Wearing o' The Green: St. Patrick's Day Celebrations

What did you and your family get up to for St. Patrick's Day weekend? We had an awesome weekend full of a family date, parade, lunch at a friend's house and dinner with another group of friends at our house, church and a special visit from cousin Kade! I think we are all still exhausted but happy out! Here are our favorite pictures from the festivities. 

Our parade is amazing and Teagan had lots of fun!

Teagan, Isla and Daddy watch on!

I took lots of pictures of baby Landon for his mommy, Leah who wasn't at the parade. Here's Isla flirting with him!

My Irish baby is eleven months old today!

She has four teeth coming in and is still the sweetest little thing. 

Hi Landon!

Teagan takes a break!

Our babies are starting to get sleepy.....

...very sleepy! Mom's shoulder is a great place to snuggle....

After the parade we had lunch at Paul, Jackie, Molly and Bethany's house!

My little leprechaun loved checking out all their toys!

Krissy and Brecken!

Molly showing Brian that she too is a Manchester United fan! Good choice, Molly!

I could scoop up little Bethany who is hanging out here with her Daddy!

I love this picture! It is so Jackie! Always bubbly, always happy. Saying hello to Isla!

They are such wonderful cooks and hosts. The kids loved this yummy leprechaun treat!

D-lish bread!

Decorations galore! It's cool that they used the clover growing in their garden for this craft!

I think Teagan had three of these when I wasn't looking. I kept finding her with pops in her hand!

Corn beef and cabbage fare was amazing!

At the end of the party she remembered she hadn't turned on her cool earring lights! 

Thanks for an amazing lunch, Jackie and Paul! We had such a great time!

That night we picked up cousin Kade for a sleepover and had our friends, The C family over for bangers & mash.

Lonnie, Landon and Jennifer

Olivia

Landon

Madeline and Jennifer

We had such a great time with them, as usual! Big love for this family!

Finally, we had a little visit with Dave, Shanna, Caleb and Liam over the weekend. 

Liam is going to be ONE YEAR OLD this week! I can't believe how fast the past year has flown by. We so look forward to celebrating with them.

Precious boy! I adore holding this baby.

It has been so warm here that I broke out the summer outfit from Japan that my friend Michiko gave Isla. Isn't it beautiful with her red hair?

Oh somebody is going to get a Liam kiss!

Bye baby boy! See you this weekend!

After all the festivities Teagan fell asleep going to our family dinner date. Brian took us to the most amazing restaurant. They had duck confit...on the kids menu. I was really nervous taking our little munchkins in. But true to their word, they were family friendly and we had the best time!

I hope you have a great day where you are!

Michelle

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

When Irish eyes are smiling

Sure it's like a morn in spring.

In the lilt of Irish laughter,

You can hear the angels sing.

When Irish hearts are happy,

All the world seems bright and gay.

Sure, they steal your heart away...

We had so many reasons to smile last week as we celebrated St. Patrick's Day. On Wednesday we got together with Teagan's buddies at an art studio to make all kinds of crafty fun!

I love this idea! They used contact paper which allowed the kids to stick buttons, felt, glitter and more to their shamrocks. When they were finished contact paper was added to the top to seal everything in and the excess was trimmed away! My friend Nisha said she will do this with an egg shape for an Easter craft for her neighborhood kids. Brilliant!

Sweet little Ashleigh!

I am so glad we recently met Katie from England and her precious boy, Leo! He hasn't met little Brecken, Liam or Landon yet but they are sure to become fast friends!

Two of my favorite girls! Lera and mommy Natasha.

Lera always has the best smiles!

We were super psyched that Zea and mom Nisha switched their schedule around to join us!

Ellie and Vivienne are also new, treasured friends. They are the sweetest and prettiest little girls. This goo they are playing with is like play dough/slime that doesn't stick. I heard it was made of some sort of acid....yikes! Normally the mention of acid and my little babies make for one nervous mommy but thankfully by the time I heard what it was made of the kids had been playing happily with it. In fact, they LOVED it! I have a hard enough time getting our dinners made according to the recipe so I don't see us trying this one at home!

Teagan and Ellie painting with colored shaving cream.

With the Irish, Russians, British, Americans and French representin' we've become quite the international play group! French Ellie is here with Teagan. Ellie is seriously talented with her art as is photographer mom, Catherine!

Aren't Vivienne and mom Heather beautiful? They lived in Colorado and Texas too!

It was a treat to catch up with Daniel, sister Ashleigh and their mom, Polly! We miss seeing them each week.

Zea and Teagan grabbing a quick hug!

This was another project where the kids used tongs to drop metal balls covered with sparkly paint into galvanized pizza pans. When the balls hit the round paper they made a cool pattern! Those ladies at the studio are just genius! I can't wait for Tea's next class with them later this month for Easter!

I spied little Ashleigh working away on her own as the class wrapped up. I just love this shot but wish my blog template would let me display a bigger version. It would even be cool in black and white or with a color focus. And I love that we can see all our kid's artwork hanging up above her drying before we head home with them.

Destination: Inspiration is coming up for Tuesday! And I can't wait to share photos from our Paddy's Day celebrations on Saturday afternoon and night! Have a great Monday, all!

My Little Shopaholic Mini Me!

My pictures today are looking at the Spirit O' Paddy's Past!

Here Teagan is at almost two years old. She looks so little to me here. 

Oh boy. Am I in trouble. As in trou-UH-ble. I've suspected this for a few weeks but now it becomes official: my almost three year old loves shopping as much as her mommy! I took Teagan and Isla out today for shoes. Just shoes. Ok, and two white shirts to wear under their St. Patrick's Day dresses. But you get the idea. Not a big, long day. Just a store or two. Easy-breezy, right?

That plan so did not happen. We had only been in Store #1 a milisecond when Teagan began  throwing clothes into our stroller with such abandon I couldn't keep up! Wait a minute??!? What happened to keeping our hands to ourselves? What of sitting in the stroller quietly so mom could shop and we could move on to better things like kiddie train rides and an ice cream treat?

None of this mattered. She was on a mission, grabbing up anything her toddler hands could reach. Anything, friends. I am still stunned by her speed, her grace. I thought I could do some damage in record time but we had sparkly headbands, shirts in a rainbow of colors, a boy's baseball cap...scary bright orange sandles five sizes bigger than little Tea's feet. Sigh. And that was just one store.

...I'm not even sure how we managed to get outta The Children's Place without alarms going off! It wasn't until Isla innocently handed me a pair of glittery jelly sandals that I realized the secret stash of stuff underneath her feet. We had to double back and give up the goods to a sweet natured salesperson. Even in "my" store she found a green cardigan and wouldn't take it off opting instead to parade around and around until the sales team fell into a fit of giggles. But they weren't laughing  when she dumped a table full of sunglasses on the floor insisting that the cool tray beneath them had to be hers. Before long I was worn out and cut out trip short without the shoes, the train ride or the ice cream. We still had a great time. As we happily headed home Teagan muttered with her sleepy eyes closing, "Mommy, can we just go to one more store???" 

Yes, I have my little mini shopaholic. If you haven't read this series by Sophie Kinsella you must! It is hilariously funny. And I am so grateful for my two mini me girls! This week I can't wait to share our infertility/path to parenthood story, Paddy's Day fun and more! Hope you'll be back soon.

Michelle