Brendan's 3rd Birthday

Brendan had two of his friends, Mya & Grace, over for a birthday supper and cake.

With our backs only turned for a second, Brendan lifted up the plate with the cake on it an stuffed his face into it. Lets just say every one had a laugh. Especially Brendan.

Here's B in his dinosaur costume. Between the three of them, they tried on every outfit we have. A turtle, dragon, doctor, kangaroo, bumble bee, firefighter and more.

Lets just say that Tadhg loves his smoothies just as much as Brendan.


This is Tadhg playing Brendan's new baby grand piano. Thanks Uncle Phil.

Winter Update

Sorry we've been slow at blogging. As they say, not enough time in the day. Essentially, we are busier than before Christmas. Siobhan is busy with the kids and volunteering for the Fredkid Fair and I'm back at Uni taking three courses while working full time.

Here are a few pictures of the boys playing in the snow.

Snow art... Siobhan gave Brendan a bunch of water spray bottles with a water and food colouring mix. He loved painting pictures in the snow.

Making a snowman.Who's looking good.....Brendan making snowballs then breaking them up.

Out & About

With the idea of trying something new and getting some exercise, I went to the Base Gym and rented some snowshoes for us. So, with the sun shinning and a temperature of -12 degrees, we went for a 50 minute wander through the woodlot.

Siobhan and Tadhg getting a feel for the shoes in the deeper snow.

A quick family picture by the pond.

Once we got back to the car, Brendan even had a go at it. The snowshoes where a little bit too big for him so we didn't want to push him.
Here's a video of Brendan singing. I think future car trips and adventures will be interesting to say the least.

STEAM - Great Western Railway Museum

From Farnham, we had a quick road trip into Swindon so that we could meet up with Emily and the girls. Andrew recommended STEAM and it was a really convenient.

This is me entertaining the young ones while Emily, Rose, Siobhan and Brendan explored under Caerphilly Castle.

Tadhg did well with this activity without any prompting.

As usual, Brendan went exploring in the likes of the garden just outside of the museum. A trait of his which I still love to watch.

Road Trip

We thought these photos were kind of funny. On our road trip from Fredericton to Montreal, we hit some good freezing rain within the first hour of driving. It lasted for a good portion of the trip.

It eventually changed from freezing rain to snow squalls. We essentially had to stop in Saint-Hyacinthe because we couldn't see the road. After a nice leisurely meal, the snow squall blew through and we got back on the road. All said and done, a 8-9hrs trip turned into 13hrs.

Here's a picture of Siobhan felting away in the van before Edmunston, NB.

Stop 1 - Farnham

Our first stop after the transatlantic flight was the Hubbard's house in Farnham, thankfully less than an hour from Heathrow. Despite having got through an inordinate amount of alcohol the night before they managed to thoroughly spoil us with lovely meals, lots of lounging and napping, some delicious meringues, and most importantly some extended family time for Brendan and Tadhg. Here we are having a roast beef dinner (Laura's friend on the right)


While Brendan and Siobhan slept on the sofa by the fire Steve and Tadhg went for a walk with Rose and Andrew across fields and along country roads to the nearest pub for a pint. Steve was in his element... as you can tell from this picture. Back in the UK. Yipeee! Though just give it a week or two and the novelty will wear off again :)
Tadhg found the perfect toy... a large bowl of conkers.

Here's the whole gang having tea and mince pies.

Next stop Yorkshire.

New Years Day

In order to get the full New Years Day experience, Eimear suggested some sledging in the cow fields beside the house. By the time we got sorted, Michael recommended that we go to the golf course at Ampleforth instead of dodging cow pats. Hence, we ended up sledging in the dark.

Catlin and Billy, the first successful sledgers down the hill.

Based on the fact that Uncle Paddy kept wiping out. Here he is with a snow beard.

At first, Brendan was really timid and didn't want to take a run down the hill. Once he saw the gang risk life and limb, we gave it a go and he then wouldn't let me have a break. He would lead me up the hill about thirty feet or so, he'd point to the specific spot and then say, "Dad, we go from here". So here's a picture of us. He even went down solo a few times.

Here's the gang less Brendan. He fell off the bench just before the photo. Don't worry, no cuts, bruises, broken bones or anything else. Just a bad Dad... oops.