Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

I woke up this morning to bedhead Nina, an inch from my face, saying, "Mom, they brought us tocolate toins (chocolate coins) and they even turned our milk GREEN!"  Her eyes were popping and her mouth opened into a big surprised kind of smile.  The leprechauns came!  As always, they brought a big box of Lucky Charms too.  The only thing missing was our green hats, because they are buried somewhere in the garage this year.  (We are working on finishing the basement, so everything that was downstairs is now in the garage and impossible to locate.) 

It was such a busy day.  I was scheduled to help out in Hannah's class at school today and it was so funny seeing ALL the little kids in green.  It's such a fun, no-stress holiday, I love it.  Plus, Clayton and I both have Irish ancestry, so it makes it that much more fun.  

We had our weekly Scout den meeting at our house tonight.  Clayton was working so I was on my own, but it was okay, at least I had something planned!  I put together a St. Patrick's Day treasure hunt for the boys...they were so crazy hyper, they would start running around trying to find the next clue before they even read the clue they had just found!  I put together little bags filled with chocolate coins and Skittles (the rainbow of fruit flavors, see the connection?) for them to find in the mailbox at the end.  They were so excited I was laughing the whole time watching them.  I put some clues up high on our street lamp and stop sign, so they took off their shoes and socks so they could climb the poles to reach!  Ha ha!  It didn't last as long as I thought it would, so they played Capture the Flag for 20 minutes in my backyard afterward.

For dinner we always have "Rainbow Fruit" and green veggies (peppers sliced cross-wise to look like shamrocks), and an old Irish potato dish called Colcannon.  I saw it a few years ago on Tyler's Ultimate on Food Network...it's really good.  Basically, mashed potatoes with ham, cooked cabbage and green onions mixed in.  I know, it doesn't sound amazing, but it is!  Hannah had three bowls full.

We listened to our "St. Patrick's Mix" while I cooked, and watched The Secret of Roan Inish while we ate.  Clayton and I kept laughing at the little Irish sayings throughout the movie, like, "He was makin' honey in his heart,"  "I'll be cur-fill," and "Don't stop stirring that pot or it will become stiffer than an old man on a cold night..."  Clay added (in an Irish accent of course), "...an old man on a cold night in the middle of a snow storm in freezing October trying to sleep in a snowcave..." He said, "If Tadd were here, we'd be going on for a while with that one!"  It's true!  Funny boys.

During the movie, Nina asked me, "Mom, why did you always marry my daddy?"  She's so funny, the things she says these days!  "Because I love him!" I told her and she scrunched up her little nose and giggled.