St. Patrick Celebration

Our good friends hosted the Second Annual St. Patrick's Day Party this weekend.  We had a fun themed lunch, some learning activities, and a super-fun scavenger hunt. 

 

 

 

I began the scavenger hunt by donning a green mustache and telling the kids I'd been kissed by a leprechaun who left a message for them.  Sounds fun, right?

My child burst in tears saying, "But I don't WANT a leprechaun mommy! I'm scared now.  I don't want a leprechaun to appear to me!"  Great job, Mommy.

 

There were a series of clues that helped them find some fun really fun prizes...

 

The final clue directed them to a special box with the ingredients for our next activity....GREEN SLIME!

They had a ball.  It really was quite fun. Gianna made me keep checking my phone for messages from Shevvy the Shamrock. I kept sneaking around to record more.

It was a whole lot of fun until bedtime - when she was petrified that the shamrock or leprechaun would appear.  I convinced her they weren't real - just pretend.  Then about 20 minutes later she came to my room concerned that Jesus would appear to her - because he was real.

 

She was decked out in green today - down to her shoes. (I always wonder if she has Irish as part of her heritage.) Her PePaw gave her enough clover to share with her class.

Unsolicited Apology

This is the note I received from Gianna after a string of poor behavior this morning....

 

Translation:

I am sorry for all the things I have done.

(I should add that it was written on an envelope which enclosed a flower.)

 

 Priceless.

Party Animals

Honestly, some weekends I feel like we are professional party-goers.  Gianna gets invited to loads of parties and we try to go to ALL of them.  Weekends are a hard time for us, mainly because we (meaning me) don't want to intrude on people's family time.  So when we get an invitation -- we GO! 

 

Earlier on Saturday morning we went to a really fun party at the Children's Museum.  I usually don't love going there, but Gianna genuinely had a blast.  The two parties we were invited to that day overlapped so we had to leave before we were ready to.

 

HOWEVER - the next party had ponies to ride, a jumpy house and a petty zoo.  A really COOL petting zoo.  I just loved these animals and their owners.  They said it began as a 4H project and turned into a side business.

 

This child has been on more horses in 5 years than I have in my whole life...

 

I'm telling you, the petting zoo was stellar!

 

And yes, you saw that right in the last last frame -- she was petting a snake.

 

 

AND, my very brave girl held one!

Thanks to Misty and Paul for hosting such a fun experience!

Yee Haw!

A few weeks back we joined our dear friends to watch two of their boys compete in a local junior rodeo.

After it was over, Alex let her ride one of their horses back to the trailer.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
And then Friday night we met some friends to go the Professional Rodeo.

Poor Gianna loves the rodeo, but dreads the opening. It's very dramatic punctuated with fireworks - that,  albeit don't last for three seconds, consumes her with concern and fright.  Those dern irrational fears are so testy.

 I told her to give me a cowboy pose in the next photo....

Can't really figure it out.

We took Nate to the rodeo for his birthday.  It was his first time.

He was expressions were priceless.

 We met Annie and Sarah there too.

It was a fun night.  LATE, but fun.

My funny little Valentine