The Irish in Me

Well, our two weeks of visiting with extended family are over. The kids are numb from missing their cousins (immediately) and the lack of sleep.

We've been vegging around the house, catching up on laundry, e-mails, bills (yuck), PVR'd shows and videogaming.

I've come to the realization that we really are a truly Irish bunch. Beyond our perfectly catholic names (Theresa, Daniel, Colleen - not to forget Sean), we love our drink, we love a row, and we really like each other. There was plenty of all three over the last two weeks and my liver has begged me to take a break.

It was a ton of fun, and now I need a holiday from our holiday:

First day together

More cousins arrive, so jumping off the boat is in order

Terri & I discovered (thanks Mom!) a new store to love. Kilborn's. Where apparently they love WDW just as much as we do! We wanted to hide until they closed so we could play there all night. Mom stopped us.

Uncle Brian & Aunt Carmel came up to show us the progress on their house in Donegal, so we headed to the pub where we heard Kim Churchill. Amazing. (he's 19! what?)

Kayaking out to the island.

More boat leaping.

They cornered me on the deck with their water balloons. Aren't they funny?

I'd post more pictures of my little brother & fam, but not sure how they feel about it. They were definitely there to have FUN!

Cottage

The boys and I are the cottage, just us four, and it's the calm before the storm. (Like the boys are ever calm!)

Their cousins, their favourite group of people in the world, are arriving soon and they can't wait. The rest of their favourite people will be here next week, but my sister's kids get here today.

Hopefully, as in every year, they'll fall into the routine of catching frogs, heading out on the paddle boat, going kayaking, pushing my comfort level by asking to head out on their own on the lake, teasing, joking, being shadows of their big cousins, and eating us out of house and home.

It's the best thing, watching my kids love their cousins so much. My brothers & sister & I grew up away from our cousins, and we were at least a decade older than most of them, so we didn't get this. It would have been great, because we have lots of cousins. But sitting back and enjoying their very easy & automatic bond is amazing.

I'd better get off the laptop & get the bunkie cleared out. There'll be three very big kids sleeping in there tonight, talking about god knows what way past my bedtime!

Mondays are all about sharing things I find on the internet. Except this is Tuesday, so oops. (I've never been great with routine.)

found this here

Love the look of this store in Vancouver. Love, love the feel of it.

If a store, website, blog have a European feel to it I'm all over it!

I was at the library recently and picked up the Pioneer Woman cookbook (my Mom loves her blog) and was pleasantly surprised. By no means low-fat recipes, but great ones for feeding three teenage boys. Just preparing early, Ty's only 12 after all.

Again, with the Apartment Therapy. Ugh. What a time-sucking vacuum it is!! And now they want me to become their 'friend' on facebook. Forget it.

Rockstar Diaries always makes me feel totally uncool and old, but I read her blog anyway because I like to torture myself.

Today is going to be crazy hot here and my job as a SAHM this summer is essentially to keep my kids cooled off, happy, and fed. Challenge accepted.

{edited to add: my sister just called and said "don't you sound like a cutesy-Mom with what you're going to do all summer". laughing at me. don't let me give you the wrong impression, it's 2:00, my kids are fed & cooled off but also on the PS3 and I'm having a Heineken.}