snapshots of our lives

summer catch up

2011-09-08T21:56:00.000+01:00

Well it's been a while and a whole summer has come and gone ( did anyone actually see the summer as it seems to have passed our corner of the world by but lots happened.

I got a new hair do and new glasses, not the most flattering of pictures I know but I only had the web cam at the time. I even got these fancy Red or Dead ones for going out :)

We built tents , the girls went on their travels to various locations. Becca going to working in stables and Caitlin going down to Granny and Grandpop's for a visit.
I turned 40 in August ( I was going to pretend it didn't happen but there is no point really !! )

I did have a nice birthday party thanks to Dave and Finn who went to a lot of trouble to host a bar-be-Que . Finn made enough food to feed a small army and the rain stayed mostly away .

We took the girls down to visit Granny Lorna too where we saw Dolmens.

and met Danny the horse and Lily the mad dog .

And Caitlin found a snail called Steve ( apparently!! )

We went to see Ireland play France in the Aviva less said about that match the better but our seats were great.

And the girl's returned to school and Rachel started big school and looks very cute in her uniform.

2011-05-19T19:14:00.000+01:00

Right quick round up of Harrop-Johnston life in April/May

Rugby -- lots of rugby. Brilliant time at the 1/4 final in the Aviva supporting the lads has been amazing. Caitlin getting to meet her favorite players was priceless and a moment she will never forget.

2. Jennie's birthday and bar-be- que season started

3.Becca ever changing hair colour(this is the current incarnation ) and the junior cert study is in full flight

4. The girls had their first dressage tests and did brilliantly Becca even won a prize - proud Mammy moment.
5. I SCRAPBOOKED !! thanks so much to my friend Kirsty for the kick up the bum I need to start again.

6.Caitlin took up GAA and met the president and is now into the Finals with her team as they won the Semi on Tuesday.

Life has been hectic and not always great recently so I am sorry for the lack of blogging but hopefully now I have a bit of time on my hands I will get back to it .

2011-03-27T14:17:00.002+01:00

Long time no typing , much has happened over the last couple of months , Caitlin turned eleven and celebrated with a sleepover with friends unfortunately she ended up on crutches that weekend after a particularly nasty fall of a horse so was hobbling around on her birthday but enjoyed it never the less.

Becca is now sweet 16 and yet again has dyed her fringe, she has also picked her subjects for Leaving cert this week which makes me realise how quick she is growing up. We have been looking at College courses so that she could could gear her choice towards her what she wants to do, it is mind blowing to think in a couple of years she is an adult and will be off to college.

And Miss Rachel turned 4 she has just been accepted into primary school and will start in September,

everyone is growing up fast it seems.

Rachel celebrated her birthday quietly too because she got the chicken pox the day before - just like her cousin her timing was a bit off so her party had to be cancelled and a smaller affair with just us was had instead.

It was a nasty dose of the pox too so we did our best to cheer her up. I made spotty chocolate spread sandwiches in her honour and she got the spotty cup and plate ( handy we have plenty of spotty items in the house really)

The girls have started riding at a new school - we had one accident too many in the old one and the final straw came when Caitlin after a nasty fall was, without anyone checking her well being, forced to ride for 30 minutes on an injured foot pulling all the ligaments in it. Truth is the old school started going down hill when one of the teachers left and lessons had been increasingly more chaotic.

Becca on Muffin

So we did our homework and found a new school and the girls couldn't be happier , we quickly realised how little teaching was going on in the old school and the girls will be taking part in their first dressage competition in a couple of weeks now they are getting back up to speed. Plus the fact the place is gorgeous and by a lake.

In house news - the boys laid down some paving outside the back door to make a mini patio and even added a seating box and it is a little suntrap out there and the weather has been so beautiful recently it has been nice to enjoy it, we have even bar-be-qued.

The garden is returning to life too and I can't wait to start back with the vegetables again - the strawberries are already back and looking healthy hopefully we should get a bumper crop and I love the daffodils at the backdoor.

I also got a new coat, I have wanted a mac for ages and when I saw one that was dotty well I had to have it and I love it.

And last but not least we celebrated Paddy's day down in Navan. Becca went with the girls and we went with Caitlin . Fun day out was had by all.

2011-02-06T13:52:00.000+01:00

Hi peoples - I have been ill recently with a lovely inner ear infection ( that is the bit that looks like a snail ) and it gave me a rotten case of vertigo, so I felt like I was on a rough ferry crossing from Holyhead rather than just walking around.Couple that with the fact I get really seasick on rough ferry trips from Holyhead and you can imagine it wasn't pretty !
I ended up at the doctors for injections to help make me feel human again and I am on pills for the next few weeks, which work wonderfully well as long as I remember to take them.

To cheer me up my lovely hubby brought me these beauties, to bring a little spring into my kitchen. It was a whole week before I could venture outside but by Sunday I was getting totally stir crazy and so were the kids so we decided to head out and find a bit of spring for ourselves. We headed to the lake and woods for a bit of a walk. Caitlin is looking so grown up these days, I can't believe that this time next year I will be taking her for Induction day at Secondary school.

Becca came with us and seems to have enjoyed herself and the fact it was a sunny afternoon helped she brought her new camera with her and even let me take a couple of her - miracles will never stop.

We also managed to find a proper piece of Spring the snowdrops were out in the woods :)It was a lovely afternoon - unfortunately my tablets ran out before we made it home and I felt it but still worth it.

In animal news Cookie monster had an appointment with the vets - her teeth were getting over long, we couldn't understand it , she has a mineral block ( her 2nd I might add ) , and apple stick which she chews like a demon and has eaten through the hutch more than once. She has a great diet of fibre and hay so we were at a loss, but the vet thinks her skull is not growing as quick as her teeth or something of that ilk. She also got neutered at the same time, killing two birds with one stone so to speak . Poor bunny.

Mixie will be next in for neutering as she keeps trying to make a break for the door - it is either that or she is determined to eat Caitlin's hamster - six times she has broken into his cage, good job he is quick is all I can say. She is now banned from the bedrooms until she gets manners.

I did spoil myself this weekend too - I picked up these from the local Aldi - I had too they match me kitchen and I know it is old fashioned but I use aprons, I am notoriously messy while cooking and it is just safer for my clothes and I might as well have cute ones.

And last but not least Becca's hair is now Blue and Black - it has taken two attempts but she is finally happy with it ( I stole this picture from Facebook - she may kill me )And her father doesn't mind as it is Leinster blue !!

2011-01-26T18:57:00.003+01:00

Now onto the story of why we have been so darn busy this new year,as anybody who reads this blog should realise by now we are HUGE rugby fans, none more so than my hubby and for Christmas he got from Santa - a new Leinster sweatshirt, a Leinster Flask and 4 tickets to see Leinster v Ospreys in the RDS on the 7th of January as part of his presents.
He and I always attend the rugby together but we don't take the girls usually but they like rugby and I liked the idea of all of us going together.
While sorting out the tickets I came across a competition on the Leinster site looking for mascots for the team kids between 8 - 12 and who like rugby, well we have one of those and her name is Caitlin.
She loves rugby and watches all the matches with her Daddy and knows all the players, so I entered her online and thought no more about it, after all Christmas had to be organised and all that.

So I nearly dropped when we got the call asking would Caitlin be willing to be mascot for the Ospreys match, hell yes she would, she would be sent a full kit to wear and more tickets and the opportunity to go out onto the pitch holding Leo Cullen's hand.

To say she was excited was an understatement especially as she might get to finally meet her all time favourite rugby player Jamie Heaslip who she affectionately calls "Banana boots" ( he used to wear yellow boots on the pitch)

We had to send in a headshot too as it was to be in the match program - this would be the one they used :)

Now the other reason she loves Jamie, other than the fact he is fantastic at rugby and wears yellow boots is Jamie has a new dog - a very cute puppy in fact. Not sure who wins Caitlin's affections more Jamie or his puppy, as Caitlin would love a puppy ( not happening yet with a toddler to mind kid )

She had to make do with Tiny the Hamster, she got him with her Christmas money and while picking Tiny up at the pet shop she wandered off and came back with a puppy toy she had brought with some of the said Christmas money - I thought it was a bit big for Tiny to play with but she explained that she wanted to give it to Jamie for his puppy when she went to the match. I wasn't sure if this was going to be possible but she was so earnest about the whole thing I didn't have the heart to put her off.

By the time the day of the match arrived the excitement was ninety, Caitlin went through every type of mood an hour from nervous to terrified to thrilled to delighted to excited and to make matters more interesting it was raining - not just raining it was pouring !! Never the less we set off from Cavan in high spirits for the RDS nice and early and were there in plenty of time.

Pictures I got straining over the balcony in the Anglesea stand !

Caitlin was taken off our hands before the match by the lovely Denise and led her onto the pitch with the other little fella who was mascot that day. They were given a rugby ball to play with while the teams warmed up and then it was quick change and off with the coats and tracksuits to hold the Captain's hand as the team was lead out. Apparently Leo Cullen's hand is very warm according to Caitlin.

Caitlin's 15 seconds of fame :)

The team warming up

The match was a tough one - not pretty that is for sure and I am sure it was mostly to do with the appalling weather but we had a ball and Caitlin joined us up in our seats. The other tickets weren't wasted either as my sister Jen, my cousins Claire and Ellie and my Uncle Shay came along and although they got drowned loved the match.
Much to Caitlin's relief the team won - she was worried she would be bad luck as mascot.
Caitlin was a bit disappointed though that she had no opportunity to give her toy to Jamie before the match so after the match we went down to where the players leave and waited ( and waited and waited) it was blummin' freezing and so darn wet but she was determined to fulfill her mission that we sat it out - although I sent CJ and Becca to get tea before hypothermia set in.
At last the players came out - CJ got to meet one of his heroes Isa Nacewa I did get a picture but it was not great due to my camera not appreciating the rain and at last Jamie came out with Cian Healy - Caitlin nervously grabbed her chance and handed over her toy - Did she ask for a photo, no! Did she ask for anything in fact, no!!
She was too nervous but the fact he was so thrilled with it made her day.
So the next day when he tweeted on Twitter a picture of the puppy playing with it she nearly passed out with the joy of the whole thing - mad kid!!
Anyway we had such a ball at the Rugby that week that we knew we had to bring the kids to the match the following week. Caitlin decided she wanted to make a memento of the awesome occasion and so we made a book using pictures and old tickets of all the rugby matches we have been to including Caitlin's big day and at the back we left a few pages free,also this time brought a pen just in case the odd Rugby player was available to sign it.
Again after a brilliant match we headed down to see who we could find and Caitlin managed to snag a fair few including Mike Ross and Johnathan Sexton and even the one and only Brian O'Driscoll - she is was a tiny bit gutted because Jamie wasn't playing but Cian Healy made her day when he seemed to recognise her from the week before I am not sure if he did or not but he is a great guy for making her think he did anyway - in fact he is now her next favourite player - he got major brownie points with Caitlin that day.

After all the excitement of the match we took the girls to our new favourite restaurant Wagamama's for dinner it was a great day out all told, only thing is now the girls want to go to every match, the next one we can get to is on Becca's birthday I thought there was no way she would want to do that on her 16th birthday but I was wrong - so more rugby is definitely in the future for all of us especially now Leinster are through to the 1/4 finals of the Heineken Cup !

By the way if you ever end up in a Wagamama's I recommend the Yaki Soba and the Coconut Ice cream they are to die for.

2011-01-25T12:01:00.000+01:00

I know, I know - where have I been ? I have a multitude if excuses from the flu raging through the house to a very busy start to the New year and my new addiction to Twitter but truth is I have been as lazy when it come to the blog and I feel rotten about it so family ( because I am pretty sure you are the only ones that check in these days ) Here is the Christmas run down. Starting with hanging the stockings with Caitlin - yes we still do this and I most probably will do until I am in my dotage.
Caitlin was gas and decided that Santa was getting far to much booze on his travels and might get done for drink driving so insisted on water instead - I did suggest milk or cocoa but I was shot down.

My lovely civilized kids didn't rise until after nine but were delighted with their haul from Santa, Mixie was just delighted with the wrapping paper and boxes to play with and my insane husband decided that Blue Santa was the only way to go and arrived down to breakfast in this get up.
After a quick clean up and breakfast was over the prepping for dinner began and the family piled in.
There was a brief stop for more present opening and we opened the family games courtesy of Mark this year.
I have to say he did an amazing job, lots of research went into his choices and he got three new games one was Pictionary with which he also provided a whiteboard, we also got "Don't say it! "and a game called Apples to Apples which was voted the best game of the year by all, definitely was a family favourite that one.

