Hen Party, Mothering Sunday, and Misc

T's school had a Gaelic week where they put even more emphasis on the Irish language. They have been reading books in Gaelic at school and writing a few sentences about the book. T brought a few of them home from school and we were calling them, "Gaelic BOB books". They even look like BOB books but they are in Gaelic. 

T's 3rd class invited the Junior Infants (this is basically our Pre-K class) to their classroom. They each had a book buddy and they read them a few books in Gaelic. They must have been allowed to wear green this day. 

T's classroom

T and his Book Buddy

One of my second cousins is getting married later this month. Her sisters threw her "Hen party" with all of her girlfriends. A Hen party is basically a "bachelorette night". They use this term in the UK, Ireland and Australia. A "bachelor night" for men is called a stag night. I got nominated to make cookies for the little favors after the luncheon. One of my other cousins made all the cookies for me and then I did the decorating. I was so nervous making cookies for other people (adults!) especially when I am not familiar with ingredients here. In the grocery store they literally have 5 different kinds of sugar...SUGAR! I found a home store that had a lot of baking things and some Wilton products...yeah Wilton! Just like at home...Wilton! 

I made about 30 of these cookies and put a pearl finish on the icing...yes
they are completely edible! I think I was asked that question at least 100 times. 

I forgot to mention I don't think I could ever used to seeing feathers when opening up
 the egg containers here. They are free range eggs...but still FEATHERS!

I met everyone in town for the Hen Party. We started off at the Residence Members Club off of St. Stephen's Green. I wish I had taken more pictures inside and pictures of the food. It was amazing...the whole luncheon was amazing. The girls did a great job organizing it all. They had a slideshow of pictures and a memory book for everyone to sign with pictures of the future bride with each girl. My cousins had found some pictures of me with all of them from the early 80's. I had never seen these pictures before...they were pretty funny. I had my bowl cut hairdo because my mother was convinced if my hair was short it would be thick and lovely when I got older. Yup..that was the story I was told! I still don't have thick hair and its 2014. 

Entrance to Residence Members Club

We had lunch at 2pm and left the restaurant around 8, and headed to a bar in the area. We all had a great time in the bar with lots of laughs. A little after midnight my cousin and I took a taxi back home. K had an early soccer game the next morning and we were loosing an hour since Day Light Savings time was starting. It was a fun night.

The next day was Mothering Sunday (aka Mother's Day). Mothers Day is celebrated at a different time in the UK, Ireland, and Europe. It is celebrated on the 4th Sunday in Lent which is also known as Laetare Sunday ('Laetare' means Rejoice). In Elizabethan times, girls who had been hired out as servants were given a holiday in the middle of Lent, so that they were able to visit their families. In the 16th century there was a practice of returning to the 'mother church' (the main church of the area), which meant that the children in service would be reunited with families on that day. To prove their new-found cooking skills, they brought home a gift of a 'Mothering' cake. The cake was made with a rich mixture so that it would keep until Easter. They also picked wildflowers for their mothers as they made their way home. The tradition of Mothering Sunday died away over the decades and apparently was revived by visiting American and Canadian soldiers who celebrated Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. 

K, T, and L on the Saturday I was out all day went down to the shops on their own with a little bit of pocket money. On Sunday morning they all came into my room (bright and early) and they each gave me a card and a few things they made in school. K also made a little 3D flower and inside it was a Cadbury cream egg (btw these eggs that they also sell in the US are 100x better here) so that I could have a little chocolate with my cuppa tea. It was really so sweet and K organized the whole thing. She got T and L to write out their cards and helped L. It was neat to see them do something on their own since usually Joe would be taking them to the store the night before. 

Here are my cards and 3D flower. K covered up 'Mum' on one of the cards and wrote 'Mom'. Its very hard to find a Mom card in Ireland - its either Mum or Mam. 

K made this for me at school

L made this for me at school and colored my face
BLACK. Should I be worried about this?  ;-)

K's soccer game ended up getting canceled since the pitches were still too wet. Thank goodness! We just had a lazy day and we went to mass in the evening. Then we went to the chipper to get carryout for dinner! We ended the day with an amazing full double rainbow right outside our front door. It was so close I could not get the full rainbow in one picture.