My relatives must have been Irish

Ever since forever I've had a lusting for Ireland. The accent, traditional clothes, food, sheep, rolling hills, thick wool sweaters, dimly lit pubs and rainy days. When I was a tween I had a crush on an Irish boy named Billy, he didn't have an accent though. I even thought myself a sports fan* of who else but Notre Dame.  I can't watch an Irish movie (OMG! I love "Once") without wanting to hop on a plane. I think sometimes my relatives must be Irish. At least one had to be for me to have this odd craving for a land I've never seen. If someone came up to me and said "Hey, here's a house and a job but you have to move to the Emerald Isle." I'd be packing boxes before the words left that strangers lips. Yeah, it's a little odd.

So, I tend to get all excited when St. Patrick's Day rolls around. Up until now I've hidden it really well.

Yesterday morning I woke up to the wafting smell of corned beef, potatoes and cabbage slow cooking their way to dinnertime. (I had the foresight to make the meal the night before, go me!) I made the kids dress in green. Then had the inspiration of making green chocolate chip waffles.

At lunch we headed outside with our St. Patrick's printed worksheets (again, thanks to Enchanted Learning) after reading St. Patrick's Day book (isbn 0-8234-1173-7 $6.95). The book has a Legends about St. Patrick section where the kids read about different things. One being St. Patrick and the Poision. The legend states, in a very simplified way, that a wizard tried to kill St. Patrick by putting poison in his drink. St. Patrick turned it to ice and dumped it out. Here's an excerpt from the following conversation:

Me- Do you think legends are real?

Alex - Probably not. People like to make up stories about stuff that isn't true.

Me - Do you think St. Patrick could have turned the poison into ice?

Alex- Well, the wizard could have.

So, there you have it. The legends about St. Patrick aren't real but wizards are. Oh, I love my kids.

We talked more, we colored some, we ate sammies of green bread, almond butter and honey.

We hunted for shamrocks in the yard, of which we have an alarming amount.



Then the healthy (well, except for the green food coloring) lunch was topped off with green frosted cupcakes. The "frosted" and "cupcakes" are two separate links to the BEST EVER recipes for chocolate sheet cake and frosting made with flour. Yes, you heard right, flour. And regular granulated sugar, not powdered. It's magnificent and I ate four too many of them yesterday.

I imagine everywhere on St. Patrick's day, in color-coordinated Ireland, everyone busts out the green food coloring, creating food that might look a little "off" (see green pancakes above) and it's not just a silly thing that American's have done to sterotype an entire island nation. Though if you're Irish and completely apalled by my celebratory actions, please feel free to *gently* enlighten me in the comments section. And if you could somehow do it in an Irish accent, all the better.

*I am not and will never be "a sports fan" of really anything, ever. Except maybe sheep shearing or pie eating. Those are sports, right?