Museums and More

Doesn't Cole look thrilled?  And Carys looks like she is recently returned from the war.  On Thursday we set off in the general direction of Belfast.  We had a lovely walk around Botanic Gardens, and we got to explore the Palm House and the very warm and steamy tropical ravine building. 

In the tropical ravine building, we spent more time than I will care to admit to searching for turtles. 

After a dander in the gardens, we set off to explore the Ulster Museum.  We haven't been here for a few years, because the museum had been closed for a big refurbishment for 2 years and it only opened again last September. 

They were somewhat fascinated by the Irish Wolfhound. 

And then we met our Waterloo.  We'd spent about 30 minutes in the entrance looking at different things, since we were following a map to do a children's treasure hunt.  But we veered sadly off course into a hands on history focused room and we didn't get out of there for ... quite some time.  At one stage, my mum went and sat outside on the sofa.  I like quirky children who can spend hours reading and learning in the museum.  I'm glad I have 3 of them.  We finally admitted defeat and realized that it will take us at least one more trip to finish up the Treasure Hunt. 

listening to stories from around the world

map reading and putting various factories on the correct area of Belfast

writing her name in Hieroglyphics

On Friday morning we got organized and headed over to Downpatrick to see some old friends. Afterwards, we headed to Ardglass to see Auntie Joy and Uncle Ken who were there in the marina. 

Holding lunch and reading a book

Cole laughed and laughed at the idea of a kangaroo on a boat. 

On Friday evening, the girls went with Granny to collect Auntie Julie from the airport. 

Saturday morning and the girls had riding lessons.  We were on our way to collect Alex when we saw this sight.

Chloe and Carys were thrilled.  Chloe couldn't get the camera out quickly enough, and Carys was trying to hang out the car window and pet a sheep as it went past. 

My little city slickers.  I was more interested in not getting stuck driving behind the sheep. 

We spent Saturday afternoon at Lady Dixon park in Belfast.  I know it's not very clear in this photo, but Carys is trying to take her bike across stepping stones here.  (She only lost her footing once and got a bit wet up to her knees; pretty good going). 

On Sunday we took Auntie Julie to the airport; first we called to see Scott and Nicholle so the kids were all happy to play with Charlie the dog.  When we got to the airport, we bumped into Lindy ~ she took all the kids with her to the Folk Museum, while mum and I did a little shopping. 

And today, Monday, the weather was gorgeous enough that we went to the beach at Kilclief again. 

Quite a few days with no medical emergencies! 

Getting Our Groove

I've been better at taking the camera with me so far this week, and we've been better at going places.  I think the kids were wiped out from the flights over and the week in London.  Plus, with it being light out until after 10pm it is extremely hard to convince them that they need to go to bed. 

We had brilliant fun on Monday when we went to Lindy's for lunch and dinner.  Her 3 and my 3 get along so well together and they all love to put their wellies on and go over the fields and down into the river.  Carys took her bike with her and had a great time cycling around with Catrina.  We were aiming to go to the beach for a walk, but we never made it. 

We drove to Kilmore to get Granny G and stopped to feed the horses on the way.  Cole made the mistake of calling the wee one a foal.  Carys was very indignant and soon put him right. 

We picked Granny G up and went to Maghera for lunch and then on into Newcastle.  Look at the lovely Mournes.  We were at the top last year!

Carys and Chloe played for ages in the playground and Cole ran around singing to himself.  After a while they wanted to go and play in the water.  We left Granny G on a bench.

Cole soon came back up from the water with some fine examples of rock.  We discussed metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks while he tried to look for examples of all 3.  I think I need to learn more about rocks; I can't keep up when he starts with this lecture. 

Onto  Tuesday evening ~ the 2 wee ones were playing outside until Carys and Alex came in to eat lollies.  I sent them out after a while to Alex's house to tell Cole to come home and so Alex could go to bed.  Less than 2 minutes later, Carys and Alex were back at the door, Carys screaming and covered in blood, and Alex shell shocked beside her.  Carys had fallen off her bike, split her head open, had a bloody nose and hurt her teeth, she had a fat lip, road rash everywhere.  We called a friend who is a nurse to come and assess the damage to see if we needed to go to Accident & Emergency for stitches, but she thought we could get it sorted out with steri strips.  We managed to get her nose to stop bleeding and get ice on to the rest of her injuries.  Karen taped her head up.  By this stage it was 10:30 and Carys was getting really tired, but I didn't want her to go to sleep.  I let her snooze on and off for a while on my lap, but she seemed to be ok every time we woke her.  When she got up to go to bed, she realized that her knee was pretty banged up too, there was blood everywhere and it was full of stones. 

She's a tough wee thing, I'll give her that. 

Granny  G called on Wednesday to see if we wanted to go for lunch, but there is no way we can let her see Carys at the minute (she'd go on and on and on about how dangerous it is to ride a bike/play outside etc), so we said the weather was too nice and we were going to the beach instead. 

Off to Kilclief, our favourite beach spot. 

The tide was out the perfect amount and the girls set off over the rocks.

Yes, Carys is wearing a swimsuit, a rash guard, a sun hat and a cardigan.  She took the cardigan off eventually.

The girls found "Shrimp City" in the rock pools.  Then Chloe discovered that if she went out a bit into the sea, she could find large crabs.  That kept them entertained for a few hours.

Cole wanted to climb the rocks because "I haven't done it for a long time and I need some action in my life".  Here he is pretending to fall.  Luckily, he didn't.  At least not today.

See the mark to the right of his face?  That was our Friday night excitement.  He was playing 40/40 and he was running, but he was running so fast he ran straight into the corner of Alex's playhouse.  He managed to knock himself to the ground and hit his head when he fell.  He also hit his knee. 

Anyway, Kilclief was fun, and Cole managed to swim for about an hour (I'm pretty sure the water temp was mid 60s), Chloe was in and out but she did a good bit of swimming too. 

On the way home we stopped in Annacloy to visit Dolores and her crew.  Carys and Cole played with the twins and Chloe had a great time with Ciara when she came home from school.  However, when we were leaving there (to take Carys to the dentist to have her teeth checked) Carys's eye started to swell.  I gave her some Benadryl and we went on to the dentist; when the dentist saw her she said "I'd take her and have her eye looked at .... but her teeth are fine!".  Off to the dr and then the chemists, where we came to the conclusion and it was allergy related and got her some eye drops.  But this stage, I was ready for a large gin and a valium.   

 

Here's my patient tonight.  She's obviously feeling ok; as soon as they'd had dinner, the 3 of them took off to the farm with Kerrie. 

Let's hope tomorrow is boring.