A Day in the Life...

This past weekend I relaxed and hung around Stamullen with Natalia and Ioana.  I needed to save up some travel money because..... I'm going to Cork this weekend!!  Hailey and Natalia and I are getting up at the crack of dawn Saturday morning to get into Dublin, get on the 8 am train to Cork and take a 3 hour ride, and finally arrive at our destination around lunch time.  Our plans are to explore Cork on Saturday and then we are going to Blarney Castle on Sunday to kiss the famous Blarney Stone!  Apparently whoever kisses it receives the gift of gab...  Hopefully, I don't receive too much of the gift because I don't think my blog posts can get any longer!

This week the girls started back to school and we've been getting back into the swing of our routine for the rest of the year.  So for the rest of the year, my days generally consist of this:

7:50 am...  My first alarm goes off

8:00 am...  My second alarm goes off and I actually get up

8:20 am...  My commute to work consists of opening my door and taking the 5 steps into the kitchen.  I usually begin the day by cleaning up any dishes from the night before and helping Dave get the girls out the door for school.

8: 36 am.... Dave leaves for work and takes the girls to school.  Yes, they literally leave at 8:36, not 8:35 or 8:40.  And Ruby and Maisy run around the house screaming "Its EIGHT THREE SIX!" before they walk out the door.  Since most of you know I'm not what you'd call a morning person I'm thankful to be left with Pippa for a few hours.  I can't keep up with their energy at that hour.

8:40 am.... Pippa and I have breakfast... yum Cheerios.

The rest of the morning consists of cleaning and playing.  Pippa currently takes a morning and afternoon nap (which I'm not sure she'll do much longer!) so her morning nap makes a nice break time for me.

1:30 pm...  I load Pippa up in her buggy (stroller) and we walk down to the school to get Maisy.  We then hurry back home and Maisy eats a snack very quickly because...

2:30 pm...  The girls and I go back to the school to get Ruby!  Ruby is in 1st class so from this year on she goes to school until 2:30 everyday.  Maisy is only in Senior Infants (think Kindergarten) so she only goes to school until 1:30 pm.  They also wear the cutest uniforms to school.  I haven't made them take a picture yet but I will soon!

3:00 pm... Finally everyone is home and the girls do their homework.  Once I check it they play outside or in the playroom.  Pippa also takes her 2nd nap around this time and I get another mini-break.

4:30 pm... I start cooking dinner for the girls.

5:30 pm...  Its time to clean-up from dinner and usually Dave is home by this time so I'm off!

And if Dave and Ciara are late getting home Pippa usually ends up as the center of a photo shoot:

Pippa's baba

Whatcha doin?

Is this something I can eat?

Make sure you get my good side!

After work I spend my time going for walks, buying biscuits (or cookies) at the shop, making phone calls back home, and generally spending time in child-free zones.

And there you have it, the life of an au pair!  Its not as glamorous as you'd think but at least I do it in Ireland!  Make sure to check back next week for my adventures of kissing the Blarney Stone.  Apparently you have to lean over a wall backwards so it should be interesting...