But, typical to Orry, things get out of hand...
And, if you were wondering, this is how it gets out of hand:
Rather bewilderingly, this is something which Orry now does every time he gets on the sand. He bends down and shovels the sand around with his head and face. There's nothing that we can do about it, as frustrating as it is - as with so much with Orry, we sit back uselessly and admire Orry's wilful naughtiness!
Trips to the seaside took a new turn in June, and Orry's life changed forever: the local ice cream shop started to stock coconut milk ice cream. So it was that for the first time in Orry's life, he was able to have more than just his "ice cream" (the cone only) and had the white thing on top too! It was very touching to see how excited Orry was - not in a showy way, but in a inner glow of happiness and joy - he was obviously felt very privileged and special to be allow to ice too this time. And he loved it!
Finn liked the special trip to the ice cream shop too!
Finn, seemingly like most of Peel, was very excited by the appearance of a 'Pirate Ship' a the harbour. Cori heard about the Russian ship and thought to go and take a look. They were delighted to find that they were allowed on to take a good look, which was very exciting for everyone.
Orry continues to be a lovely smart little fella, often surprising us in what he decides to do and what he can do. We will often find Orry gone quiet and working on something - frequently patterns or constructions like this beautiful thing:
This same sort of thing is also in something like his making this pattern on the floor (even though he ends up baffling us all by what he was actually hoping to create):
However, Orry's general cleverness does have its drawbacks, such as his finding that heap of toys you've been stockpiling in a hidden place for use as future gifts:
It also means that his fine problem-solving skills makes the stool a good tool for being naughty...
With this new-found tool/trick of Orry's, we were plagued for about a week or so by the trail of one-bite-taken fruit sneaked from the fruit bowl:
Very annoying!
The second half of June was dominated by a trip to Northern Ireland, but before getting onto that, here are some quick notes on things we got up to...
A trip to Laxey:
Admiring our friend Becky doing the Parish Walk from the comfort of our front room window (here she is completing her walk to Peel from Douglas via the Southern Parishes, with her daughter joining her to steal the admiration!):
A post-school trip stroll in the Arboretum searching for the Gruffalo characters:
Carnage in the playroom when they're in a reckless mood and we let them play by themselves for a while:
The beginning to flourish of the plants potted outside our door, including some sunflowers which are leading the way:
Finding a Manx cat to chase around town, and even through a pipe:
Enjoying the tea set at the latest This is Summer exhibition at the House of Manannan:
Testing out the colouring section of the exhibition we've been working on getting ready to open to the public:
Playing in the Boat & Balls, even when it means that you're unable to possibly come to eat breakfast!
Admiring the seagull babies growing up into little balls of fluff on the roofs of the houses around us:
But, Northern Ireland!
With the prospect of going to America in the Summer for Uncle Matt's wedding, we were faced with the prospect of having to get a new American passport for Finn. (Children's passports last for five years, we got Finn's when he was about two days old, and American Citizens are required to enter the US on their US passports). We had to visit a US Consulate to get it done, and we had the choice of either London or Belfast, so we went with the one we didn't know.
To keep costs down, we went by boat (which was very exciting for Finn and Orry)...
... which meant that we were at the mercy of the boat's timings, which meant that we had to be in Northern Ireland for about four or so days around the appointment. So we had a very pleasant holiday, including...
... Excellent Museums in Belfast:
We thought the Ulster Museum was excellent, but the boys most enjoyed the Titanic Museum. This was especially so for Finn, as he so enjoyed the ride around the docks in the train-thing:
... And we also hired a car for the day and drove up to see the Giant's Causeway, which Finn was excited to see, having read about Finn McCooil and the formation of the causeway so much:
And, whilst in the car, we detoured to see something from Cori's liked TV show, Game of Thrones, which was also just a lovely site:
... Although, we should really admit that it mainly looked more like this with swarms of tourists there, for the same reason as we were!
All in all, a lovely trip (and, incidentally, our first holiday since moving to the Isle of Man):
The other major event for June would have been Cori's driving test...
Lots of practising had gone into learning to drive smoothly on Manx roads with the automatic car, including some work in the carpark in St. John's:
This was all leading up to this moment - Cori in the car with the instructor about to set off on her test (and us inside admiring it all on the TV screens!):
... However, it was at this point that we discovered that our insurance forms for the car had the wrong number plate on, and so the tester was unable to carry out the test, and Cori returned crestfallen to us all. It was a big shame, especially as she had built herself up for it all and was hopeful of passing and having it all done with. However, it did mean that we were able to go and have a cup of tea and our packed lunch at the horse tram terminus, which was at least nice for the boys!
And, as the sun sets on this blog update, here is a sunset as seen from our windows in June:
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