the house...!

... And look at it now! Isn't it amazing how fast it's flown up?!
Above is the the view from the front, with Carmielia and Shay's house to the left (front door, sitting room window, box room and main bedroom windows) and below from the rear ( the kitchen window and back door, the family room window to the side, the upstairs bathroom and kid's bedroom, and the two attic skylights!).

Malachy hiding behind his mask and Liam wearning Uncle Graham's watch!

Me and my brother, Graham!

Uncle Graham with Malachy

Graham brought the boys some funny Japanese masks from a children's festival Sarah and Sean celebrated recently...

Boys...

This doesn't happen very often....! My brother Graham came to visit! All the way from Tokyo, Japan! We hadn't seen Graham for over a year and a half! The last time we saw him I was heavily pregnant with Malachy, back in June 2004. Now I'm heavily pregnant again and here he is! He was in Barcelona for the 3GSM World Congress and it was great to see him and have him see the boys. Next time we hope to get the whole lot of us together in Dublin: Graham, Hiromi, Sarah, Sean, Jaime, me, Liam, Malachy, baby, Granny and Granddad...!

Liam was delighted to meet and play with his Uncle Graham... (or "Uncle Crayon", as he calls him!)

Graham trying to grab a go too!

And blow!! For she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellow... and so say all of us! Happy birthday!

Hadi and Elena concentrating on the big moment...!

With so many people at her party (mums and dads included!!), one cake would never have been enough so there was a whole table full! Jaime and I can bear witness... the 'brazo gitano' and the 'tiramisu' were delicious! Here's Hadi and her mum, Elena, getting ready for cake time!

Malachy, Uma and Liam eating chocolate covered lemon panatone cake! mmmmm

Ousseynou and Jaime

Malachy got to give Ousseynou's yembe a try!

Then Ousseynou got the kids up on the feet for some dancing!

Liam and Uma had their faces painted!

Liam and Hadi

As you can see, Hadi was a very happy birthday girl!

The mums and dads enjoyed the show too!

The kids were enthralled by the performance and the acoustics of the big old museum building were perfect for the yembe sound and African chants...

Uma and Hadi used to go to Portal Nou (Liam's ex- and Malachy's current creche). We haven't seen Uma for a while since she moved to a new neighbourhood and school. Liam was very excited to see her and she's invited us all to her birthday party next Saturday! She's going to be 4 and it's a fancy dress party!

Hadi's dad, Ousseynou, is from Senegal and is a professional yembe player. He got the party going by sitting all the kids down for a percussion and singing session...

Uma's mum Llum and Jaime at Hadi's party!

Liam, Malachy and Uma at Hadi's birthday party at the Maritime Museum caf� on Sunday!

the thing about my digital camera is... if you leave it on manual, the flash always goes off, burning the shots and making them too bright, but if you take the flash off, the pix come out blurry and shaky like these...

a tad blurry

what are you looking at?

Liam took this photo of his Daddy.. hence the low camera angle!

Malachy and Jaime at Pakistani restaurant we went to for lunch the other day. Liam and Malachy took an immediate liking to the shish kebabs and vegetable cous-cous!

man overboard... not!

Liam at the helm!

On our way to Hadi's 4th birthday party on Sunday, we went for a walk by the marina. The Maritime Museum had a big old sailing ship docked and open to visitors. Liam and I went aboard and had a look around.

I will never tire of sliding down this slide!!

seee...

sawwww...

Liam is definitely the head chef in this kitchen!

on the roundabout with Luna...

a glimpse of Ramon

...

Over at the Avenida de la Catedral this weekend, as part of the Santa Eulalia fiestas, there was a kids outdoor playground, complete with miniature kitchen... Culninary master Liam had great fun making 'kiwi supper and soup'??!!

Ramon was at the playground too! Cooking away and having fun with Liam and Malachy!

me too!

This is our friend Pablo conducting his choir at a concert they gave at the Mercat de Santa Caterina last Saturday morning for the Festas de Santa Eulalia. As you can see, Pablo really gets into it!

Out strolling around Santa Maria del Mar...

unfortunately, Malachy wasn't really in the mood....

Hey... is anybody listening to me down here?

I looooove my toast and jam in the mornings!

even closer...