St. Patrick's Day celebrating!

It was really awesome that St. Patrick's Day was during Spring Break this year, because it meant we got to do a really great outing, in addition to some other fun little things. Today has been a stay at home day (and consequently a blog catch up day), because I'm honestly pretty worn out from our zoo trip and our st. patty's day celebrating. But it was worth it!

We had Lucky Charms for breakfast. The kids were way more excited about this than I expected... marshmallows in cereal are a big deal for kids who are used to Life, Kix, and oatmeal. Here's Emma in all her morning glory happily enjoying her St. Patrick's Day breakfast...


The kids got dressed in green (we had to get creative from their closet... but every year, I always find at least ONE green shirt or dress for them to wear. Jake got to wear an actual St. Patrick's Day shirt that he got from Grandma for his birthday). Then I painted the girls nails green - they LOVE this!


After we were all dressed and ready, with a lunch packed, we hopped in the car, for an hour long drive to Fountain Hills. It actually ended up being an hour and 15 minute drive, because of the crazy construction traffic on the way there. But I have to say, it was SO worth the drive out there! If I can, I would definitely go again next St. Patrick's Day. Every year, they turn their famous huge fountain GREEN. And this fountain is HUGE, so it was really exciting for the kids (and me!). We ate our lunch while waiting for the clock to reach Noon...




Then at 12:00, it was GREEN! So fun!








It ran green for about 30 minutes. The kids did a lot of running around on all the grass while we were there. Jake got busy trying to open a green Starburst... he's really intense about doing things all by himself - it's usually just annoying :) He says "No! I wanna do it!"






They had a coloring table and face painting... and oh, lots and lots of BEER. We refrained. :) But we did partake in the coloring table. We thought about doing the face painting, but oh my goodness, it was like 20 dollars per kid (depending on the design you picked)! That would explain the short line, but I couldn't believe some people were even willing to entertain the idea of paying 20 bucks for a rainbow on their kids face! Nuts, I tell you!


Speaking of rainbow's, after getting home, we made rainbow cookies. I was going for easy, so I was happy to have found this idea online. I think if I were to do it again, I would have taken the cookies out of the oven a minute early, put in the m&m's, then cooked them for one more minute, so that he m&m's melt a tiny bit and stick to the cookie. I just bought store bought sugar cookie dough, and then we put in the candies right out of the oven while they were still warm. Some of them would fall off when you picked up the cookie to eat it though - but still delicious! And the kids enjoyed the activity... and the treat. :)






So, the kids were a bit disappointed about not getting their faces painted at the park earlier - I told them while we were there, that I would paint their faces when we got home. So we did! It was pretty fun actually... and I was happy that I happened to have more paint colors than I originally thought. Plenty for rainbow's and clovers...


Becca wanted to take a picture while I was painting Emma's face - as she snapped away, she says, "I'm practicing to be a mommy!". haha.




And lastly, those sneaky leprechauns made their way into our house at bedtime... I'm not sure those little green men were thinking that it's not the best idea to give kids pixie stix right before bed. :)