Over the weekend the girls and I went to Nelson’s pumpkin patch in Litchfield. It’s our second annual trip. We love it.
Grandpa and I love the pumpkin chucker flinger thinger – a trebuchet they use to catapult pumpkins into the lake. I have included 2 video because it’s so much fun to watch.
The girls loved the baby kittens and the carts. We have a picture of the carts; they are kind of like soapbox cars. You ride them down the hill. They were fun.
We took a hay ride aroudn the fields. The girls got to swing in the hayloft, which looked like fun too. They fed animals, had hippity hop races, climed up hay stacks, participated in the farm olympics and more. It’s treally kind of amazing how many very simple thing they have at the farm and how much fun a kid can have. We thought we’d be there for 2 hours; we were there for 4.
On the way home we popped in to see the world’s largest ball of twine and the the girls’ greatgrandparents’ grave in Darwin.
Finally here are the pictures. We had a great time. We had tons of swimming. We didn’t have dessert at lunch so we felt like we were really on a health kick.
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Everyone in the family (except me) joined in the Fair Hills Talent show. I’m not really sure where everyone got the courage but they did a great job!!
We met Irish Grandma, Caroline & Rochelle for lunch. It was great to see Caroline and Rochelle one last time before they go. Then we picked up Ailbhe – well really she got dropped off and we went to the King of Concrete – a hip hop, break-dancing, skateboarding, graffiti
Some of what they do is amazing. I loved the dancing and some of the graffiti. Of course I like the graffiti that looks like things more than just the tags. Lily took some video of the dancing. (I’m working on getting that video up – will add if I get it working.) I am going to try to upload it (on top of all of the U2.) The girls got to make T-shirts, which was fun. Everything happened behind Christchurch, which is very near to where I used to live. I’ve always liked that part of the city so it was fun.
Just when that was winding down we got a text from Sheila. We met up at Captain America with her. Pat, Alex, Daniel, Maxine and her daughter Tiger Lily. (Maxine used to live in St Paul.) We had a fun dinner. The girls and I ended up getting home on the train about 10:00. They had their midnight feast and went to bed fairly early – for a sleepover night.
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One day last week we met up with Sheila, Alex and Daniel, friends from home. We had talked about going to Howth or other activities but really it was a pretty crappy and rainy day. So we went shopping. I bought a ton – including Doc Martens. You’ll all be glad to hear I have retired the old pair after 10+ years of service. We ended the day at Captain America’s. I don’t think I had been there in 20 years.
This weekend we met with our girl cousins in Madison. We stayed at a Holiday Inn with a small water park. All we did was swim and relax. We ate pizza on the pool deck. We tried some local beer and it was good. Of course Wisconsin knows beer. We watched TV at night.
Aine graduated from preschool. They have a nice celebration. Only she and her friend Rain were graduating. We heard some songs; we saw some slideshows. There was a bouncy castle. Who could ask for anything more?
The girls, Betsy, Patrick and I planned to hit the town again and visit the American Girl Doll store. Sadly, poor Kate woke up super sick. Maybe it was the filthy dirty water from Millennial Park the day before.
Patrick took the girls into town. They went to the art museum. I was so jealous. Lily seemed to particularly enjoy American Gothic by Grant Woods. They saw In the Park with George too.
Kate and I hung out at Grandpa’s hotel room. The room was 2-3 times the size of the hotel room we had in London. It’s tough to meet America for comfortable hotels – with swimming pools.
Luckily Kate recovered in time for the American Girls (AG) lunch. The AG lunch is really a site to behold. It’s a 4-course deal. They have high chairs at the table for your dolls.
After AG we went to the Lincoln Zoo to meet up with the rest of the crew.
A good time was had by all and we finished the day off with a fun dinner in Greek Town – starring Saganki!
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Once we got up the energy, we went to Flick Park – near Katie’s house. They have a playground, a swimming pool (I think) and fishing. The fishing was really the big hit with the kids.
The dads were able to able to manage the worm control and fish-throw-backs – thankfully! I think every kid caught a fish, including Bridie, who’s almost 3 years old.
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Saturday morning the girls and I went to the Book Fair in Cabinteely, which is the big park near the house. They got their faces painted. Lily was especially excited to see some of the children’s authors. I got to hear Cathy Kelly, Martina Devlin, and Pauline McLynn. The big thrill was Pauline McLynn. She is the housekeeper from Father Ted, we saw her (loved her) earlier this year in Taming of the Shrew, and I didn’t realize it but I had read one of her books – The Woman on the Bus, where the main character is named Treacy.
So I was like a semi- stalker trying to take pictures of her while lamely looking as if I was taking pictures of a kid (one of my kids again so as not to look like the stalker I was). Hopefully one of them turned out and I’ll paste it below.
We also got to peek into the big house in the park. The Cabinteely House was owned by the Walsh family, which ran the Irish sweepstakes. We didn’t tour the house but it looks as if it is partially restored and furnished. The guide told us that it is mostly used for movies now. He couldn’t be specific about which movies, because I think his movie knowledge was about on par with my own.
In the afternoon and evening Ailbhe’s family took all of the girls bowling and to play. The kids had a great time. It’s funny how the sort of thing we might do at home have become a super big treat here. Ailbhe’s family has a car, which is now almost a novelty to us!
While the kids were off, Patrick and I went into town. We left in the afternoon and stayed past the last bus. We saw the Street Performance World Championship, which was great fun! The acts were amazing and/or funny – sometimes both. I have a ton of video so I’ll add that below.
After that we walked around town. The weather cool but dry – which is Irish for amazing weather – especially after last summer of 40+ days of rain in a row. We had dinner at our very favorite French restaurant. Sadly they changed my favorite item, which just took me back to 1989 when they took the barbeque pits off the menu at Baker’s Square – but I’ve learned to move on and the dinner was wonderful despite the poor decision making of the chef.
Later we met Conor and Sophie (classmates of Patrick) in town and visited a couple of pubs. It wasn’t a big rousing night but it was fun. It was amazing how light it was at 10:30 at night. It felt like 7:00, which is maybe why we ended out so long.
