Well the summer was pretty much the same things over and over again. I was a bit stressed at the beginning but by the middle of July I just relaxed a bit and it made things just a little easier.
JULY
The weather was actually really nice, well nice for Irish standards. That means it was mostly dry and only partially cloudy which meant we spent a lot of time outside. One day when Ronnie, our landlord was cutting the grass Lino somehow convinced him that he needed to drive the lawn mower so he let him. This must have been the highlight of Lino's summer because he was so happy and excited to be driving the lawn mower. I wish I could have got a picture of his face when Ronnie said he could ride with him...but anyway his look of total concentration shows how important this was to him...and he actually listened to Ronnie which was nice. If we didn't have to run he probably would have stayed on the lawn mower the whole time. Its so funny to see him be so excited about that...and its even funnier know that in about 10-12yrs when I am making him cut our grass I know the enthusiasm will be completely gone...enjoy it now little man!
4th of July ended up on a Friday and Mike's boss let him have off so we spent the day getting stuff ready for our 1st 4th of July party in Ireland. We took a ride to the city and Lino made me take a picture of the river when we were crossing it...it was a cloudy day. It ended up raining on us on the way back to the train station and we were so tired from being out and walking/shopping that Mike just took a cab back to the house and came to pick us up at the train station near the house. It totally saved us about 45min and saved a lot of energy trecking up that big freaking hill.
Made my mother in laws famous Banana Pudding. I had got all the ingredients from the states when we were there for Shaun's bday but I didn't have enough freaking bananas. So I had Mike go out to get more but of course he comes back with the greenest bananas he could find....to be fair he found the ripest bananas they had but they were still half green. The bananas here already have a weird taste to them and most times we can't eat them unless they are almost 85% brown on the outside so I didn't want to risk messing up the pudding with un-ripe bananas so I just put in the ones that I had and a couple from what Mike bought and called it good. Mike wasn't happy about that because I had made him go get them and I basically used 1/2 the number of bananas so he was worried. I told him since I used banana jello pudding instead of French Vanilla that that would make up for some of the banana flavor...at least I hoped it would.
Looks good from this side anyway...hopefully it will taste as good as it looks.
5th of July we had a BALL!!! Literally we had a ball...a volleyball game! It was so much fun that I didn't take one picture...not even one. I was having a good time and we had a great turnout, like 30 adults & kids. And we had so much meat I thought we were going to have a tone of left overs but we didn't! One of the few parties that we have had so much food & meat...probably over 20lbs of meat...pulled pork & ribs my Mike, jerked chicken legs, chicken kebabs, Brazilian skewers, salmon and hot dogs...a feast! It was a great day and even though the weather looked like it was going to storm...well it did rain about 2 or 3x before the party started, by the time everyone got here it was great. No rain at all and we were able to be outside most of the time. Everyone seemed to love the volleyball net too which was great. Even the Irish who had never played before got a big kick out of it. We had a couple of people that were pretty competitive which was nice and they picked up the game quick too. Just a great time...I was sad for it to end!
This is the only picture that I have that kind of is from the 5th...even though it was from that Monday when Mike & I were enjoying a few beers and a little volleyball in the backyard (garden) after the boys were in bed.
Oh, this was that same week and we had a beautiful double rainbow outside...just beautiful. Never seen so many double rainbows in my life.
Lino had a cooking camp at his school the week of July 7th so it was nice to have him out of the house for a little bit. The camp was only in the morning so the afternoons were spent at the beach, park or with friends.
This is Shaun Shaun showing off his muscles...he was trying to hold on by his self
He was actually holding on by his self....this little stinker is strong and getting to be a little too busy for me. He is doing so much of what Lino is doing but he is just to young for it...it so scary but I don't know how to slow him down. God help him...and us!
Trip to Fota with Alex and the girls. Lino ran off randomly and I found him with this Lemur
This is just an example of the stuff Lino was cooking at the camp. The first 3 days were like making a 5 course meal which was usually enough for Lino, Shaun & I to eat for lunch. This was the last day of savory cooking and the last 2 days were just spent on sweets...one day was just chocolate...YUCK! Anyway, an amazing camp, great food and he had a good time with his friends. I'll definitely send him back next year. Oh, Cian got to go to the camp with him too so that was nice!
