This weekend the weather was great, so while husband and eldest watched Important Rugby Match undisturbed, I took the two younger boys to Rinville and let them run around a bit.

We parked on the road, walked across the field to the Big Stone, then took the path to the right to the playground, it goes over a small river and past the old castle. The playground is on the left and is enclosed and sheltered. The play ground was unsurprisingly quiet, just a few people. So the boys had free region.

Large Play Structure

They decided on a timed obstacle race around the larger structure, this involved: climbing up on green side, sliding down the slide, up the blue side, down the fireman’s pole. Then a dash up the hill, through the tunnel, finally down the hill completed the race. Amazingly enough both boys completed it in the same time After a few more races, we headed back by leaving the playground from the gateway opposite the entrance and heading back past the lake, through the forest coming out at the Big Stone. We’d completed the circle.

Flying Kite

The Fields are perfect for kite flying, but we didn’t bring one today. We had one a few months ago and flew it to success! Rinville is so close to home we forget that we don’t have to go too far to have a great afternoon out!

Yesterday we had the pleaure of meeting Carole Neylon and Ger Mills from the Meningitis Trust, who won our 2010 Mykidstime Charity of the Year poll.  They were filling us in on the some of the events they have planned for later in the year, including highlighting World Meningitis Day on April 24th.

Jill Holtz, Mykidstime.ie and Carole Nealon, Meningitis Trust Ireland

If you’re thinking of running in any mini-marathons this year or doing any other fund-raising, we ask you to remember the Meningitis Trust.  If you would like to volunteer at any of their events or help out in any other way, you can join their group on Facebook as well (search for Meningitis Trust Ireland).

We will keep you posted on some of the great events they have planned!

Jill

Last week we were in movie-mode.

On Monday we went to see the new Disney film, “The Princess and the Frog”.  Two mums and 3, 4, 6 & 8 year-olds with us.  I quite enjoyed the film, the heroine, Tiana, was nicely feisty and I liked the fact that she had a dream about opening a restaurant and was determined to fulfil that dream.  She meets a frog who is really a Prince who has had a voodoo spell cast on him.  Oprah Winfrey does a turn as “Eudora”.  The voodoo scenes were a little scary, but no more so than any Disney film, so all were happy out.

Then a friend of ours gave us “My Neighbour Totoro”, a film by Hayao Miyazaki, from Studio Ghibli.  We have seen other films by Miyazaki, e.g. Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Whisper of my Heart.  I have to say that My Neighbour Totoro is going to become a family favourite, we have already watched it twice.  And the animation blows away the Disney film by a wide margin.  MNT is the story of two girls, Satsuke and Mei who move house with their father, a professor of Anthropology.  It transpires that their mother is ill in hospital, and as the story unfolds, and they settle into their new home, Mei discovers and befriends a large furry creature living within a huge tree nearby, “Totoro”.

There was a mildly scary bit near the start of the film when they are moving into their new house and discover soot sprites in the attic, but that’s as scary as it gets.  The rest of the film is endearing, beautifully made and a real treat.

We then went to the cinema again to see the new Miyazaki film “Ponyo”.  I would really recommend this film.  It is so different from any other kids films you see at the cinema.  The animation is absolutely AMAZING especially the underwater scenes and the scene of the storm in the middle of the film.  “Ponyo” is about a little boy, Sousuke, who finds a goldfish at the beach.  This turns out to be a magical sea mermaid/princess type figure who he nicknames Ponyo.  She is desperate to become a human girl to see what it is like.  Her father is a bit odd looking (long hair kind of womanly!), he’s a kind of angry underwater magician/potion maker, trying to keep the sea in balance against human’s pollution and bad treatment of the ocean.  Lots of famous actors have voiced the characters, such as Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett

If you have never seen anything outside of Disney, pixar and the like, expect the unexpected and off-the-wall stories and characters.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Today we went with some friends to Judy Greene Pottery in Kirwan’s Lane, Galway and the 3 girls did some pottery painting.  They could choose from a selection of plain white items: mugs, bowls, round plates, oval plates or little teapots.  You also choose between special paint pens which are quick drying which means you can take the item home to oven bake that day or paints which mean a longer wait before oven baking.  Either way, you are able to take the things home that day instead of having to come back to collect which is great.

