And just like that the summer is over and we’re flung headways into wet and windy weather. Except now it’s warm. Sandals or boots?
With the reintroduction of homework the holidays are well and truly over, so to mark the end of it all decided to do a little recap of our Summer 2016. The summer seemed to fly and we didn’t have the time to do everything that we had planned (as is always the case).
Looking back now, there’s lots of sunshine, lots of hurling and many ice-creams. Sure what more would you want? Here’s a recap of our travels of Summer 2016. Apologies if it reads like the essay you’d always get on the first day back to school after the holidays! (Also I’m cheating and talking about June too, just because I can).
In June Laoise turned three and we celebrated the momentous occasion with a party at home, an Elsa cake and pink cupcakes. She’s currently planning her fourth birthday for fear of running out of time, most of her time is being spent on choosing presents.
We visited Wexford Lavender Farm and Altamont Gardens and had some lovely walks on the beach. The weather even got good enough to spend a few afternoons in the paddling pool in the back garden.
The boys finished Junior Infants and First Class, Ciarán took part in the school musical. Ciarán played his first proper hurling match for our GAA club and we spent a lot of time in the GAA pitch as Cathal also started training. My cousin got married and we had a lovely day at her wedding.
Once the sun shines the barbecue invitations come. We were very willing guests at two friends’ houses in June (I brought Toblerone Cheesecake and pavlova to one and salads to the other.)
July FLEW. We spent two weeks in sunny Portugal (I have yet to finish blogging all about it, it was fabulous) and had a really memorable family time with lots of swimming and sunshine and not as many tantrums as at home. The highlights were a roadtrip to Seville, a voyage on a pirate ship and Zoomarine Marine Park and Aquarium (oh and the massive gin and tonics, they were my favourite).
I spent the weekend after we came back from Portugal in Lusty Beg Island and had a lovely girlie relaxing time and the following weekend I met some girl friends from college in Kilkenny for a night out to celebrate our 40th birthdays.
The boys both really enjoyed GAA Cúl Camp and it wore them out, win win!
Suddenly it was August. Where did July go? (Did I mention it flew?) While the back to school ads entered their second month we got busy doing summer stuff.
We spent a night in Duncannon as my brother and his family were down on holidays and we fitted in a tour of Duncannon Fort. We visited Granny in Sligo and took in Enniscrone, including seeing the “Big Yoke” plane that was in the headlines when it arrived by sea a few months back to its new home in the Quirky Camping site and spent a while in the playground by the beach.
The kids got really lucky and spent three nights in Duncannon while their poor parents were in work, during that really hot week in August when they spent all their time on the beach.
Lucky Ciaran’s was invited by his Godmother to stay with her in Dublin overnight and he took advantage of her generosity and got to do the Croke Park Tour, Rainforest Golf in Dundrum and watch all the Netflix. (I’ve only done two out of the three of these things, can you guess which?)
We spent a fun filled and surprisingly chilled day out with friends (4 adults and 15 children to be precise) in the National Heritage Park in Wexford, it’s always a good way to get a good walk and learn while you do.
Cathal played his first under 6 hurling match for our team and Ciarán played his first blitz. I had some recipes published on the Tesco Back to School website, a first for me.
This summer it felt like we sat still a bit more, we stayed relatively local for our days out due to family events and we took advantage of the long evenings with bedtime walks and paddles.
It was a good summer, the kids all grew up loads and we watched them doing it.
Maybe they do make summers like they used to.
How was yours?