We are huge on Saint Patrick's Day in these parts. My husband is both Scottish and Irish and we just love this day. Gotta love a husband who finds a way to let me sneak in my Greekness..
Fun Fact: The best tutorial I ever watched on how to clean a chalkboard was a little bit of Coke...the drink...not the...nevermind...anyway you pour a little in a bowl and use the soft side of the sponge that you would use in your sink and just scrub lightly...wait for it to dry and gently rub down with a soft cloth. Try to use a darker color cloth as some of the chalk paint may rub off, but not enough that it will come off the mirror (which is what this originally was if you cannot tell). Voila, the chalkboard will look brand new! This is also the most terrifying of the tutorials as I do love myself a Coke (its my guilty pleasure) and the fact that it can do all these things and I still drink it constantly makes me wonder, but obviously not enough to stop #dontatme.
Traditionally we celebrate hard, but as we can all remember or maybe not as it has been a thousand years since last year this time, but the world basically shut down this day last year and my husband was furloughed, so honestly other than a whole lot of corned beef and beer, we didn't really do anything. It was a day of reflection and what will come next conversation. This year, we decided to go big, or as big as one gets from home. As I have talked about ad nauseum, I do not go out very much, but when I do, it is REALLY early in the morning and I try to get everything in on fell swoop. I do not use this time to grocery shop unless I am picking up items that we need that are not being offered for online delivery (here is looking at you malt vinegar...what the heck is up with that). Normally I am going to pick up storage items, because I am obsessed with all things storage related and much to the horror of my husband I can never have enough baskets, chalkboard labels or small plastic bins or I am picking up holiday decor. I have noticed that our local Target is extremely delayed with these launches so I try not to get overly excited with what I am watching get released on Instagram and try to wait out a week or so past that before going to look. For Saint Patrick's Day this year, I extended the wait time since my plan was to get both Saint Patrick's Day as well as Easter. I have a TON of Easter decorations from last year during a crazed Rae Dunn period I went through, so honestly other than Easter Basket goodies (most of which I got online) I really didn't need anything else.
We didn't go overboard with "treats" for the kids as one, it seemed excessive and two, do leprechauns even leave treats?! Our plan was just to make a mess of the house and have EV and the Commodore have fun finding it all. I did scoop up a leprechaun trap (above) box (mama was too lazy to make her own, plus it was super cute and can be saved for a couple of years), we got shamrock necklaces, glasses that light-up, and really cute leprechaun socks. Everything was from the Bullseye Playground and I think with everything it came to about $10 so it was perfect. The hubs and I do a good job of decorating the house and getting the kids excited for the holiday, but with this being more Hubs holiday than mine, It was fun to watch him take the lead. Which included telling the kids leprechaun stories, helpibg them set up the trap and of course undecorate the house (anything I did, he went back over and made it worse lol). The morning of Saint Patrick's Day, I always prep for Corned Beef and Cabbage. It is a super easy recipe that basically calls for Guinness (it calls for 6oz, but I use the whole bottle LOL), Water (4 cups), Corned Beef (w/thepacket), Cabbage, Potatoes and Carrots...that's it! It all goes into the crockpot (7hrs) and I use THIS recipe from Pinterest (credit where credit is due), but once you make it once, it is so easy I doubt you will be need to go back to the recipe.
Has anyone seen this?! I love her!!!
The night before SPD I finally got around to attempting Nadiya Hussein's Beef Wellington (see hers above). I suggest using both THIS recipe as well as having her SHOW fired up on the ol' Netflix as when I got to the part of "folding in" the beef to the puff pastry, it did help to have the visual of how she did it rather than reading it. Here are the pictures that I remembered to take during the process and of course the final product. Not too shabby for a first go around...
Fun Fact and a Couple Corrections: Instead of the yeast extract (I think its referred to as Marmite in the UK) I used egg wash and we did not have beef hot italian sausages, so I used hot italian chicken sausages (what a pain in the patootie to decase). I think I will try to use the beef next time as the chicken sausages were pretty compact and kind of hard to squish into the beef mixture, but it still tasted delicious. Also DO NOT thaw out the puff pastry and just let it sit in the fridge thawed until you make the dish. It will be really gooey and impossible to unfold. Instead, follow the directions on the package itself. Luckily, I had bought two just for this reason of practicing. Take out the puff pastry fold over a paper towel and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds each side (so flipping it) for a total of 40 seconds. You want to be able to unfold it, but it not be frozen or overly soft. If it still feels really cold and solid after 40 seconds, just do the flipping at 5 second intervals. It worked perfectly!
