Whew!

Today was a VERY busy day.  Double A, The Bean, The VH, Flower, Pippi, Tink, and Laughter were all here for Holidays!  Holidays is the tradition we started when DJ was 4 (she's 19 now), and try to do at least once a year, where we celebrate a bunch of holidays in one day because I'm usually not home for most of them.  So today we did:

Easter.  Each kid gets to dye 6 eggs, then we send them off on an errand and I hide the eggs (obviously it's too cold for the bunny to come do it).

 

Thanksgiving.  We eat Thanksgiving dinner, but very pared down.

We celebrate birthdays.  Each person gets a cupcake.  We've started doing only 1 candle for each, because between 7 kids and 4 adults, it would have been something like 304 candles.  11 are easier to light and blow out...

 

4th of July.  We got outside and do sparklers and smoke bombs.  There isn't always snow like this year, so this time we got to toss the smoke bombs in the snow and watch the results. 

Halloween.  We do face paint and the kids trick-or-treat around the house.

St. Patrick's Day.  We do a treasure hunt with clues to follow to find the Leprechaun's lost gold (gold wrapped chocolate).

Are you exhausted reading about it?  Because it's exhausting doing it!

 

We then all wore our matching owl pjs to the movie.  Because I am a dorky aunt who makes her nieces do stuff like that.

 

The movie was Moana, and it was a lot of fun.

Finally, today is Shoetopia's 4th blogiversary!  I think this shoe is hilarious and adorable.

Everyone is supposed to be spending the night, but sadly Pippi had a horrible headache all day and decided she wanted to go home after the movie, and Tink decided to go with her.  The VH has family stuff tomorrow so she couldn't say over.  I still have 4 kiddos sleeping over, though.

Speaking of kiddos, all of my nieces are amazing, but can I take a minute to brag on Double A and The Bean?  They still love to do Holidays, but they are also great with helping with the younger kids.  They're great with kids in general, and love hanging out with their cousins.  They are patient and kind and loving, and it makes my heart happy to watch them.  But now my happy heart and I are going to bed.

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I wore a green shirt today, wore my shamrock socks, and drank out of my shamrock mug.  I also spent the day packing and moving, so I'm exhausted.  Here are some St. Patrick's Day shoes from Zazzle:

And a silly cartoon!

 

And Pedro!

Memory Lane: 2013. 2014. 2015.

3 Things:

1. SKD had come 2 nights in a row to help me with the packing and moving.  She has a giant suburban, so we can haul way more stuff than I can in my car.
2. I took the hubby's beloved, limited edition Mustang Mach 1 to the new house tonight and nothing happened to his baby.  Thank the car gods.
3. Progress, even though it doesn't look like I've done a darn thing.  Even though the house looks like it has been hit by a tornado or a swarm of drunk toddlers.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Did you wear green today?  The hubby and I did, although my outfit ended up being more of an olive and khaki green combination, but at least I tried.  Enough about my wardrobe.  The Pinterest Friend has been busy as usual, so let's look at some shoes!

The calendar got into the spirit.  I love the color.  But what is the calendar's love of the Melissa shoes?  These are made of PVC which just sounds hot and sweaty.

 

Awwww.

This is a cool card.  I usually send holiday cards to the nieces, and I would definitely buy this one if I saw it.

 

Pretty sure I had these last year, but they're too cute not to share again.

Another cool card!

Adorable and crafty.

Ooooh...St. Patrick's Day wedding shoes.

I'm not sure about these.  They look like they're possibly vintage, so I want to like them, but there is something slightly off about them for me.

 

I wanted to get in on the fun, too, so the rest are my picks.  Can you only wear these to work out in on St. Patrick's Day?

 

I love all of these.  The second pair from the left is my least favorite, but they're all fun.

Holy buckets that's a giant sparkly green boot.  I'd wear a pair of these to a party, though.

Hope you had a green filled day!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I didn't get to go home and eat corned beef and cabbage with my family, which makes me sad, but I celebrated in little ways.  I wore green.  

 

I drank coffee out of my shamrock cup (which I have been and will continue to do throughout the month of March).

I put on my sparkly shamrock socks long enough to take a picture.  It was warm again today, so I opted for capris.  Didn't think the hubby would let me out of the house if I wore the socks with them.

I drooled over the shoes Kate Middleton wore today and realized that I need a pair of shoes in a really good green.

Even the calendar got  into the spirit with green snakeskin shoes.  Which made me giggle.  They don't normally go with much of a holiday theme, but snakeskin on St. Patrick's Day?  Ha!  Get it?

The Pinterest friend also sent me a few pictures to celebrate the day:

Love these.  But then, I almost always love baby shoes.

These are really pretty.  I love the batik fabric with its gold swirls.

Sparkly green shamrock shoes.  What could be more appropriate?  I thought I had featured these last year, but I guess not.

I'm only the teeniest smidge Irish, actually more Scottish, but I still think it's fun to go with a theme.  Unless it's green beer, and then I'm out.

Shopping With The Seester

The seester, Laughter and I drove into town today for a bit of shopping and errand running.  It was a quick trip, but fun.  We drove in and had lunch, then went to Target, Barnes & Noble, and Michael's.  We were home by 5:00.  (I should probably tell you that "town" is the city of a decent size about 75 miles from my hometown) Anyhoo, it was a nice day, and we had fun talking and giggling and shopping.  I also had fun playing with my new camera and taking pictures while we drove.  Here are some samples of the journey.

It's dry here...not much snow, which is a bummer.  But I still firmly I believe I come from one of the most beautiful places ever.

When I got home I started getting ready for tomorrow's Holidays festivities.  This is our annual tradition of doing a whole bunch of holidays in one day since I'm not usually home for them.  It started out somewhat simply enough and has since gotten more complicated.  Still fun, though.  So, above we have the Easter eggs  boiling, the Halloween candy and St. Patrick leprechaun gold, birthday cupcakes (which Double A frosted and The Bean be-sprinkled), and the turkey thawing for Thanksgiving dinner.  We'll also do 4th of July, Valentine's Day, and Christmas.  Good times!

St. Patrick's Day

I have shocking news for you today:  I DON'T have green shoes for St. Patrick's Day!  What is wrong with me?  OK, back up.  I DO have some green shoes if you remember my post from last week.  What I don't have are green HEELS for church.  I knew this, I guess, but didn't really think about it until it was too late to do anything about it.  I used to have the cutest pair of green velvet heels, but they died a sad death one Christmas Eve while I was on internship.  I'm still in mourning for those shoes.  I thought about just wearing festive socks for church...

 

...but figured that might be a little much.  It's one thing to kick my shoes off when I preach where no one can really see my feet.  It's another to just run around in my stocking feet for 2 services.  The kids probably would have liked it, though.

 

At any rate, I ended up wearing my gold shoes.

 

 

They seemed festive for the day.  Rainbows and pots of gold, right?  These are actually the shoes that appeared in my very first blog post, and they have very high heels.  My assisting minister and I were standing in the back of the sanctuary this morning while the senior pastor did announcements and she said to me, "Man, you get tall when you put on your church shoes!"  Which is true.  I am taller during church than at any other time!

 

Hope everyone has had a great holiday, however you celebrate.  Today I'm missing being home with my family and eating corned beef and cabbage, despite the fact that I don't really like either of those things.  It's tradition, and I miss it when I'm not home.  I could make my own, but so far haven't.  Oh well, I leave you with my favorite St. Patrick's Day cartoon: