Exhausted

A week after Liam's birthday came Liam's birthday party at Perk's Entertainment Centre in Youghal. I have to say there is something to be said of birthday parties away from home - no mess to clear up being the main advantage. The party was a joint party with another girl in his class, Cara (who loves Liam). 19 children turned up in the end for 2 1/2 hours of fun in Blackbeard's play centre, danicing in the disco room and the bowling. They had a great time but I am exhausted! Daithi is too! It is very stressful keeping an eye on all the kids in case they run off to the arcade machines.

Liam has had an eventful week. He had 2 days off for half-term, one of which we spent at Fota wildlife park with some friends. Then he got all his birthday money and Christmas money (nearly 100 euro) and bought the biggest box of lego I have ever seen: Lego Secret Agents Mission 6. Daithi bought it home on thursday evening and he immediately set to work building the small vehicles. He was then up at 6am the next day to begin the construction of the main command centre, which he finally finished on saturday afternoon. That is some commitment! Conor was so patient. He was itching to get at the lego to help but Liam had told him in no uncertain terns to leave well alone and to his credit he did just that. He waited until Liam told him that he could have a go. What a star!

It meant that I could get some painting done over the weekend and help out Daithi a bit. Dougie came on friday to talk about rendering the outside of the house. We have to take off some of the old plaster before he can start. Daithi did some of that over the weekend and made good progress with the jack-hammer. It should only take a couple of days to clear it because the plaster was coming off without too much trouble. The stone underneath is beautiful but we have to cover it over again to hide all the block work we have had to do. We still have to get the barges done at the end of the roof too. Hopefully brothers Barry and Karl can come up one weekend and do that for us.

Liam is 6 today!

Where does the time go???

I always get emotional when it is the birthday of one of the boys. I can't believe that Liam is 6 already! He woke fairly early, as usual, and wasn't expecting any presents because he is having a joint birthday party at Perk's Entertainment Centre in Youghal next weekend. So he was over the moon when he discovered the present he wanted waiting for him. He wanted a new camera and I managed to get a vtech kiddizoom special jungle edition in the sales (1/2 price no less!). He hasn't put it down all day. The camera takes photos and video footage, allows the photographer to edit the photos and animate them, and also has games on it. Conor was a little jealous but he'll get over it and Liam kindly let him have a go after a while. Here are some of his creations:

I made a chocolate birthday cake this afternoon which we all tucked into. Yummy. I already have an advanced order from Conor for the same cake. Easy enough! Mum... Just for you a little video clip of Liam getting his cake (also taken with his camera):

On the house front... 2 more windows are in, only 4 left I think. The boys are off school this week so I doubt that I will be able to finish painting the sashes. I might be lucky. Dougie hasn't been able to visit regarding the rendering outside which is the priority after the windows. Hopefully he will make an appearance this week.

This post is long enough. I could go on and rant about my husband having to run out and buy a Valentine's card on Valentine's day itself but I will leave that for another day!

Love is in the air

Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Conor has been bringing home lots of red hearts painted at school and arrived home with chocolates "to share" today. He made his teacher, Mary, a lovely Valentine's card.

Liam on the other hand made his classmate Leah a card. It is his first 'real' Valentine's card and Leah's mum and I had a good giggle about it while the kids ran off together in the playground. Love starts young these days....

I doubt I will get anything for Valentine's Day but then Daithi always seems to surprise me somehow. We are planning a Thai takeaway, bottle of wine, movie and absolutely no work on the house after 8pm! That means Daithi is out there now working on yet more windows. I don't mind because I am busy trying to finish his cross-stitch Valentine's card....

We were at a friend's house briefly this afternoon looking at her window shutters. It is another old house being renovated but they are staying in the house as they do the work - a very tough thing to do with 3 young children. The house is beautiful and full of original features. It has been kept in the family for generations, probably since it was built. Daithi had never seen the place but had heard lots about it from me. I think it has confirmed the thought that we should put the shutters back into Ballydaniel House. We have to get everything else done first....

Back to the painting...

Only 5 sashes left to paint. Finally Daithi got round to sanding down the remaining few for me to finish (I hate sanding!). Conor is at preschool for 4 mornings this week so hopefully I will be able to crack on with them. The cold has made painting quite difficult - the paint becomes quite thick and sticky and obviously takes longer to dry between coats. Oh well....

I don't have any word back on the quote for my kitchen design from 4homes. After my initial excitement about the design I am now questioning the positioning of most items but until I get a price back I don't want to proceed further and change anything. It is very hard to visualise the space when it is full of tools, scaffolding and other junk. It is one of the things I want to get completely right first time. Am I being unreasonable?

