Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This holiday has become pretty uneventful for us in recent years. I can remember many years ago when I was working my first job out of college. My friends and I would take off work early and head downtown to see the parade. We ate corned beef and cabbage at an Irish bar and drank green beer at 11:30am. We were drunk by the afternoon and in bed by evening. Somehow this was the best. day. ever. One of my girlfriends even declared it her favorite holiday! I can't remember the last time I had a green beer and honestly the photos of them on Facebook don't look at all appealing.

The kids have had some celebrations at school and talked about the history and traditions of the holiday. One of Wyatt's sharing projects was to have each person in his family draw a picture of themselves as a leprechaun, cut it out and glue it on a piece of paper. He had to introduce his leprechaun family at sharing that week. Another assignment was to build a leprechaun trap - a little advanced for a kindergarten project in my opinion, but whatever. Judging by what a saw, I'm assuming the parents did most of the building, just like at our house. Wyatt did help with the concept and decor however. Hadley thought it looked so fun she insisted on building one too. They both took them to school on sharing day to show them to their classmates. Wyatt left his at school all week and his teacher would put little coins and four leaf clovers in it as a sign the leprechaun had been there, but had not been caught (crafty little buggers).

When they woke up this morning, I surprised them with Lucky Charms cereal. I assumed they'd be thrilled since they're always begging for some gross sugary dye-filled cereal and I always say no. I thought I'd loosen up a little and treat them since it's a "holiday". Wyatt was excited but Hadley said "But I wanted a special toy!" She looked in her leprechaun trap and said "It's EMPTY" with total despair. I had a pang of guilt and realized maybe I should have filled them with fun goodies and stickers and things and pretend a leprechaun left them. Darn you Pinterest. There is just so much pressure these days to make every tiny little holiday crafty and treat-filled. I saw a bunch of pictures online of people watching parades and eating green eggs. I guess I need to step it up next year. Good thing Easter is coming up soon so I have a chance to redeem myself.