Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Paris with the kids :-)

Well, we finally did it! We brought our kids to our absolute favourite place in the world for a week and it was the BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Yep, we brought the boys to Paris! We reckoned they might finally be at the age where they could be brought on the long walks we love taking around the city, into the little bistros and cafes we love to eat at and of course we knew it was definitely time to bring them you know where ;-) Yep Disneyland!!!

Here are a few snaps of our holiday...




We used airbnb.com to rent a lovely 2 bedroomed apartment in Montmartre for the week, it was just gorgeous, really quirky and French with floor to ceiling windows looking out at the buildings and rooftops across the road, we were on a nice quiet street yet a couple of minutes from all the cafes and restaurants and a 15 minute walk from the beautiful Sacré Couer which is where we brought the boys on our first evening. Our middle munchkin, who just loves buildings of every sort, was particularly impressed, and we had beautiful views all over Paris from the top of Montmartre.







The following morning we got the train out to Disneyland. The train journey is only about 40 minutes from the centre of Paris. We decided to get a "4 for the price of 3 day park pass" which had to be used within the week, it gave us the flexibility of going to Disney on the days that suited us and breaking up the holiday with sightseeing on the days we felt like chilling a bit more.















These are just a random selection of snaps of our 3 separate days at Disneyland, we spent the first day at Disneyland Park, the next time we visited we went to Disney Studios and the last visit we revisited our favourite rides in each park aswell as trying some of the few rides we hadn't already been on. The big hits were Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, Crush's Coaster, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the Studio Tram Tower, Ratatouille the Adventure (absolutely brilliant!!!) and of course the brilliant cars and motorbikes stunt show!! 

We went on pretty much everything else too, the weather was amazing while we were there and of course at this time of year Disneyland is really busy but because we have a child with special needs we were given a Priority Card which gave us instant access to all rides and attractions, i.e. NO QUEUEING!!! This was a godsend for us, it meant a really relaxed time, just being able to amble up to attractions stress-free and take relaxed food and drink breaks when needed. Considering the wait time for a lot of the bigger rides was 40-75 minutes this was amazing and very much appreciated, thank you Disneyland!!! 













The days we weren't at Disneyland involved lovely relaxed mornings at the apartment, my eldest and I would go out to the local Boulangerie and bring back pastries for everyone, I loved food shopping in Paris with my biggest boy, he is a fellow-cheese lover and loved browsing all the "smelly cheeses" at the local fromagerie before we decided on a nice mixed platter :-)

It was so much fun showing our boys all the sights, they were thrilled to see the Eiffel Tower and to visit our favourite sweet shop "La Cure Gourmande" where we stocked up on goodies to bring home. My middle son, as I mentioned, is obsessed with buildings and was in awe of the Notre Dame Cathedral and all the other stunning buildings around Paris.

Our boys were fantastic along the long walks we took, interested in everything we showed them and we even found a favourite restaurant with a lovely waiter the boys all got on great with :-) As my eldest said "everyone here is so nice", this just after the local baker gave him a free donut!

It was a really lovely week and I just can't wait for our next trip!

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Howth

Well, the sunshine doesn't last long in Ireland without a break. On Sunday the blue skies started to turn moodier and stormy. This is our favourite sort of weather for a coastal walk, as the colour of the sky and sea can change every second and the clouds moving across the sky can cast such beautiful shadows.

So we decided to go for a walk to Howth, on Dublin's north shore. First we went for a scenic coastal walk and then down to the harbour for a snack and a stroll along the pier and down to the lighthouse.










I love how the sky changes from bright blue with fluffy white clouds, to a steelier blue cloudier sky and then the black storm clouds rolled in. I love how the colour of the sea changed from blue to green to dark steel grey. These photos are from my and my hubby's phone cameras, will definitely be bringing my "good camera" next time. Our boys love these walks too and I like to think they were appreciating the scenery too between bouts of wrestling and annoying the crap out of each other :-)

Friday, July 3, 2015

Beach Life

And the heatwave continues :-)





We're making the most of it while it lasts!