Addie's Birthday

Addie is 3! We celebrated with a party with a few of her friends on Thursday. It was nice to do the party a day early, so we could just have a fun, relaxing day at home for her actual birthday. Here are a few photos/videos from the day.
On our way to the birthday party...

These 3 are videos... you have to click on them to play :)

Visitors!

We love having visitors because it means we get a chance to travel and see more of the country. Jon's cousins, Kerry & Karl were here last week for almost a week.

The first day trip we did was south of Dublin. We started with a scenic hike along the coast near Bray.

This is at the top of the "mountain" There is a large cross here.

Next we headed to Powerscourt. The rose garden was in full bloom.

On Friday, we drove to Northern Ireland, we left Greta at home at a friends house, so we could fit all five of us in the Polo. Jon, Kerry & Karl crossed the Carrick-a-Rede Rope bridge (if you squint you can maybe see it between the last two land pieces. Addie and I stayed away from cliff edges :)

Just some more beautiful coastal scenery, I love all the little rock islands along the coast.

Addie is always so willing to smile nicely for the camera!

Next, just a quick 5 minute drive away is the Giant's Causeway.

After the Giant's Causeway, we explored Dunluce Castle, definitely one of the most picturesque castle ruins in Ireland.

That evening we drove to the west coast town of Bundoran, in Co. Donegal. I went for a quick sunset walk just after 10 pm.

The next morning, Jon, Kerry & Karl went surfing. Here is Jon...looking good!

Addie and I played on the beach. It was probably only 60, but that didn't stop Addie from jumping in puddles and eventually going right in.

After she soaked her first set of clothes, we went back to the car to change and then had a nice little picnic on the beach.

The surfers...

Addie enjoyed all of the one on one attention, especially from Kerry!

Monday we took a picnic lunch to the Bective Abbey ruins.

Greta practices posing for the camera.

And, last but not least, one of my favorite pictures from the week... Kerry reading with the girls. Greta was ready to get on the airplane with Kerry if I would have let her :)

Happy Memorial Day!

Yesterday we explored what is quite possibly one of the world's coolest playgrounds. This playground is located at Ardgillan Castle and yes, that is the ocean that it overlooks :) And yes, I did let Addie wear that outfit in public...choosing my battles.

Greta was thrilled to do the climbing wall...just like the high ropes course at Drewstown :)

Most playgrounds here in Ireland have these cool zip lines for kids, they are fun for adults too!

A lovely picnic in the sunshine.

Sisterly love

Greta and Addie recently discovered "football" I wish I could say that they are into sports, but mostly they just like to pretend to act out a book they own called "Stacy the Soccer Fairy" It involves fairies, goblins, and magic sports objects.

Addie and Jon on the "ropes"

a slow news day...

It must be a slow news day, because this story actually happened a week or two ago, but it's interesting enough to make the front page of Yahoo news (a very reliable news source - ha!) We don't frequently walk by the Duke of Wellington statue, but it is still a bit unsettling that there is a bomb in the town you live in.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pipe-bomb-may-queen-visit-093521685.html

The Royal Wedding

I have to admit, it was really fun to be in the right time zone to watch the wedding live with the girls. Greta and Addie waited anxiously to see the "princess" arrive in her white dress. While we were watching, Addie ran upstairs to her room and when she came down she had her little princess tiara in her hair :)

The girls decided to find some hats of their own. I think these may look better than Beatrice's and Eugenie's :)

And a special shout out to Laura, who modeled these great hats while shopping on her visit here :) Laura, you should definitely bring this fashion trend to America!

Rathbeggen Lakes

Spring has definitely arrived here in Ireland. The last two weeks have been B-E-A-utiful! The girls and I have been trying to take advantage of the nice weather and spend as much time outside as possible. We are still learning good places to go within 30 minutes of Trim. Rathbeggen Lakes is a family fun park of sorts. There are some lakes for fishing (I'm a little sceptical of there actually being fish in the lakes, this is not northern WI!), a huge area with 8-10 bouncy castles, a petting zoo, playground and picnic area. We will definitely be going back here. We packed a picnic lunch and it cost a total of 12 euros. Not bad for a whole day of fun for the girls!

Greta still proves to be the brave one and spent most of the time on this big slide.

Addie preferred the smaller pink & purple slide :)

Seeing Addie in this dress brings back all sorts of memories of when Greta wore it, 2 years ago!

"fishing"

I didn't see any fish, but the kids had fun catching weeds and other muck anyway