Dinner was a success which is great considering I had no water in the kitchen due to the Arctic winter conditions. After Dinner the hubby got to play with his new toy which was an amazing helicopter again brought by Mark ( the boy does buy amazing presents) .

St Steven's Day brought Dave and Finn, they had spent Christmas Day with Finn's family this year and we waited to do the family present exchange until they arrived, it turned out to be a great idea as it spread the fun and the kids weren't totally overwhelmed with gifts.

As you can tell camera's were a big hit in the house as were phones - I even got a new one, it is lovely and is so darn advanced it can practical do everything ( not housework though - I have tried !!)We were totally spoilt with presents everyone seemed delighted with what they got, I know I was.

My beautiful daughters also got me the Kristie Allsopp book I was coveting- I have a little crush on Kristie and her home.
So it was a great Christmas all round - no one was too sick, no one was snowed in and all went nearly to plan and you can't ask for more than that really.

2010-12-21T00:44:00.000+01:00

Keep Calm - now that is a funny what with the mad run up to Christmas :) But I do love these posters by Celeste Smith she has them as free downloads on her blog and they are brilliant, there are some talented ladies out there on the web and the fact they share their talents with us all is fantastic. I also couldn't resist the "Keep Calm and Let it Snow" one after all the cold weather we have had.

Over at Second Street another talented lady called Kalleen has these Believe banners to download which is now decorating the mirror in the front room.

Even the shed has gone all festive - the boys have lights and a small wreath on the door - it looks like Santa's grotto out there in the snow.

We have been busy with School Concerts and Nativity Plays first up was Rachel, hers was a concert because bless them they had no time to practise much else with the snow and the virus that went through school but it all went well - no tears at all ( a little Christmas miracle ). Caitlin was yet again singing in the Nativity and had to be there even though she was ill with a sore throat.

We also decided to try Hot Chocolate on a stick thanks to another Internet whizz Amberlee over at the Giver's Log It makes a change to reindeer poop that is for sure.

And Rachel was even impressed - we tested one out just to be sure they worked you understand and it made some yummy hot chocolate.

We ended up making 30 for the class and Caitlin will be giving them out on the last day as usual. We made ours using an ice-cube tray and skewers cut down to size , I found a star ice-cube tray which I have used to make some for Becca when her friends come over for their present exchange this Thursday after school.

When we aren't making hot chocolate on a stick I am decorating the house - this is the front door ( I actually added a garland around the door today but have yet to take a picture)

This is the wreath and although I would love to say I made it myself but this one came from the shop - sometimes I cheat when needs be.

The Dresser is covered in Christmas cheer and our Christmas cards :)

I found this gorgeous Merry Christmas banner in the same shop I usually find all my kitchen goodies - it is called "Whatnot", which I love I did add the little flowers though.

The kids tree is up now too in the hall it is heaving with fun decorations - some picked by the kids , some made by the kids, some brought by Granny for the girls.

And I have been rotten with a cold as usual at this time of year and I keep getting sore lips I was told to pick up some of this Vaseline lip stuff and oh my it is divine and this one has a lovely pink colour it is great so I had to share it with you all.

2010-12-08T00:39:00.001+01:00

This is just a quick craft update I have been busy making my Christmas cards again trying to get a wriggle on because I have been a bit lax in the craft department recently.

The card below was made by stamping the bauble image then embossing in gold powder then filling the embossed areas with glitter glues, it is hanging by thread.

I have also started my traditional Christmas tin that I make every year - here is last year's example on the left and the new one is on the right, I still have the date to add and the pictures inside which will be the Christmas card pictures of the kiddies. I find the tins at the supermarket generally - this one came from Aldi and contained Apple drops which were very tasty which was an added bonus, it also has an image of Santa on the front which you can just see though the vellum and I kept in the design.

We will also be making our reindeer poop for the class I got the poem from The Organized Christmas website they have lots of ideas for "poop" which appeals no end to the kids for some reason and they have ideas for other homemade gifts.

What else is a girl to do in the snow ? It came down again last night and we got snowed in again, no school and it is hard to get out to the shops without a sledge.

2010-12-05T22:02:00.001+01:00

The countdown is on people, my advent calendars are out and on the go and the trees are up with a little help from Caitlin my willing Christmas Elf.

We finally got a proper dose of snow because while poor Mam and Dad were snowed in we had a smattering to be honest, enough to be annoying not enough to stop you having to go out the door.
But Friday brought the winter wonderland to us, schools were closed and fun was to be had.

The kids went out to throw snowballs about even Becca was out having fun and a snowball fight with her Uncle Mark.

Needless to say Uncle Mark won that battle but I got great pictures Becca does a great pouty lip.

The kids in the estate then made a snowman and a great job they did too.

Rachel had a fabulous time which considering she was really ill only a couple of days before with stomach flu was a bit of a miracle but thank goodness it is short lived dose, because I have it now.

And Caitlin was thrilled to have a day off too as she was told the news by her school at the very last minute - we were walking down in fact when the text came through.

I also got the Christmas card shots completed - heading to Granny's and Aunties and Uncles in the post soon

Some one was in a messy humour when we took them :) None of these are in the card but I do love them anyway.

2010-11-28T00:17:00.001+01:00

I could give you a million reasons why I haven't updated in so long and there are a few reasons to be sure but some I just can not share here much as I might like too I am afraid but hey I never stopped loving this blog of mine so I come crawling back and hope for blog land forgiveness.
We have our first bit of snow, I know Mum and Dad have lots more compared to us and we are lucky as we are still able move about on our roads and it is just pretty looking.

I made my first Christmas card too, are you sensing a theme here ? Well with the season that is in it I had to really.Only 14 more to go and I haven't even thought about taking the kids Christmas picture yet.

Cait did take a picture of her new hairdo though - she has gone short and it does suit her with her wee face and she looks so grown up with it.

I got myself a new tablecloth during the week, I have been totally drooling at it in the local shop each time I pass and they had a sale on , that timed with a hair dye mishap by my eldest and my sister which put pay to the old oil cloth and this baby had to be mine. I am worried that oil-cloth can have this effect on me, surely that is not right !!

We also got this,we being CJ and I and I must say he picked " the dog " in place of his name because they had nothing suitable to fit,he did it while singing the Kia-ora theme song he announcing he would be the dog - who could resist that?

It joins the star that is on the mantelpiece that Mark picked up for me from work - I love it and he is a star for getting for me.

The last thing to share was Harry Potter, the girls and I went so see it with my cousin Claire who is a die-hard Harry fan, so much a fan she had already seen it the day before but didn't tell us until after so not to spoil it for us . It was brilliant and the girls loved it , it made me jump out of my skin in a few places and I cried like a baby in others - if you haven't seen it you really should.

2010-09-14T23:44:00.002+01:00

Aren't they pretty ? The hubby saw them in the supermarket and thought of me and I am so glad he did.

I do love sunflowers, in fact I nearly made him crash the car in France with the cry I let out of me when I saw my first sunflower field and it was a sight to behold, unfortunately I couldn't get a picture though as stopping on a French Motorway is not the easiest thing !!

I did get this picture though the other day, they made me happy to they looked just like fireworks - not sure what plant it is though.

Talking of nature, look what is growing outside at the moment our first courgette, unfortunately the weather is conspiring against the tomatoes again,now the rain is ruining them and now the poor things have blight just when we got a good crop too, I suppose something had to struggle. The nasturtium on the other hand is growing everywhere, it obviously likes the rain.

Thanks to the rain I have got back to my crocheting and have started the new blanket above , the granny squares are still being done too as Becca is having to do it for a Junior Cert home economics project. All these project ideas are taken from Lucy's blog over in the Attic I adore her blog she even has Sunflowers over there to ( now wondering if hubby is secretly reading her blog !!)

We have also been baking - yummy Lemon Meringue, I have never attempted it before but it went well, it disappeared quick enough which means it had to be good, Jennie even had some for Breakfast the next day.
I know you can't see the Meringue to well in the picture so I took a side view too.

I am sure the lemon is supposed to be more solid but I did attempt this one before I got my brand new scales for my birthday. I know a scales is a strange request but I really wanted a new one, my old scales were so dodgy that if you smacked the counter it would change wildly !
Not good for measuring if I am honest. The new one is ultra fancy, it even measures liquid - now that is fancy.

As I have these fancy new scales I have been borrowing books from the Library, it only took me 4 years living here to join it which is awful after all it is just down the road and we used to go to our old Library weekly.

I borrowed this one and the kids were thrilled - this week they want to make Baked Alaska and I have to say it looks divine - so look out for it gracing the pages of the blog soon.

2010-09-07T21:26:00.002+01:00

What time do you call this young lady ? It has been so long and I feel like a naughty child that broke curfew or is late handing her homework in but August has a tendency to run away from me and it was a busy August,which brings me nicely to the watch. I got it for my birthday along with many beautiful presents at the surprise Bar-be Que my family threw for me - I was honestly totally surprised, I thought we were going shopping for school shoes and calling into my brother's house to drop off a computer part that combined with the fact that it was actually the day before my birthday had me fooled but you see I was born in Australia and technically my birthday was starting over there. Dave and Finn made enough food to feed a small country and the weather held out for most of the day. I had NO camera ( it was really a surprise ) and I wouldn't bring a camera to the horror that is school shoe shopping!! Dad did bring his and even let me take a few but I have to wait until they get back from their holidays to share

.But I will share my flowers brought by my lovely kids for my birthday, they were so pretty.

We have also had a few new furry members of the family joining us first was Basil, the Russian dwarf hamster and yes he is really a hamster not a rat but the hubby is a big Faulty Towers fan. Becca brought him with some of the money she made babysitting this summer. He is a bit of a frisky thing but he doesn't mind being handled too much and currently resides on Becca's desk .

Then there is Zuki the rabbit, she came from the animal shelter she had been abandoned and needed a new home. She is a funny looking thing, her ears are short and her fur is loads of different colours but she is settling in well and she is so affectionate we are slowly introducing her too Cookie and they are finally getting along. Then they is Froggy he is well, a frog ! He lives out in the back garden we gave him a home made pond and he is happy eating slugs and jumping about and the cats haven't found him yet !!

We have had lots of new crops, the potatoes that were an experiment if I am honest, were finally ready for pulling late August and what a haul we got, I was so happy with them and we got enough for a couple of weeks of meals.

The beans and tomatoes have finally come though too, and we have had a glut of them which considering I though my tomatoes had been ruined by the frost is a result.

We had the last day of summer holidays - I took Caitlin and her friend to the lake and we finally had a great day , the weather was a bit rotten all summer definitely nothing to write home about but the last day was glorious.

I was also lucky and got a great picture as all the butterflies seem to be out in force by the lake.

Then of course we had the first days of school for Caitlin and Rachel which was the 30th of August

everything went without a hitch, we did manage to get school shoes despite the change in plans.

Becca wasn't back until a few days later but did manage to make it to the hairdressers for a complete change of hair colour. She is going into an exam year this year, which will make it a hectic year if nothing else. So that is it all caught up , finally and September is in full swing, next year I really must try harder miss to keep up.

Sorry !! xx

2010-08-02T16:32:00.001+01:00

Well the summer holidays are in full swing and the rainy season that now seems destined to rule over July has made life a bit more complicated to say the least, the girls get bored very easily and having such widely different age groups isn't really helpful - no one wants to do what the other is doing but I found an activity that can keep the ten year old and the three year old occupied for ten minutes. I got them playdough and cookie cutters and left them to it for a while - Rachel made a family of multi-coloured bears.

I am scouring the Internet for activities and we did finally join the Library this week - I picked up a book to read if I got a few minutes and a book on baking with kids.

The new Kitten is settling in well she is a sweet little thing, much more placid than the last one ( which still hurts my heart to think about ) and try as we might to not get too attached to her just in case, we are totally smitten.

Well Meg our old girl isn't as impressed but as usual she is tolerating the kitten and we are making sure she has her space and lots of attention.

Cookie isn't getting left out either - now the garden is safe for roaming bunnies she is allowed the run of the garden, under supervision of course, she loves stretching her legs and leaps around the garden with joy. Happily nibbling - not the veggies they are in a high raised bed so are safe from bunny pilfering !

The Tomatoes are growing well we are going to get a bumper crop I think and the runner beans are ready for picking the first set. And we got more peas, next year I think I will have to plant more peas as they were lovely.

Scallions were a success and the lettuce was too when not being demolished by slugs, carrots we failed miserably with and truthfully weren't worth it and I am still waiting to see what happens with the potatoes which is huge at this stage. As is the pumpkin which is in danger of taking over the garden - mini pumpkin my foot !!

