I’ve never been one to make a big deal about St. Patrick’s Day, partly because a lot of it is about drunken revelries but mostly because I despise Irish food.
And let’s face it: holidays are all about the eating.
But this year, both the kids were so into St. Patrick’s Day I figured I’d better step it up. In fact, Hadley has constructed multiple leprechaun traps and even made one back in November.
That is some serious green-day motivation.
The funny thing is I have been the naysayer and she has been the one who has tirelessly tried to convince me leprechauns are real.
“If they’re not real, then who came into our classroom and knocked over all the traps?”
“How did the leprechaun know my shoe size for my new sandals? Huh, huh?”
The kids fastidiously set-up their traps the night before and I fastidiously knocked them over and left multiple gifts I was already planning to give them (i.e. new baseballs for Bode, pastels and sandals for Haddie). I wanted no part in the leprechaun mischief of totally annihilating the room.
My kids already take care of that on a daily basis. I think they have leprechaun blood.
They were delighted to say the least and we had a breakfast fit for kings: shamrock waffles (fluffy whole wheat waffles died green), topped with pot ‘o gold vanilla sauce.
Both are recipes I found on Pinterest. Duh.
The rest of the day was a flurry of heading to the hills for the Junior Naturalist program at Lookout Mountain (more on that later). We then lunched at the best gourmet burger place on the planet: Lark Burger (their gourmet truffle burger with Parmesan truffle fries brings tears to my eyes…and thighs). We topped off our day with our annual Chili Cook-off at the church with all our besties.
Then again, maybe St. Patrick’s Day is all about the food.
So long as it isn’t Irish.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 