Marching In

March 1st and 2nd turned out to be snowy starts which meant that my girls had their first ever delayed school start. The first was a Friday morning so we made pancakes, played with the pup and then I shoved them off to school by 10a.m. Kind of amazing, really! Of course they wanted a full day off but mama was happy to see them go and hey, there's always time this winter for more snow days...By Saturday morning we had a real dose of the white stuff. And considering we had a birthday party for Carolina's friend at a jumpy place, I put things on fast forward and we got up and out to enjoy a little snow time with Bailey before heading out. That's one plus side of these ungodly early mornings with the dog, it feels like midday and it's only 9a.m.  Of course, Bailey loved the snow and it was fun to capture a few pics of the girls while they made human obstacle courses for her to romp around on. 

Elisa's snowman selfie with our neighbor Ellie

Our plans on Saturday night fell through which was just as well because we had a St. Pat's parade and party in Sunnyside the next day to get ready for.  I decided to make a double batch of the sugar cookies and we started glazing them at 9:30p.m. so you know it was a late night. But fun. I love having the girls help me with these baking traditions. Shamrocks turned out a little crazy and puffy but who cares. They tasted like heaven and that's all that matters. So we packed them up on Sunday morning and I arranged for our dog sitter to come over and chill with Bailey for a bit since it would be such a long day out in the city. It also threatened to snow again starting Sunday night so we knew it couldn't be a terribly long day. Off we went with cookies and green beads and shamrock glasses in tow. Irish Sunnyside, we're on our way!

The gang's all here

The girls were excited to see the men "in skirts" again...kilts...they're called kilts :)

AOC representing in Sunnyside!

All my Girl Scouts waving hello!

Girlie girl reunion

Dawn's mint Oreo trifle was off the hook 

The after party at the Sweetman's was swinging--and no I'm not just saying that because I drank two Jameson-heavy Irish coffees. I mean, they always know how to welcome a crowd and today was no exception. The bangers and mash were top notch and the shepherd's pie was creamy goodness. It was nice hanging out with so many of our friends and catching up on the last few weeks. I miss Sunnyside the most on the weekends when we have downtime and could use a few familiar faces. But that's life. Our day to day change has been so good and we love our space. But friends are irreplaceable. So thanks for letting these Irish eyes smile upon us today and for another St. Pat's for All parade in the books!

Winter Wages On

St. Patrick's Day was on a Saturday this year which meant I had plenty of time to make some shamrock sugar cookies with my girls for the occasion. It's become one of their favorite holiday activities and hey, who can resist such a tasty activity? So here we were just hours before the AOC Bingo Night icing and sprinkling some of the beauties. I was also taking the day to rummage through my old photos of my time in Ireland. Having spent nearly a year there cumulatively, I have a real soft spot for the island and revisiting those memories every year is a pleasure. 

Women's restroom in Dingle, Ireland 1995

A letter from my great, great grandfather Edward T. Welch who was born in County Galway, Ireland on May 1st, 1851. My favorite line: "Ran away from home. Was wild." My grandfather gave this copy to me just before I traveled to Ireland for the first time in 1995 and he said it could be helpful if I had a chance to research our family history while I was there. I was a junior in college and I didn't exactly jump at the chance. Tucked away in an envelope all these years, I pulled it out again in January when I was doing some poking around on Ancestry.com. And now, for St. Patrick's Day I thought of it again. Such a legacy of lives interrupted and lives lived. 

Spending the evening at AOC testing my luck of the Irish was a perfect end to the day. I surprised myself and actually won the raffle I hoped for--a smoothie making-blender machine called the Ninja. The girls were psyched and I felt like a million bucks. Woo hoo! School fundraisers don't suck as much when you bring home something good. The next day I kept the good vibes going with a birthday brunch for Marija at M. Wells Dinette at PS 1. Since she turned 40 this year, we planned to make a week of it and this was a great start with some of my favorite ladies. The lunch was terrific as well. I had the relatively benign parsnip soup and croque madame with the creamiest damn béchamel.  But oh my was that good. I missed out on the bar hopping afterwards since I was trying to get back to relieve the babysitter but that's okay. I needed to pace myself for the rest of the week. 

Nothing like a mid-March snow day to shake things up a bit, right? We had thankfully just restocked at Trader Joe's so there was no chance of starvation. Instead I offered to host a few extra kiddos on our day off school and that was just fine for Elisa and Carolina. They were more than happy to play with friends and created a whole Lego village recreation of Sunnyside. It was too cute. In truth, the 5 girls (Skylar joined us for most of the 7 hour day) played better than my kids would have alone. We ended with watching "Beauty and Beast" before finally checking out the snow drifts at the end of the long day inside. Nacho was traveling but I still wanted to pamper myself so I made a delicious cabbage roll soup in the instant pot and I have to say it was such a cozy evening in. I almost didn't mind the snow. 

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

This year's St. Pat's for All parade felt a little emptier than usual. I don't know if it was the chilly temps or just the fact that every year it seems to be earlier, but the crowds were pretty sparse. We missed the opening speakers which included Kirsten Gillibrand our U.S. Senator from New York, but we made it down to our usual spot around 47th Street to with plenty of time before the parade kicked off. We coordinated with Carmen and Amanda to watch the festivities together and the kids giggled as the "man skirts" bagpiped their way down Skillman Ave. There was also a lot of smiling and waving at friends who marched. Our babysitter Dorothy proudly carried the flag for the Girl Scouts and Kira made all kinds of funny faces as she tried to get Carolina's attention. The political action group SWAG was smaller this year, but the politicians were still out in force. When Tish James heard Amanda yell out "Tish for MAYOR!" she joked that was "Letitia JAMESON!" Yes, the Irish connections are important for this particular day in Sunnyside. But they're not hard to find. As things were winding up, we even found our favorite Irish Olive and Johnny, representing both Dublin and Belfast. I mean, how much more Irish does it get? Later, we found Irene and headed back to our place inviting Kristin and Patrick too. It was a nice chill afternoon letting the kids go crazy and we polished off some Entenmann's green-sprinkled donuts and Target green-sprinkled sugar cookies and called it a day. A nice kick off to the rest of March and a warm up for the real wearing of the green in two weeks!