it's a great day for a parade!

The Holyoke St. Patrick's Day parade is a family tradition.  I have memories as a child watching the parade as the beautiful floats went by with the Irish princesses riding high atop.  The bands marching by playing Irish music, the Mummers, Shriners, and all the festivities of the day.   I marched in the parade with my high school band my freshman and sophomore year, and as the majorette (although not a very good one) my junior year.  My Senior Year...I had the privelege of riding on one of those beautiful floats, as an Irish princess...the experiences of that year, I will carry on forever.   In my college years I was close enough to car pool down with a bunch of my sorority sisters and crash the many house parties along the parade route.

Flash forward 20 years (yes, it has been that long).  I am carrying on that tradition with my kids.  In these parts, or at least in the circle I was raised, being Irish is a pretty big deal.  Each of the surrounding towns holds a Colleen Contest to choose a Colleen and Court to ride on the float that the town enters in the parade.  In my town, we have 20 - 30 girls each year entering the contest for 5 coveted spots.  Year after year the float committee builds a grand prize winning, Parade of Roses worthy float.  Since my experience as a court member was such a vivid memory from my teenage years, I am lucky enough to be on the Colleen Committee for the Irish club in my town.  This year, the kids and I accompanied the girls to and from the parade.  The kids also had the honor of carrying the banner for the Westfield Parade Marshall...who just happens to be their uncle.

While taking pics of the kids and marchers, I also thought it would be fun to take pics of the parade watchers...

It was the first day of Spring and a great day for a parade!

from the top left to right:
Kelsey with her big bright Irish smile; Kelsey & JT carrying the banner for the Uncle; JT taking a break along the parade route: Westfield's Grand Prize winning Float; Westfield Colleen and her court; the float again; because every parade needs a chicken; party house; me and my sister in law Lisa.

compromise?

We are in the process of looking for a new family dog.  We lost Sammy almost a year ago and I think we are all ready for a new member of the family.  The problem is we can't decide on what kind to get.  Bob wants another lab.  Sammy was a yellow lab, and I just don't think I can go there...unless maybe it was a chocolate lab, which seems to be the only one we can all comfortably agree on.


The kids and I are pulling for an Old English Sheep dog, but Bob is totally against it.

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I could go for a Golden Doodle.  I am sooo in love with my bloggy friend Meg's dog Waffle.  But the boys don't want a golden doodle and I think Kelsey only agrees with me because having a dog named Waffle is kind of cool.

Now they are trying to convince me that we should get 2 dogs...a big one and a little one.  I really don't think that is going to happen.  I do not want to own a small dog.  I think they are cute, and love to look at them when other people own them, but I am not a small dog owner kind of person.  For me, the bigger the dog, the better.  The bigger, fuzzier, crazier the dog the better (which is why I am so in love with the OES)....when we first started looking I was bent on a Newfoundland...that is my kind of dog.

Kelsey wants a Maltipoo so she can put pink ribbons in its ears...ummm cute, but no.



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 She also wants a bunny and would trade a dog for a bunny eventhough she really wants both.

Since my criteria is for a big dog with large paws and she wants a bunny...I think I found a compromise.


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Seriously, I think a chocolate lab it will be (or maybe a chocolate doodle)...with big furry paws...I'm just saying.

snow much fun & tasty treats

It's April 1st.

It's snowing.

Really?

We are 13 days into Spring here Mother Nature.

I do love snow.

I love to ski.

I love snowmen.

I love winter.

But winter is over.

Enough already with the snow.

And since I haven't yet shared the pics from our day of sledding during February vacation, I felt that a snowy day in April would be the perfect time.

I loaded 4 kiddos in the car and went to a local golf course with a great hill for sledding.  We spent most of the morning sledding and had the hill to ourselves.  I happened to spot a 4 person tobaggan in the garage before we left...lucky find, it was perfect!


The conditions on the hill were good.  A bit bumpy for my taste, although my body's jiggle factor is a bit higher than the kiddos...if you know what I mean.  I was able to make a few runs down, to pull the little ones up, but thankfully they decided to walk (err...crawl) up themselves (or at least with just a little help).