We haven't had much going on with CJ working and myself being up to my eyes in kids and we haven't gotten out much but he surprised me on Friday with Tickets to the new Aviva Stadium.We headed to Dublin on Saturday to attend the historic first match to be played in the Aviva Stadium - not your average date I will admit but hey it suits us and we did make a day of it, we got to see the new stadium which is very impressive and watch some rugby which the side we were cheering for won and got to take the DART which I haven't been on since Becca was a baby and then we went out for Dinner. Great day all in all.

2010-07-18T16:29:00.003+01:00

The peas are almost ready to harvest which is very exciting for little Rachel - nearly as exciting as the strawberries were - we picked a few of the early ones just to try and because Rachel could barely contain her excitement over them.

This is a variety called Canoe and the have lots of peas inside, up to 12 in some pods and they are darn tasty too.

Our Potato plant has flowered too and everything seems to be growing really fast they must be loving the rain, can't say I am too happy about it as the kids are going stir crazy if they are cooped up too long, but hey it makes them grow !!

I decided to let them bake to stave off some boredom and they made chocolate buns - they were a bit heavy if I am honest , four kids were making them and the saying "too many cooks spoil the broth " springs to mind but the kids still ate them !!

Becca made more cookies (by herself ) and they were lovely, they have smarties in them for added sweetness and she really has perfected the recipe for them at this stage.

And the main reason I am updating today is currently sleeping beside me - we have a new addition to the family, her name is Remix ( kids should never be allowed to name things !!) I am calling her Mixie or Remi not sure which will stick yet. She is a dote and is only 8 weeks old.

She has settled in quick enough and thankfully is litter trained and Meg is just about coping with the new addition.

The boys have been nagging me to put up there video of the new improved shed - well here it is and I have to say they did a great job, it now has carpeted flooring and sofa in it and is a total retreat for the lads.

2010-07-14T20:55:00.005+01:00

The raised bed is heaving with goodies now and I had my first peas this week and they are so sweet you really do see what they mean when they say there is nothing better than peas you grow, they are lovely and I am not a huge fan of peas to be honest. The tomatoes are setting fruit and the runner beans are in full flower - admittedly the slugs are always going to drive me crazy but I love growing stuff.

Becca and I made something sweet and good too - Cherry Pie. I have cooked Apple Pie before but had seen cherry pie doing the rounds in blogland recently and had to give it ago. It is actually a cherry, blueberry and blackberry pie as that was the bag of frozen fruit I picked up for the filling but it was still good.

Serves 6
Takes 55 minutes to make, plus chilling

Ingredients

300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
150g chilled unsalted butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
100g golden caster sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp cornflour
Pinch of ground cinnamon
500g cherries, stoned ( we cheated and used a bag of frozen fruit
1 tbsp milk, for brushing

Method: How to make cherry pie

1. Put the flour, butter and 75g golden caster sugar into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles crumbs. Add the egg yolk and 2-3 tablespoons cold water. Pulse until the mixture comes together to form a ball. Turn out, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

2. Mix the cornflour, remaining golden caster sugar and cinnamon together, then gently toss with the cherries in a bowl. Put a baking sheet into the oven and preheat it to 220°C/fan200°C/gas 7.

3. Grease a 23cm pie dish – ideally one made of enamel or metal. Roll out half the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use to line the dish. Trim the edges, pile the cherry mixture into the centre and spoon over 4 tablespoons water. Brush the pastry edges with water. Roll out the remaining pastry and use to cover the fruit, making a hole in the centre. Press the edges to seal, trim off the excess pastry and crimp the edges with your forefinger and thumb.

4. Brush the pie with milk and sprinkle with the granulated sugar. Put the pie on the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4 and bake for a further 15-20 minutes until the pastry is pale-golden. Serve with cream or custard.

We are definitely going to have to try this one again soon.

Caitlin asked me to take pictures this week and it is was a bit strange to be asked if I am honest, I mean this is Cait the camera queen who always lets me take pictures and here she was asking me to take them and being quite awkward about it . I can see the teenage nature forming already - help !!

She can still do sweet and innocent once in a while ( trust me it is all an act !! ) but my baby is definitely growing up before my eyes.

I manage to bring out the kid in her by bringing the girls to the park last week in a brief spell of decent weather - seriously why, oh why must the rainy season start in July ? You know just when the kids are totally bored being out of school for 2 weeks. The kids enjoyed getting out for awhile though and it was fun to see them play chase and hide and seek.

Rachel even managed to find herself a little friend to follow about - his name was Ben and he was 3 apparently.

Rachel is growing up too she had her developmental checks today and of course passed them all with flying colours - she is meter tall and I think she is growing again because she is eating food like there is no tomorrow but is still very slightly underweight for her height, it reminds me so much of Becca always tall and skinny and always eating like a horse !!

2010-07-05T23:36:00.009+01:00

I can't believe that we are already into week 2 of the summer holidays over here, time sure does flies when you are up to your eyes with kids demands it seems !
We made this photo album and card for Caitlin's teacher to say thanks for all she has done for Cait, she really is the loveliest teacher and I know Caitlin will miss her next year.
I also can't get my head around the fact Cait is going into 5th year and will have the same teacher Becca did when we first moved here, it will be four years we are here in September - time has flown.

And I took this picture on the girl's last day, both finished on the same Friday and they both dressed up for parties in school - you have no idea how thrilled Caitlin was to find a gift bag for her present that matched her outfit.

Rachel had been to her end of term play the day before, she nearly didn't make it poor thing as she was ill with a tummy bug and it was touch and go we actually only went in for the play but she pulled though and was brilliant at the play, singing her little heart out and doing all the actions.

Jennie brought me a present too she picked up this sweet tea-cup planter for me - it is just so me and is currently home to one of the baby courgette plants. I think I will place the chocolate mint into when I transplant the courgette somewhere more suitable as chocolate mint seems fitting for a tea cup.

The menu planning is still working well last week we had lot interesting dinners for example Moroccan Chicken Tagine and cous cous was on the menu last week. I am thrilled when we use stuff we have grown in the garden so lots of salads and I am cooking loads from scratch including my infamous Carbonara which I think I have perfected finally. I know, I know it should be tagliatelle pasta ( it usually is ) but this pasta is just so tasty and works well for the kids.

Becca was cooking too she made lovely cookies ( which I forgot to take pictures of - bad mammy ) but they did taste fabulous and she made Banana bread too - she is getting good at this cooking lark.

Talking of eating what we have grown the raised bed seems to have exploded into life everything seems to have gone into overdrive - this week we have new lettuce ready, the tomatoes have started to set and the potato has had to be earthed up again.

The peas have started to pod and the kids can't wait to pick them - should be able to pick them in a week or so.

The runner beans are flowering and seem to be trying to escape over the fence at this stage - our own giant bean stalk.

And that small nasturtium plant Caitlin brought home from class is now massive and taking over the bed and has started to flower - we tasted the leaves the other day and they have a kick and a half , very peppery the flowers are meant to be milder though and pretty in a salad.

We also have two new additions in the garden -one is a shed extension ( only we would extent the shed ) which I have a video of coming your way soon and one was a Swingball which the hubby brought and it has already been well used - matches break out constantly and Mark is the champion he is so hard to beat not without cheating.

We have to let him win this week anyway as it was his birthday and as usual the traditional birthday Jelly was made as Mark hates cake - he was a very happy camper,sure he wouldn't let me take a picture of him, but happy none the less.

2010-06-21T21:58:00.012+01:00

I start this post with congratulations to my lovely mum and dad on their 40th Wedding Anniversary. We had a fantastic day on Sunday but more on that later.

As it is coming to the end of the year Caitlin went on her school tour on Friday and had a fabulous and very long day. Caitlin even got to steer a boat on the Shannon apparently.

Then on Saturday Caitlin went to her best friend Ciara's party - they went to the cinema and McD's and again had a great time ( she has been a very busy girl )It is so hard being a busy ten year old.

Caitlin also made this card for her Dad on Father's day to go with the new rugby ball the girls had got him.

As I said yesterday we headed down to Bellinter House for lunch to celebrate the 40 years my parents have been together and what a day we had for it, the setting was lovely and the weather was just perfect.
We had ordered a cake for them and I have to say it was absolutely divine.

And the lunch was lovely too and even when we had a small problem with one meal they went out of their way in the place to sort it out.

It is a beautiful old house and after lunch the staff kindly brought us out a table and lots of chairs so we could go outside into the sun for tea and coffee.

With views like this who wouldn't want to go outside for tea ? There was even a pair of swans flying over , we couldn't have planned it better.

We also had other reasons to celebrate - it was Father's day and Dad also had his birthday last week , which is just plain greedy of him if you ask me, so he was showing us his present which he loves - a Kindle from Mum , which is perfect for a book lover like him.

We gave them their pressies of the Wine and Glasses to replace crystal ones they got when married that have now broken, with a little help from a dresser incident and us kids I imagine.

And talking of ythe kids, they had fun exploring the grounds, the eldest one even let me take her picture ( lots of pictures !! )

The youngest two liked the outdoor jacuzzi and we all looked at it wishing we could get in - it was the perfect day for it and it was set under some trees with views to die for.

When they weren't splashing they were twirling or making daisy chains or went to see the horses it was idyllic on a summer afternoon.
Caitlin even borrowed my camera and snapped this gorgeous picture of Rachel - I am so proud of her picture taking skills.

I snapped everyone outside before we left and parted ways - I think everyone had a great time and hopefully Mum and Dad did.

I couldn't resist this shot before we left - the signs had swallows perched on them - I know " one swallow does not a summer make " but what about 3 ?

2010-06-13T22:13:00.004+01:00

This is my baby sister - she was all dressed up and ready to go with her new curly hair to an Awards ceremony for the industry she works in - they won an award too so she had a good night by all accounts.
She also got the girls the cutest gardening kits so they could help me in the garden - I made labels so they could tell which one was which, to save the arguments.

Rachel was thrilled with her and they have already been well used in the garden, Rachel used hers to re-pot pepper plants and Caitlin helped me plant up some new "Vegetable bags" - like grow bags but bigger and re-usable.

Talking of all things vegetable do you remember the potato plant we looked after for the school in Easter ? Well we didn't kill it !! And it went back to the school in great condition.

In fact it went back to school much bigger than when it arrived and last week it was ready to be harvested and Caitlin brought back her prized baby potatoes and ate them after school.

The chives for her potatoes came from our raised bed, I took a picture on Saturday and look how everything is shooting up. We have taken some more of the scallions out and taste of them is lovely.
You can see one of our veg bags there it has the potatoes, carrots and a pumpkin in it.

The one thing you do learn about when you start gardening is insects - I knew there was a lot of them out there but I have found some I have never seen before like an orange beetle with black wings (we still haven't identified that one !! )
But my main "bugbear" is slugs I officially hate them and I don't use that word lightly.
They are so hard to control especially as we are being organically minded and I am on constant slug watch apparently I need a frog or a duck to eat them I might need a pond.
As you can see they eat my lettuce which is not on, I want to eat my lettuce and I am not keen on sharing it.

Becca is enjoying her holidays - I have had to set up summer rules though before she stays in bed all day and takes over the house with teenage clutter. Rules definitely had to be implemented after she spent most of the day in pajamas !! I suppose I should be grateful she was outside entertaining the toddler with her amazing skills.

Talking of exercising my hubby now has no excuse not to get out there as Mark got him rugby boots for his birthday - he has signed up for training you see.
I am slightly worried, he used to play rugby you see and stopped because of a shoulder injury - uumm the shoulder is still playing up as far as I know so lord only knows what has made him decide it is a great idea to get out on the pitch again.

I think it might be the same kind of thing as my need to organise the airing cupboard all of a sudden ! At least my thing is slightly less dangerous to my person - unless I get buried in pillowcases of course.

2010-06-07T19:31:00.005+01:00

There is nothing nicer than strawberries from your own garden - they really do taste better. I just wish we had a bigger haul than we do now but next year we should have a bucket load. And luckily the slugs seem to be avoiding them unlike everything else - Anyone know an organic way of getting rid of the little blighters ?
We have copper tape around the bed and I have a beer trap that works the odd time and of course I have tried the " catching them in the act and removing them " trick but my lettuce is taking a beating.

I have also got the dilemma of the new to it gardener, I have gotten carried away with seedlings and seeds and of course have too many, I could start an allotment with the amount I have if I am honest and Caitlin has gotten things in class including pumpkin seeds, turns out they need a huge amount of room ( starting to think the gardening teacher has a stake in the allotments !)

