Delighted to announce the arrival of our latest Mykidstime website, dedicated to Clare, with our usual good information, articles etc for parents.  Well done to Laura, our Clare Mykidstimer!  Tell all your friends and family in Clare!

This Sunday 21th Febrary from 3pm until late there will be a major funraising event for Haiti. All proceed will be donated to the Irish Red Cross efforts in Haiti.

The event is hosted by Bentley’s, The Brazen Head and Isaac Taylor’s in O’Connell Street. There will be entertainment for children - bouncy castle, a balloon artist, face painters, stilt walkers, Capoeira performers, percussion bands and even fire breathers!!

Throughout the day there will be a barbecue buffet with specially prepared foods and tempting delicacies and even a pig on a spit! A top floor ‘healing space’ offers relaxing massages, and there will be appearances by local comedians, personalities.  Maybe even a celeb or two!!

People attending the event will be asked for a voluntary contribution on the door and all proceeds will be donated to The Irish Red Cross to help with their efforts on the ground in Haiti.

Bentley’s Courtyard:

From 3pm, we will be using The Courtyard of Bentley Barkers as the main stage for the day.

Acting ringmasters for the day will be Jon Kenny of d’Unbelievables, playwright Mike Finn and actor Myles Breen.

3pm    The Downtown Dixieland Jazz Band

4pm    Live Magic Show with Terence Andrews

5pm    The Varadys

6pm    Shannon Bangla Group

7pm    Drea

8pm    The O’Malley’s

9pm    The Funk Junkies

10pm  The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra 

11pm  Walter Mitty and The Realists

12am  DJ Tom Fitz

The Brazen Head

From 6pm, The Brazen Head will open its doors and house more great bands, such as The 54 Club and Joe Browne and The Durty Dawgs and The Half Yards. .

The Piano Bar

From 7pm, The upstairs piano bar in Bentley’s will open up, Nick Carswell will kick start proceedings and give way to Steve Hanks and many other Jazz cats throughout the night. 

Isaac’s Bar

From 9pm, Issac’s Bar downstairs will start hopping to the sound of Limerick most well respected DJ’s, The Roots Factory crew, Paul Tarpey, Tokin White Boy, and Jon Greenwood to name a few.

The Board Room

On the top floor of Bentley Barkers, there will be a space dedicated to relaxing in a calm environment with complementary massage therapists on hand to guide you to full relaxation, and even a Sitar player to keep the mood nice and vibey.

When the healing is done and the good vibes have all been dispersed, a troupe of Traditional Irish Musicians will take over the top floor and get a good old session going

Have you visited the exhibition “Seen but not Heard”, an exhibition of childhood  at the Limerick City Museum. We went there one afternoon. Its describes childhood in the not too distant past. But  it shows children of today the vast difference between even our childhood and theirs. Have you ever told your child that you only had black and white television with one station and childrens programmes were not available 24/7 to see the incredulous look on their face. How did we survive?

It was when I talked to the curator that I realised that there is a school pack  with activity sheets which we did when we returned home - but I recommend to view it and download some of the activites and work sheets like “Being a Curator” and the “Guessing Game”  to get more out of the exhibition. It also has some “Games from Long Ago” and “Making a Time Line” you could get the kids to do when they get home. There is a questionaire (these are for the Facilitor) but the kids could use to ask their Grandparents or parents to compare the difference of childhood between the different generations.   If its not too busy as the Curator to show you the “touchable objects”.

The event is free and open from 10am to 1pm and 2-15 to 5pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays and running until mid April.

Can you work out what the mystery object is in the display case?

We are very busy here - barely two weeks gone since Cork was launched and we have another Mykidstime website launched. This time to Sligo with our usual good information, articles etc for parents.  Well done to Katherine, our Sligo Mykidstimer for all her hard work! We hope you enjoy the Sligo website!

Helen

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,

Helen

Hi all,

Went to the opening show of the Circus De Legume last night with my DS age 7. It was hilarious! Although DS was the only child there he really enjoyed it and gave it 10/10. Without giving too much away  it’s about two idiot performers who try to put on a Cirque- du Soleil-type circus show using nothing but a chair and a box of cast off vegetables. Check it out - I’m sorry we didn-t wait for the matinee as I think a group of childrens reaction to the show will be fantastic!

Show Thurs 28th @ 8pm/ Fri 29th @ 6pm/ Sat 30th @ 1pm/ Sun 31st 2pm (Cecil
Street)
 There are also other family orientated shows on

THE LORDS OF STRUT – Street Theatre on Thomas Street, two men in leotards
Fri 29th @ 1.30pm/ Sat 30th @ 12 noon & 2pm
LOONEY TUNES – Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and others, with a
live orchestra playing the sound track
Sat 30th @ 3pm (Cecil Street)
See you there!

Helen

Last Saturday night we went to the Cinderella Panto at the Salesian College. The Transition year hosted the show and it was brilliant. The ugly sisters stole the show, they worked brilliantly together – but I believe this is their normal carry on and the show was picked with them in mind, poor teachers! They gave the ugly sisters a new look of purple bob wigs and mini dresses. At one part of the act they  came through the audience looking for men causing riots of laughter.

Cinderella was sweet but not too sweet, the Wicked Step mother was wicked! The fairy godmother in glittery silver shorts and a child’s tutu worked brillantly.The jokes were new and funny. The music and dance was fantastic – need I go on. It was a good night of laughter and not a dull moment.

Check out your local shows in your area – they are as good as the professional shows and for €30 for a family good value for money.

We went to Dublin for the mykidstime.ie Christmas party - it was great to meet everybody and put faces to names and to meet all the newbies - I’m a seasoned mykidstimer at this stage! Anyway we decided to make a weekend of it. After reference mykidstime.ie events for Dublin, of course, we had picked out places we wanted to go to.

Friday we visited The National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks. Although I really would have like to go to the original building (memories from my childhood ) Collins Barracks was fantastic! The Dead Zoo though somewhat smaller display had my 7yr old DS enthralled and had to complete the work sheet before we moved on.

The next section Soldiers and Chiefs, Easter Rising, Blaze Away and Garrison Life was right up my DS alley. Soliders, army, 2nd world war, guns, anything and he is gone ….. Had to drag him out for a coffee stop!

After a coffee stop we went to the other section to follow the Heritage trail work sheet.

Overall a really good day out Entrance Free, Free parking or the Luas stops outside. The visit could be split into two days for the amount to be seen.

On Saturday after the party we headed to Kilmainham Gaol. There was a waiting period of 40 minutes for the guided tour but this was easily spent in the museum which was very interesting. The tour approx 1 hour long was fasanating and the guide was great. It is so cold when you enter first and the cold wet Saturday that is was couldn-t possible let you know how miserable those prisioners were. But even when I went to visit it as a child my mother was aware of the bleak surroundings and I wondered why did she brought us children to the museum. DS was a bit anxious entering the building as it is bleak and errie but later overcome this. Alway good to have a children on tours, as he was first to spot the nameplates high up over the doors of the famous people of who stayed in the different cells.  Overall a very interesting tour - family pass €14 good value for money.

With those two trips taking up most of our days we had very little time to do anything else on our agenda. Need to organise another trip to Dublin.

Helen