St. Patrick's Day Weekend

Maddie got to sleep in late this morning, always a big deal for her - but this morning she slept extra late.  Why not, right?  It's a day off, and that's okay.  Today is the day before St. Patrick's Day, and we actually did a good bit of celebrating the Irish weekend.  For example, while Maddie was asleep, I was doing another 5K, this one in New Hampshire.  Of course, virtually.  These are on the treadmill as always, and for this one I ran the entire distance, and it was pretty awesome.  There were lots of folks wearing green, with shamrock glasses and St. Patrick's Day trivia going on to keep your mind off the chore of running.  It was fun though.  Best of all was my blood pressure afterwards, astoundingly low.  

I was out doing some leaf-blowing today afterwards, and Maddie was up at one point of course.  She had one big task of the day, and that was this:  making a pie!

Maddie mixed the ingredients and made a pie with Mom and I nearby, but it was a delicious key lime pie.  We added a hint of green food coloring, and decorated it to bring along tomorrow to Aunt Shain's St. Patrick's Day celebration.  

Easter is crazy early again this year, and so we're at this weird crossroads of Easter decor and St. Patrick's Day decor.  Given that it's the weekend, I went out there and got the tree decorated, with small plastic Easter eggs hanging from branches all there at our front porch.    

The other thing I did was set up Happy Hollow.  It's an amazing little Easter village, a happy community of bunny rabbits.  Times are changing, but the small town has kept its businesses going strong, like the BZBee Honey Company and the nearby Eggery.  

The Flower Shop is absolutely bustling with activity!  I moved a few of the houses and shops around, and it looks good this year.  Again, the joke is that we got these from the Dollar Store many years ago, buying them all up for about a dollar a piece and giving my dad the whole set.  He passed them back to us a few years later and we figured why not keep them?  I've grown rather attached to them, in fact.  Anyway, I just looked them up online, and surprisingly, a good number of these are being sold for about $15-16 each.  I suspect others have grown kind of attached to these pieces too.

So Mom was not well today, but it's just a stronger sort of cold with the coughing and the sore throat.  She had some medication and took it easy.  We went out and did some grocery shopping, Maddie and I, getting a few things for tomorrow, and some more ice cream too.   Mom was at home relaxing more, doing some more looking around with ancestry.  She found out she's related to Bob Ross, actually - twelfth cousin, once removed!  Next time we head down that Florida Coast, we'll have to stop by the gallery there near Daytona.  She's also been sprouting some seeds in our bedroom window - they're growing fast!

But here's the big fun of the day - Mom got me a St. Patrick's Day gift, and a special one at that.  See, my grandfather's kilt was passed down to me, but I didn't have the rest of the outfit to wear with it.  Mom ordered the new high sock flashes, flags, shirt, and a sporran!  Now there's a word I've recently learned - it's that little pouch in the front.  It's not a purse - it's a sporran!

We closed out the day with our early viewing of "Darby O'Gill and the Little People," which is always great.  This year we rewatched the Disney special from so long ago, the one where Walt Disney goes to Ireland to find the King of the Leprechauns.  It's great if you've never seen it!  

Afterwards, we headed upstairs where the Plush Entourage could hear another few of the final chapters of "The Shimmer," where we found out how the wicked Carnius was defeated by the next generation of Kingdom Keepers.  We should finish this book up tomorrow, but I actually liked reading more the next time around.  Still confused about Storey Ming's new abilities, but I'm assuming that gets cleared up.

Anyway, we said our prayers after that and sorry Maddie, but not sleeping in tomorrow.  It's a big day at KidPak!