We did get a couple of vegetable bags to put the extras in and the kids are loving it still, they have little gardening sets and watering cans and Rachel took great delight in finding all the eggs the naughty white butterfly tried to lay on the nasturtiums.

Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with the broccoli Jennie gave me - eek too many plants I think.

But we are harvesting crops, this week beside strawberries we have new scallions ready and yep they tasted good too.

Rachel and Caitlin were off with croup of all things last week , it was a tough week with both of them ill and needing attention and by the end of the week as they had started to recovered we made some cakes to take the edge of the boredom, I got the recipe from the Good Mood Food blog - we changed it up a bit as I hadn't enough golden syrup so add some maple syrup and it was good. We made them for Cj's birthday which was this weekend.

I also got to use my new oven glove - which I got from the same shop I got the cake cover in and again I got it in a sale :) I do love me a bargain.

As I said it was CJ's birthday on Saturday and making cards for Uncle Cj's birthday was another poorly kids activity as I knew we weren't making it to a shop anytime this week.

I let them lose with my card and scraps and they did a good job I think. Luckily by Saturday Caitlin had recovered from the worst of her symptoms and we headed down to Bloom in the Phoenix Park . We headed down on the newly opened M3 and it was so quick compared to the usual drive. The weather was great and the place was swarming with people.

There was so much to look at , it was a bit overwhelming and Becca and I were snapping like fools with our cameras - some of the flowers were gorgeous.

Cj's favourite place was the food hall - some much lovely food we could have spent a fortune if I hadn't have packed a picnic. We did get some lovely bread and fudge though.
We also met up with Alan and Michelle back from their honeymoon and they had pictures for CJ, which he has been dying to see.

We took a rest to chat and eat ice-cream and I snapped a couple of pictures of the kids Becca pulling the "cute puppy dog " face not sure what she was begging for , it could have been the ice-cream.

Caitlin was just relishing freedom after a week of being cooped up and ran around the maze although I am not sure you are meant to jump it like a horse ! There was lots for the younger kids to do and see which was great.

We checked out he vegetable gardens and the show gardens which were just beautiful - we left in the afternoon to enjoy our picnic in the Park lands before we headed home.

2010-05-31T15:01:00.003+01:00

Look what are ready in the garden - people we have strawberries and I have it on kid authority they are very good.

The girls were thrilled to finally get to pick them and eat them and there are more ripening as I type - it is not the biggest haul but next year we should have tonnes.

This is the inside of the gardening album I started last week and of course the first page is dedicated to the strawberries I intending on doing one page per crop.

Out in the garden we put in a new watering system, which sounds so much more technical than it actually is, we cut some bottles in two and pierced the bottom so we can get water to the roots of the greediest plants like the tomatoes which are finally getting some flowers and looking better after there brush with the frost - we were lucky.

And we planted out the lettuce seedlings which have been growing on the window sill in fact the only problem we have now is a lot of seedlings and seeds and not a lot of room - I have of course thought of another raised bed but I think the brother might kill me if I suggest it !

I will be able to plant something soon anyway as the scallions are looking like they will be ready in a week or so. might pop some carrots in !

On the cooking front we had a lot of lemons so I tried my hand at lemon pudding - very tasty it was too it is odd because it separates into a sponge and sauce from one mix.
Tonight's offering is slow cooked garlic chicken and yes I have planned out the week again. I do change things around as sometimes circumstances change but it definitely working out.

Yesterday while my lovely hubby was cooking steaks on the Bar-Be-Que Caitlin and I headed out for a long nature walk with ice-cream to cool us off naturally.

Love walking it in the woods there is so much to see but was gutted because my camera battery died a death half way around - I should have checked.

Last but not least - HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA - I talked to her this morning and it was so lovely so chat love you Nana hope you had a great day xxx

2010-05-26T23:49:00.006+01:00

It was a gorgeous weekend I know and I also have been meaning to update since Sunday - time just slips away sometimes. Last week Caitlin had a book fair at school, she was very excited as she has really got back into reading recently and is going through books at a rate of knots.

Her favourite purchase was a book of poems about cats - typical Caitlin.

Becca has had a hard time trying to dye her hair - it is like mine resists colour and perms and the like but she is now officially pink and black. This is her in full get up ready to hit the town with her friends, the glasses are fake and I have no idea why they love them so much as I used to have an old pair like that and I hated them, they are very Deirdre Barlow-esk if you ask me.

In our attempt to keep up with our dinner planning I made pizza dough on Friday night -ready for Saturday, I wrote out the recipe for Jennie and myself as it was in cups originally not grams and ounces so I converted the recipe and printed onto card.

The dough is lovely but I keep rolling it too thick, really I could get at least two if not more pizzas out of it. Caitlin helped me make up the pizza using our tomato paste, garlic and oregano mix and we then smothered it low fat mozzarella and lots of veggies and ham.

Very tasty I can tell you even if the crust was very deep !! Thinner crusts next week is the plan and the great thing is we just use whatever veggies are available so it is a low cost dinner.

Sunday was so gorgeous we had a Bar-be-Que for all of us it was too lovely a day not to and the boys seem to love an excuse to stand around the Bar-be-Que and chat.

Rachel had great fun racing around the garden - I blew bubbles to keep her occupied while we feasted on burgers and steak and sticky chicken wings.

After all that food a walk was in order and I took Caitlin down to the lake to search for baby fish, it was Mayfly season - I have never seen anything like it, mayfly hatch and live as nymphs in the lake for two years but they hatch for one day to live as adults mate and die at sundown and they all seem to have hatched when we were down at the lake. They were everywhere and the lake was covered in "bodies" which the fish were in a frenzy eating- crazy stuff.

As the lake was mayfly ridden we took to the woods instead to find bluebells and we weren't disappointed it was carpeted in blue and was lovely and cool in the heat.

In the garden the heat seems to have set everything off - things are growing like the clappers and sprouting up all over. We re-potted the tomato seedling into larger pots, Rachel helped me with this job > It is great to see the kids getting very interested in the garden and the plants, something about growing veggies and getting mucky is just the thing for small people.

One of our lettuces was ready for harvesting - Caitlin's one from class was getting so big so we cut it for salad with the Pizza on Saturday.

It was fantastic with such great taste of it, it is true what they say if you grow it yourself it tastes better , not sure if it the freshness or the fact we know it was grown totally organically but it was good and I am not too keen on lettuce if I am honest.

The beans get bigger by the minute and the strawberries are starting to ripen - the kids can't wait for those and it won't be long now.

2010-05-18T23:17:00.006+01:00

Meet Lucy - she is the new puppy on the block and very cute in a "I will eat your socks and lick your face " kind of way. Actually she is trying to eat anything that is not nailed down and is a bouncy little thing.
Mark made her a kennel to keep her warm when she is outside, he is getting very good at this building business.

Jennie and John had a week off last week which meant I had a week off last week - not that I didn't spend time with Miss Rachel, she came over to see how the plants were doing and to make ice -lollies.

We also made jellies but not just plain old jelly, nope not in this house this is orange and mandarin jelly made with orange juice and mandarin pieces placed in glasses for individual portions it tasted like an orange maid ice lolly especially when eaten with vanilla ice-cream.

Recently I have been getting into menu -planning it make sense at the moment for us, I know what I am doing every night, we are eating better and shopping is easier and truthfully cheaper as I am not randomly buying stuff anymore and we all know that cheaper is better in these recessionary days, also I don't have that awful " what the hell should I do for dinner "moment at six in the evening because I forgot to defrost something or have nothing in the fridge ( yes I have done that MANY times before !)
Anyway I found a great site in my search for ideas for dinner called Good(&Cheap)eats and there I found cinnamon rolls, I last made these when Becca was a baby so it has been awhile but I had ingredients and time so I decided to whip up a batch. I added sultanas to ours as that is the way we like them and as suggested I made them Friday evening and left them to rise overnight and cooked them Saturday morning.

The smell from the oven was divine and they turned out perfectly if I do say so myself.

They were even nicer when they were iced with icing sugar and milk icing, best eaten warm they didn't last long !!

With all this spare time I have been trying to organise the house the truth is my middle name may as well have been Chaos not Jane as my long suffering friends and family will attest but for a over a year I have been making a concerted effort to get my house in order.
I was getting there slowly but surely, I kind of follow the Flylady method ( more Walklady in my case) and it has been working, even though I am doing it "my way" and things like the weekly house blessing , which drew much eye-rolling from my hubby, have been re-named as the weekly house reboot a term the computer loving hubby understands slightly better and is more willing to get onboard with .
Anyway I found a tip this week which excited me greatly - yes it is true I need to get out more and maybe going through a mid-life crisis of the kind that causes ladies to clean out the attic -because someone suggested placing the bedding sets in the pillowcase and I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Quilt, pillowcase and sheet all in one ! I added a dryer sheet and I can confirm it is works.
Now I have a few bug bears in the house they include my ironing basket, the fact my teenage can wreck a room in 0.3 seconds and the never-endingness of laundry and up there on the list was my airing cupboard which was a danger to anyone that opened it, there you would be trying to get a towel only to be drowned in falling bedding. I re-arranged it this week and I now have an airing cupboard that is neat and tidy, I feel like Martha without the nasty prison stay or tax evasion.

Talking of the evil teenager who destroys rooms, her room was clean for a whole week !! Admittedly she wasn't in it for the week as she was off at camp back to Derry with school.
She had a ball it seems although she had a bit of a scary experience when she slipped near a cliff edge and had to be pulled back up by the instructor ( my heart when I was told !! ) she was awarded a certificate of achievement though because she went back to the cliff walk even though she is actually scared of heights and having nearly fallen to an early demise she could of cried off but she braved it and even went abseiling and cliff diving , on purpose though not by accident this time.

She has done so well on camp and the reports back from the teachers and leaders have been great and she is graduating in Belfast at the end of May.

In the garden we have had peas popping up finally and we have learnt the harsh lesson of mother nature - frost got one of the tomato plants, it might recover as there is a shoot coming up and luckily we have the seedlings still to fall back on.

That little bean plant is turning into a beanstalk Jack would be proud of, it is growing so quick now it has finally popped up and after a week of hardening it off outside during the day we finally planted it out in the bed.

I also made a little mini album which I am going to fill with notes and pictures on the progress of the garden.

2010-05-13T16:43:00.003+01:00

The rabbit is moving slowly out into her super-sized hutch although she comes in a night while the frost is on-going ( it is May right ? ) Mark out-did himself the hutch and the raised bed are looking fantastic, he has added a trellis to the raised bed for the peas and beans to grow up.

The strawberries are coming on great they are even a little pink looking, we placed straw under them to keep them up of the soil.

The lettuce is racing away and is looking fabulous and hopefully the frost won't kill them, I have to keep covering them up at night - darn the weather !

The seedling are at least transportable and they go in and out depending on the forecast, I mean we got hail yesterday, little seedlings wouldn't have stood a chance against those evil balls of ice.

I must yet again recommend Quickcrop, if I hadn't already got Mark to build my beds I would have gone with them as they have been fantastic to deal with and are Irish. I applied for their free seeds and they arrive quickly with great instructions and the news letter I signed up for is incredibly informative and even had a recipe for the strawberries.

Jennie got me these gorgeous planters for my herbs so they have been transfer into them and are growing away happily.

Caitlin planted Mimulus ( monkey flower ) in class on Saturday and was so happy to talk about all the veggies with her teacher.

And finally the runner beans have come up - I thought they might have been a dud but the teacher told us the cold would stop them so we planted a couple in a pot on the very full kitchen window sill a couple of weeks ago and finally we are seeing some baby plants.

I even did a layout - the first of many about the garden I am sure.

I have promised to put pictures up of Jennie's new puppy - yes the loon got herself a puppy. I will put them up this weekend :)

2010-05-04T17:57:00.005+01:00

The raised bed is finished and filled with soil and compost and organic feed so I could finally get to the fun bit of planting.
The kids are having a great time getting dirty and planting seeds, Rachel helped me with the spinach - we need lots the rabbit adores it !

We are planting in 4 week successions to ensure we have plenty of supplies all year , we have done the same with the lettuce.

I have found a couple of great sites while researching my little grow your own project -
Grow it Yourself Ireland was fantastic.
And if you don't want to build your own raised bed Quickcrop.ie have kits that supply everything you need they also had a link to Growveg which has a 30 day free trail to make your own plan for your veggie plot - it is great as it tells you how much room the plants need and gives you tips on raising each plant. This is the rough plan for our raise bed - you can grow quite a bit in a 3 x 6 ft plot.

