It's Mrs Shan's birthday today (she's 29 again, of course!!!), so the Shans popped down to the Aquadome in Tralee to spend the morning splashing around in honour of the big occasion. I might even take her out for a few drinks and some music tonight, if I can convince the even older Mrs Shan (i.e. my mother) and my father to babysit the kids!!! Fingers crossed!!! :-)

Here's a recent photo of the birthday girl, taken in the hall of my son's school. She's on the parents' council and had organised a beach party night for the kids, to raise funds for some new classrooms that they're trying to build. She was on balloon duty for the night, having learnt online the previous week how to make ballon dogs, swords and hats. I actually spent most of the night blowing up balloons for her -- I saw when I arrived with our daughter that she was struggling to deal with the demand, and chivalrously stepped into the breach. My right index finger is scarred for life, I think, after almost two hours of knotting balloons!! I won't be making THAT mistake again!!!!!!! :-) :-) :-)

All together now: "Happy birthday to you... happy birthday to you..."