Halloween 2013

Halloween this year was so much fun! The kids loved it, it was also their mid term break and so they spent some time down with their Grandparents, o say they were spoiled rotten was definitely an understatement!

 

Lauren thoroughly enjoyed trick-or-treating this year! she had the biggest smile on her face as she ran from house to house! and Dylan even got to go to a few houses on his own which he really loved! We had some fireworks and some sparklers and they had the best night!

 

Dylan was a zombie skateboarder! and Lauren was a witch, she even put her own face paint on! she was absolutely adorable. Dylan was so creative, he had a broken skateboard as a prop and we put stuck on scars and blood all over him, he looked great!

 

Here are my little ghouls!

 

 

The Friday before was our dress rehearsal! i.e. it was the school Halloween party! They love getting dressed up every year! It is absolutely adorable!

 

 

We had to take some pictures of our neighbours amazing houses all decked out for the night! We met up with some friends to take the kids from house to house, the atmosphere was great. Then we went home to play with our sparklers and watch our mini fireworks show by Daddy! ( who didn't get a chance to get dressed up this year)

 

 

And of course I sort of dressed up..... The kids wanted to paint my face, I got a spider and a witches hat!

 

 

 

It was a great time, I love to watch the smiles on their little faces as they have fun during these holidays! The cutest thing happened, after we put up the Halloween decorations Lauren wanted to put up the Christmas tree. So the day after Halloween Lauren says to me ' Can we put up our decorations for Christmas today,' I had told her that when Halloween was over then it would be nearly time to put up the Christmas tree.... I guess she took me literally! 

 

It was a lovely holiday and I was glad to spend it with my family... Also I really appreciative that my parents could take the kids for a visit for the few days and give them the most amazing time!

 

Derek and the kids did a great job on our pumpkin!

 

 

Happy Halloween

 

Halloween Decor 2013

We put up our decorations by accident last night!

 

We were planning on doing it during the week but we had two new decorations to put up and we ended up decorating a lot of the downstairs!

 We still have more to do though , the kids will be here for Halloween this year but they may decide to stay down with Granny and Grandad yet, we will need to see closer to the time!

We have skeletons and spiders, Dracula, witches hats and brooms and and some pumpkin candles!

 

We are all set!

Almost....
 

 

Family update 11/10/13

So it's moving along into Autumn, the kids are settled back in their after school activities. Lauren is LOVING her Irish dancing, swimming..... eh not so much! Dylan on the other hand is flying through his classes. He is also loving being back at rugby.  It was so cute Lauren got her first pair of Irish dancing shoes, so she phoned Nanna to 'show'

 her the new shoes and her dance! The innocence!!

 

 

 

Last weekend my parents came up for a visit, we took them out to breakfast and it was amazing! the food was great. Dylan had his friend to sleep over and they were up so late! Afterwards we went for a bike ride and to the park!

 

 

 

Dylan is really enjoying school this year, and Lauren is taking to it like a duck to water, here she is doing her first homework assignment, she is also playing with her etch-a-sketch ALL the time, she hasn't put it down since we got it for her!

 

 

 

As usual it's been quite busy around here! We are heading down to Waterford to visit my parents tomorrow for the weekend and we are all really looking forward to it. Lauren was all giggly and giddy at bed time! Dylan and I stayed up late to watch our movie for movie night! It won't be long until Lauren will be staying up to watch the movies too.....

 

Look at this little face..... my favourite boy!

 

 

Here's to a lovely family weekend!

 

Touch of bling

I'm in love with this month's gel manicure in 'rock royalty' with some Swarovski crystals..... love my treat days.....

I'm one happy Mommy

My 31st Birthday

Last week I celebrated my 31st birthday! It was a great day.... I can hardly believe my 30th was a year ago! I spent a lovely few days being spoiled by my little family.  The lovely girls in work had a gorgeous chocolate cake with '21' on it to make me feel better! My dear friend arrived with a HUGE bouquet of flowers... it was a very nice birthday.

 

I got my annual new purse and Derek is taking me for a night away in 2 weeks to celebrate. .. Complete with a spa treatment, I can't wait!

 

We were supposed to go down to my parent's house but we were having car trouble :(  so my Mom said birthday no 2 awaits me in Waterford!

 

I'm a lucky girl..... Happy Birthday to me!!!

 

 

Life is lovely when you are around the ones you love! 

Visit to the Garda Station

 We have been having great Autumn fun around here!

 

On Sunday there was an opening day at Blackrock Garda station, they had the squad cars, jeeps, bikes etc all on display for the kids. They could get their finger prints taken and they saw the cells. It's the community guards way of breaking down the barrier that exists between the Gardaí and the public. It was to encourage children to ask the Gardaí for help if they ever need it, it also shows that if you are not good then the Gardaí will also do their job and put you in jail! I think this hit home with Dylan! They had great fun sitting up on the bikes and having a look inside the cars, they had treats and face painting and the Garda brass band was playing.... Dylan decided this week he wants to be a Garda!

 

 

They had a great day, and I think Daddy secretly thought so too! 

First day at school

  So the baby of the house started school, we throw ourselves rather reluctantly into the next stage of her life. She is now a school child, I can't bring myself to believe that our baby has started school, the days are going by far too fast. We were dreading the first few days with her, but they have gone by without any problem. She went in and was slightly upset when we had to leave but settled down really quickly, she was a little apprehensive one or two other days but all in all she did really well and we are really very very proud of her.

 

Dylan started third class this year and he was delighted to get back into it, he wasn't so delighted with the photos though. It's funny to see the photo enthusiasm wane each year! He has a lovely teacher and he has started his supplementary classes in English and Maths, so I think he will really do very well this year in school. We are so proud of our big boy...

 

So here's our yearly back to school photo shoot....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we start on Lauren's first step of school, and Dylan's first step into the senior cycle in school, I like to reflect on how lucky we are to have the opportunity to send our children safely to school each day and  how lucky we are to have a great education system. I am proud of the children they are, and the adults they are working hard to be.

 

Good luck to my wonderful kiddies for the school year ahead!