Love in Ireland

/14/

-Saturday September 2nd-

The rest of August flew by. I spent most of it making gowns for the end of summer cotillion, which was two days ago. Today is Bridget and Owen's last day at the castle before they fly out to their boarding school tomorrow. They'll be able to come home for winter break and spring break and sometimes balls but that's it.

Today we're having one last hurrah for them. We're setting up a picnic on the beach and having a whole beach day which will be fun.

I tied my hair into a ponytail, leaving a few pieces out to frame my face. I backed up from the mirror to take a look at my full outfit. The bathing suit I'm wearing is a muted green color. The bottoms are just plain high-waisted bottoms. The top has spaghetti straps that criss-cross in the back, and a smocked top with a small ruffle on the round neckline and on the bottom of the top. I still had on my round black glasses, however, I packed my black sunglasses.

I smiled and walked out of the bathroom. I grabbed the jean shorts I had left on my bed. They were a worn out black color and ripped along the bottom. I covered the shorts in little embroidered daisies, which looked super cute. I grabbed my phone, my beach bag, which had all my necessary beach items, and my leather backpack, which I stuffed my watercolor supplies into. My black flip-flops with white polka-dots were waiting for me at the foot of my bed. I slipped them on and headed out the door, ready for an epic beach day.

I make my way through the castle to the lobby where everyone is meeting up.

Zach, after Owen's birthday ball, spent a few days at home with his brother Noah before he started up private school again. Noah doesn't go to boarding school, but his private school is super elite and he does a lot of sports, so he's usually busy all the time. Tara went back to school a week before the cotillion, so she missed it. Declan, Alannah, Zach, and I were definitely happy about that. Apparently she gets longer breaks though, so her spring break starts way before Easter.

Zach is supposed to arrive at the castle today and then he's staying a week. He said he's mostly going to rotate one week at the castle, one week at home. It's that none of us have school anymore, so we pretty much get to hang out and goof off all year long. Well, minus when we have to work. Zach and Alannah are debating on releasing a song this year just to see what happens and Zach said he definitely wants to write a poetry book for kids. He said it was because most poetry sucks, so kids should have poetry that they can understand and enjoy. I'm obviously still working. I don't really have much going on till Bridget's birthday ball, though.

When I reached the bottom of the small staircase into the lobby/sitting room, I noticed everyone was here except Zach. He's probably just running a little late.

Declan was sitting on the couch with his bag and the cooler by his feet on the floor. He's in black swim trunks and he's wearing a light blue and white stripped shirt. He has his usual black wayframe glasses on top of his mass of curly hair and he's wearing black sandals.

Owen is in bright blue swim trunks with white Hawaiian flowers on them. He wore a plain white rash guard, which surprised me. It's a known fact that Alannah, Owen, Zach, and I tend to drift towards brighter colors and patterns. Mine are of course more thought out because there are only so many bright colors and patterns that work with bright/almost cartoonish red hair. Owen has his white wayframe sunglasses and bright orange flip-flops, which doesn't surprise me. His beach bag is swung over his shoulder and he's standing next to Bridget on the opposite side of the room from Declan.

Alannah was sitting in the armchair. She had on this cute pink and mint green bathing suit which I've seen her wear before. The straps are pink and two inches thick. The rest of the top is green and has a knot in the middle. It's a bikini and the bottoms come to right below her belly-button. The bottom half of the bottoms are the mint green color and the top half is the bright pink. She paired the bathing suit with a matching pink tennis skirt which fell about half a foot above her knees in small symmetrical pleats. Her hair was braided into a French side braid which sat on her left shoulder. She decided last week to cut her hair so now her hair is back to being shoulder length. She had on mint green and white flip-flops and in her hand were her oversized white heart sunglasses with pink polarized lenses. Alannah recently got them when she went thrifting (Yes, even though I sew I still like thrifting) with me and she's been dying to wear them. Her beach bag sat on her lap along with an oversized white straw floppy hat and the picnic basket was by her feet on the floor.