Ireland, Day 8

Was woken up this morning by Jack coming in, wanting to sleep with me. Emily had gone downstairs with Kate a little earlier. After a few minutes, Jack showed me a tiny yellow chick he had apparently gotten with his Easter candy. Said, "You must come down, there won't be any left." Very excited and eager. Then: "I'll go get you one, OK?" He disappeared and came back 2 minutes later with a tiny chick. "I got you a chick, Daddy!" Thanks, Jack.

It was Easter, so we were around the house all day. In the morning were Easter Egg hunts. Laura and Niamh hid eggs for Jack and Kate, and it was funny -- everything was easily found. Jack would see one, shriek, and run gleefully over to it. I would see one, screen it from Jack, and call Kate over, who would eventually arrive and dutifully put it in her little basket, even though she had no idea what she was doing or why.

I hid eggs for Laura and Niamh, trying to be clever; putting them in the bird feeder and such. That was fun.

Emily and I went to Easter Mass. Walked out about half a mile and went to a Catholic church that was apparently the oldest continuous church in Kinvara. Standing room only; very crowded. We had a tough time with the sermon given the priest's thick Irish accent, the babies wailing, and the crowd, but it was nice being there anyway.

I think we could essentially call this Trampoline Day, as the kids seemed to spend most of the day out there. All of them. Kate really got into it, running around wildly, falling to her knees, getting up again, falling, laughing. Laura and Niamh bounced up and down holding Kate's hands, which resulted in her being bounced high up in the air. She screamed with laughter.

By the end of the day, it seemed a little bit like the vacation was catching up with them. Jack had a few mini meltdowns, mostly from being tired I think. Kate was failing, too. (When I put her down for a nap midday, she seemed almost grateful, immediately rolling over onto her stomach. I was in there for an extra minute closing the curtains, and at one point she lifted her head to look at me, meaningfully, as though to say, GET OUT - I'm trying to sleep, here.)

A lot of sitting around, drinking wine and tea, talking, taking silly photos. Pretty much what Easter Dinner should be about, I think.

At the end of the day the McArdle kids went off with their Dad and the Richardsons went out in the green, throwing the baseball around and stuff. Jack actually hit a couple, which was very rewarding -- he's mostly used to Tee-ball, so it's a big accomplishment when he hits a pitched throw. Kate picked up one of the balls and ran off away from us; taking her ball and going home, as it were.

When we went in, we went up, gave both kids a bath, and read them stories and sang them to sleep. Then we headed downstairs to watch TV over wine with Robin.