Saturday, June 22, 2013

St. Patrick’s Day 2013 a.k.a. St. Patrick Pup’s Day

Thanks, Mark, for the strategically placed shamrock that says “Oops!”
(Links to St. Patrick’s Day 2010 and 2012)

There’s only one themed kid party I do each year that’s not for birthdays and that’s St. Patrick’s Day. I’m not particularly in touch with my Irish roots. In fact I’m a mutt and the most I am of anything is Lithuanian and Polish (a quarter each) and English, and according to 23andMe Irish doesn’t even figure into my top 10. But I’ve got these decorations from when I used to host viewing parties for the cinematic masterpiece Leprechaun and its sequels back in my pre-kids days, and by golly I’m going to use them!



Welcome to the gun show.

Julia referred to the day as “St. Patrick Pup’s Day” or “Patrick Pup’s Favorite Day” which made me smile. (They take photos every three months to show their growth next to a stuffed dog named Patrick Pup.) James had a meltdown when he only had a choice of two shirts, both green. After much drama he finally selected one and then asked to wear it again a few days later. Ah, 3-year-olds...

Last year I had two parties - one for my Mom’s Night Out playgroup and one for my Las Madres playgroup. This year I just did one for the MNO playgroup and everyone came. We had 11 kids! Granted, Oliver only stayed for 15 minutes and Josh and Sam arrived from preschool at 12:30 p.m. so not everyone was here at the same time, but it was definitely a full house.

The guests: Sharon and nanny Poonim with Zoe and Zachary, Beth with Laura, Stacy with Ronan, Rachel with Oliver, Vicky with Amelia and Sophie, and Debbie with Josh and Sam. Including mine we had four sets of twins!

Ronan and Laura
 
Oliver and Amelia with Sophie


Zachary and Zoe


Josh and Sam


And finally these two or as they call each other, Other Kid and Other Kid

There was food.

I saw a photo on Pinterest from a Today Show segment starring an Mark’s former co-worker who’s now a self-proclaimed lifestyle/crafting guru. She put marbles outside cupcake wrappers before pouring in batter in order to get a shamrock shape. I dutifully followed her directions, though I didn’t use the copious amount of food coloring she did.

The inspiration

So far so good...
Curse you Pinterest!
They actually didn’t look all that bad after some minor surgery.
Waffle shaped pretzels + melted Hugs + M&Ms
Snack tray of bell peppers (naturally shamrock-shaped), green apple, crunchy green beans, and cheese shamrocks courtesy of a shamrock-shaped cookie cutter.
Vicky brought shortbread cookies and Beth brought kiwi.
Spinach tortillas + a shamrock cookie cutter = St. Patrick’s Day quesadillas
Kids played.

Laura reaches for the St. Patrick’s Day window clings.

Vicky and her twins Amelia and Sophie may be blissfully unaware, but Sharon is a little disturbed that there is a giant ant coming to get her.

Beth gives Laura a thumbs up after Laura sings a song in Mandarin.

Sophie puts a tiny hat on Vicky.


Mothers and sons

Mother and mother

Mother
I provided two crafts. The first was a bead necklace. I provided several types of beads including letter beads so the kids could make necklaces with their names. The only problem was that the kids lost interest halfway through so it ended up being a mommy endeavor. Since I was taking pictures and running things, I figured I’d help James and Julia’s with theirs later. Unfortunately that meant that in the meantime the twins started “popping” beads - pushing down on the end of them until they shot off the table. James also overturned a full plate of beads onto the floor. I am still finding beads.

At first at least Julia plays with her beads nicely.

And then James gets to the beads. It's hilarious when it takes Mommy months to find all the beads!

We see who really ended up doing the craft.


Beth strings Laura’s necklace while Laura pops bubble wrap.

Beth holds Laura’s finished necklace.
The kids also watercolored bubble wrap. That might seem odd, but it made more sense once they pressed shamrock shapes on top of it to transfer bubble wrap-sized watercolor circles. This craft seemed to work better when I tried it at home a week earlier.

Amelia and Sophie paint in their jaunty hats.

Zoe watercolors.

Ronan’s finished shamrock
The kids played in the backyard afterwards. And you know it’s a raging 3-year-old kegger when the last guest leaves at nearly 2 p.m. (No complaint here. It was fun.)

There was teeter tottering.

And totter teetering.

And even a little bit of hide and go seeking.

And at the end we made the kids pose for the traditional holiday sofa photo before leaving with treat bags.

Sam, Ronan, Laura, James (with Doggy), Julia (with Bunny), Amelia, and Sophie

Twizzlers + Rolos = Rainbow treat bags

And after the guests left my kids were quite the cut ups.
 
Julia tries on James’s hat.



Commence the table climbing:


Aw, a sweet hug...

...But then the hug turns to this.

Thanks to Stacy for many of the pictures!

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