DAD DIARY: Making the most of it

It’s September so that means back to school and back to routine.
Our kids need it after the relative chaos of the summer holidays, especially when the weather this summer was anything but seasonal.
They took part in plenty of summer camps, but our ability to do the things you want to do in summer in Achill – i.e. all the great outdoors here has to offer – was greatly diminished by poor weather. Too many days involved indoor activities to try and keep the cabin fever at bay.
Still, we made sure to make the most of the good weather when it did arrive. Every chance we got, we were gone for walks and down to the beach in Dooega. We had a day from the heavens for the family fun day in Dooega, and so the kids had a ball.
We spent another glorious August day on Achill Beg as part of the Féile Cill Damhnait festivities. Getting on a ferry was such a novelty for Séimí. Frankie and Éamon had already been to Achill Beg two years ago and Inishturk earlier this summer but this August was the first time we felt Séimí could come on these trips. He was in his element, like a boy liberated. He was ready.
The kids had a lovely weekend with their cousins in Galway at the end of August while myself and Aisling were treated to a rare luxury – two nights away for a wedding.
Frankie is now in Second Class, Éamon in Senior Infants while Séimí has left his playschool in Keel and started at the Naíonrá in Bunnacurry. He had a great time in Keel and loves seeing his teachers from there out and about, but he has settled really quickly in Bunnacurry and is making lots of new friends.
But everything is much easier at the minute – the weather has improved so the kids can be outside a lot in the evenings and the weekends. Typical back to school weather after a bad summer!
Éamon turned six on September 3, and we were able to have a great party here on the Friday of that week. The weather dial hit 20 degrees while there was enough of a wind to stop it being too stifling. So there was a great crowd of kids outdoors playing on the trampoline, the bouncy castle and every sort of kids’ vehicle imaginable.
Parents waited too, and it was a lovely, social day outside in the sun. The type of day we struggled to find in the actual summer holidays!

In his long-running fortnightly column, Edwin McGreal charts the ups and downs of the biggest wake-up call of his life: Parenthood.