Our Bella loves to watch Nigella Lawson performing her magic in the kitchen. Often, when we are alone, Bella will ask me to look for Nigella on the TV so we can watch her together.

When in cooking mode, she now calls herself "Nibella". We are often treated to cookery demonstrations by Nibella herself in the living room. She takes us right through the ingredients and method, then whips up something delicious and tells us "now for my favourite part, the eating".

I can think of far worse roll models for a young girl.

After their bath each night the kids love to goof around, bounce on the beds and practise their gymnastics. I was chasing Margie around trying to dress her, when she turn, pointed to me and said "no Mum, I want do cool stuff". I let her go and she started dancing, bouncing and tumbling again, which I am guessing was her "cool stuff". I was amazed - she is growing up way to fast!

Just back from a wonderful Easter break in Ireland. Amazingly, we were treated to some really beautiful spring weather - about 18-24 deg and sunny most days. Easter in Ireland is usually quite cold and wet.

We tried to teach the kids some nice Irish songs, but their favourite remained "Dirty Old Town", which they sang everywhere we went. A tad embarrassing at times.

The house was in quite a central location, so we managed to pile the kids into the car most days and see some interesting things. It lay in the middle of some beautiful farmland, but Bella complained that the smelly smells of the farm (as she described them) made her twitch and kept her awake at night.

We also stayed at a couple of B&Bs when we wanted to travel further afield and spend a couple of days in one place. In Galway, we spent a couple of days meandering through the streets and enjoying walks along the bay. There we treated Alexander to his first ever night out at a pub to see some live music. He was thrilled and told us that "this was the best night out I have ever had, in Ireland". Always very careful to qualify his statements.

For me, Killarney in Co. Kerry was firm favourite. It was a beautiful town in the middle of the National Park. This is real FitzGerald country. We took the kids on a horse and carriage ride through the National Park, around the beautiful lake and up to a Castle. In the middle of the lake sat a little island called Innisfallen. It looks much the same as it did in the days when Francis Frith photographed it. It was after this island that Thomas Henry FitzGerald, Patrick's great-great-grandfather, named his house in far North Queensland. The sugarcane farming town that THF founded later became knows as Geraldton, and then as Innisfail as we know it today.

We enjoyed the place so much that we went back to Muckross House and gardens the following day and spent the entire day there. The kids went swimming in the lake too.

During our drives we saw such diversity in the landscape and the towns we visited. We saw a few beaches, but Ballybunion was by far our favourite. A beautiful wide, sandy beach. We're pretty fussy when it comes to beaches but this one got the thumbs up. The kids were so excited that they went swimming there (fully clothed). They told us that it was freezing but kept going back in for more.

Xander's favourite place was Bunratty Castle. We spent a full day there, exploring the castle and the folk park and the kids enjoyed playing in the play area. We all climbed right to the top of the castle's tower - even Margie!

On the way back home via Dublin, we spent a night at a B&B at Killkenny and all went for a night out in town. Our night started by sampling the Guinness at a beautiful riverside pub with a garden overlooking the river where the kids played and made new friends. Then out for a meal and back to bed so the Easter bunny would find us.

A unanimous vote - one of our best Easter holidays yet!

Some pics