Happy St. Patty's Day

Our kids are so excited about holidays and I love it... but Aaron is cursing me for getting them so worked up! They were up bright and early pinching me before I got dressed.. too bad they only make white garments!... Ben and Luke were really careful about what they wore to bed last night. and Zack didn't have any green in his pj's (due to poor planning.) They were quick to pinch little Z and he was SO mad! He kept saying, "NO PINCH ZACKY!" We finally got green on him to solve the problem. Ben was trying to be tricky and wear green only on his underwear so that people would pinch him and he could get them back ten fold. But finally decided to put on a red shirt with a little green.. so he didn't have to SHOW everyone his undies just to prove he really was wearing green. I remember as a little girl, my best St. Patrick's day EVER was when I wore a pink shirt, jeans and a secret CTR ring that threw everyone off! What I would give to be a little kid again.....

We headed to the church bright and early for our MWF workout group and today was circuit training. It's good to get out in the morning and the kids love running around in the gym.. I am still sore from Saturday's run, but it feels so good! Circuit training is always tough. We do 2 minutes at 10 different stations (sit-ups, jump rope, lunges, etc.) and we go around the circle twice-- so it's a 40 minute work out and I am always exhausted by the end. Today we happened to have a family from our ward walking through the church and they hung out in the gym for a bit to check us out. We were just laughing while doing our squats! Brother Bond ended up snapping pictures of us and he emailed this to me.

Right after the work out, we headed to the Chao's house (fellow homeschoolers) for a St. Patrick's Day party and boy- was it fun!!

They had their house decorated with green balloons and crate paper and gave all the kids clover stickers (I was lucky enough to get two for earrings!) We decorated cup cakes with green candy and washed it down with green koolaid. And even though the kids were too busy playing transformers to play the St. Patty games she had planned, the mom's learned some cool facts about the Irish holiday.......

• St. Patrick is not from Ireland. He was born in England. At the age of 16, he was kidnapped by a band of pirates and sold into Irish slavery. He was able to escape and return home to England. Later in his life, he had a vision to return to Ireland and do missionary work. He spent about 30 years building churches and spreading the Christian faith there. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD.

• St. Patrick used the clover as a teaching tool to represent the Godhead... Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. Until the 1970's it was a religious holiday and NO PUBS were open on St. Patrick's day. Hmm...

• In the United States, it's customary to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. But in Ireland, green is considered to be UNLUCKY. Irish folklore states that green is the favorite color of the fairies who come to steal children who wear too much green. Another hmm...

A few other interesting facts:

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 34 million United States residents claim Irish ancestry, or nearly ten times the entire population of Ireland today, which stands at 3.9 million.

• Chicago is famous for dyeing the Chicago River green on St. Patrick's Day. The tradition began in 1962, when a pipe fitters union—with the permission of the mayor—poured a hundred pounds (45 kilograms) of green vegetable dye into the river. (On the job, the workers often use colored dyes to track illegal sewage dumping.) Today only 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of dye are used, enough to turn the river green for several hours. More people are likely to view the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day than on any other day.

• One study shows that there are about 10,000 three leaf clovers for every ONE lucky four leaf clover. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14!

After a good long nap in the afternoon, we went to Russ and Denett's for dinner and an awesome Easter FHE lesson. Our kids were totally hyper from all the candy and cupcakes earlier.. so it was a little crazy, but fun. We had some good laughs and are glad to have such great neighbors! It's only 8:00 pm, but it feels much later! Goodnight and top of the mornin' to ya!