St. Patrick’s Day

I remember being excited about St. Patrick’s Day as a kid because our janitorial staff painted leprechaun footprints all over the desks and chalkboards the night before. We would get to school and be “so lucky!” if our desk had been picked to receive foot prints. Then we’d scrape the footprints off with our fingernails as the day wore on.  I struggled to find the one green thing in my wardrobe.  I still have a very small amount of that color.  It’s not my color.

And that is all.

I have never made a conscious effort (that I remember) to observe St. Patrick’s Day in my household. I am not Irish, nor do I have a particular affinity for anything Irish.  I do think I saw part of the parade last year, but that might have been a right place-right time situation.  I certainly didn’t overly plan to attend, bake soda bread, or wait for hours on the sidewalk for the best seat.

This year Lolly in particular was extremely interested in observing St. Patrick’s Day.  She even insisted that she was WHOLE Irish even though her Dad was half Irish (not a bit of truth in that statement).  For weeks the girls hoarded their very few green clothes and deemed them OFF LIMITS until today.

I saw that Fresh Direct was offering up some very basic Irish food, so I ordered some to make our St. Patrick’s Day meal and I pulled together a green outfit and slapped on some green eye shadow to show Posse Solidarity.

Today was such a beautiful day I walked for several hours observing all the crazy people who celebrate this day.  I noticed there are three groups of celebrators:

Group 1: Wearing green and Aran sweaters, Claddagh rings.  I see them wearing these authentically Irish wares and think that they must refer to Ireland and their Irish temperaments over dinner, many an evening.  Also included in this group is anyone wearing a formal kilt or carrying bagpipes.  They take their heritage seriously and they respect it.  I even overheard a couple on a train discussing the need to bring a baked good to church on Sunday, and they argued about whether soda bread would keep until Sunday, she of course offered up: Freeze It, with a “duh” tone to her husband.

Group 2: Thinks today is Halloween. They don junky plastic mardi gras beads, crazy hats, crazy socks, light-up whozits and whatzits, dye their hair and carry around snapple bottles that are really filled with something else. I saw a girl with green fishnets and black briefs and a green t-shirt…that’s it.  It’s just another holiday that allows for hoochiness. These are the folks that bring out all the cops in Central Park. Seriously, I have been running over there in CP for a little while now, and should probably be scared for my safety for the lack of cops, but NOT today.  EVERY. WHERE.  This group also flooded Times Square today.  They started drinking at 8 am, and tomorrow I will avert my eyes from the piles of puke on the subway platforms. They are not Irish. (maybe some of them are).

Group 3: We knew it was St. Patrick’s Day and wore the only green thing we own, just because.

I did attempt an Irish accent and catchphrase a few times today, and the girls made up a little slogan: “Don’t wear green, get a pinch, WEAR green, get a kiss.”  I don’t think they got kissed today, but they offered me one on each cheek.  I also netflixed gnome-mobile because some website told me it was one of the top 10 movies for St. Patricks Day. They had already seen Darby O Gill and the little people (Sean Connery! hilarious) and gave it two thumbs down.  I’ll let you know if it’s a hit. Luck o the Irish to ya!

 

 

Winters Eve

It’s really fun to participate in Lincoln Square’s Winters Eve each season.  Actually, I think we missed it last year (broken foot!), so this is our second time participating!  I just read 2008′s post about it, and the same applies for this year-late bed time last night equals a hard morning especially for the little one.  I basically had to drag her around the house from station to station: breakfast-bathroom-teeth-backpack…and there was lots of kicking and screaming involved…kind of like how it was every day for 4 years with Lolly. Thankfully those days are much fewer and farther between. Woosh.

Anyways, Phoebe is part of the Violin Ensemble, which this year, has turned out to be 2 girls, so I thought it would be fun to give them a bit of an identity, and I have been trying to convince them to love the name TWIST for their “band”.  Their photos and personalities are MUCH more lively than the pieces their coach picked (snoooooooze….zzzzzz), but alas, someday we may look back and say: It all started when…

The girls played at a bank, and my favorite part of the concert was when not 1, but 3 patrons decided to dump all their coins in the penny arcade to be counted, while kids were playing. It was totally NY and totally hilarious. I have committed to save up my change for 1 year, to save for this event next winter and dump my coins while the kids play.  Just to see the look on some of the adults faces was worth it! OUTRAGE! Come on people, this is a community event in NYC at a BANK for crying out loud…

Watching the ice being sculpted is a big draw for my kiddos. We watched this guy carve for at least a half hour.  When I said: “It’s a raccoon!” trying to be funny, Phoebe gave me this look:

Then it was time for the Hungry March Band. I saw them perform at the kite festival this summer and I quite love them very much.

