Cushendun!

For those who have been waiting for a post, sorry for the delay! No internet during our week on the north coast ...I have been prepping posts and organizing photos though and will gradually catch up over the next few days now that we have moved to a B&B in my mom's village of Aughnacloy.  (FYI, our week in Cushendun was PHENOMENAL. Read on for more.)

We begin with a photo of Cassidy at dinner on our first night in Dublin…the cousins spent 1.5 hours in the pool and between that, excitement and jetlag, Cassidy was DONE.


Cassiday at dinner, first night.

The hotel was perfectly located and had a great pool and public areas but the bedrooms are very tired – we are happy that we won’t need to stay more than the one night here.

Then it was off on the 3 hour trip north…through a bit of the south, across the border into Northern Ireland, through the outskirts of Belfast and then through the northern counties on the way to the north coast. We had 2 cars (did I mention that we scored a BMW for our ride? Nice!)…Kim drives one, dad and I share the driving of the BMW…we brought dad’s GPS unit and we are loving it…we keep saying…how does she KNOW that??? Very cool. We stopped for groceries at a main shopping centre recommended by the owner of the coast home we are renting for the week, and by the time we did that and had lunch, we pulled into the tiny village of Cushendun around 4:30.

We LOVE it here. The village is a collection of about 10 main buildings…famous for some turn of the century cottages built by a famous architect – true irish history and gorgeous. At the foot of one of the famous glens of Antrim, our home is in the Bay apartments on one side of the river and the village on the other – and we face the sea! The following are some pics of the village, beach and apartments…



Miriam, the friendly goat - lives next door.



The village path, bordering the beach.



Kim on the beach in front of our coatal home - the Bay apartments.



Cushendun village from our balcony.





The sea wall in front of our house - looking across Cushnedun Bay to the sea and Scotland!

The cousin trio are in their element – they head into the village for snacks and then to the beach or the playground beside the village church…all on their own. Bryanna told us repeatedly that she adores this place.

We are LOVING this place.


Hanging out!

More gorgeous photos of Ireland and our whole clan to follow over the next few days as I catch up on posts!

Dia dhaoibh from Ireland!

Yes we have safely arrived!  Since we are now navigating the streets of Dublin with road signs that appear in gaelic and english, the common irish gaelic greeting of Dia dhaoibh seems very appropriate!

View of countryside around Dublin from hotel.

Flight was uneventful but tiring - none of us slept well but we stumbled through customs and managed to find our rental car at Dublin airport (though we had to upgrade to a roomier vehicle...sigh, $$$$). We were delighted that dad's GPS led us quickly and efficiently to our hotel - the Regency Hotel Dublin...we're stretched out in the hotel lounge now, waiting for our rooms and for Kim and family to arrive...internet is free here so am taking advantage while I can.

Girls are happy ....school out, in Ireland on a big adventure, and waiting for their cousin to arrive any minute! While they are biding their time in very modern pursuits during this bit of downtime (Nintendo, itouch), they are doing so in a lovely setting....

That's it for now...no sleep is catching up with me...will try to post more later when we have joined up with the whole crew.

glorious cottage time!

We were blessed to spend the weekend with our friends at their cottage near Parry Sound - what a great time we had...we didn't want to come home!

Though the weekend started out cloudy and rainy, that did not stop our 5 children from fishing and climbing and tubing and swimming through the cooler weather. The next day though, summer truly arrived...all that glorious sun and heat and sparkling water - which just meant more fishing and exploring and tubing and boating and WATER SKIING!

It was truly a time to relax and rejuvenate with our generous friends and to delight in the many adventures of the fabulous five.

Enjoy some pics of our mini vacation!

And we'll end with some video clips of the dynamic duo skiing...

Cassidy made it up on her first attempt - amazing! (Sorry for the video quality!!! hee hee)

And when Brya with persistence made it up shortly after her sister,  the cheers could be heard across the lake!

What a great start to the summer!

All about Brya...

Bryanna has been playing piano for 15 months now - this past October sha passed her Grade 1 Royal Conservatory exam and in 2 weeks she will be taking the exam for grade 2.

Today, though, her piano school held their annual recital and she played beautifully...mom and dad , Cassidy and I were so proud of her. Here is the video - sorry if the streaming of the video is a little slow...

 

 (If you would like to compare her playing to one year ago, see the clip at the end of the blog post here...)

 Mom and dad had to leave a bit early and I was starting to gather our things together while the owner of the school thanked everyone and made some announcements. I was totally caught off guard when they announced that Bryanna had obtained the highest mark of the school students in the RCM examinations this year! Woohoo!

Bryanna with her award.

Bryanna and Cathy, owner of Keynotes

Brya (really, another picture, mom????) and then a photo with her dear friend Brittney, also a Keynotes student.

Great job, sweetheart!!!

A little bling



Cass had been looking forward to this birthday weekend for so many reasons...she visited Jan and Paul in Newmarket, her birthday was on Palm Sunday (she loves that her day this year is on the day of Jesus' triumphant return to Jerusalem), and there was to be lots of family time and presents. Oh, AND she was getting her ears pierced!!!

As you might imagine, she loved it all ...loved being spoiled to death by J & P (no photos of that adventure unfortunately), the amazing amazing gifts, including a BASKETBALL of her very own from K, D and S...

...a cool guitar and lots of JB paraphernalia (Justin Bieber stuff for you poor souls not in the know)...



