52 week project 2013 - week 11: Green aka St. Patrick's Day post

once again, very far behind on the 52 week project ....oh well, at least this week was easy
week 11 - Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love any excuse to celebrate, especially if it involves dressing up.   It should come as no surprise then that I had been looking forward to St. Patrick's Day for exactly 365 days - we had such a great time last year that I could not wait for it to come again this year.  Because St. Patrick's Day was on Sunday this year, the parade was on Saturday and accordingly, our leprechaun came a day early too.   The kids couldn't stop talking about whether or not he would come, so much so I am pretty sure Ryan was dreaming about it because he woke up at 5 am, came into my room and said "you have to follow me".   He was so excited so despite the ridiculous hour,  I followed him so he could show me the first prank. 

 

Ryan also realized that there was a gold coin trail leading out of his bedroom but I told him that he had to go back to bed until at least 7 - he was loud enough that Dylan woke up and they asked me every 3 minutes for the next hour if it was 7 o'clock yet.  Finally, they went back to sleep but of course, somehow managed to wake up at exactly 7:01.  So out of bed we went to see what else the leprechaun did. 

First, we found a table of treats - chocolates, beads, shamrock straws and green bagels. (in the fridge, we also found green milk!)  The kids each got a bucket and started collecting their coins and goodies:

After we had some breakfast, collected all of the coins and found some more things to wear to the parade, we headed uptown to meet the Potenza's and Omi.   Since we got to our meeting location first (same area as last year), we staked out our spot and put some of our gear on. 

 

 We were at the parade site pretty early and it was pretty cold out so we did our best to stay busy/stay warm by taking pictures, playing games, having snacks and playing on the iphone/itouch. 

Finally, the parade was ready to begin!  After a parade of horses, we could hear the bagpipes coming and the kids were on their feet ready to go.  

 Like last year, the kids, especially Ryan and Katie, could not wait to give their coins out and yelled to all of the parade participants "come over here, we have gold coins for good luck"  Some of the police officers said they could not accept gifts, but lots of people did come over and took the coins. Some made trades: a coin for a flag or beads and others told the kids that it was their favorite part of the parade.   I know that giving out the coins is definitely the kids favorite part. 

About 20 minutes in to the parade, it started lightly snowing and about 45 minutes later, it was really snowing.   What a difference from last year!  When we saw the kids laying inside of the duvet, we figured that they all had enough.  

We packed everything up, took a few more pictures and went over to the Potenza's for a few hours to keep the fun going.   Even though the weather was not all that we had hoped, we had a fantastic, fun day!

ryan was so funny in both, i had to include both because i really couldn't pick between the two lol

Today, the fun continued - Jay and I took the kids to the movies and then we went out to lunch.  My handsome lunch date picked out his own outfit - is he handsome or what?? 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!