St. Patrick's Day

We all wore green to church on St. Patty's day, and came home to a traditional, delicious dinner of corned beef and cabbage.

Sareny and Isaac have their forks ready to go, and Finley is eyeing up the meat in the above picture!

I love our bonny wee lass!

How Can One Possibly Look at a Book With No Pictures in it?

Last week was Sareny's spring break and Keith took the week off so we could have some family time. We didn't have anything major planned, and a lot of the week was just spent chillaxin'. (Wish I was doing that right now instead of listening to the kids possibly committing a capitol offense in the next room...)
On Monday we went to a matinee showing of Mars Needs Moms. Maybe it's because I had pretty low expectations, or maybe it's because I just came off of seeing Rango, a real stinker in my opinion, but I quite liked Mars Needs Moms. It was much more engaging and fun than the previews made it look.
On Tuesday we celebrated an early St. Patricks day and a late pi day and invited some new friends over for corned beef and cabbage and key lime pie. We capped the evening off with some Ticket to Ride (thanks, Shauntel, for introducing that one to us years ago.)
On Wednesday we met friends from our old ward at a park and had a lot of fun catching up with everyone. As the Beehive advisor in our new ward, I also attended the YW campout at one of the leaders' homes that evening. It was a lot of fun with good food and good conversation. We set up a screen outside and watched the movie Forever Strong, which was pretty good. The girls all ooed and aahed over the main character, who was so obnoxious the first half of the movie that I didn't care what he looked like, I wanted to slap him.
Thursday we ran a few errands and ended the evening with dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the BYU basketball game. Fun, even with kids. :)
Friday we went camping with some other new friends at Estrella Mountain Park, which is quite literally 10 minutes from our house. But it was actually super fun, and the kids especially loved having friends there to hang out with. The campground has a fun playground and had more trees than I expected as well. The weather was perfect, and I think we all had a good time.
Saturday we bummed around most of the day recovering from our one night camping trip...(what is wrong with us?) then went to some friends' house to watch the BYU game. Parents happy--visiting with friends and a good game. Kids happy--playing with friends and don't have to sit in a restaurant and watch BYU game. In case you're wondering--we don't get any TV channels, so watching the game from the comfort of our living room is not an option. And yes, somehow we are surviving without TV.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So, here it is Easter Sunday, and I am posting about St. Patrick's Day. Can't be helped. Every year for St. Paddy's, we have a traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage. This year we also had some tasty green lemonade.

We were introduced to this meal a few years ago by some friends, and we LOVE it! The kids absolutely love the corned beef--not so much the potatoes and cabbage. I love all of it. And, confession, I ate half a head of cabbage all by myself. I kind of think it is the best part of the meal!

We all wore green shirts, although I did get pinched a few times in the morning before I got dressed. When we went to Walmart, people pointed out our green group to their kids. I was a little bit surprised how many people apparently enjoy getting pinched.

The O'Fallstrom's St. Patty's Celebration

I love trying to make Holidays special for our family. Kids get excited by simple things, and I like looking for the simple things to turn a normal day into something special.

Lately, it seems like someone is always sick around here, and right now it is Isaac. Poor thing--he sat at the table for a minute, then said he wanted to lay down and he just crashed.

But between Isaac and Finley both needing attention all day, it was a little difficult putting on a party.

The cake isn't as fancy as my original visions, but it turned out perfect, I think.

I also bought the kids a green carnation at the grocery store today.

We had our traditional fare of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. Doesn't it look pretty?