You know you're a Downen when you sleep in green pajamas, just in case a sibling wakes up before you to take advantage of your sleeping state! I painted my fingernails green last night to make sure I had full protection from the pinch squad all day long!
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| The Lean Green Mean Pinching Machine! |
We spent the entire day celebrating our Irish heritage, starting with a green toy scavenger hunt. I handed each kid (or team of kids) a list of items: something round, something that drives, something soft, etc. and they had five minutes to locate each item. Ian (and Daniel) won with 14 items, Shane (and Fiona) came in second with 13 items, and Evie was in 3rd (or last, depending how you view the glass) with seven.
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| Mina gets into the spirit by hoarding a green ball in her bed. |
Next was Rainbow Skittle math. I printed off a bunch of math worksheets that centered around sorting, counting, and graphing Skittles. My only rule was a given: do not eat a single Skittle until we were finished. If you ate your Skittles, you would be asked to leave the project and would lose your Skittles. Fiona got seven Skittles sorted before she was told to leave. Like I wouldn't notice that she had her hand over her mouth as she tried to chew softly. When I asked her to open her mouth, she hesitated, started chewing and swallowing as fast as she could, and then opened her mouth wide. I could see at least three different colors of Skittle stuck in her molars!
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| Fiona was given a second chance with half her Skittles (yum!) |
For science, the boys took Daniel outside for a Leprechaun hunt while I taught the girls about the states of matter... we made green Jello and learned about colloids too!
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| Even Daniel O'Niall could do Skittle Math! |
I had a bunch of little preschool activities to do with Daniel if Mark took the older kids to the YMCA today, but I ended up taking all seven myself. I drew a green shamrock on the carsick pressure point on Daniel's arm before we left. Of course if I would have eaten 124 Skittles before leaving, I would have been feeling sick too... PE? Check.
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| Heidi has no green clothes, so she stayed safe with her green burp cloth. |
History was a no brainer...Who was St. Patrick? And who kidnapped him? According to
Wikipedia, who heard it from
Keating, Niall-the guy we named Daniel after-was the kidnapper.
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| Lula loves Corned Beef |
So all my kids are descended from the whole reason we celebrate St. Patrick's Day. If Niall hasn't taken Patrick to Ireland as a prisioner, Patrick would have never become a Christian and returned to Ireland as a missionary. Pretty cool, eh?
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| Yum! |
After the most delicious dinner of bangers, corned beef, cabbage, potatoes (and carrots for the orange men) and Sprite with rainbow ice cubes...
...we listened to Mark's vast collection of Celtic music. This has been, quite possibly, the best St. Patrick's Day yet...
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| One LUCKY guy! |