Using the plan we started planting out finally so the strawberries , first lettuce, scallions, spinach and chives are in and the tomato is in too but the runner beans are still in pots as they are not fully up yet and the peas were sow directly in the ground and haven't popped up yet. They go at the back of the bed as the boys are adding a trellis to the fence for them to grow up.
I also edged the raised bed with copper tape to keep slugs and snails away - I am trying to be as organic with this garden as I can so only organic feed and green ways of dealing with pests, so we are going to plant some things as companion plants like marigolds and nasturtiums.

Over the weekend James our cousin and my Auntie Chris's and Uncle Kevin's son came over to visit and he came up to the North to see us on Saturday. We had a big lunch and a good chat and of course the compulsory photo shoot.

Sunday Becca had her friend Farrah over for a sleepover and I took the girls down to the lake fo a walk before bedtime. It was very peaceful by the lake.

Caitlin came with us - she wasn't so quiet and did manage to get herself wet but the thinking was if we let her come she would give the girls a break that evening.

We were also joined by a swan - it was gorgeous floating serenely on the lake in the sunset.
I have more seedlings to plant out so I will sign off for this week.

2010-04-28T10:38:00.005+01:00

Do you remember that musical cress that drove me crazy ? Well this week it went up the Scifest 2010 with my eldest and she came 3rd in her category and was quite chuffed with herself . I am just glad I no longer have to put up with Screamo or Techno music EVER again.

CJ was off being busy too - he was best man to our old friend Alan, I unfortunately couldn't go due child related duties so I had to leave him to it which made me sad, apparently he did good, very good. I can't wait to see the pictures.

Remember that I mentioned wanting to get into growing more veggies ? Well Mark my lovely brother offered to help and the boys started construction of a raised bed for me in the back garden, it has now been lined because the boys stained the wood and didn't realise it would leech into the soil. We dug out the grass beneath it and I am going to line it with newspaper to suppress the weeds and then fill it full of topsoil and organic compost.

Caitlin and I go to a grow you own class on Saturday evenings at the local nursery so have been learning how to get started we have been planting up seeds and growing up a storm ready to plant the bed up.
This is Caitlin's lettuce planted in class a couple of weeks ago - we now have 6 more growing and seeds starting off so we can plant them in when these are ready to pick in about a month.

We have scallions ready to plant out and tomatoes ( cherry ones :) ) and spinach is ready to go in too. We are even planting some new potatoes in planter bags as we learnt so much looking after the school's potato plant which was huge by the time it went back.

And the strawberries are getting strawberries on them already.

I can't wait until it is planted up and we start picking our own veg - this is the kind of gardening I love and the girls love it too, they are so enthusiastic about planting the seeds and seeing the seedlings pop up and there is something so cool about picking your own veg.

When we weren't planting in the garden Rachel and I played with bubbles - safety scissors which seem to breed in this house and washing-up liquid are the only way to go !!

Kept the toddler busy for a good hour those bubbles -gotta love cheap entertainment !!

I managed to fit in a layout last weekend - went digging and found papers I didn't even know I had !! I love this picture of Caitlin she looks so dreamy.

2010-04-19T12:24:00.006+01:00

Well it has been a while - life threw more than a few curve balls in our direction recently and blogging was pushed to the back of the list. The Easter hols ended well enough, the sunshine was an added bonus so we went to the park and when the days were not as good we went up to the play center which had Rachel in her element.

The teenager and myself went for walks and chats - it was nice to have time to ourselves poor Becca gets too little of my time sometimes I feel - hard to compete with a demanding toddler and a sister that was poorly for a lot of the holiday.

It was nice - she may not think it was cool but we actually get on really well ( you know for a mum and teenager ) even if her phone is going off every couple of minutes.

The sun came out for so long we even made ice-lollys and I found this blast from my past - Fab lollys reminds me so mush of riding my Raleigh Amber and popping down to the corner shop.

The kids took great delight in washing the cars - it isn't a chore when the sun is shining, they volunteered to do everybodies car.

Last week was Jennie's birthday - I made a banner, I liked my Easter one and thought a birthday one would be a good idea.

I love the bunting that is fashionable recently so went with that theme and lots of my Basic grey Cupcake.

We got Jennie a cake from the amazing bakery in town and it was gorgeous, it looked fabulous too.

Jennie liked it which was the main thing !!

Hopefully the next update will have slightly more news and I will be slightly chirpier.

2010-04-05T13:40:00.006+01:00

Happy Easter now that the Easter bunny has been I can fill you in on our week and the holidays did not start well, after all who expected snow in April ?Not me !! All plans for walks by the lake and trips to the park went out the window as we dug out the winter woollies once more.
Even the poor birds were confused and the bird feeder was well visited for a couple of days.

Caitlin and I made an Easter banner during the "indoor" days using ovals of card covered with lot of older Basic Grey Two Scoops - which are perfect for spring with their pastel shades.

I took some closer shots so you could have a better look, we cut ovals out of each type of paper and then cut them into 3 pieces, using the same pattern on each oval so they would slot together like a jigsaw and glued them onto oval shaped card - it was a lot easier than I am making it sound !! Then we cut pink scallop circles and layered them over green circles and placed the letters on.

It is brightening up the dresser that is for sure.
I had brought each of the girls and the hubby,of course, a chocolate egg for Easter but before Christmas I had seen the cutest earring box with a chick on it and had to have it.

Inside it had pearls and as Caitlin is the only one with pierced ears it went to her - a special treat from the Easter bunny.

Talking of treats - I made these special pancakes for my brother on Saturday, they were so good I nearly forgot to take pictures - thanks to Mark for reminding me to do so even if he may of been being facetious when he said it !!
They were filled with a chocolate sauce and had strawberries lightly cooked in white wine and sugar on top and of course vanilla cream on top of that with chocolate shavings just wish I had a better picture ( not a half eaten version to show you )

I was also treated on Saturday to more flowers, I think that the family think if I don't get them I will have nothing to photograph they are brightening my week :)

On Sunday after we got our eggs and finished up breakfast we head out for the day to Roscommon .

We went for two reasons the first was the hubby wanted to see if his Great-granny's pub was still there, he had last seen it was a kid before she died and the other was to go to Lough Key Forest Park. The pub unfortunately is no long which was disappointing and the buildings are going to be knocked down soon and replaced with a hotel.
At Lough Key we had Lunch and then head out on the Lough Key Experience which consists of a walk around the grounds of Rockingham house which burnt to the ground in the 50's and an Tree Canopy walk though the woods.

We were given these radio guides to listen to the story as we went around - for some reason CJ's was in German which was fun !

And considering two if our party are not good with heights it wasn't too bad and being high up the view was very impressive.

There were castles ( well a folly of one )

Miracle of miracles Becca actually posed for pictures - no bribery required !!

Caitlin of course posed anyway , mind you I can see the teenage awkwardness coming out in her - she is becoming more self-conscious.

There was an abandoned church which was great for pictures and of course a lake
Which had the most impressive swan on it - she even did some ballet for us, our own version of Swan lake.

2010-03-28T23:26:00.005+01:00

I remember as a kid being asked to mind things during the school holidays - the school goldfish was one or the time I brought home 2 school gerbils that quickly multiplied into more over a summer holidays, much to my Mother's horror.
But a potato plant is a new one on me and that is exactly what arrived home with Caitlin, obviously news of my plant killing abilities haven't filtered through to the school, so it has joined the music-loving Cress on the window sill and I hope I can keep it alive for the 2 weeks.
Caitlin's school has a greenhouse now and a vegetable plot, they are growing lots of veg as part of a green schools program. I think it is a great idea and want a raised bed of my own now, hints have been dropped to the hubby, I have brought some strawberry plants and want to try my hand at spinach ( Cookie loves it ) and tomatoes and some other salad veggies would be great. I have already kept alive all my herbs so I am willing to go further with it now. I will let you know how many survive the experience !!
I scrapbooked again and I am so pleased I took a leaf out of Cathy Z's book and used stuff from my blog as inspiration - the pictures from last week in fact. I did it for Rachel's album which I have neglected recent.

In preparations for Easter this week we tried our hands at bunny cookies, shortbread and chocolate ones - they were yummy and I will definitely be making more, although the ears were a bit delicate and I will have to be more careful cutting them out.

The Easter egg cookies held up better and the girls liked them - they were chocolate chipped shortbread and didn't last five minutes if I am honest. So they will definitely be made again this week.

I also wanted to make some crochet bunnies and finally found a pattern for egg cosies - aren't they so cute ? And they were so quick to make, I finished these two during Earth Hour by candle light and the light of the battery powered laptop !
For Earth hour we joined in a switched the lights of for an hour with people around the world, I know people think it won't help much but I also recycle, use the eco wash cycle on my washing machine and all those kind of things because I don't want to think that I helped ruin the world for my kids, call me silly I don't mind and anyway Caitlin thinks switching the lights off is fun.

Getting into the Spring feeling I was given these beautiful daffs from my hubby this weekend - daffodils make me smile.

Caitlin looking for things to do - it is going to be a long two weeks - begged me to make recycled crayons today, you collect all your old broken crayons from around the house and remove all the papers and break them into small pieces and place them in a cake tin and heat them at 65 degrees C for about 10 minutes or until melted fully.

Caitlin especially wanted to try a heart shaped crayon and it looked very cool when it came out of the tin. The things you do to keep them busy over the Easter holidays !!

I leave you with dessert from this evening - I made pineapple upside down cake and was so pleased with how it turned out and it was darn tasty too. I will pass on the recipe if anyone wants it as I made it up so to speak - it was vanilla sponge base with pineapple rings which I sprinkled brown sugar over the top and grilled to caramelize.

2010-03-24T00:52:00.003+01:00

I start this post with a heavy heart because as of tonight this little guy has been missing for a week and try as we might to find him it isn't looking good.
He went into the back garden as usual last Tuesday but slipped out of the side gate and just kept running it seems. We are so upset that he is gone and despite reporting it to the vets and the cat sanctuary and frequent searches of the area we have come up with nothing. I only hope that someone else has taken him in and loves him as much as we do.

We didn't do much for Paddy's day - hard to be celebratory when you are feeling down and Becca was off with her friends to so it was only the three of us.
I did manage to scrap a page about the parade year before though - I am always worried that layouts about Paddy's day will end up looking twee !!

I reached for my trusted Basic Grey paper and the rub-ons are Laura Ashley velvet ones ( thanks Dave and Finn :) ) They are very cool and work perfectly.

Talking of all things green it turns out that even though I hate Scream Metal music and Techno - Cress seems to love it. Becca is doing a science experiment for a school science fair thing, the basic premise of which is that music can influence the growth of Cress and which musics works best.
Each pupil doing the experiment had different types of music to play to the plants for 1/2 hour every day ( which is 1/2 hour too long in my books !!) Did we get indie or classical or something vaguely musical - nope Scream metal which is basically just screaming over bad metal music or Techno thump thump thumping is played to plants - I ask you !! This is the Techno plant - growing up a storm.

Rachel Ann has had a rough week too she has been a little off colour with a nasty little cough which of course kicks in at night keeping her and her poor mum awake but is not bad enough to stop her doing anything else. Her favourite thing to do at the moment is to read the "Tiger who came to tea" - she just loves the story and sometimes I have to read it two or three times a day.

And when you have a tired and cranky three year old to deal with you suck it up and read it - luckily I know it off by heart at this stage.

Lastly I leave you with a little bit of Easter - they are sneaking into the house and they are less cheeky than our bunny who is currently sitting on the sofa watching telly ( I kid you not !! )

2010-03-16T22:34:00.004+01:00

Spring has finally sprung and the sunny weather has brighten my heart and the heart of all the flowers too - the pansies in the planter went spring mad and were in full bloom.
We have been to the park more times this year than the whole of last summer because of the fine weather - we go with friends usually and have a ball.

I have been taking pictures like a loon mainly because Pioneer Lady was running a cat photography competition and well with two cats I had to have a go, didn't I ? Turns out while lovely, my cats are wise to my camera skills - the eldest closes her eyes or turns her head away every time she hates the camera so I finally had to get her with my longest lens in a sneak attack.

As for the youngest he sees the camera light and attacks it - or wants to rub up against you in an affectionate manner. Only got him to pose because last week he went to the vet for a little operation which kept him quiet for a day or too.

I also decided to capture Cookie after all we can't have the cats getting all the attention.
Cookie Monster as she is affectionately known is such a personality, for a bunny, she plays with you and demands attention and is so sweet in general. Love that bunny !

