Second Party in as Many Days

So Johnny had a few friends over today to make Valentine's.

He's funny. I can't always tell ahead of time what will be important to him.

Sheila and I were both out and about leading up to the party (Maggie and I worked together out of the house so that I could do a little Vday shopping myself and to give Sheila a little alone time to get some work done) so we hadn't had time to decorate before the kids got home. I walked Johnny and Abbie and Jessie home after school and Pierce and Oscar met us later (Christina, Dennis and Dylan couldn't make it).

The girls were darling. Abbie is a little girlie-girl and reminded Sheila of Ingrid back home. Jessie is a total tomboy. She plays Gaelic football (just known as "football" here) whereas Abbie does dance and her sister does Irish dancing. They were remembering things they had done in kindergarten in the park like a "teddybear picnic" and letting tadpoles loose in the stream.

They also talked about what they were giving up for Lent (notice the smudges on their foreheads. I guess a teacher, not the priest, distributed the ashes). Jessie's giving up Xbox.

;-)


Once home, they goofed around a bit while Sheila and I set up a little Valentine station with heart balloons.

Johnny LOVED the heart balloons and basically went apoplectic if either a) they were moved or adjusted or b) popped

Oscar and Pierce came over and they all had a blast eating cupcakes, making valentine's and playing outside. At one point a balloon went over the wall in the yard and everyone climbed over to see what there was to see.

At one point they were sort of stuck over there. A stone had come loose in the wall and uncovered (so I heard) a bunch of worms!  I heard Jessie say to Johnny "C'mon John! It's just a bunch of worms! Get home!!"

I was worried that the owners of the land next door would freak about kids in the yard but when the couldn't get back over he just helped them out with a ladder.

Valentines for the birds!

I wish this picture had turned out better... The whole "over-the-wall" series for that matter. It was darling.

At the end of the night Abbie's mom (Ann Marie) came to pick up the two girls. She was great. When asked if she wanted a glass of wine she replied that it was "too early" for her and I told her about our much-used American saying: "It's noon in Ireland!"

She claimed she had not heard it!

We closed the night with Sheila's first at-home attempt at aubergines!

Delicious!