Ahhhhh...one of the first of many nights that we caught Lino in bed with Shaun. For some reason this summer we have been struggling with Lino at night time. He doesn't want to sleep in his bed and he doesn't want to do anything that he normally does for the night time routine...like brush his teeth, put his diaper on, lay down!! Silly things, and the biggest issue is that he "doesn't like his bed". All of the sudden he doesn't like his bed and doesn't want to sleep in his bed. One night I called myself being smart and called him out on it and told him to sleep on the floor and he did...1.5hrs later he was still up!!! He must have finally got tired and went to his bed because when we went up to bed he was in his bed but that next day he was a nightmare! Probably because he was so tired from not sleeping enough.
So its not like the drama of night time isn't enough stress on me, this week Lino started not wanting to go pee or poo in the toilet. I mean accident after accident. I wasn't too worried about the pee's because he has always been a "leaker". He just waits until the last moment to go pee...kind of like me...but he just pee's in his pants (I don't). And when he pee's his pants most times he just keeps on going or sometimes he will go and change his clothes before I notice...like I'm not going to notice that his pants are all of the sudden different. So that is just a mess and a lot of work...then to add on to that now he is not pooping in the toilet. Well, he is pooping but he "starts" pooping in his pants then finishes up in the toilet. WTF!!!!??? The first 2x this happened I came in on the clean up phase...Lino was cleaning him self up. So I wasn't exactly sure what happened. But by the 3rd day and 3rd poop I was on to him....he was actually waiting to go poop!!! I know it because I smelled his stinky butt and told him to go poop but he told me he didn't have to. Not even 5min later he said he needed to go poop but of course crap was already in his underware! UGH!!!!! Anyway, long drama story but all this to say for the next 2 weeks I was dealing with this...and trying not to kill him or myself. Lots of wine...lots of wine!
On a happier note, last day of cooking camp and he even got a certificate of achievement!
Weekend shopping and I decided to try out the European version of my favorite Greek yogurt in the states. It wasn't nearly as good...but its funny because I can totally taste the European strawberry flavor. We tried so many times to use that flavor and it just didn't impress the American consumers like some had planned...anyway, I have bad memories of that flavor so I think that also put a couple of strikes against me liking it. But the texture was wrong too. I'll just have to stick to the original thing.
July 14th week Lino was in another camp...YES!!!!!! Another 3hr block of Lino free time! This camp was at the Glounthaune school, Stretch & Grow. I know that sounds bad and its not that I don't love him but I just need a break from him sometimes. I really need a break from Shaun as well but I will take what I can get. I do love being at home with my boys but they are very active an busy and into everything and I am to worried about keeping the house clean so it just makes for a stressful day. I mean when Lino & Shaun are working together those 2 can really get into some massive trouble. Lino is using Shaun to do the things that he has always wanted to do and he is blaming them on Shaun. I know exactly how that feels and is going down because my sister use to do the same thing to me. But the issue is that they are becoming so destructive. I mean I have to have my eye on them every second or else I come back to find something like this...a half of a bag of pita chips dumped out on the couch. And when I found them, they were just smashing the chips into the couch and crushing them up into little bitty pieces and both of them were just grinning from ear to ear with excitement. Lino, because he knew he was wrong but he was going to try and blame it on Shaun and Shaun because he just knew it wasn't right...and he thought it was fun. Those 2 are going to kill me I swear.
