I'm not usually one to celebrate this holiday. It may be the fact that green beer repulses me (or any color of beer for that matter) or it just may be my firm dedication to give all of my attention to the main holidays like Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. Heck, even 4th of July is usually ignored. Whatever the reason may be I'm not one you will find out celebrating all day wearing green.
But it seems that I've been much more interested in celebrating the smaller holidays since Hallie came along. Case in point...my first instinct Saturday morning upon awaking was to whip up some pancakes. But not just any pancakes.......GREEN PANCAKES!
At that point we were off to a great St. Patty's Day start. We showered, dressed, packed and loaded up our little green leprechaun. She was already pretty excited about what the day had to offer....
Top o' the mornin' to ya!
I was outnumbered by my Irish lad and lass that day. I was thankful that they let an ol' German tag along for the day with them. So where were we headed? To OKC for a day of fun and exciting things! A few weeks ago my cousin's wife Amy had a great idea to take the kiddos to see Sesame Street Live. After some convincing I was able to get Riley to commit to coming along and Amy said that Matt was willing to go too. It was a date!!! Aaron and Hallie got busy getting their Sesame Street on in preparation for the big show. I was feeling kind of silly when I began to think how Hallie hadn't even watched the kid friendly learning show. It was high time to study up on Big Bird and friends. But all we had were some mini books about the colorful characters. They are some of her favorites though so we read overtime this week to familiarize her with them. No complaints from her! The bookworm spent most of her time reading on the way to OKC after all....
And tending to her baby of course.....
And just being a diva....
Our bellies were talking to us by the time we got to Yukon so we stopped for lunch at Louie's. I was silly thinking that her good behavior streak that morning would continue on through lunch. It did not. Oh my. She had devoured most of her snacks during the car ride so she was a little less than willing to wait for our food to arrive. However she did partake in some chips and queso which was great entertainment for her mom and dad. She made it clear that she did
not need help dipping her chips in the queso. I think her dress and lap would disagree. ;)
"You talkin' bout me!?!"
You can guess what Riley had on his mind as we sat down for a bite to eat. Yes, green beer.....
Once our food came our lady turned into an angel and spent her time eating her shoestring fries and flirting with passersby. My faith had been restored in the day and I was ready for our next stop. Someone else needed a bit of shut-eye first though....
It's not easy being green
To say that I was excited about our next destination would be the understatement of the century. I. Was. Insanely. Thrilled. We were meeting my dad at Mathis Brothers to pick out a set of bedroom furniture. I was like a kid on Christmas morning. No wait, more than that. I can't even explain it. It's no secret that Riley and I have been making our way through a transitional period after moving....between having to give our new bedroom furniture away with our Mustang home, selling our guest bedroom furniture and being left with nothing more than a mattress....we have been yearning for an actual bed. A bed elevated off of the floor to be exact. ;) Our mattress is sandwiched in between two wooden tables made by our grandfather's. My side table is named Paul's table and Riley's is named JC's table. As you can see, we have some fun with our current furniture situation. We may actually miss these old side tables we've become accustomed to using. Ok, maybe not. So what was Gman doing tagging along with us at the furniture store? Well, ya see....he's a rockstar. The generous-hearted teddy bear offered to gift us with new bedroom furniture. Holy Moses!!!!!!!!! He was waiting for us in the parking lot when we arrived. Hallie was still snoozing and definitely needed some more rest to make it through the rest of the day. Dummy me forgot to pack her stroller. The plan was for my dad to push a napping Hal in the stroller while Riley and I got our shop on. Instead Gman waited in the car with Hal until she woke up. Riley and I had been snagged by one of the store designers who began guiding us around the store. I was feeling pretty lucky that we had a design expert who could help me pull all of my jumbled up ideas together. He was a saint and put up with a lot. Hallie and Gman caught up with us after she woke up. We took turns holding the chunklet while we perused the store. Gman pushed her in a little red car for awhile while she giggled with glee. By the time we had picked out the one we wanted she had decided it was time to cause a scene. Mattress selection happened pretty quickly and I'm honestly not even sure which one we chose because I just wanted the madness to end. Don't get me wrong, I was still in heaven.....it's just that there was this screaming child in my heaven who seemed to only be satisfied either in my arms or jumping on the plethora of beds surrounding her. Riley felt confident in my ability to finish out some selections so he took Hallie to the car. Whew. Sigh of relief. This picture shows a very rare calm moment......
"I think this is the one"
Somehow all of my ideas and dreams in my head came to life and we came away with the perfect stuff!!! I think I hugged dad about twenty times in the course of twenty minutes. That's one hug per minute if you don't want to do the math. ;) We walked out to the car to find a very quiet red-head watching her movie and eating snacks. Stinker!
"Gman, you're a riot....and so is this movie!"
