On the Beach of N. Bull Island, Co. Dublin

Hill Climbing at Merrion Square Park on a Saturday Morning

Talking with my Dy-ee

Here I am having conversation with my Dy-ee on the phone this morning. He's in London, you know. Just for the day. He misses me so.
Now I'm off to the library for story time (after mummy's done my hair). Such a busy life!!
Lots of love,
Ava Sage
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sunday Walk in Massey Wood then Two Bakers in the House

Spring!

Welcome to Dublin, Grandad!

We were extremely happy to have Grandad visit us in Dublin.

Note from Liam: "I love you, Grandad! You are the best soccer player EVER!!!"

Note from Ava: "I love Bob!!!" (as in the Builder).

This sign needs cleaning!

Our neighborhood super-hero "Sporticus" decides the Herbert Park sign across the road from his hideout needs a proper cleaning.

Liam's Easter Concert. A Scone at Phoenix Park. And, an Afternoon Walk at Powerscourt House & Gardens, Co. Wicklow.

It is the Easter holiday so Liam has two weeks off school and Tom has a long weekend. Recent events include Liam's Easter concert at Herbert Montessori where he portrayed in song Bottle # 2 in "10 Green Bottles Standing on the Wall"; Ava's full recovery from chicken pox; the arrival of better weather in Ireland; and the loss of Lisa's Auntie Joyce in England. We are preparing our Dublin flat for Neil's/Grandad's arrival on Sunday night. Liam in particular is beside himself in anticipation of the return of his Grandad for morning, afternoon and evening soccer matches.

St. Patrick's Day

Sunday evening at home in Dublin...

Happy Birthday, Lisa!!!

Mrs. Harry Potter and Local Graffiti Artists

Ava Sage secretly borrowed Liam "Harry Potter" Wilson's glasses tonight. Earlier today, the two graffiti artists attacked our neighbor's temporary boarding to make a construction site (and our side-house view) more visually appealing.

Aussie socceroos (thank you mamma and grandad!) with chicken pox thrown in.

Namaste from south India

A week's work: Mumbai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Chennai, 9 airplanes and 3 masala dosas.

Subjugated in Sligo!

Ah, road trips with kids.

Great idea. Rough implementation.

This weekend proved it. We drove from Dublin to Sligo and back. What do Lisa and I remember? "Dad, are we there yet?" Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!" Desperate quests for food. And, the list of mental challenges goes on and on. If we properly reflect, we might recall slight visions of magnificent waves to surf and cairns to climb. But as we write this on a Sunday evening at the end of our Clark W. Griswald weekend, we find it hard to do anything but sit, stare at the TV and hope Ava and Liam go to sleep early.

From our Dublin home,

Tom & Lisa, the subjugated parents that we are tonight

Charity Party at Herbert Montessori

Liam's school hosted a charity party this morning for Support an Athlete Ireland.

View Us from Outer Space!

For those of you who worship Google Earth (big brothers!!!) here are our coordinates in Dublin.

Happy Birthday, Liam! Kah-Chow! xx oo Lightnin' McQueen

Lisa prepared a Lightnin' McQueen birthday cake for Liam. Here are pictures of Liam and Ava wearing their costume masks.

Mark's Dad told us that penguins are six feet tall in the Falkland Islands!

Uncle Mark from Australia and the Falkland Islands visited us for three days this month.

Forget the update, CHECK OUT LIAM'S NEW SOCCER CLEATS!!!

It has been three months since we have had access to our iBook; thus, we were unable to quickly post to this blog. Lisa has been extremely patient whilst we've battled the local telcom, Eircom, and SkyTV. Customer service is absent in Ireland. As of today, we finally have broadband access and cable TV (Liam and Ava have Playhouse Disney while Lisa and I have BBC's Trinny and Susannah back in our lives). Enough said.

Liam, of the four of us, is thriving the most. With uniform, he attends Herbert Montessori five days a week from 8:30am through 1pm. It's a pleasure to see him so happy there. As a result of his exposure to local accents, his voice is occasionally rather, well, English... I dare say. Ava is a long, lean fighting machine. Her language is advancing even though she insists on calling everyone "Mummy."

The Irish weather continues to challenges us. January saw me ill with a chest cold for the entire month. Lisa rises above it all as she is looking very good. We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in Janaury. And, can you believe it, Liam turned 4 years old on 3 Feb.

We've spent our weekends in Dublin. As Portlanders, we were desperate to source a farmers' market and we finally have a good one to visit on Sunday mornings just 5 minutes drive from our house. Oh, yes, our house. I will try to post a Google Earth link so you can see where we sleep. Meanwhile, here is our address: 8 Clyde Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 Ireland.

Be well.

From far afield,

T. Wilson

Dia duit from Ireland!

Hello or "dia duit" from our new domicile: Dublin, Ireland! Lisa, Liam and Ava crossed eight time zones via air to join me here for good; having landed on 22 Nov 06, my 41st birthday. The following weekend we were fortunate to reunite with Helen, Richard, Aaron and Lara here. This makes the 4th country where the lot of us have met: the U.A.E., Australia, America and Ireland. As Liam put it, their 2.5 days with us was a "paaaaaarty!"

Oh, and the Guinness here is, well, Guinness. Love it.

of butterfingers, pixi stix, holden the lion, bob the builder and "boo" the jaguar...