It was a beautiful, sunny day for "Canada Day" in Ireland. The girls wore their Canada shirts from last summer, and we went for a walk to the park with Luana & Tali & Simi.
This is our children's play park in Passage West.
There are some cute kids there!
Like this one!
And these two!
A few days later, we drove up to Dublin to collect our very own Canadian visitor!
Our friend Jim from Prince George, B.C. We brought him back to our house and the girls absolutely loved him!
He even brought them gifts!
Did I mention his mom owns a toy store?
He brought them fabulous stickers, paper, jigsaws, games, etc.
He did have to help assemble the jigsaws though!
No, Caitlin did not do that one by herself!
We took Jim to Kinsale to see Charles Fort. It was the first time Joel and I had actually gone in to tour the fort.
This feels slightly "posed" to me!
Hm, who could she have learned that from?
Yes, that is blue sky!
There were some dark rooms to explore...
With lovely views if you went all the way in!
The tourists!
It was a gorgeous day for sight seeing!
A view of Kinsale.
The girls.
We also took Jim to one of our favourite spots ... Gougane Barra. And, as I write this ... I now realize that this was meant to be our new "Prayer Card" photo ... and I forgot all about it! Shocking, I know ;-(
Jim and Joel :-)
Looking for fish?
Skipping stones maybe?
The poser at the doors of the church :-)
We also went up through Healy's Pass. Stunning views!
I think I took this one from the boot of the car.
I stayed in the car with Caitlin. It was misting out and this was not exactly the best place to let Caitlin out to wander around!
Note the cliff side!
In July, we also hosted a BBQ for the summer T.I.M team ("Training in Mission"). Our friend Eloi helped to get the food started when Joel was late getting back. The T.I.M team had come to Passage West to help the local "Tidy Towns" group clear out a garden bed at the walking/cycling path.
We had volunteered to feed them after all their hard work.
There was a lot of food, but that team came back very hungry and exhausted!
Ah yes ... July also brought ... potty training for Caitlin!
Whilst Joel & Emma participated in the summer scheme for "foroige" (a nationwide youth organization that Joel volunteers for here in Passage West), Caitlin was home with me, potty training! She was seriously a star I have to say! Did I mention that Emma had the chicken pox the week before, and that Caitlin got them the week after this photo? Praise God the potty training went
well and that it was "fit in" between!
August, 2014
In August, Joel and Shane organized for "Coaching 4 Christ" to come and put on a soccer camp in Passage West. One of the newest Cork & Kerry church plants, in Youghal, had this organization run soccer camps for them over the past few years with fantastic success and outreach to that community.
We had a few children from our church in Douglas come, but also a few from Passage West as well. We were thrilled with the turn out for the first day! One of the fellas who had been involved in Youghal's soccer camp from the beginning, thought we had an excellent turn out for our first year (we hope to do the same camp again this summer, 2015).
Joann and Clare and I did registration. We held the soccer camp at the local secondary school here in Passage West.
The school allowed us to use their soccer pitch. The "coaches" (or "trainers") came down from Northern Ireland and we had a few helpers from Douglas Baptist as well each day. Joel and I were actually hosting 5 lads from the youth group at our home for a "Mini Camp" to coincide with soccer camp as well.
Emma participated as well.
"Coaching 4 Christ" did a fantastic job! They were very professional and organized.
Each day, there were drills to begin with.
A short devotional challenge given during the break (Joel & Shane traded off doing the challenges).
Emma had a fantastic time!
Each day, we grew in number as some of the community children started to invite their friends after "checking us out" first themselves.
The boys loved that there were drills set up and that they got to play a match at the end of the session too.
Emma even started to show a bit more "competitiveness". Joel was thrilled to hear her defend herself against one of the older boys who tried to take her place as "keeper" in goal!
The two boys from her class in school (who both live in Passage) came and they loved it!
Each child received a medal on the last day, and they were each placed on a team for a "World Cup" set of matches.
Emma's team ... "Team France" won 1st place! All in all, it was a fantastic soccer camp, and we are praying that this summer would work out to hold it again, and that even more children from Passage would come out to it. We will probably still be in Canada on home assignment ... but, we haven't told Emma that yet!?
In August, we took a few days to squeeze in some family days before Emma (& Caitlin!) started school.
We had purchased a family pass to Fota Wildlife Park, so we went back there again.
The pass got us into Dublin Zoo as well. While we were there, a baby elephant was born!
The girls were thrilled to see "it" (I can't remember if it was a "boy" or a "girl")
Emma took this picture of a giraffe.
And she took this photo of her super happy family!?
There was a new "Monkey Island" area to the zoo we hadn't seen before.
The gorillas weren't super excited to see us!
At the shopping centre, the girls were very excited to see that the train was back!
They went on it, of course.
We spent a couple of hours at "Pirate Village". Its made up of bouncy castles, pirate ships, and slides!
Even Caitlin seemed to like the slide on the smaller bouncy castle!
And they had added new "pay for each go" rides as well!
Emma went with Caitlin.
Then Caitlin went on her own (with coaching from the side by Daddy).
Emma went on this contraption!
And loved bouncing way up high!
Then, it was back to Cork for her first day of "Senior Infants" (aka "Grade One").
My little girl sure is growing up fast :-(
The girls on a Sunday morning showing off their new "bible bags" from Auntie Del!
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