Easter in Dublin

We went to church at the Immaculate Conception (Adam & Eve) Catholic Church for Easter.  During English rule, the Franciscans secretly said Mass in the Adam and Eve Tavern, where the popular name of the present church comes from.  It was just down the street from our apartment.  It was so beautiful inside.

A picture from the Internet:

But sadly, the service was disappointing.  Surprisingly, there was barely anyone there.  The girls were not in the mood to behave.... which since it was only a 40 minute service, wasn't too much of a headache.  And according to Matt, the hymns were not appropriate for Easter.  I didn't really notice.  It was nice to hear some traditional hymns instead of the honky tonk we have at the church here.  One very nice thing, several people, including a priest sought the girls out after church to give them chocolate bunnies.  Lots of chocolate bunnies.  I think people were surprised to see little girls in church!

After Church, we had brunch at the Queen of Tarts.  It was excellent!  One of the things we miss most in Brussels is a good breakfast/brunch restaurant.  It reminded me of Flying Biscuit, J. Christopers and a handful of other places we've gone to in Roswell minus grits, of course.

After brunch we headed out to see The Book of Kells.  It's not something you can photograph, so follow the wikipedia link above for some pictures.  It is an illustrated book created by Irish Monks ca. 800.

Afterwards, we headed to St. Stephens Green, where I was able to do an impromptu photo shoot with the girls.  It was about 38F outside.  So I had to work quick to get some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses with the added bonus of some tulips as a backdrop!!

 Very Olan Mills-ish, if I do say so myself!

Afterwards, we found a park for some more swinging.....

See how bundled up the girls really were!!  Brrrrrrr!!

After the park, we headed to the National Museum of Archaeology.  Odd choice, you say? It actually rates 3 stars in Rick Steve's book.  And free and inside!!  And it is pretty small, so we were able to do a quick walk thru, escape the cold, warm up for a bit and see some interesting artifacts from Irish history.

We finished off our Easter day at the Brazen Head Pub, the oldest pub in Ireland, also right around the corner from our apartment.  There was some traditional  music playing in one of the rooms.  We couldn't really get a good view of the musicians as it was packed in that particular room, but we were able to hear the music from the room our table was in, and we enjoyed a nice pub dinner.  Not exactly a traditional Easter dinner, but it hit the spot.  And the girls entertained others dancing around, too.

For the rest of my pictures from Easter (mostly photo shoot outtakes), here is my album:  Easter in Dublin

Dublin

We spent 3 days in Dublin, which was the right amount of time...  we arrived pretty early Friday morning, and departed Monday morning.

A good chunk of the first half of Friday was spent getting 3 suitcases, 3 carry-on's, 2 car seats, one stroller, and 2 toddlers to our hotel.  We took a shuttle bus from the airport, and it dropped us near our apartment.  We are hooked on staying in apartments when and where we can.  It gives us more room.  We can put the girls down to bed, and still be able to do something ourselves.  We have a kitchen to keep food cold/hot, and sometimes a much needed washing machine in emergency situations.

After we got settled, we set out on a walk around town.  It was pretty quiet since it was a bank holiday AND the only day you can not buy and/or sell alcohol in all of Ireland.  Me thinks the grocery stores looked like a blizzard/hurricane was coming on Thursday as everyone stocked up to hunker down on Friday.  :)

Our apartment was very close to Christ Church Cathedral.  Unfortunately, due to the holiday, it was not open to the public for viewing inside.

Afterwards, we walked around Temple Bar area a little bit.....it was almost a ghost town!

Since almost all restaurants/pubs were closed due to the alcohol ordinance, we ended up eating fish-n-chips at a little place near our apartment before calling it a night.

We kicked off Saturday at Guinness.  Touring Guinness is much more like a museum then a brewery.  You don't actually see the magic happening.  But it is still very well done.  And it kept the girls fairly entertained.  It's 7 floors, so their enthusiasm wore off around the 5th floor or so.

Playing with the Barley....

Please note Audrey's busted lip in the above picture.  Little Miss Independent decided to march herself through the security scanner at the Charleroi airport with her hands in her pockets (she is OBSESSED with walking around with her hands in her pockets), no less, and tripped on the other side, and busted her lip.  I was still on the other side of the scanner myself, and couldn't go get her....  she was hysterical.  And airport security person picked her up and she was bleeding.  What a scene.  Luckily, just her lip and we soon got her calmed down.  But if going through security isn't already so stressful.....

Anyway, back to Guinness....

Audrey learning she wouldn't be receiving a free sample

Grace posing at the Gravity Bar, as Mommy and Daddy enjoyed their free sample.  Really wished Daddy had hiked up her pants pre-picture.  Oh well.

There are several restaurants on site, so we just opted to have lunch there before heading back to the apartment for everyone's nap.

 After nap, we headed back out exploring and some much needed swinging....

We opted to eat in Saturday night, another advantage of an apartment.... Matt and I were still pretty full from our lunch, it was easy to just run to the store and get something to make for the girls.


Here are our pictures from the first two days in Dublin:  Dublin

Ireland

We decided to spend Easter in Ireland this year.  Grace has two weeks off from school, and Matt gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off, so we decided to make it a week long adventure around the Emerald Isle.

I am going to try and get my Ireland posts done promptly....  and there will be several.....

This is what you have to look forward to:
Dublin
Easter in Dublin
Rock of Cashel
Kenmare and the Ring of Kerry
Dingle
Slea Head Loop Drive
Cliffs of Moher and The Burren
Galway

Hand me Downs

I recently updated Audrey's wardrobe with Grace's 2T hand me downs.

I knew I had a picture of Grace wearing this from about the same age....

Here's Grace at 18.5 months:

And here's Audrey at 22.5 months:

I guess that's about right given the difference in size between these two.

Easter Egg Hunt

The American Women's Club of Brussels held their Easter Egg Hunt this year on the Saturday before Easter Weekend.  It was FREEZING, and started snowing mid-hunt, but the girls enjoyed hunting for their high quality Belgian Easter chocolate.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Ballerina

 Grace started taking Ballet in January.  She really loves it.  She finally got her uniform today at class.  I guess they do socks instead of tights here?  Seems strange.....  and they are kind of big on her, so that just makes it weirder.  Her shoes are still a work in progress.... they brought the wrong size today, so hoping we get a good pair next week.

The hairstyle is a Grace original.

 

 

Snow Days

Tuesday and Wednesday were snow days this week.  Tuesday was legitimately worth calling off school for..... in my humble southern girl opinion.   Wednesday....  hmmmm.....  not so much.  It was icy, though and I didn't want to drive. There were some really angry parents from school.  One father from Norway sent a letter to the school asking if they were running some kind of Florida summer camp!  He could not understand why they would call school off.  I guess coming from Norway, it wasn't even comparable.

Here are some shots of my snow bunnies during our snow days.....

Making a snow angel....

Grace is always posing like this these days.  I don't know if she's trying to be Audrey's height or what, but I can't get it to stop! 

Sisters