52 Week Project - Week 12 - Green

As most people would guess, when I here the word "Green", the first thing that comes to my mind is the new York Jets.   It is, however, the offseason and in March, there is nothing more GREEN than St. Patrick's Day!!!

 

(You will notice though that Dylan is wearing a Green Jets sweatshirt, perfect gear for the parade!)

This year, we had a Leprechaun come visit us and the boys were so excited.   When we woke up the morning of the 17th, there was a trail of gold leading from the boys room to the front door, the kitchen, and the kid's table.   We came to the conclusion that the leprechaun dropped his pot of gold on the way out of the door after he played a bunch of tricks -  he turned all of our milk turn green, left funny sunglasses hanging on the fridge and decorated all of Ryan's bed friends with fun things for us to wear to the parade.

After breakfast, we packed up our bags of snacks and headed uptown where we were going to meet the P family for the parade.  Of course, we did not forget to bring all of the gear that the Leprechaun left and the boys brought the masks that they made earlier in the week. (obviously one of the boys spent a bit more time on his than the other one)

  

We got uptown before the parade route got too crowded and staked out our spot on the corner of 67th and 5th.

The parade was fantastic and the kids loved it so much more than I could have imagined!!  Waiting was the hardest part but as soon as the first horses rode by signaling the start, the kids were totally in to it.   They all stood up against the rails eagerly awaiting the next part.

They clapped for all of the soldiers and veterans that passed and cheered for all of the bands.

While we were on the way to the parade Ryan turned to me and said "Mommy, I have a leprechaun mask so why aren't people coming up to me and asking me if I am a leprechaun and can they have some of my gold?" and then showed me that he had filled his pockets with all of the "gold" he found at the house.   I told him maybe they didn't realize that he had some so when we got to the parade, he started yelling "Come over here - I have gold for good luck - I am a leprechaun".  First, a police officer came over to see what he was saying and Ryan gave him one of the coins and told him it was for Good Luck.   I couldn't believe that Ryan wanted to give all of his coins away - it was so sweet and I thought he was so brave to try and call people over.   Anyway, the police officer told me that was the nicest thing that has happened to him in his 18 years of working at the parade.    Ryan and his friend Katie spent the rest of the parade giving out coins and each recipient really made a big deal - the kids were smiling so big that it looked like there cheeks had to be hurting.  The highlight for Ryan was one of the bagpipers took off his pin and gave it to Ryan!!! It was so exciting!

After about an hour and a half, the parents had enough and we decided to head out although Ryan was begging to stay.   We escaped the crowds and headed into Central Park - the weather was amazing and nobody wanted to head home just yet so we went to a park around 72nd Street so the kids could eat lunch and play.   Dylan and Abby fell asleep so Ryan and Katie got to run around and have fun.

 When Dylan woke up, he got in on the action too.

Thanks P Family for spending a super fun day with us.   Hopefully, we will be all be able to go again next year!!  Ryan has already declared that we are going to set a trap for the leprechaun so hopefully he comes back!