All that to say it was nice to have Lino go to a camp because Shaun doesn't get into as much trouble when he is by his self and I can actually get a few things done. Oh, over the weekend I got strep throat...at least that's what I self diagnosed myself with and I went to the GP on Monday almost in tears. I had kind of got myself worked up because my friends told me that they won't test for strep throat and most of the GP's don't really believe in it so I was preparing myself for a battle. And it was pretty much like that. The GP didn't say I didn't have it but she didn't test me for it either. She looked at my throat and said it was red but didn't show any signs of strep throat. BUT...she gave me a prescription for antibiotics anyway?? WTF???? So I told her I had strep, she said it didn't look like it but she ended up giving me a prescription for it anyway? How does that make sense? I basically paid e60 to self diagnose myself and have her write me a prescription. Lets just say I was a little pissed off! I couldn't believe it. I guess I wanted her to test me or something or if she didn't think I had strep tell me what it was and what to do to get rid of it because at that point I could barely swallow my own spit and I wasn't even eating...not even cold things so I was in bad shape. Oh and I had to wait for like an extra 30min to see her because she was behind schedule...so I was annoyed at that too. Just a bad experience and I couldn't believe she gave me the prescription...but on the other hand if she didn't give me the prescription I probably would have flew off the handle because I was about to die the pain was so bad. Besides my medical drama....even though the weather has actually been nice and I have been trying to get the boys outside as much as possible I have actually been letting them watch a ton of movies. At first I felt bad but the day's are just too long to try and keep them entertained all day by myself...some days I just need a break too so I put on a movie for a couple hours a day so that I can clean or cook and some days I even sit down...and fold clothes. I use to think it was bad parenting but I don't care anymore. It is what I have to do in order to stay sane and its not like its all day every day so I can live with myself. Plus I know that when Lino goes back to school in Sept, 5 days a week!!! That we will be back to the normal no TV during the week and TV on Sat & Sun only (mainly). And this week I kind of went on strike from cleaning. I bust my ass every day cooking, cleaning, playing, chasing after the kids and I was just done. Mike always tells me to wait to do it until the next day so that's what I did. Every day I said I would wait to do it the next day but I wouldn't. I did the bare minimum....like load the dish washer, clean off the area that we were eating at, sweep up the major spills...everything else I didn't bother with. And by the end of the week Mike was even getting a little annoyed with the clutter and dirt. He even had the nerve to ask me if I was going to clean up at some point. If I wasn't such a nice person I would have punched him in the nose :-) I wasn't really trying to make a point but I ended up making a point anyway...now lets see if it changes anything.
Last day of Lino's stretch & grow camp...he seemed to enjoy it a lot and the instructor said he was a joy to have.
I tried to get him standing in line because I was amazed at him just standing there but that second of amazement was literally just that...a second.
Getting his certificate!
This weekend we went up to Treale with Nicole & her family. It was just a one night stay but it was nice to get away...and it felt like we were on vacation. Weather forecast didn't look good but you can never really trust the iWeather in Ireland.
The boys watching movies...all eyes on tend TV!
Kids in bed so time for the adults to play!!! We had a ball playing cranium. The best part was the 2hr intermission when Mike & Ivan tried to find more beer & food. It seems like an easy task but turned out to be more like a treasure hunt. Everything closed at like 9pm and I mean everything. No grocery store, liquor store or even pizza restaurant open!!! So after a long search they finally found a Chinese restaurant that was open and that let them buy a couple bottles of beer too. So crazy. That's still pretty hard to get use to here...everything closing so early. Anyway, food & drinks were found so all was good!
And it must be said that Nicole & Ivan wiped the floor with us in the first game and that was the first time they had even played/heard of the game. Mike & I were all bragging that we never loose and we are so good at it...talk about foot in mouth!! At least the second game we were able to pull out a win...but not by much. It was so much fun to hang out and play adult games with friends and the best part was that Lino slept over so we only had to wake up Shaun when we finally left. Oh and we didn't get to book the same place that they were staying in because we were only there for one night so our hotel was like 10min walk away...which wasn't bad. But on the walk back somehow we lost one of Shaun's shoes. I didn't notice it until we were back in our room so Mike went to go look for it and wasn't able to find it. The next morning, which came so quickly because we were still a little boozed and definitely didn't have enough sleep, we managed to pull ourselves together and got ready to head up to Dingle for the day. After breakfast, at the nice B&B I walked to Nicole's place trying to see if I could find the missing shoe while Mike drove. No luck finding the shoe so that meant we had to go buy him another pair...ugh. It was a bit of a hassle because we had to go to the city center, well we didn't have to go to the city center but we ended up there because we are horrible at directions. I raced into Penny's and got something that I thought might fit Shaun but once I tried them on him I found out they where to big. So I had to either return them or go somewhere else to get another pair because that was the smallest toddler size that they had. Luckily Mike parked right in front of Heatons so I was able to run in there and get a pair of crocs for like €2.50 which was a steal! Then we were finally able to head out.
The weather looked like it was going to be bad but it turned out to be a nice day. We didn't really do much, just hung out in the town and then went on a boat ride to see this lone dolphin. It was kind of sad because it's only one dolphin out in this water by its self and all these tourist boats chasing after it so that people can get a picture of it. I guess the reason for this originally was good...some dolphin followed a salier back to Dingle and stayed (or something like this) but you know that dolphin wouldn't be alive 40yrs later so you know that the city is replacing the dead dolphin with another new one just to keep people coming back...like us. It's actually sad because dolphins are not solitary animals so it must be lonely for that poor dolphin. :-( On a lighter note, the kids enjoyed the boat ride, even though there were a couple of times that I thought Lino was going to go overboard, and so did Nicole but he didn't.
