Top o' the mornin'

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A little rainbow water to complement our corned beef & cabbage.  

Cel-e-brate, part 2

Aarrgggghhh!  The "new & improved" Blogger is driving me bonkers!  Forgive me if these posts look a little goofier than usual.  :P

Happy feast day, Rebecca!

The girls love to paint, I'm just not a big fan of clean-up.  But, I figured St. Rebecca's (St. Rafka) feast day was a good reason to celebrate.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Like the green milk?  Thanks for the idea, Jamie!

Celebrate good times

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Since Andrew was home (ill) from school & the girls were passed out on the couch, we decided to add to our St. Patrick's Day decor. These leprechauns are made out of toilet paper tubes, acrylic paint, & a little craft foam. Andrew wanted to use one of our extra wooden dolls, but I thought these turned out plenty cute. My friend Andrea introduced us to leprechaun traps last year & this is our version from an old lemonade can. Andrew's *tricky* sign reads: Do not climb ladder! The top is a piece of foam that just barely covers the hole, so that when they reach for the gold at the top, they fall in. Added to our shamrock ribbon on the curtains, Rebecca's shamrock Trinity creation on the wall, the rainbows on the backdoor, & other random green-ery, we looked pretty festive. We watched "Patrick: Shepherd of the Emerald Isle" & read a slew of irish library books. I made these shamrock pretzels to go with our corned beef & potatoes dinner... tasty. I found myself singing the version of the Irish blessing that my Dad's choir always sings most of the day. I remember it specifically at the end of our baccalaureate Mass & it always makes me smile. I wish you could hear it; it sounds so beautiful.

***

May the road rise to meet you

May the wind be always at your back

The sun shine warm upon your face

The rain fall soft upon your fields

And until we meet again may God,

may God, may God hold you in the palm of His Hand.

*** St. Joseph is the patron for both Darren & Andrew, so we tried to up our celebrating a bit as well. I found a St. Joseph Memory game on the Internet that I could print off which was a fun addition to the morning table. It's all old paintings of St. Joseph with one of his many titles underneath. Great art lesson, too!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Green goodies

We enjoyed some green fare in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.
Our green pancakes were just green enough to look edible. Andrew's the only one who went for the green orange juice, though.

Lunch was tasty non-green reubens, green pickles, green & white popcorn, green cucumbers & dip, green lime jello, & water in green cups. Sense a theme here?

Oracion de San Patricio

Cristo conmigo,
Cristo ante mí,
Cristo tras de mí,
Cristo en mí,
Cristo bajo mí,
Cristo sobre mí,
Cristo a mi derecha,
Cristo a mi izquierda,
Cristo cuando me acuesto,
Cristo cuando me siento,
Cristo cuando me levanto,
Cristo en el corazón de todo hombre que piense en mí,
Cristo en la boca de todo hombre que hable de mí,
Cristo en todo ojo que me mire,
Cristo en todo oído que me escuche.

Me levanto hoy
Por medio de poderosa fuerza,
la invocación de la Trinidad,
Por medio de creer en sus Tres Personas,
Por medio de confesar la Unidad,
Del Creador de la Creación.

When Irish eyes are lookin'...

here's what they'll see at our house!

The kids went so crazy with hearts for St. Valentine's Day that we just decided to make them green & stick them together for St. Patrick's Day!

Encore?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
I hope that you had a fun & festive celebration. St. Patrick's Day always makes me think of my grandma...she loved being Irish. It makes me smile just to remember her. Yesterday, we celebrated with some friends & have plenty of our own corned beef left over. If you do, too, & are looking for a yummy "encore" try this easy sandwich mix for Reubens.

Mix together:
3/4 C mayonnaise
1 T chili sauce
1 1/2 t prepared mustard
1/4 t horseradish (but I usually skip it)

Stir in:
3 C shredded corned beef
1 can well drained saurkraut
2 C shredded swiss cheese

Fill between two buttered slices of your favorite rye or pumpernickel bread & fry in a pan or on a handy-dandy George Foreman grill. It's also really tasty as a dip with crackers.

Sooo good. Enjoy!