All 3 girls chose an oval plate to decorate today and used the paint pens.  Judy was on hand to help and advise (”Don’t forget to sign the bottom of your plates like all artists do”!) and was kind and patient with the girls especially the 4 year old who changed her mind about her design and wanted to start again.

Once they had finished designing and decorating their plates, they all got to go upstairs and see some of the pottery being made in the studio before we went downstairs to collect our wrapped up plates and pay for them.  The cost was 10 euros for a plate (or 8 euros for mugs) and very reasonable in my opinion given the fun they had decorating and the fact that they had something nice to bring home and use over and over.

At home, we put the plates in a cold oven, turned it onto 170 deg C for 30 minutes, turned the oven off and left the oven to cool.  The plates are completely safe to eat from and dishwasher proof as well.

The finished items:

Great fun!

Jill

Am really pleased to announce the arrival of our latest Mykidstime website, dedicated to Sligo, with our usual good information, articles etc for parents.  Well done to Katherine, our Sligo Mykidstimer for all her hard work!

And we hope you enjoy the Sligo website,

Jill

We have two bird feeders, one with nuts, the other with seeds.  I kept finding the nuts one knocked off the tree branch onto the ground and finally observed 2 crows at it one day, helping themselves.  A friend suggested hanging it off a string rather than the branch itself so the crows have nothing to perch on to get at the nut feeder.  Ever since then there’s been no more nut carnage and the smaller birds have been able to get them.

This afternoon after school, my oldest daughter noticed quite a few birds in our garden around the two feeders we have.  She was up in her bedroom at the time which is on the 1st floor and overlooks the garden so perfect for bird watching as the birds don’t notice you up there.

I suggested she get out the binoculars and the Usborne Guide to Birds that we have, to see what kinds of birds were visiting.

This is her mini bird watching survey results (I quote from her sheet that she carefully wrote out):

9th Feb:

Gold finch - feeds on thistle seeds and other weed seeds in open places. Nests in trees. Are about 12 cm.

Goldfinch

Robin - woodland bird that is familiar in gardens.  Sings in winter and spring. “tic tic” is its call of alarm.  Is about 14 cm long

Robin

Chaffinch - found in gardens and wherever there are trees in bushes.  Often seen in flocks on farmland in winter.  Are about 15 cm.

Chaffinch

By the way, we have a resident “Mr Robin” as we call him who chirrups at us when we come out the house at the front to e.g. go to school.  He has taken to flying into our hallway if we leave the front door open and once recently we discovered he had hopped into our back room and was having a nosey about!

Jill

Took my two daughters and a friend’s daughter out to Monivea Woods today, we haven’t been for over a year so thought it was time to pay a visit.

Youngest daughter was intrigued by the promise of taking them to see “The Ice House”.  “What is it made of?”, she asked several times, probably imagining an igloo.

Approach to ffrench family mausoleum

We parked up and walked down the trail towards the Mausoleum.  If you have never visited the Woods here, it’s worth a trip out, even to see the Mausoleum which is a mini castle really and holds the tombs of two of the ffrench family members.

There are several trails leading away from the Mausoleum and we took the one marked The Ice House.  The pine trees in the forest here are amazingly tall, especially when you compared the size of the girls with the trees.

Trees so tall compared to girls!

When we arrived at The Ice House, the comments were along the lines of “Is this a jail, Mum?” as there are iron bars on the doorways so I explained that as far as I knew it was where the ice blocks would have been kept for the Big House nearby (presumably the ffrench family’s house) to keep them cool during the summer. Delighted by the idea of making ice cream in the olden days, we headed back through the woods and took a right at the “crossroads” in the middle and back round to the car.

The Ice House

Is it just my kids or do other children demand snacks after walks?! Luckily I had brought a few nibbles to refuel on the way home.

The Meningitis Trust, Ireland’s support organisation for people who are affected or worried by meningitis.

It was a close run thing and the final votes can be seen here.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote in our poll, we were really delighted with the response it generated.

And we ask you to consider supporting all of the charities on our list, they all rely on donations and they do great work for children and families.

Jill

Hi,

Delighted to announce the arrival of our latest Mykidstime website, dedicated to Cork, with our usual good information, articles etc for parents.  Well done to Noelle, our Cork Mykidstimer for all her hard work!

And we hope you enjoy the Cork website and don’t forget you can switch region to region on the left hand side of the homepage under your region!!

Enjoy…