The boys on the lone dolphin!
After having lunch and hanging out in town for a while Mike & I headed back to Cork. We ended up taking the scenic route home which was pretty cool. Oh and Mike stopped to help an older couple with their flat tire. Very nice of him.
View from the lookout point.
On Sunday we ended up going to the world street performance in Fitzgerald Park. We went last year before we went to get Lino from NY so we weren't sure if Lino would enjoy it or not but he did. And at first I was a little annoyed because the festival wasn't in the city center like last year but it ended up being a great change of location and we had a ball!!!
Mommy & my big boy
Mommy & my little boy
Lino was so into the performance he wouldn't even look over for a picture. I guess he was having a good time. And daddy was enjoying his time with his boys.
It was hot out there and super busy. To get food it took almost 20min to get through the lines and when Mike and Lino were half way through the icecream like Lino had to go poop...oh no!!!!! So they get out of the line and get into the like for the self cleaning toilet...another 15min line! Eventually we all went pee/poop and got food...1.5hrs later! At one point I ran into Cara and then Margaret...so many mom friends out and about today.
One of the performers...they were very entertaining.
This guy was tied up in a chain and got his self free in 2min. His whole act took 2min but all the prep & yelling trying to get people to come see his show took about 45min...talk about a big hype for nothing.
Leaving the festival...had a lot of fun but we are all popped...time to go back to reality.
Week of July 22nd
Shaun started leaping off of the couch...LEAPING!!!! The funny part is that before he jumps to his death he says "wha"...I finally interpreted that to mean 'watch'. So now before he does something crazy he says "wha"...,super loud until you look at him then he jumps. I tell you...it's like a mini Lino in training. God help us all.
The week was relaxing, went to hang out with friends, went to Fota and played at the house. One day Lino went crazy with the water hose and just had himself a water fight with his self. He tried to get me to get all wet but it was to cold outside for me so I just kept running away from him. He had fun chasing me & I had fun watching him...this kid is just so full of life and makes the simplest thing so much fun. Love him!
Feeling proud about his water hose adventures...
A little far but he was looking in the hose when it was off and I would turn the water back on and splash him right in the face...talk about simple pleasures. He loved it too so it was great.
Closer look at the splash fun.
Trying to get mommy!!! Yikes...run for your lives!!
So much fun
Trip to the farm...Lino feeding the sheep after we watched the cows get milked. It was amazing how much milk they produce and how fast they filled up the milk jug...just amazing.
Oh I had to take a picture of daddy at bath time...always on his phone
Planning on going to the beach with Michelle and Dee today but weather seems sketchy...going anyway because it's suppose to be the hottest day of the summer.
But first to get a flat tire fixed...actually I had to get a new tire because while I was trying to clean the car out I heard the air coming out of the tire and found a huge gash in the side...I can't believe it. That tire was only like 6mo old and it's in the trash...that really sucks. Thankfully the guys remembered me and were quick and friendly. Oh and let Lino help too :-)
Lino wanted to help but he said it was too loud.
Shaun having fun at the tyre shop in his new overalls that TT bought him. So cute
Later at the beach. Weather was great, lots of sun and fun and the kids had a ball. Shaun really got attached Freya's hat and Michelle took a picture to capture the moment.
Next day back to the beach again. Went to a new beach that was actually pretty nice and quiet and we found a couple of little crabs too so it was cool.
Hard to see the crab because it's so little but it's in there.
Lino proud of his crab. I think him & Michelle found like 4 of them all together.
A little sun screen Shaun?
Busy weekend...hair cuts for Lino & daddy, trip to Midleton for farmers market, picking up some stuff for the Cuidiu picnic, lunch and family time by the flower bushes.
My favorite boys!!!!!
Always a silly picture
Lino & daddy taking a big leap off of the flower bushes...I was a little worried about Lino but he was fine.
We had a nice day at Fota Gardens for the Cuidiu end of summer picnic. Shaun had a lot of fun trying out everyone's stroller/buggy. Thankfully no one seemed to mind because he was literally in almost all of them. That little guy.
View of our day out. It was a really nice day...so glad it didn't rain.
When we got home Lino had some kind of bug bite on his face and Shaun was completely pooped. Actually they both were exhausted from the day of running around the gardens. This rarely happens so I know they must have been running non-stop!
Shaun too tired to even move...so funny & oh so rare.
July 29th Lino's 4th birthday!!!!!
