It began by a trip to the Curragh in Ballaugh - a place we'd never been to before, but Granny showed us how to find our way in. It was very beautiful, even if we didn't happen across any wallabies:
The day after the Curragh was Easter. We had our normal Easter Egg hunt around the house, wherein lots of eggs were found!
This year we added an extra event for Easter, having been invited to a friend's to their big Easter event of food & chat inside & easter egg hunting mayhem outside. It was a lovely thing to be at and we all had a lovely time (even if Orry had an unfortunate potty training horror when happily playing in the toy room on his own. However, despite the smell, nothing was harmed except for his own clothes and we had spares to save the day!)
Inevitably with us, we were amongst the last to leave, as we were chased out towards the same event; the Shennaghys Jiu concert in Ramsey at which Finn's dance group were performing. He was as excellent as always, but it was especially pleasant to get to join in with him in the ceili which followed. Finn sometimes claims not to enjoy the dancing and tries to get out of doing particular dances in order to hang out with friends, but he was so excited to know the dances in the ceili and especially to do them with me. It was great fun. It was a shame that it was late by this time, and Finn was eventually stumbling around half-asleep on his feet in the Mheillea circle dance. But we got him back to the car and he happily fell asleep on the drive home. A lovely time out:
(Apologies for the dubious description to the picture - at least the photographer was close-ish!)
Fine potty work continued from Orry in April, though, now that he's so excellent at it, it is increasingly odd that he's going in the potty in the living room or his bedroom rather than the toilet itself. Perhaps it is due to how much more fun it is to be amidst everyone and all his toys...!
During half term the Museums had the great idea of running a Lego treasure hunt, searching for Lego figures in their two museums. It got Finn and Orry very excited to go to them (even if they didn't actually engage with anything in there!) and they had a great time hunting down the figures:
Before leaving the Manx Museum in Douglas Cori was momentarily distracted near the shop. She turned around to Orry in full Viking outfit and egging on Finn to dress up for battle too. And so it was. Ridiculous!
It was a week or so after this that I took them off to the Laxey Wheel, which was, as ever, a great hit with Finn. However, Orry was under the weather and walked around in a zombified state. He was heavy carrying when up the hill looking at the mine entrance etc.!
We'd had our packed lunch on the beach before, which was a first for us. And a very lovely beach it was too, even if there were rather too many flies in the seaweed line. A great place to slide about on rocks, or throw them to crack. Or, if you're Orry, to slump on the rocks in a poorly daze:
April saw more excellent art from Orry, including these wonderful things:
Something?
Something? Clearly a rainbow of some sort
Something?
Another great artistic thing for Orry in April, and a massive phase for a week or two, was making paper dolls. The inspiration came from a book we have, which granny read to him one day when she was looking after him, and then they acted on it in making them. After that, he wanted to make paper dolls non-stop!
These particular paper dolls were the congratulations cards for our friends, David & Leanne, who gave birth to Toby in April. Everyone was very excited to go and visit them and the trip was very promising for July when our own comes along. Finn was very engaged and interested in the baby (and the TV!), and so too was Orry in his own way. Orry refused to touch the baby, but he was concerned about his crying and threw things like blankets or dummies at him in attempts to help. There may be room for improvement, but we're certainly on the right track!
Also on the creative theme, a nice activity which Cori did with the boys was creating 'fairy doors' and other ornaments. The process involved mixing salt dough, rolling, cutting and moulding, cooking, and then painting and re-painting. The results were very good, and the boys loved their ones, especially the named ones!
Cori's 'fairy door' went very nicely next to Finn's toadstool, which he made in class (about which we gave our best impersonations of being very impressed when he brought it home!):
The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot the crosh cuirn over the door here. This is Cori's fine work, but that, of course, came at the end of the month, before which we did a lot, like...
... wear an ace hat...
... dress like dudes...
... go to the Wildlife Park...
... get inspired by friends and invest in whipped cream, much to Finn's joy...
... create the solar system, using a very useful map of how to do it (entirely Orry's idea and doing)...
... Drive around with the window down like a dude...
... and find out what it's like to have your own baby in your tummy:
This was entirely Finn's idea - he only came to us to finally attach the bag of goodies to himself.
There has been a lot of pretending to have babies in our tummies around the house. Orry especially has been adamant that he has a baby in his tummy (and Finn has one in his tummy) just like Cori does. This was a bit from when it was announced, but really from when we started to be able to feel the baby moving inside. Cori would call the boys to feel the baby in her belly, after which Orry would have her feel the baby in his own tummy, explaining its movements as Cori did her own baby. It was very lovely, and especially so when he pushed out his belly for a fuller effect.
There has also been a lot of preparation for the baby, including sorting out the boys' toys and having a clear out...
... fixing the car's boot opening-button thingy...
... Cori splashes out and dyes her hair:
Cori was commissioned to do some work so went off and hid for a few days, leaving me to look after Orry. Unlike when she was in Birmingham in March, the weather allowed us to get out for at least one walk. We had a lovely time of it, getting up above Greeba, a part of the Isle of Man I'd not been before, and I was very impressed by how far Orry walked and how much fun he had with his sticks and the like:
On a recent trip to Granny's Orry decided that he had to borrow the little foam rings from a shooting toy. We weren't sure why he wanted them, and it wasn't too clear when he got home too, but he did make this rather fantastic arrangement over his bed & toys (which looks like flowers lain upon the dead to me!):
Out on an errand after the kids were asleep I finally got to see one of these famous Peel sunsets which we only ever see partially from a window obscured by buildings opposite. It was indeed very beautiful:
We'll save the pretty pictures to last, but the final activity of April is, of course, preparation for Oie Voaldyn (the Eve of May Day), when you have to refresh your crosh cuirn over your doors to protect against evil and bring you luck. We made a few, giving us spare to put over the fairy door (hence the picture earlier) and one for Cori's car, which is nice:
And, to close, here are the pictures we took when I happened to have the work camera on me (as we went to the Villa to see Cori compete in the Guild with her Choir & do very well):
We also went on to see the Saddlestone for the first time (a strange stone in a wall in Barddan, which was left there when one of the Mooinjer Veggey (a Manx fairy) was surprised at being caught having been riding around on the vicar's horse), which gave us the chance to take nice pictures of everyone:
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