Tinsel our other bunny passed away - he unfortunately got the same illness as Cookie but he could not fight it like she could , Caitlin was devastated needless to say and I promised that we could do something to mark his passing. Now the frost has passed we planted some primroses and forget - me -nots and hyacinths. Caitlin picked the sign to mark the spot - quite fitting for a bunny I think.

On Mother's day I was spoilt rotten with a lie in and tea in bed, not burnt breakfast like I used to serve up to my Mammy - sorry Mum !.
I rang my Mum that day too and she mentioned that I hadn't made her card, it is true I always make one but this year time got away from me as every card I had tried to make this year a three year old had "helped " with and things didn't go well. I actually feel sad about it so again Sorry Mum, she deserves the effort as she is a fantastic person.

I also got a present from my kids of some chocolates and flowers I am a lucky Mum - my eldest actually brought something with her own money.

Last but not least I did another layout - using my round up from the blog picture of 2009. At this rate I might get a layout done once every month or so !!

2010-03-04T15:20:00.006+01:00

Well that was a week and a half - last week was what I like to call BIRTHDAY WEEK for good reason it is a none stop party in our house.
First my baby girl, which I will have to stop referring to her as from now on, was ten.
Unfortunately she was feeling unwell, it was a Monday and also Becca was away in Derry on camp so it was a quite affair just her favourite dinner and specially made cake which she and I got covered in cream decorating.

As I said Becca was off in Derry doing all sorts of weird and wonderful activities until her own Birthday which was last Thursday when she became the grand old age of 15 .

She had requested pavlova instead of cake as usual and I was going to whip one up but truth be told the local bakery's looked nicer and was actually cheaper than buying the ingredients, so I cheated big time.

I don't think she minded either way as she too was feeling unwell the poor girls had a rough week considering it was birthday week.

On Friday Mam and Dad came up to see the girls and came baring gifts including these cute cupcake cases for me. I did take pictures during their visit but decided that to spare the blushes of my poor Dad who was attacked by his grandchildren yet again with all sorts of glittery make up and hair accessories and I would refrain from posting them - bet he is wishing he had grandsons now.

I also got these beautiful flowers from my husband which I think was bribing me not to use the pictures of him in much the same predicament as my dad !! And also because I took Caitlin and her friends up to the play center to celebrate her birthday leaving him in peace to watch the match .

Saturday afternoon Caitlin and her friends headed up to the local play center to finally celebrate the birthday that was a bit of a wash out on Monday - they had lots of boisterous fun and filled up with slushies and popcorn and I totally forgot to bring my camera !! That evening Caitlin had a sleepover and funnily after exhausting them in the afternoon they were relatively quiet that night.

My lovely hubby finally sorted out my printer woes and I did a layout - it has only been a few months !! I know it is a quirky hobby to have but I do love scrapbooking, I love mixing papers with pictures and telling a story.

And I love the colours turquoise and pink together :)

On Tuesday this week it was the littlest ones turn at a birthday as Rachel turned three.
She got a camera all of her own and wanted to head to the park with it, so of course we obliged.
She found it very funny to take pictures of Auntie Amber taking pictures of her.

She even went down the slide with it - sturdy camera is all I can say, could do with one myself.

She and I both took pictures of Jennie as she came down the slide at Rachel's request.

That evening when people were back from school and work we had a little get together to celebrate the day and Rachel's cake of chocolate , cream and marshmallows went down very well, it was all she wanted for her birthday besides a white teddy bear.

She blew her candles out and we played a noisy game of tumbling monkeys while listening to ABBA of all things.
We played until Missy could take no more and lay down on the sofa -- tuckered out with all the excitement. I know how she feels it has been an exhausting few days.

2010-02-21T23:57:00.004+01:00

This time ten years ago I was watching Billy Connolly on video while in labour with this cheeky little monkey - she was ever so late, over two weeks in fact and she entered the world in the most dramatic fashion and has been creating drama ever since - yes tomorrow at 6 ish in the morning my baby girl is 10 , double digits and it seems like no time at all.

While feeling wistful and old I have been working on a special project for Becca, she wanted a hat of her own and she is a HUGE Hello Kitty fan so I knew I had to track down a pattern finally I found one on-line and this was the result - cute isn't it ?

Caitlin was also working on finishing her project by the end of term on Wednesday - I got a picture of the finished article - it was a very impressive project the girls worked so hard on it.

Becca was off all week and nagged me until the hat got finished to match the Kitty, she does like the finished hat though.

The girls helped me plant out some herb seedlings as well while they were off, they are looking good (this gardening is getting more fun ) I especially like growing things that are useful hopefully we will be planting them out in a few weeks when the frost is finally over, I mean we got snow last night again.

I found the prettiest napkins this week - I have a weakness for napkins and these beauties were in the supermarket and I couldn't resist.

At the end of the week the girls were on Half-Term break and to shake of the cobwebs we headed out to the park and the girls had a ball.
Rachel is getting to that age where she can climb and run with the big kids and she does just that she is still not fond of the swing ( it goes to high ) but the slide is her favourite.

She likes the motorbike as well and kept telling Caitlin who was being a good big cousin and helping her on and off things that she was her best friend , it was so sweet.

Caitlin while being a great big cousin also managed to charm half the park at the same time - the girl has skills.
By the way she wanted everyone to know that she looks like a hamster in this picture because she was eating something when her Mum snapped her unawares !!

I Still can't get over the fact she is ten though, she is getting much more mature in nature that is for sure, it has been noticable recently she has been calmer but she is still small for her age which throws people - even me sometimes.

2010-02-15T11:31:00.004+01:00

Hope Valentine's day was all loved up for you all.
Look what my hubby brought me earlier in the week I had been coveting these cake moulds but knew that I couldn't get into town to pick them up so he surprised me and went in and got them instead.

Last week Caitlin has been doing a project all about Egypt so we have been learning all about hieroglyphics - trying to find a font that actually was a true one was the hardest thing and online translators only translate short messages and the kids wanted to put "thank you for reading our project" and their names. We finally found a font but the letters were jumbled so we had a lot of sorting to do. But it was totally worth it in the end the kids have worked so hard on this project.

I took a picture of the full blown Amaryllis I am thrilled it grew as honestly I am hopeless at growing things, the only thing I have successfully kept alive is a rubber plant but that is because it can look after itself.

We had a bit of a scare this week as Pixel,the little monkey, has been venturing into the back garden all was well until someone left the side gate open and he went missing over night we were all incredibly worried we live near a main road and he has no sense whatsoever so when he was no where to be found we feared the worst, it was also a freezing cold night.
The next morning we were heading for school when I heard frantic and plaintive crying from way up the hill and there he was looking absolutely terrified. I don't know where he got to but he won't be going out for awhile that is for sure, not that he wants too he is too scared.

Caitlin and I made some Strawberry and Vanilla rose cakes the turned out very tasty and Caitlin made a little box to place one in to bring in for the Valentine's swap at school.

She also made three cards ( she was a busy girl ) one for a boy she "likes" in one class and 2 for the swap - ahh love young dream !!

Talking of love my lovely husband didn't just get me cake moulds he also brought me Roses - I adore flowers and with the week that was in it Roses are just lovely.

I got him a gift no they weren't the tickets to Paris to see the Rugby which in hindsight was most probably a good thing !! I also picked up these cupcakes from the shop as I couldn't resist them.

And for dinner last I made Devil's food cake with Chocolate Ganache - oh yes it is a dieter's nightmare but oh so good !!

Next week it is the start of birthday season in the house with Caitlin turning the big 1 0 no more little kids for me - well unless you count Rachel :)

2010-02-08T00:32:00.001+01:00

We have just had a whole week of no Internet access - it nearly drove me crazy (which is a bit of a worry !!) But while we were off-line lots happened to keep us busy. Becca ended up off for a week on two antibiotics and she needed them to clear things up but at least there was no going to hospital which was a result, she did get care at home though and this was her last breakfast in bed.

The rest of us still had to keep going and Caitlin had a party in school - the kids are awarded compliment slips in school mostly for good behaviour in the classroom and to each other and if they get enough the class gets a treat and if they get LOTS they get a party and Cait's class have been very good.

I finally got around to putting pictures into the frame my Mum and Dad brought back from their French holiday - only took 5 months or so to organise but it is up now in the bathroom.

I got some lovely flowers from my lovely hubby to lift my spirits, gorgeous they are too I love tulips :)

Talking of flowers - Our Amaryllis is finally flowering I will take more pictures when it is in full bloom but it is looking good which is a bit of amazing as I have a black thumb usually.

Last weekend Alan and Michelle came up to visit, CJ is Alan's best man so they were discussing plans, well they were meant to be discussing plans but there was alcohol and food and then a raucous game of Abba Singstar which Michelle and I won definitively I would say !!
Michelle also brought me this gorgeous teapot - it is so sweet and the fact she thought of me when she saw it touched me so much, she is a sweetheart.

She also brought divine chocolaty buns - yummy they were too.

Michelle then had to deal with Caitlin which she did with patience and good humour - Alan you definitely had a keeper there.

Sunday Morning Caitlin and I made croissants for breakfast, okay they are from a tin but french pastry is not my forte to be honest but you still feel like it was handmade.

After Al and Michelle had headed home I took Caitlin and her friend to the park to blow of the cobwebs as it was a lovely sunny afternoon.

We stayed their until the sun started to set and it was quiet enough we literally had the place to ourselves.

This is the view from the park - isn't it gorgeous sometimes you catch a view like this and realise what a pretty area we live in.

As for the week to keep busy as I was Rachel less ( her Mammy was off ) I made some Carrot cake - yummy it was too if I do say so myself.

I made a new hat for Rachel as she lost the last one and insisted on a new one

I have also started making Granny squares with a view to make up a blanket, Lucy over at the Attic has gorgeous blankets which could inspire anyone to grab a crochet needle.

It is also quite easy to knock out a few squares a night and seems to be coming along quickly, just a quick break this week to make the hat of course.

Cookie the bunny has been sick - turns out the reason she had no fur when we got her was not attack by another bunny as we were told but she had been removing her own fur as she had mites !! Grrr I am not a happy, bunny mammy she has been through so much in her short bunny life but she is a fighter that is for sure and such a character. So a trip to the vet was needed - he must be fed up of me at this stage but he knows that we love our pets.

This weekend was my turn to bring the cakes as we headed up to Dublin to park at Alan and Michelle's
The reason we were parking and not staying was because my lovely hubby had won tickets to see Ireland V Italy in the opening Six Nations Rugby match and he brought me along as he said watching rugby with anyone else is not the same - I do love me some rugby !!

And great to see Ireland get the win and start their campaign to retain the championship. And Al did treat us to Soup and tea to warm us up after the match.

I leave you this week with a banana cake heart which Caitlin insisted we made in honour of the week that is in it .

2010-01-25T23:44:00.009+01:00

Hello long time, no blogging but truth is I haven't been able to type recently as I am officially a danger to myself and managed to burn my right arm the other week with hot oil, it wasn't too serious but it was painful as it affected my wrist quite badly so no typing for me until it healed a bit.
I have not wasted my time however and the last two weeks have been jam packet with stuff to do even if one arm is a bit wonky.
First we went tried out Debbie's Lemon Cake recipe, it is fantastic and will definitely be made over and over again.

We even tried it with cream filling, oh so tasty and very naughty and most probably so full of calories that it will take a week of walking just to work off one slice but I walk everywhere anyway !

By the way this cake cover is one of my sales bargains - I spotted it in a lovely local shop before Christmas and fell in love but waited and waited until the sales started and it was under half price before I could get it, after all justifying a cake cover is a bit hard as it definitely not essential but some times pretty thing make your soul happy and everyone needs that some days especially dark miserable ones in January.

The kids finally returned to school - the ice and snow lasted so long that I was thinking of buying a sledge just to get around and the kids were actually dying to get back in the end, just to get back to friends and back into a routine again and I admit I was glad too. Cabin Fever was well and truly setting in.

I have also noticed in the last couple of weeks we cook a lot and maybe it the cold but baking just seems to take the edge of the cold and the misery of winter.
We the we being Caitlin and I ) made cookies - our now infamous Peanut and Chocolate cookies they always work and go down well with milk.

We also fed others as well as ourselves in the cold and brought a bird feeder which is now hanging from the side of the shed and has quite a few visitors including a Blackbird couple that visit daily.

The new bird population in the back garden might explain the reason that Pixel wants to be outside now, he is still having injections so is not allowed out yet but he is the most curious of cats, he is into EVERYTHING and I do mean everything, the dishwasher, the washing machine, my drawer, the laundry basket, the Christmas tree and almost any container he thinks he can fit in - like my new mixing bowl which he broke numerous rules (including the no going on the table rule) to do. Good job he is cute is all I can say !!