Since its Lino's birthday he got to have pancakes for breakfast and as you can see he was pretty excited about that. I normally don't spend the extra time to make pancakes on a school day but today is a most special day so we have to do what the birthday boy wants!
Daddy got off work a little early today so that we could spend the afternoon together. We decided to take Lino to the indoor go karting place near the house but Shaun went to sleep so only Lino & daddy went in. It seems like Lino had more fun playing all the video games and stuff more than the actual go karting. And that place was super expensive so I'm glad he didn't really like it that much. He had fun anyway and that was the point.
Playing a little game of air hockey with daddy.
He's going to be a master champion one day...this is his favorite game and every year he gets better & better.
After go karts we all got an ice cream...because Lino wanted it. Then off to the park because Lino wanted to do the zip line and usually mommy can't do it with him because I'm watching Shaun too. So it seems like a simple request but it made his day. He had so much fun playing with daddy...it's amazing how the little things make such a difference.
Lino, daddy & Shaun
Silly face of course :-}
Look at that face...so happy.
We ended the day with dinner at Rising Tide, chicken nuggets & French fries of course. Followed by a huge brownie dessert. What a great day for a great boy.
Happy Birthday Lino!
He even had a few gifts to open, one he picked out his self the rest from Nini & Poppop.
August
The summer was quickly coming to an end which means I was running out of things to do with the boys but somehow the activity book didn't seem to loose it's excitement. I thought it was so cute to have them sitting together working on their "school work" as I told Lino. Even Shaun was excited about his own book of work. Even though it only lasted about 5min :-/
Lots of time at Fota with our friends...Lino made me take this picture of him because he was so proud of himself climbing all the way up on top of the mound.
Play date with his best bud Patrick. They had a ball riding bikes in the kitchen. We might have to get a bike for Lino's birthday too.
A little dress up cowboy for Shaun
How cute is that "cheese" face
August
Summer is over for my oldest niece...this is her on her first day of 3rd grade. I just can't believe she is getting so big.
So somewhere around here my phone crashed and I lost all my pictures so o took a 6mo break from blogging. Then when I decided to pick it back up and was almost done with 2 months worth of blogging my data was lost in cyber space. So instead of retyping all of that in going to do a quick summary...so forgive my briefness.
Lino's favorite birthday gift from his friend Patrick. He would read the book for hours in the car and most of the time I could barely see him over the sides of the book. I just thought it was very funny so had to take a picture.
Bank holiday weekend trip to Belfast in northern Ireland. On the drive up we got very worried about needing our passports since we were going from Ireland to the UK but as it turns out we didn't need them at all which was great. Otherwise Mike would have driven back to the house to get them while I got a hotel room with the boys that would have been a real pain in the butt. We were not exactly sure what to do in Belfast but we knew there was a lot of beautiful coastline to see plus there was a nice Titanic exhibit so that was the first thing that we did. The first day was super wet and rainy, more rainy than normal so we spent most of the day in the Titanic exhibit which Lino and might really enjoy. I did not like it as much as the Titanic exhibit I saw in the states maybe because the one in the states was with more artifacts from the wreckage and this one was more about the building of the Titanic and all the people involved. It was cool to see the riveting and some of the amazing construction that was used to build that massive boat but in the end I was still amazed at how many people died because of something as silly as status.
Mike and I in the exhibit
We were hoping that by the time we got finished with our for our adventure in the Titanic exhibit that the rain would have stopped but the rain in Belfast is way more intense than it is in Cork. I guess it's a combination of the rain really raining and the wind that makes it very bad but I wasn't expecting it to be like that. It made for one wet weekend. So when we did decide to leave and we had missed our bus we ended up spending 10 pounds on a kids meal that barely had anything in it. It's amazing how expensive it is in the UK. So we spent the rest of the day on the bus which would not have been so bad except we were upstairs in the top part of the open bus which meant we were getting completely drenched and our feet were completely soaked because there was so much water sloshing around at the top of the bus. You might ask why would we be sitting at the top of the bus on such a wet and rainy day but the answer to that is very easy, our son always insists on sitting in the top part of the buses when ever we are sightseeing. Most of the time this is not an issue but because of the weather it made it a little more uncomfortable but it's a small sacrifice to make in order to keep the little guy happy. And actually it's kind of nice because Lino really enjoys being on the top of the bus and seen all the sites so it helps us to enjoy our visits without having to entertain him too much. And now it seems like the hop-on-hop-off bus is becoming a staple in the Cutaia Adventures! At the in of the bus tour I was really amazed by all the things that I learned about Northern Ireland. I knew a few things about the IRA before we went there but I've learned a lot more during the bus tour. And it was very crazy to drive through some of the areas that were heavily impacted by the war. I was also amazed at how segregated the city still was but I guess it wasn't that long ago that the war happen so it's not that unreasonable.
