IT USED to be that Sunday was my day off. My husband, John Hoade, worked in the wine trade and he'd be closed on a Sunday too, so we'd spend the day together with the kids.

Recently though, we've done a major revamp at the restaurant and I've persuaded John to come and join me in the business as cellar master. We've doubled the size of the wine list and John has been working on matching wines to the food.

We've been completely inundated since we reopened and it doesn't look like being a day off again for a while.

We get up as late as Luke (7), Arthur (4 1/2) and Moya (1) will allow. The boys head downstairs and get themselves a bowl of cereal to keep them going until the rest of us surface. They watch TV or bounce around on the trampoline if the weather's okay. John or I head out and pick up croissants and papers and we'll have a leisurely breakfast together. We tend to stick to the Irish papers and zone in on restaurant reviews and the wine columns.

During rugby season, the boys have coaching at Belvedere. They are very physical kids and really need at least two hours of fresh air and exercise if we want them to be civilised. It's obvious when they haven't had it. We take it in turns to do the rugby run while the other one of us takes Moya and heads over to the restaurant.

There's usually someone we can hand her to for a play while we check that everything's running smoothly for lunch service. It's always been a very busy day for us in the restaurant and since the revamp we've had some excellent reviews so it's busier than ever. My grandmother set up the restaurant over 50 years ago and my mother, Jill, still has an antique shop and art gallery here. She supervises the garden too. Beaufield Mews has always been a destination . . . people don't just drop in for a quick bite to eat . . . and we want it to be more of an experience for our guests. People who come for Sunday lunch tend to linger for the afternoon in the garden.

We've tried to keep the best of the old and at the same time give the place a new contemporary look. It's the same with the food . . . it's pretty classical but with a modern twist.

Once the busiest part of lunch in the restaurant is over, we regroup and head out for a walk . . .

maybe up Killiney or Dalkey hill or down the pier. My brother David is a fantastic cook and often puts on a big Sunday dinner for the extended family, but if we haven't persuaded him to invite us over then we take the children out for a meal. Our current favourite is the Gastro Pub in Dun Laoghaire . . . they give you a roast chicken that you carve yourself with stuffing and lots of vegetables. It's very family-friendly.

Back home, we get the kids to bed and chill out in front of the TV or with our books. There's usually a bottle of wine that might need sampling. A couple of weeks ago we had a staff outing on a Sunday evening and ended up staying out very late.

It was good for bonding . . . work can be very stressful and people need to be able to let their hair down . . . but not for our heads.

www. beaufieldmews. com