And the "Most Photogenic Toddler of the Year" Award Goes to:

chilling with his favourite tree at Farmleigh

 Oh wait...never mind:

nom nom nom.

Halloween Party and Long Weekend

Halloween is t-minus 2 days away people. Time for things to get spooky. Like this:

Isn't he gorgeous ladies and gents? And he's all mine. Sigh .

So we had a little pumpkin carving party last night at a friend's house. Lots of good craic (fun) had by all. The kids had a blast bowling in the dark using recycled juice containers filled with glow sticks. We had meringue ghosts, gummy snakes in jello, and festive chocolate items from Marks and Spencer's. Will might have od'd on all the goodies as he's been a little sour puss today and he's usually so cheerful. But he was game for helping daddy sweep up the leaves in the driveway. Anything to get good and muddy. Our neighbors were very impressed with his leaf clean up skills and willingness to participate. He loves to do little chores; he likes to vacuum, "wash" the windows, wipe things down and sweep. Soon I'll be out of a job. Oh well, I'll survive somehow ;)

messy whoopie pie. yummy.

a little ghosty. Martha's recipe for Swiss meringue worked really well.

going to be a pro bowler one day

Caramel apple bar for the kids-chocolate, cookie crumbs and caramel

Luke was peeling all the chocolate eye balls and Will was eating them as fast as they were shucked

Superfast Toddler Man here to save the day

Fall Leaf Cleanup

Child labour

exploring sage seed pods

Double Trouble

Peek

Sidewalk chalk is for fall too- try outlining the leaves that have fallen on the ground

Jumping in the leaves

Of Revelry, Rain, and Radiators

So the weather is not the reason people come to Ireland. It rains here...a lot. Enough said. Pictures are worth a thousand words so here are some shots of the weather out the front of our house. Please note the "gorgeous" faux colonial pillars are not my idea of clever decoration; they came with the house...don't judge me.

On a drier note this little blog of mine has just gone over 1000 hits. I'm so popular! The numbers are probably skewed a little by my mom or other relatives checking the page every 10 seconds for new photos of their favourite golden haired toddler but I'll pretend it's about my snappy writing.

Will and I had a Hallowe'en party with our play group on Wednesday- he went as a tiger and I went as an over-tired, sarcastic, coffee addicted stay at home mom. So did all the other moms and a few of the dads. Copycats. Will was mortified that I dragged him into public with his tiger pj's on and didn't even want to get out of his stroller. After much bargaining, and once the sugar from the treats he munched kicked in, Will realised that being a tiger wasn't so bad after all. He thoroughly enjoyed pushing his little black balloon around in the doll's pram and judging everyone's costume. He loved the little girl dressed as Peppa Pig and went right up to her with a "Hi" and an "Oink".

Today we didn't get up to much as we had tradesmen over (for the 3rd time) to try to get this boiler system resuscitated. Today some brawny blokes came by to remove all the radiators from the walls (horrible, horrible dust behind them!) and flush the gunk out of them. They usually use this special machine to pump cleaner through the whole system but the plumbing in this house is crap (pun-tastic) and had they used the machine the pipes would have burst under the pressure. So instead of completely redoing the plumbing in the house our landlord opted for this much cheaper solution. Being a homeowner myself I can commiserate on the cost of an epic reno but we've never really been ones to put things off if they need doing. Anyways, the boiler still needs replacing but at least the rads are now full of hot water instead of warm rust.

The fellas that came by were very nice (like everyone else that I've met here) and were quick to ask all the important questions that we've become accustomed to: "Why did you move to Ireland?", "How long have you been here for?", "What kind of dog is that?" etc. They agreed that the house needs a little TLC but assured me that most of the houses in Ireland are in the same state, modern or not. One of the guys bought a newly built house in 2006 and it already needs repairs. Wowza. I'm grateful for the quality of our 1946 Fir house in Victoria as it is in much better shape than all the houses I've seen here so far. It's nice to know that it is waiting for us at home whenever this adventure ends.