After work bus tour around Belfairs we got ourselves organised for the next day. We decided to drive along the coast line to see the view and to hit a few of our new favourite TV series filming locations while in the area, Game of Thrones. Even though when we first started watching the series I did not think I would like it I have seriously become a very advert Game of Thrones viewer. So I was very excited about being able to see a few of the places were the series was filmed. Our next adventure was trying to find a place to eat for dinner. We tried to find a place that we found on the Internet but ended up driving for 30 minutes and that finding it. So we decided to go back to the hotel and take our search foot to find something close in downtown Belfast. Just like in Cork if you don't have a reservation you basically cannot get into a restaurant. So we ended up going to a burger place that said it had the best burgers in Belfast. Even though there was nobody else in the restaurant other than us the burgers ended up being pretty good and on the plus side the restaurant was also an American grocery store. So it had a lot of American stuff that we would be missing while living in Ireland. So after we were done eating we did a little bit of overpriced shopping which was kind of cool.
The next day we spent all day driving up and down the coast of northern Ireland which was very nice. I was actually should surprised that we did not get lost on the way there but of course during our adventures with did get a little bit turned around here and there but that's all part of the experience. First we start to see a place where they make a lot of the jewellery for the Game of Thrones. Unfortunately the place was close but it was nice to see it anyway. Then off to a few more sites some very common in the series and some just typical to Belfast.
Cave where the Red a Woman gave birth to the spirit child
Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
Next was Giant's Causway where there were whine amazing rock formations. It was busy and we almost didn't go because it was attached to a museum and it cost £10 to go Into the museum but we didn't have time to do that so thankfully someone, a worker, told us we can just go to see the rocks for free! Lino & daddy, again the adventure junkies, went up to the top of the rocks and I got a nice picture of them...to bad it's lost in cyber space.
Giants Causway
At this point it was getting late in the game and we almost didn't go to the last start that we decided we should just go since we were close. So what should have been there 30 minute drive to next installation took us almost 2 hours to get to. Once we finally found it a local guy had to tell us exactly how to get there and he knew what we were looking for before we even asked him...so sad. But it was worth the drive and the adventure. The dark ages are are a cool area to see and it's just amazing how nature can create such amazing things.
Dark Hedges
The drive back to the hotel was easy and straightforward which was nice. It was late so we just decided to have dinner in the hotel which we normally don't do but we were too tired to try and go anywhere else. Dinner should have been an eventful but unfortunately it wasn't actually it was kind of funny. Dinner took us over 2 1/2 hours because the kitchen Whessoe be home I guess there were more people there then expected. Then we ended up only paying for about half of what we got because the staff was so embarrassed by the service. It was a little bit rough with the boys but it wasn't the end of the world. Over all we had a nice trip to Belfast, it was definitely the most worked vacation we have had but still very good. In every sense that trip Lino has been completely obsessed with the Titanic which is also very cool that he has that kind of firsthand experience with history. I almost forgot to mention that on the drive back to Cork Mike ended up getting his phone stolen at the gas station which was very crazy. We stopped at the gas station to get gas and realize that we had a flat tire Mike had pulled into a pump that wasn't working so had to go to another pump. We got the gas went inside and that's when I realize that we had a flat tire. So Mike went to work on the flat tire while I play with the kids inside. I guess it was good that we stop to get gas otherwise we would not have realize the flat tire. While Mike was changing the tire he was asking me about his phone which I had not seen so we were looking all over for it and couldn't find it. Finally we decided to try and trace back to steps and we even as the people at the front desk if they got a phone turned in in case he left it in the restroom but they didn't. At some point I realize that there was no way he lost the phone without somebody picking it up and I knew since we were at a gas station there was tons of cameras around so I told him we needed to as the manager to check the footage because Mike was pretty sure he had it in his pocket when he got out to get gas at the first pump. So we thought maybe he left it on top of the pump and someone picked it up so we asked the manager to check the footage and lo and behold he saw that the phone did dropped out of my pocket and when he drove to the next pump it was there on the ground. Apparently someone else drove up behind us maybe a minute later and picked up the phone and put it in their pocket. It was good to know that they saw the guy with the phone the bad part was that when we tried to turn on the iPhone tracker the person who had the phone had already turned off the Wi-Fi so there was no way for us to find it. That meant bad news from the beginning we were pretty sure we would never see the phone again. The manager of the gas station did at least fill out a incident report and a police report so that the Garda would be notified but like I said we were not very hopeful that we would get it back knowing that the person picked it up and turned off the Wi-Fi so that it could not be tracked. Honestly I did not think something like that would happen in Ireland but I guess there are shady people everywhere. And really when we think about it if that kind of thing would've happened in Cork more than likely the person would have turned the phone in so it said that it happened where did which was on the border of Northern Ireland and Ireland. So fast forward about 2 weeks and we get a letter from the garden saying they are investigating the incident and about four weeks after that we realize we will never see the phone again. Thankfully we did not have to buy a new phone because Mike was able to get one through his work but all the pictures and videos that he had for now gone.
