped desert spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a baking tray leaving space to spread between each cookie.
5. bake for 14/15 mins take out of the oven and leave to set for a couple of minutes. When set eat with big glass of milk.


And I scrapped again - it is finally coming back to me slowly. I did a layout about my love of the colour turquoise, it is in my wardrobe, in every room in the house to be honest.

It's Sunday and currently my roast dinner is being cooked by my hubby ( oh yes I have it good )we haven't done too much to write home about but I know how you like the regular updates.


First here is the layout I did that Rachel moved the pictures on - I was channelling my inner Cathy Z for this layout - if you have a chance and are a scrapbooker obviously take a look at Cathy Z's About Design articles they are such a wealth of advice and you only have to see her layouts to realise that they are well designed - they just never seem to age, they always look fresh. Can you tell I am a bit of a fan ?

In other news Mark has come to stay up in our little corner of the world - truth is I have missed him so much since we moved as we were lunch buddies, he would come up for lunch and we would talk, eat and do the sudoku in the paper.


He was looking for a new start and hopefully he will find one here and selfishly I get my lunch buddy back for now and the kids love having him here.


Mum and Dad have finally settled on a dog - welcome to the family Yoshi, he is apparently very docile although very smelly when he arrived they were bathing him the last time I rang.


Caitlin was off sick AGAIN, this time it was Laryngitis. I swear that kid just gets everything going, she is fine now just a bit of a snuffle and the voice is back now - it was a quiet start to the week though.


Becca decided she wanted to dye her hair this week too and I volunteered to do it, mainly to save the bathroom walls as Becca is the messiest kid I know, also I have been dying my hair forever so I know what I am doing.

She is now violet black according to the packet and I wish I could capture it properly on film as it is a gorgeous colour in the sunlight, also it suits her so well and doesn't look to harsh. She is happy which is the main thing.

Cj is happy after the Rugby yesterday ( I feel sorry for the neighbours though as he is very enthusiastic to say the least !) and as for Miss Rachel she is still nutty and totally into the accessories this week - glasses, handbags, hair clips she is into them all and will insist on wearing them all at once.


Well that is all for now folks - we have Paddy's day on Tuesday so I will try and update then.

Okay I have been given out to by at least two people now - I know, I know what's with the lack of an update but all I can says is life is hectic and sometimes blogging comes last - sad but true.

Well the birthdays are all done now well until April when we have another set of birthdays.
Becca's birthday was a school day and she was not too happy about it but "the boy " braved a phone call before school which made her happy ( yes there is a boy -oi my nerves !!) but at least it was a half day that day so I got muffins for lunch to surprise her with.


She celebrated with her friends on the weekend so "the girls" stayed over and with much popcorn and giggling a very late night was had by all. You would think they would be tired after a hectic bowling match but no, it was the wrong side of midnight when I had to threaten murder if they didn't stop singing ( yes singing !)




Rachel also turned two - now she actually spent her birthday with the Grandparents so we had a little party for her when she came home.


She has been trying , unsuccessfully, to ride Caitlin's bike recently so we got her a tricycle for her birthday. To say she loves it is an understatement - she actually hugs it everyday and tells it she loves it !!


We opened some presents and had to, of course, blow out more candles and we had ice-cream cake. The kid has blown out so many candles at this stage she is good for the next five years I think.


And she finally learnt to count to more than two, for a while now every number has been two - if it was more than two she was counting she would just say "more" but finally on the week of her birthday she finally got it and she is counting to ten. Okay for some reason she still misses one out but hey it is an improvement. She is just talking up a storm and bright as a button.
Oh and I finally did it too - I broke through the barrier and finally did some scrapbooking, not just one layout either I managed two - Yay me ! I have only one picture to share as I didn't notice Rachel moving the picture on one of the layouts until it was too late, it is fixed now so I will take a picture tomorrow but I did it and it was easier than I imagined.


It may not be my best work and it might not be fashionable ( yes I know flowers are SO yesterday but you know what I like it and it is one more set of pictures from our holiday in France in the Places we go album.