Look at daddy's silly balloons

look at daddy's silly balloons
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

So Mammy finally decided we were going to Portugal on our holidays. I wanted to go to Spain. That's the place with the rock pools near Mammo's house! But we went to an apartment with 2 pools near to the beach in Portugal instead. We had to get up almost in the middle of the night to go on the plane and when we got there it was very hot and Uncle Ross' sat nav took us a funny way there. But we didn't mind. It was like an adventure. We went out in the lovely sunny weather and had the biggest toasted sandwiches we've ever seen. Actually I just had the toast with no filling and Ríodhna shared Mammys. We went down to the beach - it had great waves and we got quite wet but we didn't mind. We tried peach juice for the first time that evening and we both really like it - even though I thought I wouldn't.

The day before we went Mammy had to go to work so we did messages with Daddy all day. He had to drive mammy's car because he crashed his in an accident. It was pretty bashed and Daddy only got a small cut on his knee that didn't even need a plaster. So it can't have been that bad. So my new job is to tell him to be careful - I did it when we were out driving around doing messages and he was on the phone to the insurance lady. And even though it was the middle of the night, I reminded him to drive slowly and carefully all the way to the airport.

Then we had Daddy's birthday. We went to some shops and bought party things. And Mammy let him pick where to eat lunch and it was really tasty! The best things were the balloons. And a candle that played happy birthday by itself. They didn't have the cake he wanted so we had yummy yummy pancakes instead. We had good fun playing and eating and eating and playing.

the Hills came to stay

say cheese
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

It was great fun. We were all so excited because they were meant to come before and then they were all sick. But this weekend everyone in both families was well.

We had a fab time. These are our best cheesy grins but for most of the weekend we were all grinning. They stayed for 2 nights and Caoimhe slept in my room - in Ríodhna's bed that Ríodhna has never even slept in because she's too little so she still sleeps in a cot. She reads big girls books without even pictures in them so my Mammy read that story for us one night and then her Mammy read the next night. I was called the enchanted forest an mammy said Auntie Emma had that book when she was a little girl. You need a bookmark when you have a long book to read and you can't read all the way to the end in one night.

We went to Imaginosity. We haven't been there for ages. And we played with new things this time that we never played with before - like the dressing up outfits and the newsreaders desk. Riodhna played with the smaller kids toys and I played in a kitchen with her for ages but then I had to go shopping. It's not quit like tesco - I had to lurk for ages before I spotted someone about the finish with the trolley and nabbed it. Caoimhe went to do some arts & crafts. Ronan and me played with the Bob the Builder house.

We played in every room in our house and with loads of different toys, specially dressing up. We all love dressing up.

What on earth is this?

what on earth is this
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

well we're planning on going on holidays in 3 weeks time. We still don't know exactly where we're going but mammy is determined that we are leaving the country and that we will be going on a plane. So I need a passport. And because Ella got hers almost 3 years ago just before she went to Spain, she needs one too.

So tonight we had a photoshoot. We managed to get one suitable one each for our passports and Daddy was able to print them out on the computer so that they were exactly perfect for the passport people - who are very fussy about your photo being exactly right.

I think we did well. If you click through to flickr you'll see a set of all the photos he took and you can let us know if we picked the right ones...

Blowing Bubbles

DSCN1668.JPG
Originally uploaded by Ella's Ma.

We're not having great weather this summer. So when it's not raining we have to open up our doors and go outside. And take half the living room furniture out there with us too if that's what we feel like doing.

Ella's got really good at blowing bubbles. And I can say "Ope-dis" over and over again to make sure nothing stays closed for long. I can blow a few bubbles too but it doesn't work every time and I have to concentrate very hard.