A random day going to The grocery store and we get stopped by a herd of crossing cattle. Totally unexpected but totally normal where we live. You have to love Ireland!
Although it's a couple weeks late we are finally celebrating Lino's birthday. The story about my phone crashing starts today. So I thought it would be a good idea to upload my photos from my phone to the computer since I hadn't done that in a while. Well obviously that was a very bad idea because during the download my phone crashed. Apparently I hadn't updated my software in a while so I couldn't load any photos from my phone to the computer in order to do so I had to download the new software which I did not want to do but I did not want to lose my pictures either so I did it. I didn't realize it would take a couple hours for the upload to happen so in the middle of the software update I was doing a few other things on my phone and even answered a phone call from the bouncy castle guy. After this phone call the phone seem like it was done with its update and I tried to use it but all I kept doing was going to the Apple screen so I knew something was wrong. I tried and tried to do something but nothing worked so we decided to make a quick run out to the mall to see if they could fix it. Mike told me that they don't do that kind of thing here but I thought it was the same as in the US where the Apple Store could usually troubleshoot your problems right then and there. Boy was I wrong again. Basically all the phone company did was look at it and say it was a technical issue so they would have to send the phone off. I was so upset because I didn't know if I would get my pictures back or not and there really wasn't much I could do about it so we let them take the phone and I got a little crappy loaner phone in the meantime. Then we realize that it was going to take over a week to get the phone back but we were leaving in five days for New York so I was going to be without a phone while I was there which only sucks because I can't use my iMessage. But like I said there wasn't much that I could do the phone wasn't working so I could either bring it with me to New York and see if someone could fix it there or let them do what they do here so we let them keep it. At that point I still had hoped that maybe I would get my pictures but hope was fading very fast and I was too stressed about finishing up the last few things for the party so I didn't have too much time to hope. So long story short basically I had to get a new phone which ended up costing us €100 because they said my old phone had water damage and that was the issue. I'm guessing the water damage came from when I dropped my phone in the toilet a few months back but to me that was a crappy excuse because I had no issues with the phone even after it being wet. So of course all my information that wasn't backed up on the iCloud backed up on the computer was lost so that meant all of my photos for the last month basically were loss as well which I was very very sad about.
The days leading up to the party went a little bit stressful because I'm just trying to come up with crafty ideas for the kids and for the pirate themed party. In the end came up with cardboard cutout swords wrapped in duck tape, random rocks & sticks that I had collected to use as part of the pirate treasure hunt, about two dozen printout of a pirate ship for the kids to colour, a package of pirate band-aids and some fools gold (plastic money). All in the name of pirate themed goodie bags and a day of adventure for the kids. Along with the stress of trying to come up with cheap and fun things for the kids I was stressing myself out about making a pirate shaped cake. I even enlisted the help of my good friend in Texas but basically all came down to me and Mike! Finally I was able to put all my fears aside and I was able to put together a nice cake for the birthday boy. I think the cake came out good which I was happy about.
The day of the party we gave Lino his birthday gift which was a pirate bicycle. He seemed to really like it which was great. It was one of the few gifts we have ever gotten him.