I hugged dad one last time and he sent us on our way. He was headed to the Harley store and then home.....we were headed downtown. Sesame here we come!!!
It had been a long time since we'd been downtown in the daylight and we were surprised to see all of the new changes that have taken place. Lookin' good OKC!
The leprechaun was on a hunt for her cousin Aaron by that time....
Ah ha! There he is!!!!
Can you feel the love people?? ;)
They wouldn't give eachother so much as a high five let alone say hi. There wasn't much interaction between the two but they were both lookin' mighty cute! Aaron had been watching the ducks before we met up with them and hollering out his quacking noise.....
Hal joined in with some of her own quacking. The weather was so pretty (a bit humid but no big deal). We walked toward the Cox center to give the kiddos a chance to play in the Sesame Street playzone. We took the long way around to the arena and stopped to ask for directions once inside. I had to suppress my desire to ask the nice lady "can ya tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?" How many times in your life do you actually get to put that little diddy to good use? We made it to the playzone finally but first we had to check out the stage from up top....
"Ok. I'm here...you can start now!"
I was already exhausted by the time we got to the playzone from all of the walking, shopping and driving we'd done already that day. I don't think I was prepared for what happened next. The playzone= Hallie on speed. Stimulant city!!! The kiddos checked out each stop along the way. Amy and I couldn't help but plop the kiddos by this cute little street scene.
"Ya think our parents know what they've got themselves into??"
I've got to admit, they had some pretty cool toys and areas for the tots to checkout......
There was one area in particular that Hallie was interested in. Much to my embarrassment she took it upon herself to disassemble the blockade that was built in front of a big screen. Granted I'm sure she thought it was a lovely and very fun toy....innocent as it may have been I was not looking to get us kicked out of Sesame Street Live. This is when I put Riley in charge. The funny part is he soon joined in her "fun" by standing inside of the blockade with her. And this is when I turned around and pretended that I didn't know them. ;)
"Oh, this looks fun....."
Aaron joined Hal for some button pushing fun. Amy and I swarmed around them in paparazzi mode while Matt and Riley stood back and shook their heads at us. "Mom's delight", as Matt put it so eloquently. Yes, it was definitely mom's delight seeing them have so much fun!
One last diaper change, a trip to the concession stand and a search for our seats....we were ready for the show to start! Hallie was restless to say the least while we waited. The popcorn snack didn't quite do it's job like I'd planned. Well, it did for a minute at least....
Elmo! Elmo! Elmo!
It was a clapping frenzy between the two tots as they switched between mom and dad's laps with their little eyes fixed on the bright, colorful characters. I was just beside myself watching her take so much interest in the show....
Clap, clap, clap
And more clapping
And yet even more clapping.
Can ya blame her? ;)
Amy got us some great floor seats. I think being so close to the stage helped them focus on the show more...
Don't let her clapping and intense watching fool you into thinking that all was well during the hour and a half-long show. She had her restless moments and made plenty of messes. My poor purse was the victim of a drink spill in the row ahead of us. Hallie knocked over the tub of popcorn twice. She dumped out half of the little snack bites that Aaron shared with her. She spit out her binky for fun in the row behind us at least five times. She threw her cup in the row in front of us twice. It was a lot of moving and squirming....but of course lots of clapping, cheering and smiling to balance it out. I was enjoying the show....Riley was pretending to enjoy the show. ;) The plot was based on the new Sesame Street music teacher who was waiting on a truck to show up with her instruments in it. Several times throughout the show she mentioned waiting for the truck. A very worn out Riley leaned over midway through the show and said "I sure wish that truck would show up soon." Haha! It was 7:00 by the time the show was over and the kids were surprisingly all hyped up after we left the building headed for dinner. We were seated quickly at Abuelo's and soon began what would become a chorus of "no, no"s. Aaron sat quietly and waited like a good boy.....while Hallie was acting a fool. They filled their bellies with chips and tortillas and found a small little area by our table to play in. Amy and I joked that it was our built in play area....
"I think I know how we can escape this place"
Aka baby prison.....
"LET US OUT!!!!!!!!!!"
Hallie's belly was full which was no surprise since she'd snacked nearly the entire show. But a spoon full of queso seemed to hit the spot.....
Loco baby!
We parted ways after some prompted hugs and kisses between the cousins, made a promise to get together again very soon and made our way to the car. Hallie watched her Cat in the Hat movie for a good thirty minutes and before I knew it she was in dreamland. Most likely dreaming of Big Bird and Elmo......
It was an eventful day.
A fun day.
A stressful day.
A memorable day.
A day or firsts.
A day of pretty furniture.
A day of thankfulness.
A day to be green.
Thanks Amy, Matt and Aaron for inviting us along! Next up for the cousins.....THE ZOO!!!!
Thanks Daddio for being straight up awesome. We will try to thank you....but nothing seems adequate enough. You are the best!
