Chinamen eat gingerbread house

So finally the cake gets eaten. Don't those boys look happy now?
Most visitors to our house over Christmas found it amazing that not a piece had been removed but no it was intact until Dad broke in.
The boys are wearing these beautiful silk outfits Dad brought back from China last week. That are surprisingly warm by the way.

The gingerbread was delicious as you would guess and there is still some left to share. I know Dad is already planning next years cake. Great tradition.

Christmas 2008

Well Christmas this year was a bit of a wash. This is the best photo I could take as all the others show pale faces and runny noses. Yes the traditional cold virus came down the chimney on Christmas Eve and flattened us.
All I got for Christmas was a lot of coughing and sneezing.
But the silver lining was that lots of naps were had by all.
The days are very short and dark here in Ireland this time of year so by 4pm we were all heading back to bed.
Now I am just keeping my fingers crossed that we have a better new year but you know maybe we will just have to crack open that bottle of Champagne at 4pm and call it a day I am ok with that too.

The Boys wrote Santa Lists today, now as we all know these boys have more than enough toys.
As you can see the favor toys at the moment are the vacuum cleaner followed by the lettuce spinner so I think my Santa List may include some kitchen items!
This morning I said Maxim "you have lost your voice do you want to stay home from school?"
He said "no my ears still work!"

Maxim's Christmas Play

At ten to ten this morning we crept into the back of Maxim's school hall just as the junior infants filled onto the stage. They were the cutest five year olds ever in there Santa hats singing Christmas songs. This was a first for us as Maxim is our eldest and a very special moment. Of course I was too far from the stage to get really good photos. He has been singing the songs for two weeks and now all his brothers can sing them too (even though they are in a language non of them understand). So I took this photo as they sang them again in our living room tonight and Maxim is still sporting said hat.
P.S. Dad we miss you hope China is a blast.

The Witches House

Amazing - this house fills our house with excitement and anticipation. The boys helped Dad put the pieces of our custom house together. Robyn Van Tuyll designed and made this house in Santa Barbara California. We have ordered one every year for the last four and it is the high light of the season both for the kids and my husband. I can not promise more photos because I just know I am going to come down one morning to find a very large hole where children have crept in!

The Tree has lights

I finally gave in and bought Christmas tree lights. I have done this each year for the past 5 years. You would think then that I would have 5 sets but no each year I have to begin again at zero! In July I have lights and even random decorations but despite good labeling, in Dec - nothing. OK I am over that but this am I woke up to find my sons wrapped up IN my new set of lights. My second mistake (after leaving the box in plain view) was to ask them to untangle them.
So now you fully understand the mammoth job it turned out to be to just get these lights on the tree.

Tiny School in Progress

The big boys (Maxim 5yrs Lex 3yrs) walk to school then the day starts for the little boys (Liam 2yrs Eoin 1yr) pictured here. They have breakfast, load the dishwasher, sit their little sister (Zoë 2 months) in her bouncy chair and then it is time to start the learning! Tiny school is very serious work and as you can see here the key is team work. The tree puzzle is one of the favorites only second at the moment to the sand paper letters. This is my favorite part of the day second only to when they are all asleep and it is time for a cup of tea.

December in Ireland

Welcome! This is a blog for friends and family who are interested to see how the boys are growing and now our little girl too.




One cold Dec morning. The boys having breakfast before school and then half an hour later the boys having breakfast (number two for some!)