The rain in Ireland

Pouring

Luke showing off his legs

Checking out Luke's awesome spider costume

A Tiger and his balloon

Stealing Daddy's Dinner

Lazy Saturday

Lazy family days are the best. I even got to sleep in today (Thanks hun!). We all hung out around the kitchen today having breakfast and catching up on our facebook, guzzling hot coffee and in William's case watching new episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine...thank you dvr. Will is at a really fun toddler stage right now where he wants to help with everything. Somehow I've found the patience to let him. I am not a patient person at all but I am utterly charmed by his attempts at cooking, cleaning and photography. I've got about 30 shots of his knees and feet that are perfectly composed. He decided that he needed to make his own peanut butter toast this morning. After a few swipes with his plastic Ikea knife the PB started to bypass the bread and go directly into his mouth. Pappy would be so proud.

We walked over to Tesco after a while of being lazy at home to select the all important pumpkins for Halloween. I miss Mitchell's Farm and Oktoberfest at Oldfield and the annual Halloween party my Vancouver Island mommy friends and I all go to at Galey Farms. Getting a pumpkin from a crate at the grocery store just isn't the same. Usually it takes me forever to decide on one from the field and I end up making Craig lug home this 25lb monstrosity right out of a Disney film. Today the choice was easy: Did we want a large 5euro pumpkin or a small 1.50euro pumpkin? Hmmm. Lemme think about that. Considering that we had a 30 minute walk back home we elected to adopt 2 small squash instead of one large one.

I totally thought Will would conk out after our little excursion to the grocery store but he ended up awake way past his nap time so we took another walk to wear him out. Brought the doggie with us too this time and boy, did she ever get muddy.

Here are some fun shots of the day:

Making the PB toast...serious business

picked the perfect pumpkins

pumpkin head

Pretty trees on our way home

scallywags

discovering a magpie feather

California Dreaming

on the fly

running to "get" daddy

mud-tacular

still jumps pretty high for an old dog

ball crazy...both of 'em

squishing in the mud

doggie smiles

lichen

mushrooms

Toddlers and Technology

So I was chatting with my dad the other day about how William is surprisingly tech savvy and loves to use our phones. This morning I gave Will some unsupervised time on my phone (android smart phone) to use as there are puzzle and memory game apps on there that he loves. Just now I got a ring from a friend of mine and if I hadn't been looking at the phone when the call came through I would probably be a little confused...you see the ring tone on the phone has been changed. So now, whenever I get a call, the rather annoying sound of a calling peacock emerges from my purse or pocket or wherever my phone happens to be. The hilarity of this situation is doubled as William can't say "peacock" properly...so when the phone rings he announces to the world in a loud voice "'Cock, 'cock, 'cock". He rather startled an old lady on our walk this morning.

Many people are advocates for denying children the use of technology- TVs, cell phones, game boys etc and I do limit the amount of time he plays games on the phone or watches Peppa Pig however, our family chooses to focus our energy on free play and getting out in nature rather than purely discouraging the use of electronics. We go to a free play group in Phoenix Park on Tuesday mornings (when we can make it & when the weather isn't too appalling) and just let Will wander where he...will. Pun-tacular. We also do an indoor playgroup on Wednesday and Friday mornings where the kids just get to interact with each other and play with some fun toys. Part of my job as a stay at home mom is to facilitate his learning process by getting him involved in situations where he is safe and free to make his own decisions. Hopefully he'll decide on a better ring tone next time.

You don't even want to know what he calls this

"What did he just call me?"

Non-Newtonian Blue Goo

More fun indoor time with our cornstarch and water mix (Add a little cornstarch in a pan and slowly add some water. It will be stiff to mix). Today's colour was blue so we added some blue food colouring. I've found that putting a towel or newspaper down in the area he will be playing in saves tons of time in cleanup. Cornstarch is so fine that it can be hard to wipe up. It might look like it's all gone until the floor dries with while (or blue!) streaks on it. But this substance is so much fun the trouble is worth it. Our dog even got into the action today when she sat on the towel and casually draped her tail into the pan. Will laughed at me chasing the dog around the kitchen while she dribbled blue goo off her tail. Once I caught and cleaned her I turned around to see Mr. Man standing (in socks) in the pan of goo. Grr. Gotta laugh at the fun he's having though.

Bright flash mom!

showing off our stripey socks

bulldozers are excellent for this experiment

Foamy Fun with Daddy's Shaving Cream

Will really enjoys getting messy with his toys. I popped some of Daddy's shaving cream into an old cake pan (in an effort to contain the inevitable mess) and asked him to pick some toys he'd like to put into the foam. His little pig figurine got the most use I think. All I could think of the whole time was the funny Old Spice commercials. This is the man your man could smell like: