Memorial Day 2012

I've blogged about my little towns Memorial Day festivals a time or two before, but as it's something we attended each of the five years we lived there, I couldn't possibly leave out our last Memorial Day HURRAH. We attended the overly-priced-semi-ghetto carnival on Friday night where we smelled-but-did-not-partake-of every fried concoction on the face of the planet, rode some rides, and chatted with our neighbors and friends. 

Chase fell in love with the fun house and spent all of his allotted tickets going through it (except for one...as per above dragon ride picture). He was pretty bummed when all his tickets were gone.

The next night we attended the fancy-shmancy parade, complete with 5 baton twirling groups and about twenty gazillion fire trucks, and that's about it. Oh, except for this tow truck, a real gem that made us all chuckle.

 Doesn't Cora look like my mom in this picture...and all the time?

 It had rained earlier in the day and there was mud-o-plenty for this girl to get into. I think she thoroughly enjoyed herself (the candy being thrown by the gazillion fire trucks helped as well).

We miss PA!

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Remember how I love St. Patrick's Day? And finally got my act together last year to carry on my family's tradition? Welp, we did it again this year, with the Smith's.

 We started off with the hunt, where the kids searched for money, gum, and mints that had been taped onto shamrocks and hidden in the "jungle of Nool" (aka, the woods in our back yard). We had an unseasonably warm March, and got to do the hunt outside this year.

 Lorraine found the pot of gold, AGAIN! She was the lucky one who found it last year, too.

 Nick and Max

 In the excitement of coming inside, getting ready for our corn beef dinner and dividing up the loot, we didn't notice that Owen found a stash of rolos and went to town!

 I love St. Patrick's Day and also love that we finally have a tradition in place that my kids looks forward to. Hopefully we have someone to celebrate with next year...

Valentines Day

 

 We started Valentines day this year with flowers from my nice husband and chocolate chip heart shaped pancakes.

 That afternoon Chase, Cora and I went to a Valentine-themed playgroup, and  I got lucky enough to score some of the left-over cookies and frosting so I had an activity for us to do when Nick got home.

 While I finished putting the kids to bed Brad ordered take-out for us and rigged up our kids table so we could eat while we watched a show. I would rather do this than go out, so it was a perfect way to celebrate love day.