What a gorgeous weekend of weather we are having - it is so sunny, summer feels just around the bend and we had our first Bar-b-Que of the year yesterday to kick off the summer season.
We ate lots of food and soaked in the sun until it disappeared and basically let the kids loose to run of some of the energy they have been storing during the wet weather of the previous week.


Rachel was stuffing away the food including rather large a piece of steak which she tried to stuff in all at once, she was in great form though and was full of devilment.



She thought putting a plastic bucket on her Uncle CJ's head would be fun - it was obviously !


Then she thought it would be funny to push over her Uncle Mark - many times - all while he was obliging me by posing for the camera in the style of a catalogue model :)



It was a fun way to round off the week which had started with Jennie's Birthday - yes my darling sister turned 30 this week ( shhh she is still getting over that big round number ) and she was quite adamant that we were not to make a fuss, in fact she was trying to ignore it as much as humanly possible.
But we are big meanies and wouldn't listen and so I made pavlova as Jennie doesn't like cake - actually I made two the first held here by the lovely Rebecca was a cheat and store brought but the boys saw it and decided that they needed pavlova there and then which put pay to pavlova number 1.


So I quickly had to resort to plan B which was to make my own pavlova number 2 which was yummy if I do say so myself - it had chocolate flakes in it.


We went over to surprise Jennie with pressies, pavlova and champagne turns out she wasn't too upset by a little attention after all and blew out her candles to embrace her new age with a little help from Rachel of course.


Finally I leave you with my latest layout totally inspired by Candice Greenway - her work is always amazing - she did the cutest layout of her dog at Easter and it inspired this layout.

Happy Easter - I am so full of food it is not funny, between the chocolate eggs in plentiful supply, the rice crispy cakes and the large lamb dinner followed by apple pie and custard I am not sure if I can fit in another bite.


Caitlin and I made these rice crispy nests to share with friends they are chocolate and marshmallow and very yummy.


Caitlin took a plate of them and some of the paper rabbits with chocolate eggs around to her friend next door while I was prepping dinner for nine which I had somehow got talked into making !!


I decided to make a centre-piece for the table using the template and gluing them together without the arms ( poor bunnies) and used some of my many flowers to decorate it.
Jennie, John, Rachel and Mark all came over for dinner and we stuffed ourselves silly and then took some pictures of the wee one for her mammy she looked so cute with her basket that her Granny had sent her for Easter.


We had one extra guest for dinner Jasmine from next door came over and had a sleepover with Caitlin they have been friends for a long time.

- two girls completely hyper on chocolate ( it was a long time until they finally fell asleep) while Becca went over to her Auntie's to dye her hair purple - it didn't work very well unfortunately and her head is just even redder than before, it still looks okay though.

What do you do with bored kids in during the holidays in the rain ?? Well this dilemma hit me this week three girls in a small house get up to mischief if left to their own devises so I decided to make some Easter crafts. A couple of years ago I had made Bunny egg holders with the Brownies - so I thought I would look for the pattern but I couldn't find it online and I couldn't find the file on my machine anywhere so I came up with the bright idea to try and make one myself.



My first drawing as you can see was a bit makeshift - umm rulers are obviously thin on the ground in our house and my drawing skills are lacking.


But soon we were producing bunnies easily, even wee Rachel sure we had to cut it out for her but she was a dab hand with the Pritt stick and her's was made with white card and my dodgy template so she could colour it in.


They come together easily and hold a kinder egg sized egg or a bag of mini sized eggs if you prefer.

I made a much neater template on the computer (although I am biased and am not sure if it is as cute ) but if you right click and save and print onto thin card you can make your own.


First cut out the pieces and fold the bottom of the bunny at the dotted lines, wrap the long strips around the front of the bunny and glue together - glue the feet to the front to cover the join and glue the arms to the back of the bunny and wrap around the front - glue the heart in the middle of the hands.
Add bows and decoration as you like and have a great Easter.

There has been a happy start to the month thank goodness - The girls are on holidays for Easter and Caitlin finished her last day at school in her PJ's, all in the name of charity you understand.
All the kids we allowed to go in in their pajamas as long as they donated 2 euros, they were also allowed to bring in sweets which is usually against school rules and have a midday feast.


Then after I picked her up Mum and Dad and the lovely Yoshi arrived up for a visit - we are all smitten with Yoshi he is such a sweetie. I know Dad is worried because he reacts to other animals ( the cat is still not happy about nearly becoming dinner !) but he is an angel around people and kids and just so calm and placid most of the time.


Caitlin was in doggy heaven and wanted to do everything for Yoshi - she even went for a walk in the rain with Grandpop.
Rachel wasn't so keen when he came in, in fact she was positively terrified but we didn't force her to go near him we left her to her own devises and she pottered around listening to music and playing with Pop.



She is nervous around animals anyway but it wasn't long before she was in Yoshi's bed to have a stroke and he is so quiet and not jumpy that it was perfectly okay to let her I wouldn't be sure with another dog but honestly he is a star and it is gas he looks a bit like Dad he has little legs and a mustache and salt and pepper hair.

That evening after a fish and chip supper we celebrated Mum's birthday - this was take two for the pictures as they switched the lights off just as I took the first one and ruined my pictures !!


I did a layout too - I know others do them everyday and ten times better but I am still struggling with it so I am luck if I can do one once a week at this stage and none of them are going to set the scrap world alight but I am happy with them so that is okay.



So this is Caitlin at Halloween last year as the Queen of hearts and yes I used the heart from her dress on the layout and will be placing it in the Celebrations album I think either that or Caitlin's album.

Happy April Fool's day - personally I am not overly keen on this day it just seems an excuse for people to get away with stuff but hey who am I to judge, I actually checked out the origins for Caitlin ( she asked - I googled ) turns out it might have something to do with planting your crops to early or Chaucer might have something to do with it and having studied Chaucer in school I blame him for a lot of stuff so he might as well take the blame for this too !!

It has been a hard end to the month - I am afraid I will not be imparting details here as it is not my story to tell but due to this "struggle" things have been a bit crazy and life has been up in the air. So I am picture short and haven't much to tell ( not much of an updater am I LOL )
I have been as usual minding the beautiful and bright Rachel - she is such a character and I enjoy her company immensely.


She was feeling arty yesterday so indulged her much as I did with my own kids when they were younger. Personally I think you are never to young to get messy with paint !!


While she was painting the kitchen different shades of blue I made my Mum a birthday card - her birthday is tomorrow and she is coming up on Friday. I am more than grateful for her at this time she has been a rock recently and I am so thankful for her steady, calm advice.


She and Dad are bringing the dog with them - poor thing looks like a lampshade, he has been chipped and chopped and generally had a run in with the vet. Look at that face bless him.


The kids are dying to meet Yoshi - not sure if the dog will feel the same though :)

And last weekend was the first Anniversary of this lovely couple - Congratulations guys hope you had fun down in Kilkenny.