Before I had babies I used to host a St. Patrick's Day "party" that basically meant subjecting my friends to one of the Leprechaun movies. (For the record, Leprechaun 5 : Back 2 Da Hood is the only good one.)
Since I have lots of St. Patrick's Day decorations anyway I thought it would be fun to throw a party for my Mom's Night Out Playgroup since other moms have hosted fun holiday parties. And then because I'm a sadist and it's not really more effort, I decided to throw the same exact party the next day for my Las Madres Playgroup. So not even counting my own, there were eleven toddlers in my house over two days. Yes, I am insane.
Long before I decided to host the parties, Gaga and Papa bought James and Julia a shamrock driver's cap and a shamrock barrette, respectively, from the dollar bin at Target because they know I love to dress the twins up for St. Patrick's Day. I paired those with a $1 garage sale green shirt and used overalls from eBay for James and a $1 garage sale dress for Julia. I like to think my kids dress in the style "garage sale chic" or "Mommy's too cheap to buy us real clothes." I also wore my own St. Patrick's Day outfit - a leprechaun apron, shamrock knee socks, a giant hat, and a tattoo sleeve.
Mommy and her leprechauns
Once when I wore the tattoo sleeve to my old job, someone thought I really had tatted up my arm.
My little Irishman
James's oversized cap extended several inches in front of his head.
Party #1 on Monday: Mom's Night Out Playgroup
In attendance:
Twins Josh and Sam (mom: Debbie)
Who let these two in?
James began the party proceedings by peeing on the floor. Apparently his diaper had gotten unfastened. Thankfully he wasn't in his St. Patrick's Day regalia yet, just his pjs. And thankfully he peed on the only completely empty section of floor and not on the rug. Or toys. Or other children.
I bought shamrock ties for all the boys but James ended up being the only boy willing to wear his. And embarrassingly I didn't know how to tie a tie so it ended up looking like an ascot.
Mommy gets James all ready for what appears to be St. Patrick's Day 1969.
Oliver's not too keen on his tie so his mom, Rachel, wears it instead.
Sam, James, and Julia stood in a line and gave us a little impromptu musical performance of The Alphabet Song.
Stacy and Ronan
Rachel and Oliver
It's a Sam-and-Josh-in-the-Box!
Let's play How Many Toddlers Can We Fit in a Box?
Debbie reads to Julia, Josh, James, and Sam.
Party #2 on Tuesday: Las Madres Cupertino 2009 Playgroup
In attendance:
David (mom: Jadwiga) and Kayleigh (mom: Vicky W.)
Twins Amelia and Sophie (mom: Vicky L.) and twins Caitlin and Kimai (mom: Tesin)
Isaac (dad: Todd)
And these two scamps. (If you look closely James is about to be kicked by Julia.)
This time James was unwilling to wear his tie, and the only boy willing to was Isaac who looked quite dapper. The girls all wore shamrock barrettes that I provided. Including my own there were three sets of twins in attendance.
Isaac, the only boy who would wear a tie, with an apple slice that looks to me like a cigar in his mouth.
James the rapper
Julia the clapper
Jadwiga and David
James has an "I love you" sticker for Caitlin, the girl who once blew him a kiss.
"I already got three of these today but uh... thanks."
Activities at Both Parties
I organized two crafts for the parties. The one I was most excited about involved making my own green playdough shaped like a shamrock. Unfortunately after two hours of working on it and Mark saying "I don't understand why you don't just buy it..." and me saying, "You don't understand! All the cool moms make their own playdough!" it was a complete failure. I thought I was successful but when I checked on it the next night it just stuck to my hands like unfloured dough and I had to throw it all out.
The second craft involved putting St. Patrick's Day stickers on foam shamrocks.
Vicky L. assists her twins.
I give Julia stickers for her shamrock. (Note the seam on my tattoo sleeve. Another big hint that the tattoo is not real.)
And I actually *made* food. Well, nothing that required baking anyway, but I did need to buy ingredients! I made yogurt pretzel shamrocks. Vicky L. brought green heart-shaped cookies to the Las Madres party. I also put out green snack foods for the toddlers - snap pea crisps, green apple slices, and seaweed.
Shamrock yogurt pretzels
"More please."
Tesin tempts Kimai with a yogurt shamrock pretzel.
Julia eats her favorite green food: seaweed.
We also had the usual toddlers-line-up-on-the-sofa-for-pictures fun.
Party #1: Sam, Julia, Josh, James, and Ronan
Party #2: On sofa: Sophie, Amelia, David, Julia, James, Caitlin, Kimai; on floor: Isaac, Kayleigh
After the guests left, the twins decided to combine holidays.
James needed a little help walking so he wouldn't kill himself.
They enjoyed playing with the hanging shamrocks as I took them down.
Thanks to Stacy for many of the pictures.
