TLDR – Saturday the rain stopped falling so we went to City Center. Sunday we went to Cabinteely park and Carrickmines.

Headed to City Center

A few days ago met.ie predicted 99% chance of rain this weekend. Now it’s 0% chance of rain so we’re out of the house! Asked the kids this morning if they would rather check out city center or go to Bray for the day. Maddex votes city center, Mila said she did not want to leave the house, Roxi told me stop it, and Khaleesi was silent. – Maddex’s one vote was the winner and we’re in city center now.

We made it to Renelagh on the LUAS before the kids annoyed us enough we hoped off. First stop was the play area across the street from the Renelagh stop followed by the play area at Stephens green. Walking out of the park at Stephens green across from Grafton we noticed a large crowd around a tall statue we’ve never seen before – no picture was taken, shame on me- Link to pictures.

I asked some people taking pictures what it was and they said it was The haunting Solidar statue for the world war 1 anniversary. They also mentioned it will be moved around town. Last time we were in town with John and the Mills family they checked out the view from the Stephens Green shopping center parking garage while we used the toilet. We missed the view. Today we took the lift up and checked out the view for our selves. Consensus “Not too bad of a view”.

Then we walked down Grafton street to stop at Flying Tiger Copenhagen to let the kids pick up a toy. Love this shop, they have some entertaining things for cheap that are not total crap like Dealz or Mr Price. Where the shop was a few weeks ago at the end of Grafton we now found a sign telling us it moved to the Stephens Green shopping center we were just in at the start of the street. I guess we turn around. On the way back we better stop at McDonald’s, feed the clan, and use the toilets. Having no income until I start work again we’re on a bit of a budget.

Lunch and some Shopping

We’ve been saving all of our change in 2 liter bottles for the last year. When Maddex last counted the 1 and 2 euro coins we had 373 euros. Before we left the house this morning I had Maddex count out 10€ each for the kids to spend and 30€ for food. Ordered McDonald’s from a person instead of a machine and handed her a pile of change to pay for our lunch. She was thankful to fill up her change buckets. We ate on like third floor all the way in the back at a huge round table with almost no one else around us. It was brilliant! With space and few people to annoy we let the kids take as long as they wanted to finish eating.

We walked back towards Stephens green shopping center next to Grafton street on Clarendon Street to avoid all of the weekend people traffic. Along the way we stopped into Powerscourt center and looked around. Michelle thinks we’ve been in before. I don’t think I have ever been in before, but she might have been in before. They had some nice lights inside worth taking a picture of. “Michelle look cute in front of the lights”

We eventually made it back to the shopping center we started at a few hours ago and found the Flying Tiger. Was cute to see the kids doing math trying to work out if they could afford one toy to two or in Maddex’s case three toys. He bought a notebook with pen, bowling game, and a rubix cube with different sized shapes; odd. The girls ended up with stuffed unicorns, a human-like stuffed doll, a dollhouse-sized shopping cart, and a case of plastic finger rings. – It was enough to keep them entertained on the LUAS ride home so we were not annoyed by our crazy kids on the train.

Cabinteely Park

Sunday, Michelle took a few hours off at home alone, and the kids and I went to Cabinteely park. After the park we met up at with Michelle at Carrickmines to pick up a new plugin radiator for the kids playroom. We were going to do some shopping but it was like full speed xmass shopping and everything was overly crowded. The Millfam and Crowds are not fans of each other + Amazon will deliver to your door = who needs to be bothered with crowds?

The kids and I took the LUAS to Carrickmines stop, then walked about 30 minutes to the park. As soon as we entered the park the kids ran straight across the grass up a hill, laid down in the wet grass and started rolling down the hill. Kids have zero cares about wet grass or mud, they care all about the fun, or that seems to be what my kids spoke with their actions today. We spent an hour or so in the playarea playing on the zip line, in the sand, on the swings and on the obstacle course. – We had some fun

After the park we played frogger across a few roundabouts walking to the shopping area where we met mom at a toy shop. Mom said she went to look for shoes but gave up due to crowds. We decided shopping was out of the question, but we still needed a heater. Woodies had radiators on sale, thanks to Black Friday. We picked up a 2.5kw radiator for 50 euros. We brought the folding hand truck with us to haul the heater home on the LUAS. Maddex unboxed and put the feet on the heater then the kids spent an hour playing in the box.

Mila lead the girls cleaning the kitchen, and playroom while Maddex and I were playing some Xbox and Michelle was napping. When Maddex and I were done killing the covenant on the Arc Mila says ” look at how clean everything is, can we have ice cream?” She is learning. We rewarded her behavior with ice cream and a new episode of Elena of Avalor then back to the table for some colouring.