St. Patrick's Day

Sometimes I think the "lesser holidays" are the most fun.  All the little things you can do don't take a lot of work, but add up to lots of fun.  We've always liked to try to do fun things, but this year I added a few things from pinterest.  I feel like I'm giving an acceptance speech or something: "I'd like to thank pinterest, without whose help I wouldn't have been so busy this week, and whose countless ideas continued to inspire me all week."  But there were several things I saw there that I decided to do with Emma.  It wasn't possible to do all the things I wanted to do, but next year I'll get around to them.

One of the ideas I liked was doing a countdown to the actual day and spreading little activities throughout the entire week.  We've been particularly busy lately, and this week was no exception, so I didn't have time to do one each night, so we combined a little.  It didn't help that I started a day late.  I just hadn't planned correctly.  I didn't want my last day to be on the holiday, but rather the night before.  Oh well.  I told Eric I think it's because I have Scottish blood in me, not Irish, and was subconsciously trying to sabotage this holiday.  

First we talked about rainbows, made a balloon rainbow, used a flashlight and some water to make a rainbow, and ate a rainbow fruit pizza for dessert.  

I originally had a light blue balloon as well, but it popped as we were hanging this up.  In fact,
you can see a bit of it on the bottom part of the frame of the middle picture.

Our next night was all about Saint Patrick himself, and snakes.  We went to the library for a Lego activity they were having there, and while there I picked up some books about snakes for Emma to read.  She particularly liked the one called Giant Snakes.  Along with pizza for dinner, we had some breadsticks and marinara sauce.  I sprayed the breadsticks green before baking them and tried twisting them up a little so they looked more like snakes.  Yes, I could have added something for the eyes or a tongue to make them look extra snakey, but I didn't feel like it.  This was the extent of my ambition for the night.  But Emma still loved it.  We also made a snake using Easter Eggs.  I did add eyes and a tongue to this one, but mostly just so it wouldn't look like some weird row of Easter eggs.  Before making it Emma had fun trying to figure out what the Easter egg she pulled out of the countdown bag had to do with St. Patrick's day.  

On Tuesday we didn't have time for anything because Emma had Tai Kwon Do and both Eric and I had to be at the church for different activities.  But I did make some cupcakes for the girls there.  I love making cupcakes, but don't do it as often as I used to because Emma doesn't like frosting.  Seriously.  And it's just sad to make cupcakes and not frost them.  She prefers other treats anyways.  But I took the opportunity to make rainbow cupcakes in honor of St. Patricks day.

I wanted to make sure I had enough cupcakes for the girls, so I didn't cut into one,
but this is a picture of the inside of one I made a couple years ago.  

I don't have a picture from Wednesday night, but we talked about Ireland, the culture, Celtic music and Irish dancing, and the potato famine.  For dinner we had a potato bar with all the fixins.  We were going to make a more holiday appropriate dessert, but since it was Pi day we opted for pie instead.

The next night we talked about Shamrocks and why they are associated with the holiday.  We tried making a shamrock using 3 green balloons, and for dessert Emma and I made a treat using pretzels, hershey kisses, and green m&ms.  Yum!  Cute little shamrock treats.  They were seriously good, especially since the m&ms were minty!  Excuse me while I wipe up some drool...

Yes, you can see my sad attempt at making stems.  I only had a little
 green frosting in a tube left, and this was as good as it worked.   

On Friday we talked about Leprechauns.  We watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People, a holiday must.  Then Emma set out her trap.  This was the fourth year she has tried to catch a leprechaun.  There has been a little success, but we've still never actually seen one.   She wanted to make a new trap, but we didn't have time (it's been so busy lately!), so she just used the same one from last year, but added an additional note of warning about not climbing the ladder, just to further encourage the leprechaun to ignore the sign and go ahead and climb up.

On Saturday morning Emma woke up to find that we had indeed been visited by a leprechaun, and that he left our home worse than he found it, including leaving some foot prints and not flushing!  Emma thought that was pretty gross!  I guess the leprechaun thought Emma was getting too clever to just leave his "gold" in the trap, so he sent Emma on a treasure hunt all over just to find it.  She was able to figure out every clue and did eventually find her reward.  For breakfast Emma enjoyed some Lucky Charms (we only buy them this time of year, so it keeps them a special treat).  We made sure to wear green so Emma wouldn't pinch us.  Eric and I went to dinner with some friends that night, and while dropping Emma off at the sitters she saw our Bishop (who wasn't wearing green) and pinched him.

Emma sporting one of her leprechaun hats.

And here's the other one.

We decided to have our St. Patrick's day dinner on Sunday since we weren't home to enjoy it on Saturday.  Of course we had corned beef and cabbage.  And you just have to enjoy a good shamrock shake!

Famous

Emma is now famous.  Okay, not really, but her picture was in the local newspaper this past week.  The story wasn't about her, but about her school class.  Actually it was about a lady who came to visit her school class.  But who cares!  Emma thought it was cool having her picture in the paper, no matter what the story was about.  Here is the picture and the article.  (FYI - I've left out her school name and the last names of the other kids mentioned).  Emma told me that the other kid in the picture was trying to have his troll kiss Emma, hence her face.  He wasn't simply showing it to her as the caption indicates.


