Weekend...

As if by magic the leaves on the trees have turned a fiery red overnight putting on a spectacular display. The night skies have been graced with a beautiful full harvest moon and tonight there is a sky full of stars.

I love star gazing and I'm really looking forward to spending some time outside with our three just watching the night skies - theres always a shooting star or two if you keep a careful watch.
This is definitely one of my favourite times of year.

Things have been busy around here to say the least with our Little Fella's birthday celebrations last weekend (post to follow), lots of sports activities with our Inbetweener and sickness as I have caught a nasty cold and have been feeling rotten for the past two weeks.

With a crispness in the air and dry weather forecast we are heading off on our monthly trip this weekend. I'm looking forward to getting outside, exploring somewhere new and spending some time as a family. I can't wait to get my camera out.

I hope your weekend is fun.

XXX

Happy 1st Birthday

One year ago today at 06.24am we welcomed the fifth member of our family into the world weighing a whopping 9lb 3oz. 

The day had finally arrived, ten days over your due date and we were so excited to have our baby safe and healthy.

365 days of unconditional love, smiles, happiness and the best fun ever have passed. 

You have turned our lives upside down and back round again and our little family is now complete. 

We have watched you grow from this...

to this in what feels like a blink of an eye.

Wishing you our Little Fella a magical 1st Birthday with all our love.

XXX

Our Last Summer Picnic

We had our last picnic of the summer just ten minutes drive from home at the beautiful Gortletteragh Waterfall. 

I have really loved being at home during the summer holidays with the children and having our little days out. 

After the older two had a lie in we packed our picnic of sandwiches and juice before we set off. On the way there we decided to stop off at the village cafe for some homemade chips to have with the rest of our food - not very healthy I know but totally delicious and well worth the stop.

After eating we did some exploring. 

Our Little Fella loves being outdoors and being pushed about in his buggy. When we were climbing up to the viewing point though I must confess I put him in the sling because I wasn't feeling fit enough to push him up the steep hill.

There is lots to see here, we couldn't resist throwing in a few pennies to make a wish in the Wishing Well and our Teen and Inbetweener took a great interest in the Murder Hole and Priest's Rock which date back to medieval times.

We had a great time just chatting, eating and laughing. The best things in life really are for free.

 It is such a lovely quite place to spend an afternoon and it's days like these that you just don't want to end.

Joining in with Country Kids at Coombe Mill Blog. Please take some time to check out the other adventures and outdoor fun by clicking on the badge.

  

Simple Things Sunday

Today I'm joining in with Simple Things Sunday over at Simple as That Blog. 

I love the idea of capturing ordinary everyday moments that most of the time we overlook and I'm so glad I've found this linky. 

Schools are back and we are settling into a routine after having such a lovely summer together. 

Things are starting to slow down and yesterday I was having a lazy afternoon with our Teen and our Little Fella whilst Mr P and our Inbetweener were swimming.

I'm enjoying simple moments of play and affection between a big sister and her brother, afternoon walks with just me and our Little Fella now that the older two are back at school, rainbows, shopping trips with our Teen - just us girls and a cinema date with Mr P.

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Weekend...

I hope you all have had a great week. Everyone here is back at school and I feel so much more organised with a routine back in place. I did miss having the older two about though at the start of the week but now as I reflect on the week I've got loads of little jobs done that have been put off over the holidays and it's been great having some fun times with our Little Fella.

With the first week of September drawing to a close it's now officially autumn. The chill in the air arrived just in time last weekend and it's time to think about changing the wardrobe. Even this morning we had a slight frost here and it looks like the seasons might just be returning to normal here.

It's interesting that many people here in Ireland including my dad still follow the old Gaelic tradition

that autumn starts in August. But that makes the summer too short for my liking so I'm sticking with the rest of the world.

This is definitely one of my favourite times of year and already my mind is drifting towards comfort foods, warmer clothes, cosy nights in front of an open fire and a good book or two to read over the dark evenings.

Everything homely and comforting just the way I like it.

This weekend I will be busy getting things organised for a very special first birthday which is coming up in the next two weeks. I will have some posts to follow on this shortly so please stay tuned.

Hoping that you have a great weekend, what are your favourite or maybe not so favourite things about the change of season?

Art Journal - Children's Craft

If your a mother you will most likely have lots of pictures works of art created by your children displayed proudly on a door, a fridge or on a wall somewhere in your home. In ours one of the doors in the kitchen is our display area because that is where we spend most of our time.

When I was out buying stationery for the two older ones for going back to school I spied these hard backed books and decided to buy a few not really knowing what to do with them at the time but they weren't expensive and I knew they would get used for something.

Over the weekend I've been clearing out cupboards in the kitchen, decluttering and getting organised for the first school term. I found loads of art work, pictures and certificates that had been taken down from our kitchen door to make room for the more recent things our Inbetweener was bringing home.

I didn't want to just lift it from one cupboard to another or worse still throw it out so I decided to use these hard backed books that I'd bought earlier to create an art journal.

I love this idea because our Inbetweener can help to assemble it and draw on the spare pages. It belongs to him and is filled with his creations and shows off his imagination.

I know it's not possible to keep every scribble but these little drawings that they make at school always have a story behind them and they love to tell you what they were doing the day they made it. He is thrilled to bits with his own art journal.

My mother has kept lots of things from when my sister and me were at school. I love looking back on them from time to time and we have some great memories. 

Sometimes we can forget about small things like this and before we know it they can get thrown out or mislaid. 

Documenting these small things is something I must get better at and that will come with being more organised now that they are back at school because I've really been taking things easy during the holidays.

Do you do something similar with your children, I love to hear your ideas and tips.

August in Pictures

iPhone Photos from August

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Highlights from August have been;

Our first holiday as a family of five to Edinburgh, sunny days and long evenings. Celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary, with a gorgeous sweetie tree from my chief bridesmaid. A beautiful new charm from Mr P for my Pandora bracelet and the most fabulous book of Afternoon Tea.

Birthday celebrations for Mr P and my dad. Enjoying the last few weeks of the summer holidays with day trips, picnics and creating wonderful memories.

Feeling happy and content. Sweet smelling flowers from my mums garden.

A girlie night to the cinema with our Teen, enjoying a glass of wine at the end of a busy day, drinking coffee on a shopping trip.
Sitting outside in our back garden admiring the last of the summer skies, watching our Little Fella on the move and having the best fun with his big sister and brother before they go back to school.

I hope you all had a wonderful August, what have been your best bits?