2009 summer road trip kick-off!

Check out our wheels! Luis and Saioa lent us their Kangoo for our road trip last summer. Gracias, chicos! Y gracias también al tío Gonzalo que nos vino a buscar al aeropuerto de Santander :)

First stop: Amorebieta... Lunch out with friends (Aupa Unai eta Sigor... musubat!)

Then it was time for the boys to do the essential early summer duty: HAIRCUTS!!

Cute doesn't even cover it. I know.

Then we hit the municipal pool for some splash time.

This was our third road-tripping summer. All the while we were happily aware of the comforting familiarity of it all.

:)

signs of summer ('09)

So, what are the things that signal the start of summer for the Jamrobbers?

1. Vibrant colours emerging in the garden and the sunshine catching them, and lingering there.

2. The green grass of our parks dry enough to laze on. Picnics and sandals and short sleeves and frisbees.

3. The joyous freedom that the school holidays bring.

4. Meeting with friends to say our fond farewells before departing southward across the seas for a fair old stretch of weeks.



5. Luggage and early-morning airports and butterflies in tummies and 'goodbye Irish rain'.

all the world's a stage!

Back in June of last year (2009!), we went to the Street Performance World Championships in Merrion Square. We had been there in 2008 too and thoroughly enjoyed it. We saw everything from clowns to contortionists, from flame and sword-eaters to escape artists, from comedians to jugglers, unicyclists and much more...

The lads had an absolute blast!

Nothing could have burst their bubble ;)

(*favourite pic of the day*)

Camera in hand, as usual, mummy Jamrobber did a little bit of people watching...

...while the people watched the performers do their thing.

Towards the end of the day we met up with Vincenza, Giovanni and Anna Livia... who were having a fun time too :)

We're already looking forward to the 2010 edition of the festival!

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Oh! And, speaking of performers.... check out cowboy Liam in his school play last year :)

And Lorcan performing a selection of his top ten tunes for me on my birthday!

blown away

In June last year, shortly before the summer holidays, we found out that Liam and Malachy had been offered places at METNS... our new school! We had been on the waiting list there for a long time and were SO delighted to find out that we were finally in! We immediately went out to celebrate... with a family meal at Milano's in Dun Laoghaire.

These are some pics of the boys fooling around outside Milano's after dinner that day... Marilyn Monroe style ;)

:-)

Anyway, we're now at the beginning of the third term at our new school and loving it. It's much more free-spirited and basically must more "us" than our old school was, and we love that about it. The boys have made tons of new friends, been blessed with great teachers and are doing very well all round.

BUT... ahem!.... It looks like this little monster will have to work on improving his basic manners before he starts there himself in September 2010!! [I know... some day he'll kill me for ever posting this!!!]

And now... to take your mind off the nose-picking: some random pics from our back garden last June.

:D

killiney beach and bullock harbour

Killiney Beach

June '09: still too early to actually take a dip in the Irish Sea... but so what? We still love our visits to the beach. The paddling, the stone and shell collecting, the sound and smell and taste of it all...

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Bullock Harbour

Arriving in time to watch the fishermen unload their catch is an added bonus! Our old local fisherman friend answers all the boys' questions about the fish, the crabs, the boats and the seals... and tells us a sea shanty or two!

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Bonus park shots: 'Just for kicks'

The little guy... he's a powerful kicker, there's no doubt about that!

OK. Now go play!

parks and friends

Some images of our favourite people... in some of our favourite places:

Malachy in the People's Park in Dun Laoghaire

Kicking off last summer with movies in the park... in the company of our new friends Jon, Janel, Lennan and Finn :)

The absolutely fabulous Niamh and Audreyyyy!... On a rare but oh-so-delightful ladies lunch date on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Followed by a visit to a fortune teller. Say no more!

It's been a while since we've posted a pic of Bob and Marley. Yes, they are STILL going strong. And, yes... their family seems to have expanded somewhat ;)

Lorcan in Blackrock park, also known to us as "frisbee park" since the day Daddy accidentally threw our rubber frisbee onto the roof of the bandstand and couldn't get it down. That was two years ago. The frisbee is still there.

Swans in Blackrock park....

.... and their fluffy babies (pics taken June 2009).

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Our friend Matthew in the People's Park... showing off his newly cut second tooth... which is fully grown now, just like Liam's. Big boys now!

Lorcan on the day he got into some pretty serious mud-mischief while Mummy and Daddy were chatting with Jon and Janel... ooops!

Don't trust this Angel face... Lennan was in on it too!!