I want to be in the band.

Father’s Day

Look how patient Dad was in this little moment I caught on tape the other day:

Happy Father’s Day to the best there is! As I always say: Your welcome girls….I gotcha a great one!

Mom, you got me a great one too! Happy Father’s Day Dad! LOVE to you Papa/Dad!!!

Memorial Day

This Memorial Day we went to a barbecue with some friends, half of which are English.  It was a perfect blend of Brits and Yankees.  We got along very well together.  The girls don’t know, but we recently booked travel to London, so I was so excited to ask everyone there what we MUST see.

I left with an offer for backstage access to Oliver, insider info on Oyster Cards and a charge to visit the South Bank. To say I am stoked about our trip would be a severe understatement.

My famous (to me) potato salad was a big hit. I stuffed myself with the delicious offerings and did not enter one item into my fatsecret app. Not one.

It was nice to teach the girls about Memorial Day, brag about our Grandpa, a retired Col. in the Air Force (who did NOT die in battle), and celebrate our great land of America!  Land that I love…

Mother’s Day

I got a gift certificate to LUSH for my M’s Day.

I finally picked out my items and they are amazing as to be expected.

SMITTEN

MASK of MAGNAMINTY

CREAMED ALMOND & COCONUT SMOOTHIE

I found out LUSH has a recycling program which makes me LOVE them even more. 5 pots turned in = free face mask!

Sweeties

My girls sang me this song with the other primary kids at church on Mother’s Day and then gave me a duet-version that night. Oh….childhood….fleeting….

Happy Mother’s Day

I’m not that into mother’s day. It’s nice when I get a break from my day, but honestly my husband does so much for the kids and me, it’s like Mother’s Day everyday.

So, a shout out to my mom, who continues to mother me in my old age.

And who I look more and more like in my old age. We’ve been a duo for 31 years my mom and me, which beats out almost every other relationship we have with other people…almost.

Easter 2010

I woke up because my stomach hurt. It is never good to wake up because of intestinal pain. I knew I was in for it. I forced myself out of bed to work on my seminary lesson that I had to teach in 4 hours until it was time to take a field trip to the bathroom.  Unfortunately, I still found myself back in bed hunching into myself because of the cramps.

I rallied, but just barely.  Easter has sort of taken me by surprise this year what with other exciting things happening within the vicinity of April 4th, and though my heart wasn’t completely in it, tradition spoke to me this morning and told me I had to get that photo of the Easter Duds.  It’s something we did every year growing up…a photo outside, usually at Grandma’s house.

I gave myself 15 minutes to get ready, and can I just say, I’m still pretty upset that I forgot to color in my eyebrows, and washing my hair would have also added to my appearance, but for a woman with a bad stomach ache and battling a headache for most of the rest of the day, I guess I made out alright. Weaning off brain meds + PMS + Allergy index of 9.7 = bad kage day.

I had one of my students take our family photo, and he did a pretty good job once he got the “1,2,3-shoot” down, so that we knew when he was going to click! This especially helped Lolly as one minute she was wiping the sun out of her eyes and the next would strike her pose. I had to do some editing to get the photos straight and cropped the way I wanted to, but overall I’m happy with the outcome.

Trying to get a photo of Jason and me was an entirely separate matter, that shant be resolved until our children are taller. They tried though, bless their little hearts.

We spent a nice Easter at our church watching general conference (well, I spent most of it with my eyes closed in the rocking chair in the mother’s lounge, trying to listen), and even having some rocking chair time. My two big girls came to find me near the end and we sat and rocked all three on the same chair for about 10 minutes. I can’t believe how they’ve grown.

Our church members gathered for a potluck after the session and then we came home and made an Easter dinner. Again, I totally would’ve forgotten that holiday meal, had I not seen ALL THOSE HAMS at costco last week. Jason kept calling it a Ham Dinner. It made him seem old or something. I just thought it was hilarious that he named it. He invited people over for the Ham Dinner. On the phone: Yeah, Kristy made a Ham Dinner.

It was good ham though.

My Valentine

My love surprised us girls this morning with chocolates and cards for each of us. He picked up the cutest cards for the girls and asked them each: Will you be my Valentine? I loved the photo on my card as well, hands holding each other by just a finger.

I have never been that into Valentine’s Day, but I have to admit, it was a nice surprise to find some treats for us this morning. Made me forgive my love for listening to country pandora this morning while getting ready for church at like 5:30 AM. Ever heard of earphones? Oh wait a second, I forgive….