Another rat has appeared in the rat trap. It isn't too big but big enough for me to leave well alone. Daithi can deal with it when he gets back tomorrow. I feel very bad about keeping the creature caged and prolonging its agony but that's life....

Goodbye Ratty

Poor ratty.... He got trapped and executed by Daithi last night.

Fortunately the deed was done when the boys were asleep - death by skewer. Daithi took great delight in explaining the poor creatures last moments to me. At least it was a swift death I suppose.



Daithi has reset the trap to see if any more take the bait. If the trap goes while Daithi is away then the rat will just have to stay there!



It has been a frustrating weekend work wise. We just haven't seemed to make any progress on anything apart from small jobs such as painting and fitting lead weights. Just one of those weekends. We were at Daithi's godson's birthday party this afternoon which was a nice break from our muddy building site. Kevin has been renovating his house and it gives me hope to think that his house is nearly finished and ours could soon be as comfortable. Nice chicken dinner and glass of wine too - thanks Kevin and Caoimhe.

Rats!

I know that we live in the country surrounded by fields growing all manner of crops, so one would expect to see zillions of rats around the place. To be honest I have seen a handful at most although they must be around. After the episode of the rat in the kitchen I have been very watchful for them. I have seen a few in the yard storing the beet down the end of the lane but none around our house at all.

Imagine my surprise when a rat appeared out of the bank beside the mobile home not even 3 metres away, to enjoy a feast of wild bird seed that had fallen to the floor from Conor's bird feeder that he had made in preschool. That was a couple of days ago and today the rat upped his antics and has now become acrorat. Not content with scavenging on the floor he has commandeered the bird feeder! Daithi has set the trap and the poor thing will be no more either from the cold if he is trapped overnight tonight or by the hands of Daithi tomorrow morning. The rat is no where near the size of the one we trapped previously so he shouldn't be able to break free from the trap....Sorry Suzanne....

No more snow for now....

Well the snow didn't last long, less than a day in fact.

The morning after my last post saw a covering of snow for us, although there was very little snow down the hill in the village and at Liam's school. The boys were ecstatic although there wasn't really enough to make a decent snowman. The mini snowman we did make survived a while and even went a make-over from Conor. The boys were dressed and out at 8.30am, collecting as much snow as they could! But the snow had all but disappeared by the afternoon. Unfortunately, the cold weather has stayed and the wind is making it feel even colder!

The bathroom order from B&Q has finally arrived. It is still in boxes but it feels like another step has been made. Not sure how long it will be before we can get the cloakroom and bathroom ware installed. We have to put in internal walls and get the plasterer in first.....

I went to 4homes and sat down with kitchen designer fro an hour and a half and made a start on a design for a kitchen. The designer was very helpful and certainly new her way around the design software. I now have a visual impression on what my kitchen could look like. It will take a few tweaks before I am completely happy but I have a much firmer idea on what the kitchen should look like. At last! I am waiting on the quote on the first design....I am dreading it....

Ho Ho Ho - we have snow....

Actually we don't have that much snow yet but we should have some more tomorrow.

The boys were beside themselves catching snowflakes outside this afternoon during our brief snowstorm. They are very jealous of Nanny June's several inches of snow in the UK. By the looks of the forecast we should get enough to make a snowman outside by the morning. Liam can't remember seeing snow on the ground even though there was snow covering the ground on the day Conor was born (in March!). I suppose Liam was only 2 at the time.

News on the bathroom purchases - arrival is scheduled for Wednesday. Can't wait.

Off to my nice warm bed - electric blankets are fantastic and a must on a freezing night in a mobile home....

Spring is here?

1st of February is St Bridget's Day - the first day of spring here in Ireland. I can tell you that despite the appearance of a few daffodils around certain places it does not feel like spring at all! It is freezing again.

I was on the phone to my mum in the UK and the snow has arrived there. Watching the BBC news it looks like the East of the UK will get heavy snow over the next few days. Poor Liam and Conor are really upset that they aren't there to build a snowman. You never know, it may reach this far but I doubt it!

The weekend has been spent doing window work. We now have all the downstairs windows installed and the very large window in the hallway is in place. Part of the upstairs has also been done. David is getting faster at putting in the windows and there are only 5/6 left to put in. What a relief it will be to get them in. It does look like we will need to get the outside rendered before we can plaster inside unfortunately - we have had very heavy rain over the last week and we have noticed that the water does come through the walls somewhere. I would hate to get the inside plastered only to have it ruined by a deluge of rain falling in the wrong direction.

My bathroom items haven't arrived yet. B&Q did contact me to see if I had heard from the carrier, which I haven't, so it will be chase up time tomorrow.

I am off to see 4homes on Tuesdays about kitchens. I shall see what design and prices they can give. I did like their range of kitchens but I have a specific design in mind so we shall see if they can live up to my expectations.....