The First Festive Weekend

Our weekend was quite packed for once. We usually never have anything on at the weekend. It’s actually nice to capture and plan a few things now that we moved. Prior to that we were spending time in the house and maybe went to the play centre and that was it. There was not much to do in Sligo other than going into town and have a look around. That doesn’t mean we were completely bored out of our minds. We still managed to have great fun every weekend.

Living in Dublin is so much handier though. Hubby has a lot of family here. Most of his siblings live in and around County Dublin. Some of them have their own family which means Matthew and Chloe get to play with their cousins. So at the weekend we organised for hubby’s sister to call over, see the house and bring the kids with her. She has four kids, three boys and one girl. We expected them around lunch time. I had lunch prepared. Chloe was just about to go up for her nap but she was having none of it. She might miss out on the fun. In fairness to her she did sleep in until 8.30am, so there was no way she was going to have a nap at 1pm. The kids enjoyed some, crisps, sausage rolls and sandwiches. Then it was off to play. Thankfully the play room is nearly all setup. The only thing we are missing is the seating corner but that’s in progress and there will be a post on it how I built my own one. Before the cousins came over, hubby decided we needed to clean the house from top to bottom. Upstairs is fine but I don’t see what the point was of downstairs. It was dirty within seconds. That’s what kids do.

The kids were having great fun. Indoors as well as outdoors. The boys were so nice and brought Matthew a new football. He loves his footballs and this one is brilliant. It quite light and bouncy. Perfect for his age. We are just missing the goal post in the garden now. Luckily our wall to the back is quite high. I mean you could try and shoot a ball over it but it’s not one of these accidents that would happen where you constantly have to go over and get the ball. It’s quite handy to have a such a high wall. One of Matthew’s cousins is about the same age as him (6 months between them) and they are always having great fun together. Typical boys.

When they left late in the afternoon, I went outside the back for the first time. I have actually never seen the back of the house. It looks even more impressive than it does from the front.

Someone was definitely exhausted from all the playing. He calls this his “own little house”.

Sunday morning we had something really exciting to wake up to. After a bit of breakfast and play, we got ready to head into Dublin City. I never even knew how close Naas was to the city centre with the car. It only took us around 30 mins which is nothing in my opinion. We first decided to take the train and Luas in but that will take way too long. I had been keeping my eye out on the Coca Cola website. I really wanted to go and see the truck with the kids. The last time I’ve been, I was a kid myself. I must have been maybe 14 or 15 years of age as far as I can remember. A long time ago.. so it was time to go again. Luckily it was coming to Dublin Smithfield. It was on from 12pm to 7pm. We decided to go very early to avoid big queues. Handy enough there was a car park right beside Smithfield square.

When we started queuing, we were standing beside a sign that said “60mins wait from here”. So I sent hubby and Matthew off to get a drink and some snacks. But in the end it was pretty quick and it didn’t fee like queuing more than 30 mins.  It wasn’t as cold which made it bearable. While going around in the queue they had a game on in one corner called “Ice Jenga”. Matthew was too shy to play but that’s ok. That’s his little personality.  In the next corner we were handed some Coke. You could choose between Coke, Diet Coke and Coke Zero. I went for a Coke and daddy for a Diet Coke. Honestly, after Blogfest I probably turn into a coke junky, the amount of Cokes I had in the last two weeks.

Finally we were at the end of the queue. Chloe was such a good girl. No giving out in her buggy or anything. She just loved looking around and taking it all in. I’d say she loved the music too. She is a big fan of dancing to music. Which reminds me, I must get the Disney Christmas CD out that hubby purchased in Mothercare the other day.
I took Chloe out at that point and lifted her up on me. The buggy was pushed to the side and we got up on the ramp beside the truck to have our picture taken. As a blogger I would say it is quite grainy but I am happy with it. We got our picture with Coca Cola Christmas truck with the WHOLE family and that’s the main thing. Some of you may know how hard it can be to get a photo of everyone.

We deserved a lunch out after that for sure. Just in the square we went to a bar called Oscars. They did lovely food. Hubby and I had a Chicken Curry and the kids had Chicken goujons with chips/mash potato. On the way home they both had a little power nap. We passed Johnstown Garden Centre where I sneaked in to see if I can find some Christmas tree branches for my advent wreath while hubby was waiting in the car. It’s impossible in Ireland for some reason unless you go into a forest. Instead of going out empty, I decided to pick up an artificial wreath. It worked out well in the end. I could still decorate it the way I want it and I never have to worry about sourcing branches each year.

The coming weekend we are planning to put the Christmas tree. When I collected the kids from creche today, we spotted a house that was covered in blue lights. Matthew pointed it out to me and said “Look at all the lights, we need to put up the decorations”. So I agreed with him that we are going to do it at the weekend. I can hardly say no to a four year old.

How did your weekend go? Did you do anything festive yet?