Becca is off sick at the moment, her ear started playing up on Friday, which was the day she was meant to be going to a concert with her friend.
It was a concert we made her jump through numerous hoops to go to and in the end she was the one that said no by her own admission that her health would suffer if she went, she realised that it was not a thing to be ignored, she knows only too well what ignoring her health would do, we all learned that lesson the hard way with two long stays in the hospital.

So on Friday morning we ran to the Dr's and like a nutty, overprotective mother and I demanded she was seen and thankfully we got seen quickly and the doctor thought I wasn't over re-acting as she had seen Becca's condition once before and knew herself how dangerous it can be. So Becca is now on two very strong antibiotics and we are hoping our quick actions have put off another month in the hospital and I am proud of my daughter for being sensible and brave.
She can't open her jaw very much because of the pain she is in, so lots of soft food has been on the menu for her, I got her a treat of cheesecake to ease the pain and make her smile.

They are from the local bakery which I can not praise highly enough it is lovely.
While unable to type my own blog I have been looking around at other blogs to see what is out there usually I blog hop to my friends but thanks to Jen's recommendation I found a blog called Attic 24 - it is just lovely.It is like a warm welcoming friend's house and I adore her brightly coloured crochet and it inspired me to try it again.
I hadn't picked up a needle for well over 15 years ( since I had the kids basically ) and went to the local shop picked up a needle and a couple of balls of wool and tried my hand at a hat. It- worked out well and like riding a bike it all came back to me pretty quickly once I started, the first hat took me two days and is mine.

Although the kids keep taking turns to rob it and wear it which is a good sign.

Caitlin wanted her own so this was hat number two - one day this one took in the end and I even had to throw in a crochet lesson for Caitlin as she was fasinated.

Then Rachel wanted a pink one which she wanted her Mum to make - but that wasn't going to happen so she let me make her one - I used this pattern here I had to alter it by adding a rim as I only had double knitting wool and a no. 4 hook but it worked out well.

She loves her butterfly hat and now Becca wants one in black of course !!

As Caitlin likes to crochet we are going to have a go at a blanket made up of squares together once we get hold of the wool , it will be a fun little project together and it is nice to re-visit an old hobby I used to enjoy.

2010-01-10T21:56:00.004+01:00

BRRRR It has been a cold one hasn't it ? I have been keeping up with my 365 project taking the camera out everyday capturing everything actually it is hard to pick out the best of them, which sounds pompous but isn't meant to what I mean is I take lots of okay ones but which ones are stand out pictures ?? Are there any stand out pictures ? I really want to improve at it and learn.
Anyway the holly was snow spattered on the 5th so I took that.

The 6th of course was Little Christmas or Epiphany whatever you call it and I took down the tree
much to the disgust of the cat he took up residence in it while I was removing the decorations and he actually cried when it was down, he sat where it used to stand and howled. I took his toy away.

On the 7th we made Debbie's lovely recipe and very tasty it is too, I made muffins out of it as I wanted the hubby to be able to bring some in for work. And as they lasted all of one day I would say that was a success.

Thanks to the icy conditions there has been lot of icy stuff to take pictures of , it is a bit scary slipping around with camera in hand but worth it to get pictures of icy trees. I also took Caitlin out for a walk - many because we were all going stir crazy with no school and secondly we needed food from the shops.

It was white enough on the way down and if we had skis getting about might have been easier, we decided to check out the lake on the way and were astounded by not only how frozen it now is but also by the amount of people walking about on it !!

This is Caitlin at the edge of the lake about where the girls would paddle for tadpoles in summer
which was as brave as I was about lake walking !! Here you could pick up the ice and reveal the floor of the lake, it was crazy.

I took the lake as the sun was setting - it really is a stunning sight to behold a totally frozen lake. We came home with shopping and made blueberry pancakes for dessert, they were gorgeous and served with strawberries and maple syrup they are just divine.

The next day we woke up to snow - really flakes of snow up as up until now it has been ice on top of ice. Caitlin was thrilled, Becca not so much as she is missing her friends being stuck in.

Today we went back down to the lake with Jennie and Rachel - now the lake is solid and covered in snow.

Everyone in town seem to have the same idea as it was really busy - I was shocked at the amount of people just wandering around the lake I am still very wary

We walked around the edges watching all the mad ones taking off for a walk across the lake.

Even the boats were frozen in their moorings and the ice was in great big slabs at the edges where people were lifting it to see how thick it was - yes it was thick alright some pieces were at least 4 inches thick.

Not thick enough for me to want to be tempted like others to cross it with the dog in tow but I am naturally a chicken. There have even been people down there with skates I pray that it doesn't crack with anyone on it.

2010-01-04T18:40:00.007+01:00

Looking forward to a new year, it is like a clean white sheet of paper just waiting to be filled or more apt at the moment a field of snow that no one has stepped on just waiting to be discovered.

People have been starting things off including the lovely Debbie - she is one amazing lady, she is talented beyond belief and always full of ideas.
Not only that she is a domestic goddess ( she will deny it though ) and fantastic mum to 4 sweet boys and expecting with number 5 and does that stop her ? Nope not at all she is running a recipe a week idea and inviting people to join in - I am cheating and placing mine into this box which I made for my recipes from a circle journal I did with the lovely Debbie and others many moons ago - it is still in my kitchen.

I can't wait to get started and start using one of my new pressies I got this fab cake stand from my secret Santa, I have been after one for ages now and the fact it is red and white dots just makes me smile on the inside.

I was very spoilt with presents the girls got me a gorilla pod for my camera it attaches to trees and rocks and the like so you don't need a tripod and a flat floor in the woods - and the kids like making shapes with it too.

Talking of being spoilt, my lovely cousin Claire came up to visit and came baring gifts - she knows my adoration of Lush products and brought up a box of goodies, the smell alone from the box was divine as for the stuff inside it heavenly is the word. I like that they pack stuff in popcorn too it is so cute.

Jen and Claire stayed for awhile here and had a go at the Singstar Abba and had a chat and a giggle until I finally had to send a very tired Caitlin to bed.

Rebecca has started the New Year with a new colour in her hair she decided she wanted it redder and I like to help mainly to be sure she is not doing too much damage to it and does it properly.

She also has some different coloured extensions, which is a much easier and less invasive way of colouring her hair and bribery was used to get these pictures although I think she didn't mind showing the terrible child labour I force her to take part in - look a vacuum cleaner she is being made to move - I am an evil mother !!

Another challenge I am attempting is to take at least one picture a day for the year, I have been quite successful as I already take quite a few pictures for this and to keep my hand in so to speak Luckily for my Caitlin takes less bribing than her sister, she also vacs without moaning.

I also decided to try my hand at a new technique and having read about custom Bokeh over at Kevin and Amanda's blog - Bokeh as I said is the lovely dappled light effect in photographs and I do like it so I decided to try it out for myself.

I went for hearts as that is the first punch I found in the draw, I made my cover for my little 50mm lens and started snapping away as you can see the first plain dappled light and the second one - heart shapes

Fun little technique to get me started on my year of photography.

2010-01-01T21:27:00.003+01:00

That was the year that was - Happy New Year to you all hope it treats us all well and brings lots more happy memories to share xxx

2009-12-31T18:54:00.010+01:00

Okay buckle up it is going to be a long post !! So a disclaimer to start - the spelling might ( will) be off , the grammer will be all over the place and it is very picture heavy, so go no further if any of that puts you off.
Caitlin and Becca's last day was the 22nd and there were parties and carol services and the like to attend and thoughout it all Caitlin wore her new hat brought while Christmas shopping.

On the Wednesday Caitlin got up early to talk to her friend Lauren in Australia thanks to the wonders of Skype - she was so happy to get the chance and they talked utter nonsense for over an hour.

Christmas Eve and wee Rachel came over for her hot chocolate in the morning while her Mum was on a mission to round up bunnies from the pet shop ( more on that saga later !!)

I spent the days prepping veg and sorting out tables and wrapping the final presents and the girls and I decided to gild pears like Kirsty Allsop had done for the table , now I had already got gold leaf in my craft cupboard ,which was sent to me ages ago to do a project with so I wasn't spending the fortune Kirsty did before you all think I am flush ( 50 quid to gold leaf pears is so not me !! )

The girls got covered in it ( good job it wasn't expensive !!) and we finally got twelve pears covered after lots of giggling and messing.

In the evening we made hot chocolate and set about the hanging of the stockings with major amounts of messing - most probably all that sugar they had just consumed !!

I had got the girls and myself new Christmas Pj's which we also put on as you do.

And Caitlin got Santa and the reindeer their treats to place by the fireplace and we read the "Night before Christmas" as usual - it is tradition don't you know.

The girls headed to bed and it is about then that the bunny saga started - Caitlin had asked for a bunny from us as Santa doesn't bring pets to this house and had picked out a gorgeous little brown bunny and had already called it Cookie. So we had reserved Cookie at the pet shop to be picked up with her hutch and stuff.
Jennie went to the pet shop Christmas Eve morning and a very young fella packed up the bunnies and sent her on her way. I went over at about ten to pick up Cookie only to find that the young lad at the pet shop had given Jennie the wrong rabbit which is about the time I started to panic !!
Caitlin had already got very attached to Cookie - visiting her every day in the shop and I knew that another bunny may not cut it.
I was right Christmas morning I had to break the news and tears started flowing but I explained that the bunny could stay with us for a few days then when the pet shop opened we would go sort out the mess.

So Tinsel as the Christmas bunny became know joined us for Christmas Day - he/she is a funny little bunny full of personality and very friendly and quickly won over Caitlin and settled her tears.

And the fact that Santa had brought the much desired Pink zen she was after helped too.

Becca was very happy with her new phone to replace her brick of a phone she has had to live with since her friend lost her phone in the summer, needless to say she won't be letting anyone touch the new one.

CJ and I had our own stockings to open and I know CJ was happy with his Lions stuff.

I was a very lucky girl and got a gorgeous dressing gown and comfy slippers and this beautiful bracelet picked out by the hubby and the girls.

After a breakfast of yummy croissant and then all at once the chaos started that is Christmas day, Mam and Dad came over with Jennie, John and Rachel and Mark and Dave and Finn arrived from Louth just as the snow started - it was a white Christmas in Cavan.

I let David loose with the camera while Mum and I got on with the task of providing Christmas dinner and all the trimmings for 12.

Jennie and Becca compared phones as they got the same one , they have been adding music and all sorts to them !!

Dad loved this peach stuff Finn brought with her and requested a reference photo

He even got me - I should have re-thought giving him the camera I think, we had a lovely dinner Three starters might have been a bit excessive and we had a goose and two turkey crowns and a ham but it all went down well as did Mum's fantastic trifle and pavlova and the gorgeous pudding from the local bakery.
After Dinner and before dessert we went and did the present exchanging - we had done a Christ cringle again which seems to work out well.

Rachel loved her new fairy dress and has been wearing it everyday since.

Both of the girls got toy kitchens from Granny and Grandpop and we were all spoilt with stuff. In the evening we played Charades again - I really shouldn't be allowed play anymore every time I do I manage to make an almighty fool of myself !! I am glad there is no photos of it or video footage. There was also a rousing game of Singstar Abba all I can say about that is that the girls won hands down and I am glad the neighbours were out !!

Steven's day morning was a lazy one after all the chaos of the night before and after the world's most fantastic mince pies from the local bakery (they really are amazingly good and I hate mince pies) Some of us headed out for walk with Ruby to try and walk off some of that HUGE dinner.

Caitlin got doggy walking duties and we all wrapped up as it was still freezing we literally slid down to the lakeside.

It was nearly sunset by the time we reached the lake which I had wanted to see as it was totally frozen.

It was the most amazing site - I have never seen a frozen lake before, let alone one as big as ours - all those dots on it are rocks and things people threw on it to see if it really was frozen.

On the Monday following Christmas I headed down to the pet shop to sort out the whole bunny mess but as you can imagine Caitlin had gotten attached to Tinsel by this stage so was kind of upset to have to return him while still wanting to pick up Cookie

Lucky for her she didn't have to choose the pet shop owner realising their mistake gave us Cookie so we are now a two bunny family - I have to get the vet to check out what they are before we are a 20 bunny family !!