First-graders find Norwegian trolls fascinating

Jordynn shows his troll puppet to classmate Emma Meadows, whose fingers are covered with black hair from making her own puppet during a presentation about the creatures to Jill Jensen's first-grade class Tuesday morning.

Troll fur was flying in Jill Jensen’s first-grade classroom on Tuesday morning, as students explored the history of the mischievous Norwegian creature.

As the sun streamed in the windows, Sons of Norway Hafrsfjord Lodge member Gerry Lachman, 79, sat in a small chair and read “The Little Troll” to a rapt group of 26 children.  Lachman has been sharing her love of Norway and trolls with children for years, first at Southport and Somers schools.

“Trolls are so ugly, they’re interesting,” Lachman said. “The children love to hear stories about something unusual.”

Trolls, Lachman and fellow Norwegian Celia Walther said, can be found in forests, trees, mountains, and under bridges; can have more than one head, which makes them loud and fierce; can be thousands of years old; and have all kinds of unlikeable traits (stinginess, ignorance, clumsiness, and sneakiness). The message resonated with the kids.

“Trolls live in tree trunks and under bridges,” James, 7, said.

“I would be scrunched up if I lived in a tree,” said Madison, 7.

“They don’t like sun and they don’t like people,” Bailey, 7, said. “They are very weird.”

Madeline, 7, knew just what to do to get rid of one: “I would get it into the sun because they turn to stone.”

The children wrapped up their morning by making troll puppets with fake fur.  Some of the kids used their safety scissors to give their trolls haircuts and ended up with glue and fur stuck to their fingers — looking a little like trolls themselves.

Jensen is the secretary of the Sons of Norway Hafrsfjord Lodge, and has Lachman and Walther give annual presentations on Vikings, Norwegian Christmas traditions, and “Syttende Mai,” the patriotic 17th of May “Constitution Day” celebration.  For Tuesday’s visit, Lachman came bearing more than just stories — she also brought sandbakkel, which are Norwegian shortbread cookies baked inside individual tins.  The finished result looks like a small pie shell with no filling.

Walther, who was named the K----- News 2011 Person of the Year, beamed at the children as she and Lachman waved goodbye.

“I just love being here,” she said.

Grown Up Girl

On Sunday I took a picture of Emma because she was wearing a dress my parents gave her for the first time.  She looked so grown up in it.  A little too grown up for my liking.  Where did my little pig-tailed small girl go?  Time is really going by way too fast.  Sigh.

Of course, she seemed even more grown up when she was flirting with and trying to impress the missionaries when they came to dinner last night.  She was reciting the articles of faith to them, sharing the scripture that she read in primary with them, and "casually" reading her scriptures in the living room. I don't even know when she went and got it, but at one point while we were talking at the table, we looked over and Emma is just nonchalantly sitting in the living room reading her Book of Mormon.  Too funny.  Then when she discovered one of the missionaries is a Packers fan, she had to show him all of her Packers stuff (which can take quite awhile) and discuss Aaron Rodgers with him.  Oh my.  What a funny girl.  What am I going to do with her?

A Fun Saturday

This last Saturday we had a full schedule.  But it was all fun.  The worst is a full schedule of things you're not looking forward to.  We went to the Civil War Museum to check it out.  We haven't been yet, and Saturday was their family fun day.  They had a couple extra activities for kids there.  Emma liked trying on the period dress (all of which was way too big for her!), and playing with the Legos.  They have a display of a couple Ironclad ships.  The kids were supposed to try to make their own ironclad ship out of the Legos.  I think Emma was the only one who attempted it.  Most of the kids were just building whatever they wanted to.  I think she did a pretty good job too.  (By the way, all the pictures on this post were taken with my small camera, which as you can tell, is old and feeble and doesn't quite do the job.  So I apologize for their poor quality).

The only girl outfit they had, and the skirt was tall enough it would've fit me!

I think she liked the Lincoln hat best.

My little soldier!

She was trying to be serious and non-smiley like everyone was in pictures back then.

The Lego display of the ironclad ships.

Emma's version of an ironclad ship.  She was building hers like the black one in the last picture, and even included the steam!

We then stopped by Andrea's gift shop to look around and to try Jack's Cafe inside.  It's a small cafe, but kind of quaint.  We shared a chocolate malt and a pineapple float.  Both were very delicious!

Next we went to the library.  They were having a Dr. Seuss day there.  I'm not sure why they didn't have it last weekend - that would have made more sense to me.  Oh well.  Emma tried on the Cat in the Hat's hat, and attempted to make her own.  They also had a project using pipe cleaners to make your own Cat in the Hat.  I don't know how they expected kids (especially little kids) to make these on their own.  It was kind of tricky.  I helped Emma with hers.  It turned out alright, but only being held together with glue I don't know how long it will last.  Oh well.  Not my problem.

I love spending time with my family.  Especially when we get to try new things.  Poor Eric was sick all last week with the flu and bronchitis, and is still feeling run down.  He's not contagious anymore, but just feels yucky.  He enjoyed just being able to enjoy the day, and I think it was good for him.  I know Emma had fun, and that's the most important thing.