The ear piercing topped the cake though (so to speak)...Cass was quite nervous going to the mall and held tight to Nanny's hand the whole time. But she never hesitated and in the end it was a breeze -- she didn't even realize it had been done!

This is one very happy camper.





Happy Birthday, beautiful girl.

happy happy birthday!

It was somebody's birthday today!!!!!

After spending the day picking up their BRAND NEW CAR!!!! mom and dad headed to our place and then we all went out to dinner to celebrate dad's birthday.

As if getting a car on your birthday was not good enough, Florence treated us all to an amazingly delicious dinner at Moxie's (I can still taste the honey roasted sirloin now...yum!) and then... Dad could not get over his delight upon being presented with a pink tissue-wrapped gift in a disney princess bag. I mean, what on earth could be more exciting?

Well, one of those newfangled GPS units for that sparkly new vehicle, of course!

From the whole clan - Mississauga AND San Francisco branches.

Cassidy was just delighted to have pasta

and her most favourite dessert of all time - chocolate mousse.

A great day for a great man.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD AND PAPA!!!

And I'll end this post with a pic of Bryanna taken at dinner...just because it is so cool...it seems as if little fairies are dancing around her. Hey sweetpea, do you think they could be visiting from Ireland?

wheeeeeee!

March Break concluded with a fun couple of days visiting friends Anne Marie and Julia. We saw the Peking Acrobats on Friday (wow wow wow) and then Saturday's big adventure was a trip to Snow Valley for tubing.

Haven't been there for 25 years or so when my dad and sister and I went skiing there...the addition of the fancy HIGH hills and tows for tubing are FANTASTIC. Despite no snow in the areas around the hills (none at home!) there was a deep base at Snow Valley and the cold, windy day under bright skies made for a perfect afternoon. This mom had the only mishap as I lost my hat on the first run down the slopes... retrieved by tubing staff after an hour or so, I then promptly lost it again on our last run of the afternoon - oh well, all worth it for our zippy adventures.

Thanks to AM for the following shots as I forgot my camers and all my photos are currently locked up in my camera phone.

Waiting for the tow...

So fun to relax on the way up...

Wow - look at the hill behind our friends!

What a great day!!!!!

Our carriage awaits

To all of the friends and family who have been waiting to see our new vehicle - the wait is over!

Meet the Mazda5!

After our accident a few weeks ago in which we lost our wonderful CRV, we have all been a little down. Even the purchase of a new Mazda5 last weekend didn't perk us right up because we loved our last car so much. This week I kept thinking... right choice? right choice?

But we picked up our shiny new vehicle tonight (my dad even made them go back and wash the engine block...as it was not up to snuff apparently!) and it IS cool. And wonder of wonders, the dynamic duo really like it too! 

The Mazda5 is considered a mini mini van - smaller than a full size van, bigger than some cars, not quite the space of an SUV, but with sliding doors and a third row of seats that can collapse for almost the amount of storage found in our old Honda. And because it is a little smaller than the SUV and has the sliding rear doors - we now have more space in the garage!

So there we are - our new black charger ...soon to ride into a town near you soon! 

totally stealing this post

For those of you who read my sister's blog, I am admitting straight out that this post is a complete rip off of her idea. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery and all but there is another reason too...more on that in a moment.

First...shoes...yes, she posted her shoes - she does that a lot and her pics always look amazing, whereas this is the first photo of my foot apparel that I have blogged about. I thought the theme of the photo was a good one, as was the quote, considering that we have received more than 10 cm of snow in the last hour and it is still falling!

As to the other reason...my sister gave me a heads up this week that you can check stats on sites that are directing hits to your blog. Off I happily went to check that out and nodded and smiled as I recognized most of them. But imagine my horror when I clicked on one and found that it was NOT a nice site at all - I mean, not at ALL. So I am taking a tip from my sister and moving my previous post and photos away from the top of the page. While I am not linking to my sister's blog here (those of you who know her know where to find her), I am directly quoting because she said it perfectly:

...there have been some icky sites I've been getting a lot of unwelcome hits from this week, and I wanted to get Sweetpea (and the dynamic duo) off the top third of the page. Shoe fetishes I can deal with and understand but if you come here to look at my kid(s) this site is going private. Go elsewhere for your kicks.

Also, to my regular readers and my family, thank you for visiting. Those of you who don't usually comment, please feel free to say hello so that I can be assured of your good will to this blog's author and contents. Thank you.

So there it is in a nutshell. The internet is an amazing place that brings us all closer together but it can also let others who are not so nice into our world no matter how careful we are.

What a shame.

piano girl

Bryanna's music lessons continue..she is so much more focused than I was at this age! She has been taking the lessons for one year now and in that time has completed the beginner level, passed her grade 1 Royal Conservatory exam and is now working on Grade 2.

Brya was chosen to be one of the children to play a piece at the school's 25th anniversary this past weekend and she was wonderful! Seemingly poised and calm, she played the short piece (Study in C+) without a hitch and then zoomed away from the piano and back to her seat. hee hee

I missed the first few notes as I tried to get my camera focused - sorry, Auntie Kim!

Mom, dad, Auntie June, Cassidy and I cheered very loudly - for an evening of classical music, the audience was very enthusiastic!

I'm so proud of this girl.

Watching others perform.

just because...

...the snow is so pretty tonight ...

...with the snowflakes caught in the flash!