Happy St. Patricks Day!

Today will always mark a day of great celebration in our household as it is both Pat's name-day AND the feast of Kateri's baptism. Enough of an excuse for me! We decided that as St Patrick is known for using the 3 leaf clover to teach the Trinity, we would apply that to our celebration and celebrate for three days in a row. Makes sense, right?!

On Saturday, we were able to go to the St. Patrick's day parade in Old Town.

Kateri met the parade with obvious trepidation.


She was really Not Sure what to think about everything. Mainly because of the Harley motorcycle contingent, but also because of these guys:

Pat noticed that the guy who played his bagpipes at our wedding was among this group!

Charlotte enjoyed it a lot,

And not only did she get to meet an Irish Wolfhound,

She got to meet St. Patrick, himself!

Kateri did eventually start to warm up to the whole show.

And wants to be one of the lucky kids who get to ride in this next year . . .

Even Wrigley came with us.

At the end of the parade, the sun came out and it was beautiful!

And we even got a family picture at the utmost end of the parade!

Come on K-bear! Smile!

But the celebrating didn't stop there! We went home, and Kateri took a 3+ hour nap (!!!!!) and Pat and I attacked the garage with a vengeance. And after we worked for quite some time, Kateri woke up and we called it a day.

Then, thanks to my parents (who generously watched Kateri) and Mrs Hilleary (who, last minute, watched Charlotte), Pat and I went out to celebrate St Patrick's with Mikey and Lu! Sadly, I did not take a single picture, but we had so much fun, as I am sure you can imagine, especially if you have ever celebrated St Patrick's Day with Mikey or Pat at some point!!

On Sunday, Laura and Mikey hosted an amazing St Patrick's day party! Corn beef and cabbage, potatoes, Irish soda bread, and lots and lots of other delicious tempting Lent-forbidden foods. It was so much fun, and the decorations were fantastic!

Today, St. Patrick's day itself, Kateri got to have one of her favorites for breakfast : French Toast. It was especially scrumptious because we made it with homemade bread (made by no other then Pat).

Delicious!

 

 

 

This evening, Pat brought home a special treat for Kateri on her baptismal feast!

 

 

Flowers!

 

 



White for the purity of her soul after baptism, and green because it is St Patrick's Day!


Of course we had to put them in this beautiful (and very appropriate!) vase from Aunt Gigi, which is from Ireland (Thanks, Aunt Gigi!!).

Pat enjoyed some Guinness after a long day at work. And Kateri said, "Ooooo! This is where it's at!"

"Just holding the bottle is enough for me!


BUT that won't stop me from trying for more!"

We hope you had a blessed St Patrick's Day!

Let the Party Continue

So, as you know if you occasionally read this blog, we already celebrated Kateri's birthday. But we didn't throw an actual party because the weekends and the timing surrounding her birthday were too filled with other things. So the best date ended up being this past Saturday.  And we couldn't pass up her first birthday without throwing some kind of party~ so party we did!


We had an owl themed party, mainly because I have been wanting to make those cute owl cupcakes, the ones with oreos for eyes.

So, owls it was!

(some sea-sick owls made it in the bunch). Side note: if you have never tried mint oreos, get thee to the store, but maybe wait until after Lent, because you will NOT want to put the box down until every cookie is gone. Trust me. These things bring the deliciousness of oreos to a whole new level.)

And we tied all the food in to the owl theme, one way or another . . .

(There were a couple of these left at the end of the party . . . I think the 'brown field mice' may have been a slight turn-off in the edible department).

We also had pigs-in-a-blanket, which we of course called 'mice in a blanket', which is MUCH better then 'owl pellets', don't you think?

But I didn't get a picture of those.

Do owls even eat fruit? I don't know . . .

Some things were a bit of a stretch . . .

But you have to work in veggies somehow . . .

Pat thought we should call the lemonade, 'Owl Urine', but we opted to just left that un-named.

And, besides the cupcakes, we had some other little desserts:

And even some of this delicacy:

It was quite a bit of fun!

And Kateri happily enjoyed every moment . . .

And even liked when everyone sang 'Happy Birthday'.

But she didn't quite understand the concept of 'blowing out the candle'.

However, she knew EXACTLY what to do after that!

YUM!

Why waste time?

(And yes. That is a different cupcake, her second.)

And she eventually went on to eat a third.

Which brought her much joy . . .

And Wrigley too . . . See her in the bottom left of the photo?

Team work, my friends, team work.


Kateri had a lovely time with family and close friends. Mac even wore an owl around his neck! And great Aunt Gigi and great Uncle Dick wore owl t-shirts!

Even Wyatt got to join the fun, thanks to Emily!

K-bear always loves seeing Aunt Jeanne

And playing with Charlotte and aunts and uncles!!

Everyone was so generous and Kateri received many beautiful gifts, which papa-bear helped her open.

 

 

 

A huge thank you to all! You made Kateri's day so special and memorable! She loved every moment, and must be a little party loving extrovert because despite a drastically shortened nap in the morning, she was happy and cheerful and loved every moment of the party the entire afternoon! And that is thanks to you! Thanks again for making her day so wonderful!

 

I also want to note a special thanks to Nanny, who unfortunately couldn't come because she was very sick. We missed you! You made Kateri's day extra special in many ways, even though it was from afar! 

Carrot Cake and Pizza

Well, Kateri had such a lovely afternoon and evening yesterday. I'm afraid I can do nothing other then document every little occurrence. Time will tell if I will be as diligent when baby #2 turns one . . .

 

My mom very thoughtfully bought Kateri a very fancy and delicious carrot cake, which even had nuts in it, and so since she was one she got to do two very important and exciting things all by herself:

 

1. Eat her own piece of cake

 

~and~

 

2. Try some nuts

 

But, before that, we had to sing "Happy Birthday" which involved a very loud and hearty rendition with some harmonies thrown in (thanks to the musical talent of Johnny and Jeanne!). Kateri looked around from face to face with a rather confused and vacant expression. But, for the record, she did half-heartedly smile at the end . . .

 

And then, Johnny did the honors and very carefully cut her first piece.

 



Kateri watched eagerly. And when it finally ended up on her high chair, examined it with great awe . . .

And after mooshing the cake and icing for some time, she was not exactly sure how she felt about the whole situation . . . "What am I supposed to DO with this stuff??"

 

But luckily, Grandpa came to the rescue and showed Kateri what to do with carrot cake.

Which made her very happy . . .

And she proceeded to eat cake and icing and get it everywhere!

Maybe someday, if she is very very lucky, her uncle Peter and his friends will teach her some table manners
 . . .

But, in the meantime, thank you for such a lovely birthday, Mutti! Kateri enjoyed every moment!

Afterwards, we went home and Kateri got to torture her sweet papa-bear once he got home from work . . .

Which she thought was hilarious . . .

Then we went to meet Nanny and Mac at Tony's. This is how Kateri feels about eating pizza at Tony's:

So we enjoyed salads . . . and some of use enjoyed beer . . .

And Nanny showed Kateri how say, "I'm one!"

And, after we enjoyed pizza and cheese bread (both Kateri's favorites),

Nanny and Mac let her pick out a dessert! How special!

And, of course, that translates to Pat and I got to pick it out, and of course we went with chocolate cheesecake. Which Kateri did enjoy!

And Pat and I did too! :)

Thank you so much for the delicious dinner, Nanny and Mac! Kateri had a wonderful time!