Green Day...and not the Environmental Day

Of course I am talking about St. Patrick's Day. Now I know this isn't a big holiday but I still love it.  I think I love it because it has not been taken over by commercialism.  Yes, I saw the green afro wigs at Wal-mart and the t-shirts that say drink Irish beer.  But it is one of the few holidays that nothing is expected.  Kids don't expect anything, in the way of presents anyway.  There are no parties to go to, unless you are going to the pub to drink.  There are really  no decorations, unless you are my Mom and you put out gold chocolate coins and Andes mints and tell people they are decorations and then they disappear within 24 hours.  No expectations.  Well, my kids do have a few expectations.  They expect me to make all kinds of green food and for our whole family to wear green, all day and night.  You better get your green jammies on in case the leprechauns come in the middle of the night because as you know, St. Patrick's day starts at 12:01 am!  So we have a few traditions with the Green Day.  I make green Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal, green milk and this year I made green bread in my breadmaker for toast.  After school snacks consisted of a green banana milk shake.  Tuesday night I spent quite a bit of time making rainbow cupcakes.  I had a spectacular green dinner planned and due to our non-qualified orthodontic emergency we were at the orthodontists from 4:00 to 6:00 on St. Patrick's day.  Cole had an orchestra concert at the school that night, too.  Now, since this isn't a recognized holiday, I know I shouldn't complain, but I was really annoyed that this concert was on St. Patrick's day.   I like to do fun green things with my kids on this day and this was really cramping my style.  Not to say, that I didn't love seeing Cole play in the orchestra but couldn't it have been March 16th or 18th  instead?  So, needless to say, we will have our green dinner, now it will be on Friday, March 19th.  Norm and the girls drove up to Bear Lake today (thursday) to help my Mom and Shelley paint the basement so they won't be home until late so we will postpone another day.

Now that my kids are old enough, and the fact that they didn't ask this year makes me feel like I can write about this without spilling the beans, or should I say the pot o' gold... We used to have the leprechaun's come to our house every year.  Usually sometime when the kids were at school, or napping or out of the house sometime.  They would come in and all the cupboard doors and drawers in the house would be open.  They were always amazed and excited by this.  It is quite a sight to see and it is fun for them to run around shutting them all.  I can only imagine what was going on in their minds, a tiny or large leprechaun with funny green shoes and hat running through our house, giggling the entire time, opening all the doors and drawers... hee hee.  It was kind of sad they didn't ask if the leprechauns were coming this year.  Again, a very low expectation for the holiday that was really fun.  If you have little ones I highly recommend this addition to your St. Patrick's day festivities.

Now, a note, hee hee, on Cole's orchestra concert.  It was really fun to hear (I couldn't see him at all) him play with his orchestra.  They sounded really good.  I couldn't go to the one in October (see http://themiddleofyeswhere.blogspot.com/2010/01/oh-my-achin-back.html ) and we missed the December one, so this was the first one I went to.  I was not expecting great things from a middle school orchestra.  I hear Cole play and he is coming along very nicely, but a whole bunch of kids together, I didn't think would go over well.  They did an amazing job and I am so proud of him and his musical abilities.  I truly hope he keeps it up.  I love hearing him and Maddy play their violins and the piano.  Cole has recently been practicing some hymns and I LOVE that.  That is my ultimate goal for piano, that they can sit down and play the hymns for seminary, missions, church, home, etc...