Cousins = BFFs

So my kids have 2 first cousins…who are awesome but a lot older than them! So my first cousin’s kids have become my kids “cousins”…1st, 2nd, whatever…they are cousins and I love it! We have 2 that live in Ireland and 3 that live in Philly. This summer was the coolest to see them together..they actually hung out and became practically best friends. I LOVED it.

Whatever we did, they had fun as long as we were together!

Trips to the local park.

Hanging out at home playing in the front yard, going for walks, spending time in Irishtown with Nanny!

Then when we are doing the same stuff we did years ago…same kids…more kids…all growing up!

Spending as much time together when we are together is very important to us!! I want my kids to have good relationships with their family…regardless of where they live. My closest family live far far away…but i cherish our relationship that started as kids and grown with us!

Birthdays

We got back from Dublin and went straight to our little family birthday party for our cousin Addison.

Addison was so excited to have all her cousins there.  Not only were us Californians there…so were the Philly cousins! It was a full house….and pretty cool!

Its also tradition for Nanny to make a “sponge” .  All the kids love Nanny’s sponge and the adults are always fighting over it too!!

We came straight from the waterpark in Dublin..no showers or anything.  The McDonnells were all dressed cute and wanted to re-create the picture from Dec. 2015.  My children weren’t happy about it…shocker Maggie was being difficult!

Riley, Molly, Owen, Maggie, Jayden, Colin, Addison and Ella.

Crazy how much all these little ones have grown! All but Molly and Maggie have really lost their “baby faces”.  One of these days Maggie will look back and laugh her booty off.

A few days later we had another little family party for our other cousin Caolan (pronounced Kee-Lan). The big 16! I’m sure he was SO excited to have a house full of little cousins! haha

Ella havin’ a good chat with Nanny. Love catching little moments like these!

I envy the relationship that my cousin Alan has with Nanny.  He’s the cousins who lives closest and is there day in and day out.  He gets to see her multiple times a week and he’s there whenever she needs help with something.

Caolan’s cake was pretty damn impressive!!!

And Carmel caught this picture of Molly and Maggie. They totally had a love/hate relationship. They loved to hate eachother! hahaha Both pretty close in age, both the baby of the family, both very strong willed…haha yeah they kinda butted heads!

Then the “big” kids disappeared!! Boys playing video games and Caoimhe being the best and pretending with hair and make-up with the big girls!!

Caolan is my God Son…and he’s growing into such a handsome, athletic, kind young man!! He’s now playing Gaelic football AND Rugby…and excelling at both! He’s a good boy.

I’m his GodMother and his mom is my GodMother…we keep it in the family! heehee.

The birthday parties didn’t stop there….Addison then had her REAL birthday party celebration at Tumble Jungle, which is the Irish equivalent to Pump It Up . She had her cousins and school friends too! I love watching Irish events take place. They are so different, yet so the same as American birthday parties.

The place was basically empty, so my children ran like wild animals and I wasn’t worried one bit. Its so weird the level of comfort even though we were in a foreign country.
So they run around like crazy, then gather all the kids into a room. Fill them up with chicken nuggets, mini sausages, and french fries…THEN cake and done! hahaha It’s awesome.

Tumble Jungle is a place that when we are in Ireland we try and visit. The KIDS love jumping and playing.  And its indoor and warm! With so many rainy days its great to have places like this around.

Last time we were in Tumble Jungle with the same group was in 2010….

We had our “big kids”…Caomihe, Shannon and Caolan with us!!! Re-enacted the picture with the same kids…haha Nuts right?

And how much we have multiplied……lots more babies have showed up in 7 years! And our “big kids” don’t exactly like to tag alone to trips to Tumble Jungle anymore! haha

Dublin

We got a chance to take our big kids up to Dublin for a night and visit a few kid friendly places.  We left Maggie with Nana and Granda and went on our mini vacation in a vacation. 

It was crazy how easy the 3 hour drive was with only our 2 big kids! Stopping for ice cream and snacks (since the sun was out)…

First stop in Dublin was meeting our besties, the Brogans in Imaginosity Children’s Museum. Its the Irish version of our Pretend City in Irvine.

We left there and enjoyed some good ol’ American pizza at Pizza Hut. You know how places have different menu options in different countries…well I found this “option” in Ireland VERY weird…especially since they don’t eat hot dogs!

We still had plenty of time in our day so we headed to another kiddie place called Funtasia!  This place was nuts.  It was a mix between a HUGE arcade, with a huge indoor playground, bowling alley, mini golf, reptile attraction, indoor waterpark, food court….it was nuts!

We let the kids play a bunch of arcade games and run their lives away in the playground. We headed out and decided to meet at a super cute place for dinner before visiting Catherines sister in Drogheda (just outside of Dublin), which actually was the same town we were staying in for the night!

This table was the cutest thing ever!

Joby strikes again…

Catherine’s sister is a special person to Yosh and I.  She’s come to California for work a few times and once she even stayed with us! Yosh and her are long lost soul sisters…they like all the same dorky shows and games! They are able to talk FOR-EVER about all their geeky stuff! heehee. Love them. And Yvonne’s husband Paul is an awesome guy too! It was a BEAUTIFUL night in Dublin…the sun stays up for a LONG time.

Catherine’s oldest son Gavin doesn’t warm up to people very easily! So watching him and Ella get along was ADORABLE!

It was fun having just the big kids in a hotel for the night. We don’t get to sleep in the same bed as our kids very often…so it was a special little treat.

The next morning it was POURING cats and dogs. But we headed over to the church across from our hotel in Drogheda (pronounced DRAW-HE-DA), St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church.  Its a BEAUTIFUL catholic church that houses St. Oliver Plunkett’s REAL human head! yes. A REAL head. I was mind-blown.

Inside it told the whole story about Oliver Plunkett and how he was imprisoned, executed and then years later deemed Saint.

YES thats a real mummified, skeleton head! And yes I showed my kids. I have to say, this makes us Catholics look like crazies! hahaha

We lit a few candles!  Owen said he lit his for Papa, Daddy did one for Mya and her fight with breast cancer, Ella said “I think Nanny needs a candle”  and I lit one for a friend who was trying dearly to conceive a baby via IVF.

Before heading home to Foxford we spent a few hours at Funtasia again!  First the Reptile Thing…then the indoor waterpark. They ddin’t allow camera’s which was so weird to me. BUT if forced me to be that fun parent…like Ella was SHOCKED I got my hair wet and everything. But I took a pic in the dressing room before heading out to the craziness of slides, wade pools, and freezing my butt off! haha

It was a fun little get away. Spending time doing “big kid stuff” without poor ol’ Maggie holding us back was fun! I know my big kids appreciate it and I KNOW Maggie enjoyed her time in Foxford too!.