It also helps to have the cutest helpers on the planet when making said beef wellington...and of course...some were more helpful than others...
A series I like to call...if it is not on the television, my kids have no idea what's happening around them...
After dinner we bathed the kids, put them in jammies and Sean began to weave a very detailed leprechaun story. EV like her mama has the patience of a tse-tse fly and couldn't understand why one, she couldn't just wait for the leprechaun and two, why she couldn't just hold on to the coins we were leaving them and just give them to the leprechauns herself. We tried to provide the theory of the Easter Bunny and Santa, but she was having none of it. Oh and when she saw the super cute trap and that she got to decorate it, she wanted to keep if for her treasures and could have cared less about trapping the leprechaun.
We had a rough night the night before (no idea what happened but both kids woke up within five minutes of each other having experienced nightmares), so Hubs and I were already working on no sleep and then having to wait for EV to fall asleep so that the leprechauns could visit was exhausting. Was it worth it?! 100%! I forgot how much fun it was to plan a day of themed events for the kids and decorate. The last couple of months the pandemic life had taken its toll of me mentally. I have been anxiety ridden as well as extremely exhausted, so it has been hard to have the momentum to want to plan anything. I did experience a sense of renewal once everything was set up, so I am definitely looking forward to Easter (which we did go overboard for last year as far as decorating) and of course May the 4th (Star Wars nerds unite), which was an even bigger endeavor than Easter, because #duh. I am looking forward to seeing how I outdo myself and I can already tell you that the outfits are going to far surpass last years matching t-shirts (thank you Character Warehouse).
Anywhoo I per ush....I digress...
I can tell you that she did not take kindly to the leprechauns turning her pink pediasure green and refused to drink it (and by refuse I mean a complete and total hysterical meltdown). No worries though Commodore in true fashion could have cared less and took down the whole thing (should I be concerned that he isn't concerned about sketchy looking things ;) ).
However green Mickey waffles were received much better and as always, it was proven that EVERYTHING...even green waffles are better when they are Mickey shaped.
EV was aghast that "strangers" used our potty and was even more curious on how they got up there and how big they were as the feet were so widespread apart...always logistical that one...
Fun Fact: if you use food coloring for the toilet, it will stain your hands (not the toilet seat though). Have a loofah and wipes on the ready. You might want to go for the washable green pain instead
She couldn't believe that the leprechauns would destroy our kitchen and seemed to be more concerned that they used her CeeCee doll (point of record, she undressed the doll, not us) to hoist themselves up and assist in their shenanigans.
This may or may not be celebratory Irish coffee for a job well done. Whenever we decorate the house, even though EV could sleep through a cannon going off, I always have a sniggle of fear that she will wake up and catch us in the middle of creating magic.
I love Saint Patrick's Day because it is all about the morning shenanigans and the rest of the day is all about relaxation, a corned beef cooking in the crockpot and maybe a nice Guinness to finish off the day. The rest of the day was just spent soaking up the sun, so I will just finish this out with a photo dump of the day...
EV loves to be in the kitchen with me and especially if it involves her kid friendly knives, so she helped prep everything with me for the crockpot.
Would it really be a holiday if I didn't do a family photo in front of this gray wall of our house with a tripod?!
I bought THESE shirts from Carter's. I absolutely love their family matching shirts and outfits. I never find that they are hokey and I get them pretty much the day they are released (I am on their text message mailing list and they are pretty good about not inundated you with messages). I also think they are priced well with the adults normally being on sale for $10 and the kids around $8. I do not wait for them to go lower since sometimes the prices raise and the sizes go quickly so it is easy to miss the size you might need or the family member that you might need it for altogether.
I love putting the kids on this small wall in front of our house, but our house number is always shown so I am always either blurring it or putting a gif of some sort there. I tend to use this side, but it is hard to wrangle Danny as he can get off of it without any assistance.
And the rest of the day went a little something like this...
They REALLY loved the beads
Pretty much the initial look I get every time I ask for a photo
Contemplative EV is often my favorite to take a picture of.
Her posture and facial expressions are always so adult!
Do you go all out for Saint Patrick's Day?! Any traditions or are you all just the green food and beer types?!
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