{ St. Patrick’s Day Brunch }

Top O’ the morning! I loved waking up to a beautiful clear day, with the whole backyard covered in GREEN for St. Patrick’s day. With all the rain we’ve had this spring, it seems like everything is in bloom earlier than in years past. It was so fun to see all of our new trees that were planted last fall, have leaves budding on them, and the grass seemed to turn GREEN almost overnight. It was a very picturesque scene to see out our back windows as we enjoyed a St. Patty’s Day brunch.

With St. Patrick’s day falling on a Saturday this year, we switched our usually “GREEN” dinner to a morning brunch instead. For weeks I had been scouring the internet for cute ideas to celebrate our GREEN day. We are about as non-Irish as they come, but the kids love to have little Leprechauns come visit who turn everything GREEN, and leave little bits of chocolate gold scattered about.

The idea I finally decided on I found here and some of the artwork I printed out to display was from here.

With a soccer game at nine, and another one at noon, we opted for a brunch in between the two instead of trying to get everyone up before Austin’s game. I set up everything the night before, and had all the food prepared and in the refrigerator, except for the waffles which I made that morning.

The little Leprechauns that visited left everyone bags of gold at their place setting, and helped turn some of our food GREEN to add to our St. Patrick’s day fun. Our brunch was a waffle bar, with all kinds of festive toppings to choose from, as well as some fruit, or Lucky charms if that’s what they wanted instead.

Cute story about Scott and the pinch-proof potion. Brianna also had a soccer game today at 3pm, and while we were there, Scott was sitting next to Brent Clarke who we know from church. Aaron had already left earlier that afternoon to go to a Family Medicine conference, so he let Scott sit on his lap and was keeping him entertained for me. He started tickling Scott, and Scott said, “You can’t do that because I drank the potion!” only we couldn’t really understand the word potion very well. We kept asking him what? until Abby finally interpreted for us and we understood that he was saying “Potion”. We laughed and explained that tickling and pinching weren’t the same thing, but he sternly insisted that he was free from both since he had drank the special green potion that morning.

Aaron took Austin to his game that morning at nine, while I stayed behind with everyone else who was still asleep. I finished up the waffles, and greeted our tired bunch as they slowly climbed out of bed. Erika and Scott were my first two up, and were super excited with all the St. Patrick’s day goodies. Erika had been reminding me for the last week about St. Patrick’s day, and everyday she would say, “Have you gone to the store yet? Have you got anything for Saturday?” She was really worried that I would forget. I asked her if it was worth the wait, and she grinned sleepily and said, “YES!”.

As they helped me make waffles in our new waffle maker, I was explaining to Scott what St. Patrick’s day was. Not the real version I guess, just that little Leprechauns live in Ireland where it’s really GREEN, and they like to go look at the end of rainbows for a pot of gold. They sometimes cause mischief and turn everything around them GREEN. If you aren’t wearing GREEN on that day you will get pinched, but if you are you will get kissed. He quickly went to find a GREEN shirt he could wear. Both of his GREEN ones were dirty, but he cried until I let him put on the less dirty of the two. After that he was happy to point out everything he could that was GREEN. He found:

• Towels in the kitchen
• Ryan’s highchair seat
• Special water that was turned green
• Our cup holder on the counter
• Bowls in the cupboard
• The bowl I was mixing the waffle mix in
• All of our shirts
• The plates on the table
• Flowers on the island

We let everyone wake up (and helped a few tired girls who had been up late watching movies-AKA Brianna and Brooke), and we gathered around while we waited for Aaron and Austin to return. Ryan went straight for the table, and the chocolate on the table.

He was happy to discover that he too had a bag of chocolate waiting for him on his highchair tray. He was happy to let us put him in there once he saw that. He sipped his milk, spilled his milk, played with his fork, and grunted for his chocolate to be opened.

We were all trying so hard to wait patiently, but we were hungry! I tried to distract the kids by coming up with games they could play with their bags of gold-like hold onto the string and roll them like you were bowling, but they just ended up breaking and Reese's were all over the floor, and they were running trying to retrieve their own. I finally just let the kids break into their chocolates and have a few while we waited for the boys.

Ryan saw everyone else eating yummy chocolate and wasn’t about to be left out. He grunted until I gave in and let him have one (or two..or five) too. I think this is the first time he has ever had a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, but he knows what chocolate is, so it didn’t take long for him to be convinced it was something good.

First you taste a small bit…

..nibble the edges…

…evaluate what part to eat next…

..try licking the top..

…try eating only the top section…

…and finally just biting the whole top right off.

Scott just dug right in his once he got the okay from me-eating as many as he could get away with, but the girls were trying to ration theirs out for the rest of the day. They kept themselves busy by building Reese's towers..

..and we played math games with Brooke to help her get the concept of division with remainders. (Grandma Bonnie would be so proud) Finally, the boys got home so we could let the feasting begin. We insisted that everyone start with a little fruit first before having treat waffles. After the chocolate they had just downed I’m not sure it really mattered much, but we tried since we knew the rest of the day would be treats.

They had their Rainbow on a stick with whip cream “Clouds in a bottle” to dip their fruit in, and then we let them each make their own waffle masterpiece.

Austin-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, shamrock syrup, and lucky Leprechaun teeth.

Brooke-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, and lucky Leprechaun teeth.

Scott-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, lucky Leprechaun teeth, and some green sprinkles.

Brianna-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, lucky Leprechaun teeth, shamrock syrup, and some green sprinkles.

Erika and Aaron-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, lucky Leprechaun teeth, shamrock syrup, and some green sprinkles.

Abby-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, lucky Leprechaun teeth, and shamrock syrup.

Me-Chocolate O’Hershey syrup, magic clover dust, and shamrock syrup.

When we were done eating I remembered while I love brunch so much-you stay full almost all day it seems! When the kids got hungry again, I kindly led them to the Lucky Charms and milk.

Low cooking day-now it seems that it’s my LUCKY day!