Erica decided that she really didn't need a sled and proceeded to roll down the hill...like 100 times.

While JT and Abby found an icy patch and flew down on the double sled again and again then tried sledding down on their bums...which worked too!

We were treated to a fly over...thank you 104th!  The kids thought is was their own personal airshow.

When it was time to leave, not everyone wanted to go...although, some were more vocal than others....

and every snowy day deserves some yummy treats



grab a beer and look what I did last week {Mar 20-26}

This was supposed to be grab a beer Sunday, but since blogger was being difficult...grab a coffee and check it out (since it is probably a little early on Monday to grab a beer...or then again...)





***After you have checked out my week...click the button above and see what everyone else did ***

Got my Irish on while marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade with the kiddos on a beautiful sunshine filled first day of Spring!

Endured the cold, wet, slushy snow the very next day (really???)

Received some happy mail to brighten my cold Spring day!

She has so many fabulous necklaces to choose from...check it out here.

experimented with my Panini Press (can we say grilled wraps...yum!) and my instagram app

banned this from the house (after I ate most of it)...evil, very evil

stuck my finger tips 1 million times with a needle that I couldn't thread to save my life while sewing patches on JT's Cub Scout shirt.  Went to Walmart mid patch to buy a sewing machine that is idiot proof  (because I can't figure out how to use the one I have) and had to listen to some pathetic story about how they have 2 in stock but they are out in a trailer behind the store and could I come back tomorrow?  Ummm....no, the patches need to be sewed on today.  Went back home...minus the sewing machine...and stuck my finger 1 million more times, but finished the shirt in time.

Filled the rest of the week with the 1001 things that moms do everyday because we are moms

loved it all

the good

the bad

and the ugly

because to me, I have the best job in the whole wide world

I will take the ups and the downs

cuddles, love, hugs and smiles are the best rewards!

shenanigans

Impromptu photo shoot

turned silly

turned out of control

no one was hurt in the making of this photo shoot

it was fun

we laughed

but I never did get a photo good photo of them together

oh well, I love what I did capture

the wearing (& eating) o' the green

St. Patrick's day is a well celebrated holiday around these parts.  I am extremely proud of my Irish heritage and while I try very hard to have my kids embrace both sides of their heritage (my husband is Slovak) the Irish just seems to win every time.  I like to make it fun around here come the 17th, but not too crazy (because afterall we are lucky enough to be Irish all year long).

Yesterday was no exception, starting with a visit from our friendly house leprachaun who visits each St. Patrick's Day to perform silly little shenanigans in the house (our leprachaun DOES NOT leave gifts...that is reserved for Santa and the Easter bunny).  However, our leprachan does turn things green...like the toilet water and our milk.

Our food tends to turn green as well.

Especially when you have cute little leprachauns in training mixing up your pancake batter

yummy breakfast fit for a leprachaun

dinner in the making

 Those were supposed to be rainbow waffles.  I got the idea from Kelli over at Random Thoughts of a SUPERMOM!  I saw them and just knew I had to make them they were soooo cute.  Let me rephrase that...Kelli's were sooooo cute, mine on the other hand looked like a tye-dye expirement gone horribly wrong.  The kids at least liked them, and appreciated the effort.

it just isn't St. Patty's day without a Shamrock Shake...then again, it really hasn't been a day in March around here without a Shamrock Shake. Hey, they only come around once a year, I think I can justify the excessive consumption (read - obsession) with that point alone.

and because the Shamrock Shake was consumed with dinner we had to have dessert too! Once again, Kelli came through with a great idea for me with her Leprachaun Jello...this one actually came out perfect and was really, really yummy despite being made with lime jello 

in my opinion, it just isn't St. Patrick's Day without a corned beef sandwich...

since I don't like waffles I skipped them and got my corned beef fix

(since no one else here will eat it anyway...really, they don't know what they are missing)

Hope your St. Patty's Day was full of Shenanigans!