Land o’ the Irish

“During George Washington's second stay in Morristown, in March 1780, he declared St. Patrick's Day a holiday to honor his many Irish troops.” –Wikipedia  Additionally, about 14% of Morristown’s population has Irish ancestry. 
It appears St. Patrick’s Day has remained a big celebration.  A parade is held in Morristown each year on a Saturday nearest the holiday and pubs are open early and well occupied all day.  In our typical Rowland way, we headed out early to get a front row spot at the parade. 



 
Cody had told me we needed to be there at 10 a.m.  The parade started at 12 p.m.  Coming from HK where we spent five hours waiting for fireworks, I didn’t think it too unusual.  We were maybe a little too early.  Cody thought the parade started at 11 a.m., which is when people actually started to show up to stake out spots!  Oh well, we got our front row.
The parade was full of bag pipes and kilts—just the way a St. Patrick’s Day parade should be!  Who knew so many people could play the bagpipe?!!  I did have to explain to Jade why men were in skirts…
 
Jade liked the girls’ Irish dancing. 

So much so, she decided to give it a try later when we got home. 

The parade was great for kids: lots of candy, lots of green necklaces, and even balloons! 
  
Tanner was totally amused. 
I think one of the entries had a leprechaun picture with a mustache.  Ridge was pretty entertained by it and turned around to show us: 
The parade had a variety of entries, floats, fire trucks, a wizard…
 
 
And wouldn’t you know, we even spotted a real life leprechaun! 
The parade lasted a good two hours, maybe even a little longer.  It was really fun, and really great to get outside on a sunny day (though still a bit chilly).  Plus, we were pretty thrilled with all the necklaces we scored!
On St. Patrick’s Day, Jade woke up excited to check off the list she’d created (unbeknownst to me).  I soon found out she had made a list of the tricks she’d heard a leprechaun might play.  It is supposed to say: “Draw on the wall.  Throw all the dishes. Footprints handprints. Pee in the toilet.  Rainbow.  Lucky three leaf clover.”
She had made a list for her and Ridge and was excitedly looking around the house, checking off her list.  Unfortunately, our leprechaun must have been kind of lazy because all he did was color the milk green.  Once he found out about the list, he hurried and put food coloring in the downstairs toilet too.  Luckily, that was enough for the moment.  Besides, he wasn’t planning to leave treasure until after school anyway! 
The kids did get green three leaf clover pancakes with green syrup and milk for breakfast. 
Aaaaand entirely green lunches.  Jade had green tortilla chips, yogurt, seaweed, kiwi, grapes, and peeps; while Ridge had green yogurt and eggs.  He loves eggs with syrup! 
  
For dinner we had chicken pesto pasta and green beans.  Another of the kids’ favorites. 
After dinner we went on the treasure hunt the leprechaun left while Jade was at school and Ridge was napping. 
 
Jade is at such a great age where she really gets into everything!  Ridge loves to tag along and gets a kick out of pretty much anything.  It sure makes holidays extra fun! 
 
Having kids makes everything so much more exciting and magical.  I sure love doing stuff like this with them.  Their enthusiasm makes it so very enjoyable!