Well the past few weeks have been quite a doozy, with at least one of us being constantly sick. Stomach bug (isaac), colds/coughs/fevers (all of us), ear infection (Rafi), and strep throat (me). We have been quite the MASH unit, and I’m so ready for everyone to be healthy again! Our doctor said it could be that we are exposed to new germs here that are slightly different from home. Isaac’s teacher says we just need “the Irish winter to toofin us up” 🙂 Even the cab driver I’ve met several times has an opinion that we should put onions around the house to suck up all the germs from the air (he swears to it as taught to him by his Irish grandmother). Well, whatever the reason or remedy, I’m hoping we are all finally on the mend.

In the meantime, I thought I’d post a little about our typical weekends around our neighborhood (Clontarf). Even when we are healthy, we tend to take it easy on the weekends. Usually a trip to our nearby coffee place, Insomnia, is on the agenda, and then some kind of walk in the neighbor, whether to nearby St. Anne’s park or by the seafront. Sometimes we go out for brunch too — there’s a cute little place close by called the Bay (overlooking Dublin Bay) that makes yummy brunch foods. Here’s Isaac enjoying his “coffee” (hot chocolate) at Insomnia.

Here we are walking down by the sea a few weeks ago. It was a gorgeous sunny day but windy! We had thought we’d fly the kite but it ended up being too windy, so we just walked along the promenade by the water. You can even see an Easter island statue gifted to the town of Clontarf by Chile for some reason and proudly displayed on the promenade.

Another weekend day was not so sunny and in fact poured rain, so once the rain stopped we went for a long walk in St Anne’s park and splashed in the puddles which was a blast. These photos can give a sense of the rainy misty beauty of a fall day in Dublin.

Isaac even got to experience a kids’ rugby practice. He went with our neighbor and though he mostly just observed, he did pick up the ball a little bit.

Today we went to the nearby town of Malahide and visited the castle grounds. We didn’t go to the castle this time, but ate and shopped in the lovely Avoca store (I had to do some sneaky Hanukkah shopping for the boys while Jeff distracted), and played on the playground there. All 3 boys had a blast!

We also visited the Christmas fair at st Anne’s park (the park right near our house) a few weekends ago where there is a carnival set up and Isaac loved the rides! There was also a bouncy house area which he loved too, and a train ride through the park (which we didn’t do).

So those are some snippets from our past few home-bound weekends. This coming week will be a busy one — Hanukkah starts, Jeff has his work Christmas party, Isaac has his school play, and then on Saturday we head for some sun and warmth in the Canary Islands (Tenerife is the island we will be on). Looking forward to relaxing and playing in the sun!

Here’s one more random photo of a cool poster I saw: