Rowan Tree and Red Thread

We're in Fitzgerald Park for lunch at the museum café before Rowan burns off energy at the playground. I haven't been here in ages, it seems, the recent weekends being more exercises in thinking up indoor diversions for the kids while avoiding the rain.

Today, however, is dry and very much February. Rowan is off school this coming week and her birthday falls neatly in the middle on Wednesday. I hope the weather holds good and we will go for picnic in Fota wildlife park as part of the celebrations.

The big party has to wait until Sunday, when we're having a birthday party for Rowan at Monkey Maze, one of the several soft-play centres in and around Cork. I forsee lots of sugar-high kids and three-storey slides. I've laid in a supply of paracetamol and ear plugs for the parents.

Rowan will be five years old on Wednesday. It seems like an age and just a beginning at the same time.