Well that is all for now - Hope you had a lovely Christmas and have a Very Happy New Year xxx

2009-12-21T13:54:00.004+01:00

Only 4 more sleeps until Santa arrives and Christmas is finally coming together, my cold has all but gone (yipeee!!) the Christmas table has arrived and is assembled and this week we had Christmas parties and nativities to attend.
First was Rachel's - about 25 little ones and all their parental types squeezed into the classroom it was like sardines and there was off course the missed lines, the kids squabbling at the back, at least 3 crying for Mammy, just a typical playschool play and in the middle of it all was our Rachel in full lamb costume.

She did not cry and just sang her heart out and did all the actions, she had a ball in fact and was a wonderful sheep

Next up was Caitlin, she wasn't in the actual nativity as she had done that in second class, she is in the school choir and was singing for this year's second classes nativity play it was a lovely evening.

Over the weekend we completed the Christmas shopping which wasn't too stressful thank goodness and on Sunday we woke up to snow overnight a couple of inches had fallen and I was grateful we didn't have too much more to do.

The kids were thrilled and headed out to throw snowballs and make snow angels even Becca ventured outside.
I sensibly remained indoors - mainly to avoid snow in my camera as the kids were aiming at me most of the time.

The girls came in for hot chocolate and chocolate cookies Becca had made - yummy the are too.

CJ picked up an early Christmas present - as you know we are Rugby fans and he found this little bear in a shop.

CJ claimed he was Tommy bear - which I thought was nice as our favourite player goes by the same name.
I thought it was the official name of the bear-nope it was just my hubby being silly he even has a number 14 on the back which is a certain Mr Bowe's position when he plays - the kids thinks the bear is cute though.

I will try for one more update on Christmas Eve .

2009-12-17T00:13:00.004+01:00

Trying to keep festive is hard when you have a nasty cold ( yep I know it could be worse - actually it feels worse but I am determined that I am not coming down with anything else !! ) But I am trying my hardest which is why I took a picture of my snowman - check out that boken which for the uninitiated is the magical lights behind him.

I finally got all my cards into the post - all hand made with love and paper and glue and glitter (and minimal swearing !!) .

And despite the best efforts of the naughty kitten and the inquisitive toddler the tree is still just about standing although I am tick off with the new lights that we got last week as half the bulbs have blown which is not nearly as annoying as the fact that the toddler has found out they play music if you play a certain button and keeps pressing it with much hilarity on her part !!

I also have been very organised and arranged a basket full of wrapping goodies which I collected over the last few weeks, everything you need is in there - paper, scissors, tape , gift bags, bows, ribbons tissue paper and pens. Now all I need is to get the presents to wrap, so I am not that organised after all.

As I have said I have a rotten head cold as has Becca we have been looking after each other with soup and Lemsip and tonight finally I feel slightly more human, hey I can breathe through one side of my nose that is progress people !!

Oh I know what I wanted to share with you , the countdown I was doing I have actually finished two sided of my special 12 x 12 pocket pages and this is what it looks like.
I am quite chuffed as it is looking good and is quite handy to make doing it with the computer , okay it is no Ali Edwards but it is getting it done none the less.

I finally got a 3rd Christmas tree - it is tiny and is in the kitchen it is a real one and hopefully is too tiny to cause Jennie any problems.

And Caitlin and I made up some cookies as part of her teacher's present - they are chocolate sugar cookies which butter cream icing

Caitlin and Rachel decorated them there was a lot of sprinkles on the floor when they were finished I can tell you.

We wrapped them and placed them and the chocolates we made last week and some other nice treats for teacher - Caitlin adores her teacher and a lot of effort and love went into this pressie.

2009-12-13T20:16:00.003+01:00

The Big Tree is finally up -for how long is any one's guess between the toddler and the kitten who has so far knock off 5 of the ornaments and ended up at the top of the tree more than once !!

Once again I took my own picture in the bauble and it maybe the only one of me I have taken over this festive season as I have come down with the dreaded lurgy. I was fine until this morning now I feel like I have been hit with a wet haddock. So I am loading myself up with Lemsips and this entry on the blog might make less sense than usual - not that I make much sense the rest of the time.

As I said the kitten has been at my decoration - there is pretty much nothing he hasn't had a go at recently, my washing is constantly being assaulted and he has taken to launching himself at me from various hiding places all I can say is it is a good job he is cute !!

At least he can't make it to the mantelpiece yet - it is getting more decorated by the second, Becca added the cute bows to the mirror

Caitlin and I finally bagged up the Rocky Road ready for delivery, we didn't get too fancy with the bags ( like last year ) as time was against us but the kids won't care I am sure.

At the end of the week Rachel had her run though for her Nativity - I think you will agree as lambs go she was a cute one, not sure how many lambs were in the nativity story.

Finally my eldest went to her first rock gig this weekend, I was so happy and terrified all in one go and she was so excited I could barely keep her feet on the ground with all the warnings and keep yourself safe. She was going with her friends and responsible adults were getting them there and back and I am all for letting them fly ( with a very large safety net to catch them ) but she had a ball and came back in one piece with the only thing damaged her hearing maybe !!

Glad it all went well - so glad we let her go even though we were dreading it - our girl is growing up so fast !!

2009-12-09T23:15:00.004+01:00

There is so much going on in the house at the moment that keeping up with it all is fun to say the least but we are trying. Becca is home from her trip - she is totally exhausted by it all apparently she was up at six to do kayaking ( she is never up at six to do anything lol )
I have been making as much as I can while I have some Rachel free days and I am totally loving the new Kirstie Allsopp's program on Channel 4 about a handmade Christmas, I love doing all these things it makes Christmas for me and hopefully the kids like it too.
More cards have been produced I am finally ready to sign them all and send them on their way.

Rachel popped over this afternoon and we made some lamb's ears for Nativity play practise tomorrow - this is Caitlin modelling them while completing her homework this evening.

Caitlin was thrilled earlier in the week as Granny and Grandpop returned and brought with them some very pink poodle slippers and she adores them, she had been eyeing a pair up in the local chemists for awhile and has to be persuaded to remove them to get to school.

I have to admit it they are very cute and look very cosy.

The one thing about making stuff yourself is after awhile traditions start and I have been making a little tin complete with pictures of our Christmas for the past five years and this year was no exception. I took a little blue mint tin and got to decorating it.

The inside I filled with the Christmas card shots I took the other week and the date and small embellishments.

it was going to go on the tree but there has been a delay on the big tree - firstly we had to get a new one because CJ threw the old one out and secondly the lights were used in the gazebo in summer and left out in the rain so it was bye bye Christmas lights which was only remembered after we put up the tree !!
Anyway I digress the tin is now displayed on my crystals and snowflakes in the blue vase.

And I did get a bit of decorating done the mantelpiece is coming together - there is another one of the tins on there at the mo - my little pink one from last year.

Caitlin and I also put up the kids tree in the hall - I love this tree it is special to me because it was the first ever tree CJ and I got before we had kids and lived in the tiniest flat in Dublin and is only 3ft tall and now it holds all the kids decoration some are handmade and some are hand chosen by the kids and I love it more than the big tree if I am honest.

The kids is also more traditional, there are more Santas and snowmen on it than you can shake a stick at.

And it is all topped off with this fairy angel - Caitlin thinks it is hilarious that she has a light up her bum.

Caitlin and Jazz and I also made some lovely rocky road to make into "reindeer poop" bags to give to Caitlin's class .

It is a gorgeous recipe and so easy
3 bars of chocolate ( we used milk chocolate )
4 oz of unsalted butter
1 big bag of Maltesers
8 digestives crushed by an over enthusiastic kid
mini marshmallows
hazelnuts ( optional )
Jam - we used strawberry

Melt the butter and the chocolate.
Crush the digestives and chop up the nuts if using them
Put all the malteasers, marshmallows,nuts and crushed bickies into a cling-filmed lined tin or lasagna dish if you are us.
pour 1/2 the melted chocolate in and mix.
Add blobs of jam dotted around and then pour on the other 1/2 of chocolate and mix again.
Place it in the fridge to cool. Chop up when hard .

We will be bagging up the two trays we made with the Reindeer poop poem which you can find over at Organized Christmas.
I will leave you with a layout - yes I made one and it is even in the Christmas album already !

2009-12-07T14:56:00.008+01:00

I have been in a very "Bah Humbug" kind of mood there is no reason at all for this rotten mood and it is totally unlike me really but I was finding it so hard to get into the festive spirit. So I decided to pull my socks up and get into it and asked Caitlin did she want to make a little Christmas house. I have had one of these Doodlebug houses hanging around for the past year and this was the perfect time to make it up.

I dragged out the most colourful of my Christmas papers and the glitter and we went to town. Caitlin picked out all the papers and flocked all the windows and edges.

It is so sweet and has taken up residence on the dresser for now which is the home for all Christmas makes.
Caitlin has been my main reason for trying to get out of the funk I have been in - she is BIG into Christmas and I have to pull it together for her sake and who could resist this face ?

She was also very excited as she got to do Ruby walking duties again this weekend, we took a trip down to the lake and get some much needed fresh air on Sunday.

The weather held of just about long enough, the rain only hit as we walked home but Ruby was an angel and Becca even came with us.

When we got home it was still quite early so Caitlin and I decided to have a go at making a gingerbread Christmas train we had picked up.

We have never attempted one of these before but it was very tasty fun and was quite cute when Cait had finished it - okay it won't win any beauty awards but for a first attempt I think it is a winner.

I got back to making pages for the countdown ( while watching x factor) and these are the pages before they are printed - numbers and embellishments will be added to make them pretty.
So this is page 3

And this one is page 4 about my planner, page 5 will have the little house , page six will be about the gingerbread train and today will be about our rocky road recipe - which we have spent the afternoon making - I still have chocolate all over me as I type !!

I also got back to making cards - I like this one it is different to all the others I have made and it has glitter, who doesn't like glitter ?!?

I threw together a couple more - I have 2 more to make and then I am done I think, it takes a awhile and every year I think no more but truth is I love making them and it is nice to send something you put some effort into.

All the cards are placed onto the dresser until they are signed and placed in envelopes and you can see the dresser is getting full at this stage - it is actually worse this this morning as I made 3 more cards.

I was making cards this morning as Mam and Dad, Jen and Rachel all arrived back from the UK and their visit to Nana - they were all looking the worse for wear as it was a rough trip but it was lovely to see them and I was a lucky girl as Nana sent me a gorgeous jumper - thanks Nan xx

Also it took my mind of the fact that Becca was off again up the North she has gone to represent the school again - the house is strangely quite without her and I know she will be grand and have a brilliant time, doesn't stop me worrying though.
Goodness I miss that girl !!

2009-12-03T22:48:00.005+01:00

December is here and the countdown is on, the Advent calenders are filled - well the girl's one in the kitchen is anyway. I totally forgot/let time get away from me and only managed to pick the goodies up at the last minute - bad Mammy !!

Little Santa is living on the dresser as Rachel thought it was great skit to dismantle him every couple of minutes - so for his own safety he is place up high so he can survive the month in one piece.

I also decided at the last minute ( I seem to be doing that quite a bit at the moment ) to make my own version of the Christmas countdown. I loved the ones that Ali Edwards and Shimelle are doing but to be honest I lacked the time and the equipment to attempt either but I still wanted to give it a go.
I brought some 6 pocket pages at the beginning of the year - I thought I might use them on a 365 project but like all other scrapbooking this year it got shelved. Anyway I pulled them out and using a gorgeous free kit from the Shabby Princess I had a play on the computer.

I quickly made the first two "pages" - they are hybrid layouts - digital printed onto paper with elements to decorate added on. Quick, easy and I will have 2 of the 6 pocket pages with 24 6 x 4 inch layouts and one big 12 x 12 for the Big day itself (anyone following that ?) and I will use pictures I take daily.

They all match too which makes the pages more cohesive, so I am cheating and it won't be as pretty as others but it will get done and considering how slow I have been at scrapping and how little time I have that is a BIG bonus.

Rachel and Jen along with my parents are all away in the UK visiting my Nana , I wish I was there to be honest I really would love to see her and my Auntie Win they are such fun but it was not to be this time.
Before Rachel left we had to come up with a costume for the nativity play and Rachel is a sheep of all things !! She wanted a mask so we attempted one but truthfully it looks a bit too Donny Darco for my liking and I think she would be better off with just droppy ears and a bit of face paint. I will have to make one when she gets home.

With Rachel gone I was able to get on with the card making and made a couple more today - they are not going to blow away the cardmakers with their originality but I like them and they have to be quickly made - again time is a factor.

Before the end of next week I have Becca away in the wilds of Derry again and I have to make "reindeer poop" for Caitlin's class - they loved them so much last year and of course I have a few more cards to get done.