Saint Patrick's Day

Some years Saint Patrick's Day sneaks up on me and I'm lucky to remember to make sure the kids have something green on in the morning.  This year, however, I have been anticipating the holidays a bit more.  I did miss Pi day, but maybe we'll hit that one next year.  However, the day after was the Ides of March.  Peter has loved the story of Brutus and Julius Ceasar, so I thought we'd celebrate by drinking Orange Julius' and watching an animated Julius Caesar half-hour video off of You Tube.  We had a fun time.
But this post is about Saint Patrick's Day.  The kids woke up to find a leprechaun had left coins all over the house for them to find.  They were all beside themselves, searching high and low for a coin, running around using shrill voices.  I finally got them to sit down and eat their green breakfast.  This year they actually drank their green smoothies (that wasn't the case last year). 
After breakfast they had to find a pot of gold the leprechaun had left in our backyard.  The "pot" consists of a gold spray painted diaper wipe container with green glitter on it.  It works.  The kids each found some gold chocolate coins, andes mints, and something green to wear to church.  It was a lot to fit in before our 9:00 church, but somehow we managed and got there on time.  It was a great morning - full of energy and excitement.  I love that feeling.

Aren't they the cutest bunch?!!

Church was really nice.  I thought for sure the kids in Primary would be pinching each other and squirming around, but quite the contrary.  I was very relieved as well because I had a special lesson about Christ's resurrection I wanted to share.  It went over really well - I know my testimony was strengthened. 
After church I came home and took a nap.  Then Elsie and I made some rainbow cupcakes.  My good friend gave me this idea.  We just took a white cake mix and divided it into several ziploc bags and added food coloring.  Then we just squirted a little bit into each muffin tin.  They turned out really well, and I promise they tasted better than a regular white cake.  Color always makes a difference.:0).
We wrapped everything up with a good ole Irish dinner, drinking root beer in a bottle and everything.  There was fiz coming out from everyone's bottles everywhere.  It must have been quite authentic, I think. 
 

It was a fun day.  As my dad and I agreed, it's always great to have a holiday where there's not much meaning, so you don't have to feel guilty for overlooking any true meaning.  I feel like I've got it out of my system, and now we can really focus on Easter these next couple weeks.  Happy holidaying!