St. Patty's Day

Justin and his new buddies, Aiden and Danny, enjoying green St. Patty's Day floats. Aunt Emmie's recipe is now tradition for us.

Samantha, Justin, Emily, Aiden and Annalise heading out for the parade.

Uncle Bryan with my Trash Bag Kids!

Annalise, Samantha and Emily taking stock of "The Loot!"

I'll tell you what...if only I had a dollar for every time I've heard "Oh! The weather isn't usually like this in New England!"...

Bryan took us to a party in South Boston to celebrate St. Patty's Day with his whole extended Boston Family and the Dolbys had a great day being welcomed by all of them! There was a 5K in the morning that Bryan tried to talk me into running, and I am extremely thankful that we were too lazy to sign up because the day started off with the arrival of a Noreaster! Driving from Portsmouth to Boston was unusually stressful as the wind blew the mighty Suburban from lane to lane and the windshield wipers worked overtime. We arrived in time to see everyone off to the starting line of the race and Bryan and I stayed warm and dry inside on "kid duty!" Let me tell you, this was the place to be.

After the race was over, the house filled up with people and I was welcomed by absolutely everyone in the crowd. There were two families who brought their kids so Justin and Annalise had plenty of friends (their own age!) to play with. I was amused as the day wore on because I noticed that a party with a bunch of boozy adults works pretty well! Halfway into the afternoon, Annalise had plenty of grown ups singing and dancing to the I-Pod with her and she was in heaven!

One of the things I had promised Justin before we got on the road was that we were going to see a parade where there would be Stormtroopers marching. Given the weather (it was raining buckets and the gale force winds didn't make it any better), none of the adults really wanted to go to the parade. I told Justin that the Stormtroopers had decided it was too wet to be in the parade. Unfortunately, he's getting too smart for his own good. He quizzed me on why they had made the decision, the mechanics of the Stormtrooper armor and what kind of weather proofing is in place, and he wanted to know how I found out the bad news so that he could confirm. I told him that Uncle Bryan had checked the internet and he looked at me suspiciously and said, "Sometimes things on the internet are not true." Eventually, one of the other Dads was caught up in guilt when his daughter asked if they had missed the parade. He took one for the team and took the kids to see the parade.

After patiently listening to a stern lecture about the safety issues of plastic bags over your head, Justin said, "I know Mom...it's not safe unless you're with me...can you please just cut the hole out of the neck and arms?" The kids got bundled up in a million layers, covered in garbage bags, and headed out to the parade. They came back half an hour later with smiles from ear to ear and bags full of "loot!" As any kid would do, they had fun in the rain and will most likely always remember the experience.

I had a fun day hanging out with two other Moms who also spend their time worrying about working, taking care of kids, the endless mound of dishes in the sink, parent conferences, the latest sale at Old Navy, and the elusive 5 pounds per kid that seem to live happily in our guts! We took a million pictures of our adorable children and bragged as much as we could because that's what you do when you have a willing audience. With John and Polly gone, I haven't found the opportunity to whine as much lately and these girls were endlessly patient with me. I couldn't ask for more!