St. Patrick's Day catch up

For some reason, St. Patrick's Day is always a fun day around our house. First of all, it's my dad's birthday. Olivia made a very big deal of it being Papa's bday. She wanted to decorate the house, call him at work, make him a present, etc. I didn't know how to tell her my dad is not the type to get into birthdays. Buy him a bunch of bananas (his favorite evening snack) and he'll be happy. Seriously, when I asked him if they sang to him at work and he said "No, they will tomorrow" (since he'd been out with a client today) I just cracked up imagining him standing in the middle of a break room with all his co-workers singing to him. I guess you have to know him.



The kids have been talking about St. Patrick's Day for days. Olivia was very concerned that someone was going to pinch her if she didn't wear green. Austin wanted all green foods for the day. So we started off with green pancakes. They also insisted that we make green eggs (but not ham). So we had a festive breakfast to start off with.



LOVE the Bed Head!


I went to Austin's school to read to the kids and was surprised to hear bag pipes being played in the hall. All the kids filed out and we saw a guy in full kilt dress coming down the hall. Turns out he's in our ward. Hmm, interesting hobby. Other than that, nothing special happened at school for the holiday except ALL the kids were wearing green. I was kind of surprised how many followed this tradition. Austin's brown shirt with green trim was a pathetic attempt, but I guess it worked. While I was there, the principal came on the loudspeaker and told the kids they were NOT to pinch one another on the playground for not wearing green. I found this pretty amusing.

At home, Olivia finally found something green to wear. Too bad it was Ashley's sweater! It was size 18-24 months, which she found no problem with. Nana eventually convinced her to put a white shirt underneath it, which surprisingly saved the outfit. I couldn't believe that other than being short in the waist, it really wasn't so small on her. It's weird how similar in size 2T and 5T shirts are for my girls.



Anyway, later that day we went to see the Horton movie for FHE. The kids were SOOO excited to see this movie, despite the fact we don't even have the book. They were dying to go! A couple months ago, Olivia chose a Horton stuffed animal as a prize at the store. I don't know, maybe that's the source of endearment?? You would have thought it was Christmas when we said we were going to the movies. We brought some of our favorite homemade caramel popcorn (why bother with that dry movie popcorn when you can have corn syrup and butter drizzled all over it instead?) It's delicious! We all chowed down and this small bowl is all we had left when we got home. Yikes! Sugar high!



For dinner, I tried to think of something fun and creative but pasta was as far as we got. The kids were delighted that the noodles were green and asked, "How did you do that?!" with wonder and surprise. We did add some sauce, but for the photo I left it off. We had peas on the side (for more green), limeade to drink, and some bread (don't worry, that wasn't green). It's fun to have a reason to mix things up now and then. We don't get too creative for St. Patrick's Day but I think we had fun. Evidence: Olivia says, "Mom, can it be St. Patrick's Day tomorrow?"



Just because it's so good and something this good must be shared... our family's favorite caramel popcorn recipe:

1. Pop 3/4 c. popcorn in an air popper.
2. Separate the popped corn into two large mixing bowls.
3. In the meantime, melt 2 sticks of butter, 2 c. brown sugar, and 1/2 cup light corn syrup on the stove
4. Bring it to a LOW boil and set the timer for 3 minutes. (If it goes longer it gets hard and won't coat the popcorn)
5. Stir in 1/2 tsp. soda and 1 tsp. vanilla. It will foam.
6. Pour the mixture over the bowls of popcorn. Stir quickly to coat all the popcorn evenly.
7. Spread the popcorn out on a clean surface to dry.
8. Eat quickly cause it won't last long!!!