St. Patrick's Day 2011

Israel and Lex figuring out their green outfits the night before.

My kids love St. Patrick's day. Actually they love holidays or celebrations or occasions of pretty much any kind.  If they involve dressing up, chaos, parties or community events,  even better.

 St. Patrick's Day involves all of these things and the idea of small, mischievous little leprechauns, so it's pretty exciting. My children are also small, mischievous creatures so I think they feel some sort of kinship with the little people. Azia and Zoran were arguing yesterday about whether or not leprechauns were real. When they asked me, I told them I'd never seen one so maybe they were just made up. But I also told them I didn't know how to prove they weren't real either and asked them if they knew how. They thought about it for awhile but apparently couldn't think of anything because then they started designing their trap. 

They have been trying to catch a leprechaun for a few years and just this year Zoran asked me, "What do we do with it once we catch one?" I told him I had no idea. He then walked off thinking about it. Not sure if he ever figured it out.

Since they didn't catch a leprechaun again this year, I guess he has another year to figure it out. I heard Zoran and Azia arguing about it and Zoran thought it was Azia's fault because he wanted to make the same trap as last year but put it in a better spot. Azia blamed it on me & told Zoran I made the lousy trap this year that again didn't catch anything. (I didn't, but I may have suggested strongly Azia go with the super-simple design of a hidden trap door rather than begin weaving a cage she would disguise in fake clouds and rig to a pulley system that she'd run from her bedroom through an outside window and into the living room where she'd set up the bait: a diorama sort of set up including rainbows and fake money. It was 10:30 at night after all. )

Lex is probably more trouble than a leprechaun. When Zoran got up and was surveying the chaos caused by leprechauns he found a few other messes that Lex created after everyone else went to sleep & they were attributed to the leprechauns as well. I'm pretty sure Lex didn't have any help from leprechauns.

Lex also has a strange mischievous temperament. He loved the upside down, overturned furniture all over the house. Israel asked him if he did it and he just looked around from his perch on top of the crooked couch, shook his head yes, and said "Yep!"

What's wrong with him? You aren't supposed to willingly take credit for trouble you don't cause!

The kids seemed to think the rainbow the leprechauns painted was some sort of speed track. They were all running in little circles around it all day.

It was also more fun to lay on than the regular, non-painted ground.

I didn't realize how how much the kids liked the rainbow until they were very sad when I scrubbed it off the floor after they went to bed. The older kids thought we should've painted over it with clear paint so it would stay there forever. Lex was mad when he woke up and it was gone. He wouldn't talk to me for 15 minutes or so when I told him I washed it off. When he saw these photos, again he told me he wanted to put it back on the floor.

I think KaNana had the fanciest St. Patrick's Day outfit. Though Paisley did have miniature little leprechaun hats in her hair.

We had a green toenail painting session.

Since no one likes corn beef (except Dev) or cabbage, we stuck with variations of the same meal we had last year. Lucky Charms for breakfast (my kind of cooking!) and soda bread and chicken stew for dinner. Last year after the leprechauns dyed everything green and the kids were not that interested in drinking the green milk (or eating any of the other various green foods). They also think our green eggs on Sr. Seuss day are a bit strange. They are, however, a fan of green shamrock milkshakes, especially since we don't generally have desert with lunch. I guess ice cream is good no matter the color. I also made Guinness brownies which I didn't share with the children. Zoran found them the next day and ate some anyway. He was a fan of the super dark chocolately stuff. Israel thought it was weird to put beer in brownies. I thought they went pretty well with milkshakes.

We headed up to the parade in Ronan in the evening. It was pretty short this year. Not even any green horse!

Still candy though! Lex had his older siblings retrieve it for him and fill up his green hat.

I got Azia this headband a few weeks ago and when she got it out to put it on & found the dollar price tag she asked me. "This is only one dollar? It is much too beautiful to only cost one dollar!"

This photo is just strange. I have no idea what that green stripe is. I've never seen anything like that on any of my digital photos and it isn't on any of the others I took at the same time. It almost looks like one of those leprechauns is trying to tie up Israel up with some mysterious floating green magic rope.

I once again tried to get a photo of the kids together. So, naturally Lex went flat to the ground. I wonder if I'll ever be able to get a normal photo of them together.

Zoran didn't come to the parade because there was a wrestling meet that night. He didn't want to be late to warm up. Azia, on the other hand, didn't even want to go to the wrestling meet once she knew there was a parade. She's not quite as devoted as her brother. She did make it back in time to wrestle, wearing her plaid socks, her headband, and with three St.Patty's Day buttons pinned to her singlet. At least I let her keep the socks on.