follow-up to “oh the age of three” (see below)

‘nuf said

Sheepshearing Festival

We had a lot of fun at the sheepshearing festival at the Gore Estate in Waltham.

Before, a wooly Jacob Sheep – - – - – - – - – - After, a cold and skinny Jacob Sheep!

the wool

Finn and Aidan heading to the tent to see the sheep get their hair cuts.

even these very hairy goats get shorn

My favorite part of the day was watching the Border Collies at work, a demo from Wellscroft Farm.  We saw these guys two years ago at a very rainy Irish Music Festival in Blackstone Valley:

http://beverlymurphys.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

 

Oh the age of Three

I was getting out a bunch of spring/summer stuff from Finn’s closet the other day and came across these shorts. They are, as you can see, bright turquoise with sharks on them (keep in mind, neither of these attributes should endear them to young Finn).  They are actually boxer shorts, size 4/5 that I think we somehow picked up in a hand-me-down pile from Leo. Finn has fallen in love with an item of clothing for the first time. It all started when he wanted to put them on before bathtime. I suggested we put them on after bath, seeing as how he was suppose to be getting naked not dressed. After bath he ran into his room and put them on. However, he then saw that I had already got pjs out and asked if he could put the pj bottoms on first and then the shorts on over them. So that way “I can still see them.”  Seeing no harm, I said yes. He has worn them every night since, in that same fashionable way. Luckily, he is still accepting the “you can’t wear them over your pants during the day because they might get dirty” line. He was especially excited about the combo featured above because “it’s all animals.”  I wish I had a picture from tonight’s get up.  He has got on the same bear top but the pj bottoms are bright red covered in trucks, and then of course the sharks on top. Lovely.

Finn drives the digger

a whole bunch more from our trip!

true beauty – view from the farm in Bawneshal

just what those boots are for!

The Harrington walk – perfected at the age of 3!

What could be better than playing tractor bingo with Denis and Tessie??!!

Literally hopping with excitement

 

Nana love

Stevie love

It’s just that beautiful

Life lessons – she peed all over him about two seconds after this picture was taken!

Washing boots

“skipping” stones at the beach – we really needed Allan!

Finn and yellow have a moment on the pier in Schull

Farm chats

OK so Ellen is totally right, I love the farm as much as if not more than Finn! Especially the red tractor!

We’re home! Allan and Finn had a picture perfect reunion with Finn running through the doors of customs right into his arms. It was great. We also had an apple and a pear confiscated from our bag by a very nosy little beagle. Never had that happen before. Then all Finn could say was “I want my pear back.” Mean old beagle. Good thing we didn’t have any KerryGold hidden away!

Plane ride back was fine. Luckily shorter than anticipated we arrived about 45 minutes early although a very bumpy decent which Finn did not enjoy. But he fell asleep just about when I was starting to think I couldn’t entertain him for 3 more hours. He then slept for approximately 2 hours which made things much smoother! 

Here are a few from a stop in Balleydehob on Monday. Will try and post more tonight (including video of Finn driving Uncle Denis’s digger! Stay tuned!)

using the self-timer at the Balleydehob bridge. Finn loved all the “silly” names of the towns and renamed Balleydehob Balleyde”hop” so we hopped across the bridge.

thanks to Uncle Stevie for some beautiful shots of the bridge!

 

 

more farming fun

We got Finn an “Uncle Denis” hat at Auntie Helen’s shop much to his delight.

This is my favorite photo so far:

Happy Birthday Grandad! We had a great party last night for Grandad’s big 6-0. It was lots of fun and Finn stayed up very, very late!

Day 3 = Uncle Stevie is here = hooray!

The busy streets of Skibereen…

make somebody very happy!

perched atop Uncle Stevie’s shoulders for the view

enjoying some Bob Marley courtesy of Uncle Stevie’s itouch – took awhile to figure out he had to stay close to me to keep the ear phones in!

we had a nice visit with Nana Ellie and Finn shared his new tractor book with her.

and lots of fun (and some mischief) was had with Stephen and James

another great day!

Farmer Finn

It was a dream come true – a visit to the farm to see Uncle Denis and Auntie Tessie.

You can imagine the questions Finn had for Uncle Denis – including did he have any pink cows that made strawberry milk. (we decided that it comes from the white cows with red spots)

Finn meets an Aberdeen Angus calf born yesterday! Denis has given me a good deal on three of them and we are shipping them home. Get the garden ready Allan!

Inspecting the milk.

(more pics from the farm to come – stay tuned)

Ending the day with a bubble bath.

Giving daddy a call from the bath phone.

It

First Day Fun

Despite declaring he did not want the plane to go up in the air, Finn managed very well on the flight. Lets hope going home we are just as lucky! Here he is before take off having a moment with yellow blankie.

Fun outside with Nana and Auntie Kana

Ahhh. The view across the road. There are tons of sheep grazing across the street. Apparently we should expect to be woken by their baa’ing at 5:00am!