Patrick's Pancakes and Other Green Fun

Last week I enjoyed finding creative ideas to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  I do like Irish things like the music and dance and taking the opportunity to remember the work of Saint Patrick in spreading the Gospel to Ireland.  Last year, Warrior and I had a fun date out to a local Ceili dance and it was tons of fun even though I was pregnant and it was a lot of spinning!  It was tremendous and invigorating exercise.  We didn't get to do that this year (I'd love to take the whole family sometime), but I did want to commemorate the occasion.

We timed one of our studies so that we could spend some time in Patrick's Confessions this month.  My favorite children's book for the occasion is the one by Tomie de Paola.

So I found this idea and thought it was perfect since St Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday this year and we usually have pancakes on Saturday mornings (you can view our pancake recipe in this post).  I surprised the children with this fun breakfast.  Warrior made the pancakes and I worked on the embellishments.  Besides pancakes, we had fruit kabobs and this green smoothie.  It was my own concoction of frozen grapes, kiwi, yogurt and ginger ale (and only a couple of drops of green food coloring for good measure--I'm not a fan of food coloring, in general).

I always make a traditional dinner meal as well.  I did this on Friday because it was logistically easier--we usually make pizzas on Saturday nights.  So I made our favorite soup for the occasion--Irish Potato-Leek Soup and a great Irish Soda Bread recipe (sorry, no pictures for this one).  I do also like the American Corned Beef and Cabbage meal, but only if I can corn the beef myself!  Or find one that is not coated in nitrates.  I have a funny story about Corned Beef from my early married days.  Our first St Patrick's Day as a married couple I wanted to make a festive dinner, so I bought the corned beef and cooked it in my crock pot.  I'm not sure what I did, but it was a tough bit of meat and incredibly salty.  Warrior graciously said something to the effect of it not ranking up there as one of his favorite dinners (and if I would please not make that again) and I was agreeable to that.  But I do love a good Reuben Sandwich, so I was sure there would be some way to  do it yourself and I did find one.  I took the time to try it again a couple of years ago and it turned out AMAZING!  I had redeemed myself from the great "Corned Beef Catastrophe!"  Hurray!  I didn't have time to do it this year, but I'm sure I shall in the future.

The children wanted their fun, so we decided to make these lemon-lime cupcakes.  They were just right!

And, again, I like to make my little surprises for my dear ones, so I made this one:

Now it's time to look forward to Resurrection Sunday!  It's all coming so fast this year.  And while we're enjoying our visions of spring--the chickadees looking to make a nest in our home for them, the trees swelling with new buds, the peonies peeking out of the soil, and my rhubarb returning (I simply can't wait to harvest those!) THIS is what we woke up to this morning:

It's oh, so lovely.  More happy dances from little ones.  And as Patrick's Breastplate reminds me, my prayer is to see Christ with us in all things today.   A happy "top o' the mornin'" to you!