Birthdays, exams, parties, school-endings, school tours, and family arrival!

Much ado in May…

~ A trip to Arklow for Dean’s 21st Birthday Celebration…

Zoe and Dean!

Siblings: Lisa, Dean, the birthday boy & Robert

~Emmie’s piano teacher encouraged and helped prepare her for the Royal Irish Music Academy piano exam; so proud of her. Afterwards, she feasted at Jo’ Burger, restaurant of choice !

We waited outside and silently rooted her on!!

Right after Em’s exam

Grace endured 2 weeks of exams followed by several parties.  She’s made some very good friends this year!

Grace’s class 1S

One of several treats at Grace’s party ! (Homemade by friends)

Grace and Laura S. (Maryfield frineds)

Close friends and neighbors, Grace & Laura K’s last walk to school

~Emmie’s class along with the other 4th class, ventured to a County Meath farm to learn all about bogs on their spring school tour. (Field-trip). It was not a natural bog, but a man made one.

Emmie isn’t’ as enthusiastic about Mom taking the photo as some of her friends are about having the photo taken.
School tour also means no uniforms.

Emmie and her classmates make their way to the bus.

Traveling in style

Emmie and her friend Sianna take the plunge into the homemade bog. My friend, Denise one of the chaperone’s on the trip sent me this shot.

Family arrival:  Pat, Griff, Marti, Greg, Spencer, and Tristyn arrive for two weeks visit!

Pat with the grandkids in Stephen’s Green. Emmie cleaned up well after the bog visit.

Time for one more castle and cake

Getting to know people takes time… but it is certainly worth it.  Grateful for Meghan and Tanner’s commitment and work ethic to save money to visit us in Ireland.

Wedding pictures in progress!

We took advantage of  having the rental car from the weekend and visited Trim Castle with Meghan and Tanner. Grace and Emmie had school and in fairness they had been to the castle in the fall.  We also found a cute place in Trim for lunch. The following day Meghan & Tanner ventured to the Cliffs of Moher and two more castles on a local day tour.

Inside Trim Castle

At the top of the castle- listening to guide.

Cousins- time for some early birthday cake!

One last shot in the airport- Bon Voyage!

Some of our latest…. Spring

As the calendar days seem to be slipping through our hands;  passing much too quickly…

Some of our latest

~Emmie won a chocolate Eater bunny from Butlers’ chocolate for her lovely coloring. Here she is picking it up; we were lucky to be allowed a few photos.

Em @ Butler’s w/ prize chocolate bunny- I think the man inside behind her is waiting in line for a coffee. 🙂

One more photo allowed.   Stats: chocolate bunny’s name is Charles and it still around.

*Grace turned 13!!!

The weekend before the four of us went out to a nice dinner. She had a b-day party the following night and a little more celebrating on her actual b-day which happened to fall on a week night.

Grace’s special b-day dinner out on the town.

Some of the girls the morning after! Hope to include a few more photos.

Homemade pizza for the Birthday Girl. Amazing Grace!

~The girls and I spent a weekend in Arklow with the McCormack’s; I attended the Arklow Rugby dinner dance with Sharon, Vincent, Rob, Lisa, Dean and Zoe.  Good craic! Wish I took more pictures. Scott could not make it since he was in Puerto Rico for a conference.

The McCormack’s award for the year’s “Best Supporters”

Lisa and Zoe: strong, beautiful and incredibly genuine and caring.

~I (Christine) ran the Samsung 10k with 3 amazing women.

Walking to the start!

Very lucky to have found some women to run with!  (Jean, Rita and Ruth)

~Emmie is  playing soccer again!  Home Farm Football Club started a Girls Academy!  She’s having a ball!

Home Farm Football Club

A little playing…Lauren, Emmie & Molly

~Emmie has been enjoying her Monday class of Irish dance and participated in her first Irish Feis (Irish for Festival)!  Scott and I attended to support her and survived almost four hours of dance. 🙂

Feet ready for a jig or maybe a reel!

Results

Happy with the experience!

St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day

Perhaps it is silly to think we hemmed and hawed even a smidgen whether to attend the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin.  We heard various comments and feedback from locals about the parade. Some locals attend- and some don’t, believing it’s really only for tourists; and thus, the contrary opinions raised a few questions and discussion points- Would we be able to see anything, would it be worth it…hmmm? As one of our butcher’s said, “Since you are only in Dublin this year, you must  go…when in Rome so to say,” and we are happy we did.

Yes, it was cold and a bit rainy- but it mostly stopped in time for the main parade. Yes, standing in the same place with people packed around you for about… 3 hours was at times a challenge; though it might have kept us a little warmer. Emmie and I wore some silly Irish hats during part of the parade passed on to us by a former Fulbright professor from last year. They definitely looked like last year’s models. Grace was not a fan.

Christine & Emmie in Irish hats (yes, my eyes are closed- the only photo we took)

(Sidebar: As part of the Ireland Gathering 2013 people from around the world were invited to be a part of the People’s Parade.)

Not quite sure what this one represented?

Purdue’s Big Drum

Big Ten was present!

They certainly look like they are having a grand time!

We did try to remember to bend our knees every once in awhile as we stood; however, we did not realize the severity of stiffness until we started walking out of the crowd.  Oh, my…the four of us laughed so hard despite the fact that it felt like someone took a bat to our legs; I had to pause before continuing because I felt like I was going to have an accident and wet myself, begging Scott to stop making us giggle.  No accidents, thank goodness. Were we the only one walking like this? There were other activities going on besides all the celebrating; however, we opted to head home.

We had never attended a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the States, so it’s fair to say, we didn’t really know what to expect. I imagined marching bands and police and fire departments representing… yet somewhere in my head I had a vision of something like the NYC Thanksgiving Day Parade. (I know, totally wrong….) Needless to say, there were plenty of marching bands, especially from the States, high schools, and various colleges- even the Big Ten’s Purdue was there.   All sorts of groups from all over the world and Ireland walked proudly and seemed to be having a grand time. We scratched our heads at a few groups as we did not understand their costuming, but we chalked it up to our lack of knowledge of Irish stories and legends.   A very festive day!