Happy St. Patty's Day!

It was a pretty great day with the boys.  

We started by going to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Murphysboro, the town just over from where we live.  

They really enjoyed it in the beginning.

I was really proud because, when the parade started and they came by with the colors, Tink stood & put his hand on his heart without my telling him to do so.

Definite Proud-Mama moment. :)

However, the parade consisted of a large number of emergency vehicles (police cars, ambulances, fire trucks), all of which seemed to make a point of showing exactly how loud their various horns and sirens could be.  

That was not the way to win Tink & Goose over.

Roughly five minutes into the parade, I was unable to take anymore pictures because I had two crying boys on my lap.  I thought Goose was going to jump right out of his skin.  

And, if the noises weren't enough, Smokey the Bear and Captain Applesauce (the mascot for the town's annual festival) were sure to do it.

Goose was 

NOT.

A. 

FAN.

Like I said, I have no pictures of that because they were both clinging to 

me like baby lemurs.

You'll just have to take my word for it.

This will give you the general idea, though:

In fact, that is really close to what we looked like.  

Two scared babies, eyes round as saucers, and a Mama giving death looks to the folks driving the loud vehicles.

I think I thought my icy glares may keep them from honking their dang horns again.

It didn't work.

After the parade, we headed to 17'th Street Bar & Grill for lunch.

I used to manage the restaurant & I know they always have some really great corned beef and cabbage on St. Patty's Day.  I was super excited to get over there for some today.
I love me some corned beef and cabbage.

Thankfully, we made it through lunch without any major meltdowns.  

Crayons help.
So do crackers.
I'm not above bribery of all sorts.  
Thankfully, the crayons & crackers were enough. I didn't have to try and pull anything else out of my bag of mommy tricks.


After lunch, we headed home for naps.
After naps, we decided to head over to watch The Hubs play soccer.
I told Tink to get himself dressed.


This is what I got:

Uh, Aunt Jemima? 

Hulk Hogan?

Antoine Dodson?

Rosie the Riveter?

Tupac?

I don't know what happened.

I definitely don't know what the Spongebob bandana was all about.

And those were not the shorts he'd had on prior to nap.

I switched his shorts & let him keep the bandana.

I kept taking pictures, though, because I loved that they were telling one another 

to smile & say, "CHEESE!"

They would squeeze each other's cheeks to make the smiles bigger.

Goose was having an especially good time during this photo shoot. :)

We called my sister, AJ, and after she arrived at our house, we headed off to soccer.
But, we didn't last very long.  
Goose kept trying to run out onto the field.  
And, it was really muddy.
Every time he stepped into a puddle, he would say, "Wa-wa" and then 
get upset because he was wet.


It was not working out very well.


So, we opted to head over to the new Fro-Yo place in town, Chill, instead of 
staying to watch The Hubs play.


The boys love Chill.
I mean, this was the third time we've been there this week.
Goose just devours the frozen yogurt.
Tink has never been one for sweets, so he doesn't get quite as excited about it.
He does get excited about the gummy bears they have on the toppings bar, however.
They never get candy, so those gummy bears are a serious treat.
I only got a couple of pictures at Chill today, so I included some from earlier this week.

They even have chalkboard walls.
Huge hit with Tink!

Yep, still rockin' the bandana. :)

We made it home afterwards, they beat each other up played while The Hubs made an amazing dinner, ate until their bellies were full, and are now both snoring heavily.

I think they were suffering from fun-overload.

I'd say that is a pretty good problem to have.

I think Mama may be suffering from the same thing.  

No green beer for this girl.

I'm going to hit the sack & enjoy the sound of the rain instead.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, friends.