Oh yeah the bouncy castle was a pain in my ass too. I had talked to Mike about it a month or so before hand but I was being to cheap and didn't book it. But when I finally decided to go ahead and get the pirate bouncy castle I could not find one to save my life. I ended up spending more money than I would have if I would have just got it two months ago but stupidly thought I would you feel that it would not be a big deal to book it close to the date we wanted it. Note to self, I will never do that again. Oh yeah, so well I was trying to figure out the bouncy castle situation I was also in the process of trying to fix a messed up holiday trip and I booked through Groupon. Another thing that I will never do again is to use Groupon to book travel. To make a long story short Groupon basically tried to charge us 3.5x the price for a trip to Budapest. The lady who booked us charged us three times and charged us in Pounds instead of Euros it was a complete mess but at least we were able to get it figured out. So both things work out thank God.
Bouncy Castle
Lino's amazing chocolate pirate ship cake!
Looks like a happy birthday boy!
After a long weekend of partying we were trying to relax during the week. One day I neighbour and landlord was having his field cropped and the boys that it was the most cool thing they have ever seen. They watched the tractor go up and down and back and forth for about an hour in Lino decided to get smart in palled up a chair and watched for another hour completely in throttled. At some point I landlord came up with her greying kids and we had a little chat about the birthday party and all the bails of hay. Lino even got to sit on top of the hay bails with the other girls and he was so excited. How cool is it to live in the country.
Not even a week after the birthday party we were heading off to New York for two weeks with the grandparents...me & the boys of course. Daddy had to stay and work.
At the airport...Lino showing off his skills.
The two weeks in New York went by very quickly but the boys had a lot of fun. Almost every day they were in the Paul even if it was only for a few minutes and even though the poor was icy cold most days it did not seem to bother Lino at all.
After the pool...must catch up on iPad time!
Not sure if they are sharing or not but it seems friendly at the moment.
Shaun completely exhausted after a day in the pool and a big lunch!
Of course there is no trip to the States with out a grocery list of things to buy or eat. One of the things Mike wanted me to try was the summer release of Lay's potato chips. The Wasabi Ginger chips were...interesting to say the lease. I really wanted to try the loaded baked potatoes but nobody had them.
The boys fighting over Nini's attention...or iPad??
After a little dip in the pool...Shaun goes to his buddy PopPop. Shaun loves him some PopPop!!
More Nini/iPad time by the pool.
Where did Nino go?!?!?!
One of the days we were there Nini and pop up to the boys to Adventureland which is a childhood memory of Mike's. Of course it seemed like it was one of the three hardest days we were in New York so by the time we left I felt like I was melting. It's just amazing how the body can change so quickly that only a year ago I was in Texas and weather like that would not have impacted me nearly as much as it did. So other than the scorching hot temperatures in the 10 minutes of complete panic when we last Lino we had a good time. Somehow after one of the rides Leeno decided to walk off to see what else was around in between the three adults none of us are where he went. We were so panicked that we even got the Adventureland security involved in the search but like I said within 10 minutes I found him looking at one of the games. It was so scary because one second he was there the next he was gone and literally six eyeballs for looking his direction but still missed him. Just reconfirmation about how quickly to this can be kidnapped right In front of watching parents.
Lino enjoying his rides.
Shaun had a good time riding the rise to. I didn't think he would really be into it but he was which was nice. By next summer I'm sure both boys will be more than looking forward to the day trip to Adventureland.
A couple days later we ended up at the long island aquarium and had another nice day… Another heart nice day and might add! The aquarium was really cool but at the in the boys wanted to feed the turtles and it cost us three dollars for a little bit of turtle food which was more on less eight little pellets of food...talk about a rip-off.
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Shaun & PopPop having a little cuddle before the seal show.
The gang!
we had a great time with the grandparents. A few days before we left I actually started to read 50 shades of Grey because Nini was talking about the movie coming out very soon. Me and my sister had talked about reading it as well a couple of years ago but never got around to it. Since I was taking a little break from blogging I figured I had time to read the books. Now I'm not the big book reader because I am kind of slow and I don't like books that are very complicated so that is probably why I was a little hesitant to start the book. But once I found out it was a very easy read I was ready for it. And actually the last book that I read was the Twilight series back before Lino was born. Not surprisingly the 50 shades of Grey books were really good and so I had a hard time putting the books down and was able to finish them in less than a week. Then I got my sister to read them as well and she felt the same way so now we decided to start a little bookclub because we enjoyed reading the books and talking about them afterwards. Also we like the idea of reading a book and going to see the movie later so I think that is going to be the theme of our book club. It's actually really nice to have something like this with my sister since we are so far apart it actually makes us feel like we are a lot closer than we really are.
Now it's time to head back to Ireland and Lino to start five days at preschool!
