St. Patrick's Day

This is a picture of Elle's hair creation, which she did on her own.

Whew, we are all tired in our house!  Patrick finished up a 3 weekend run of swim meets.  The last meet was in Wichita.  The season ended well and now he has a break for a few weeks.  It is nice having him home in the evening so we can do some activities as a family.  On Friday before Patrick went out of town we took the kids to open gym at Lawrence Gymnastics Academy.  Patrick has taken the kids regularly, but this is the first time Sarah has been able to go.  The kids get to play on all of the equipment, including a foam pit, the rings, the balance beams, etc.  It's a good place for the kids to let out some energy!Later that day Sarah and the kids went to Lenexa and got together with Sarah's former roommate, Heidi, and her little girl, Adelaide (Addie).  Heidi belongs to Sam's Club, so she took as her guest so we could stock up on diapers.  Then, we headed back to Heidi's house so the kids could play.  We finished off the evening with pizza!  The kids crashed in the car on the way home.

On Monday Patrick rode his bike with the kids in the trailer to the park near the Senior Center (in downtown Lawrence) to meet Sarah.  Toting the kids in the bike trailer sure is a good workout!Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day.  Sarah only worked for half of the day.  She started the morning with a trip to the dentist.  No cavities to report!  It was also Elle's first trip to the dentist.  She was originally just going for a "friendly visit" where kids sit down in the chair and see the different contraptions so they are more comfortable with their first cleaning.  Elle did very well and was able to have her teeth cleaned and inspected by the dentist during the first visit.  She is still getting her last molars in the back of her mouth.  Elle left the dentist with a toothbrush, sticker, balloon, and wand.  Later that evening when we asked Elle if she had a good day, she said she had fun at the dentist!  We'll see how many trips that lasts for.

On St. Patrick's Day we also attended the annual parade on Mass St.  We went last year, but because it was raining then, there wasn't a very big turn-out.  This year, however, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so there were swarms of people.  Elle was excited to see "leopards" (aka leprechauns).  We stayed for about 45 minutes of the parade, which was plenty for Jay.  He wanted to get down and crawl around, and the street/ side walk was not where we wanted him crawling.  Later that evening we all went for a bike ride to the park and back.  Patrick pulled the kids, of course!  A little leprechaun visited our house and left some edible gold, shamrock cookies, and green milk.  It was definitely a fun day!  The concept of St. Patrick's Day was very confusing to Elle.  Because it has "Patrick" in the name of the holiday, Elle called it "Daddy's Day" and also thought there should be "Elle's Day."

Speaking of milk, it is crazy how much milk the kids drink now that they are getting older.  Patrick went to the grocery store on Monday and the gallon of whole milk was gone within around 48 hours!  We need a shelf in our fridge just for milk.