Erin Go Bragh

You can always count on Dad's yard to produce your first official sings of spring!  Evangeline and I stopped off to pick up Dad on our way to the Terre Haute St. Patrick's parade.  What fun! 

 

 

Evangeline was, um...fortunate enough to have been the recipient of this dandy little noise maker at the parade.  It provided lots of fun until it broke.  There were tears, but only a few.  Happily there was a humongous bag of candy waiting to cheer her up.  Dad and I were laughing because she was being choosy about what candy she picked up at the parade this year.  She left the Double Bubble laying where it fell letting us know it was "hard as a rock".  You can afford to be selective at the St. Patrick's parade.  A kid does not want for candy there, that's for sure. 

     

 

The brief warm snap we had was food for the soul.  Especially when it hit the mid-70's on Monday.  Unfortunately Evangeline woke up vomiting that morning.  I stayed home from school with her.  The good news was, it didn't last long and she was back to her old self at about 10:30 in the morning.  We took it easy for the first half of the day, but that afternoon was mostly spent outside.  She told me that she sure picked a good day to be sick.  It's true, she did.

 

We had a little St. Patrick's party on the 17th.  In addition to myself, it consisted of Evangeline, Kyle and Peggy.  We had beef Irish stew and cheddar Irish soda bread biscuits.  I got the recipes from a Shnuck's cookbook from Carbondale.  They used to hand them out every quarter or so.  I can't seem to part with them.  There are many things I've wanted to try.  This meal was one of them.  We've been eating it for days now and I'm glad to move on.

One more cute picture...Here is Evangeline, my little imp, at the book fair at school on St. Patrick's Day. 

Bakin' and Makin'

Maybe it's this extra hour of daylight in the evenings...or perhaps it's the fact that the snow is melting and we can finally see the ground, but I feel like spring is finally in the air.  We've been doing some spring cleaning along with starting and finishing projects.  Evangeline's feeling inspired too, I think.  She's a big help, and boy, she really loves to clean the windows...

Evangeline has quite the vocabulary.  One word I'm noticing her use a lot is weary.  She always tells me she's weary of something when she's over it. 

Evangeline:  "You know why I'm glad I'm a human?....So I can breath." 

She uses the eeny-meeny-miny-moe method whenever faced with a decision.  It doesn't matter how big or small the situation, this is her go to solution. 

For a family with not one ounce of known Irish heritage, I always love all things Irish this time of year.  This month there's been lots Celtic music, Irish soda bread and Irish butter.  I found a really good recipe for Irish soda bread that seemed more luxurious than other soda bread recipes I've seen.  It had caraway seeds, orange peel, etc...really very good. 


I enjoyed my bread and tea with a little girl that's been looking very grown up lately. 

I finally finished this doll I've been making Evangeline for months now.  She named her Lizzy.  Lizzy's dress matches one of the dresses I made Evangeline last year out of an old bed sheet.  My plan was to make a few dresses for Lizzy to match some of Evangeline's dresses, but my goodness, this doll and her tiny little dresses were a nightmare to make.  I don't think there was one enjoyable thing about the process.....oh, unless you count Evangeline's reaction to the finished doll.  That made it all worth it.  

My Fella is 40

We had a little shindig for Kyle's 40th birthday at our house over the weekend.  Due to the large amounts of snow and ice still on the ground, our driveway was totally treacherous.  Kyle had to instruct everyone to park at the bottom of the hill when they arrived.  He then he drove down to get everyone and chauffeur them up to the house.  Kyle and Peggy both agreed that this is the most snow there has ever been on the ground on his birthday.  

 

 

We had a house packed with lots of family, lots of fun and lots of food.  It was a great time. 



 

Sadly Zachary and Candice had to work, but Mom brought Mr. Cale to the party.  We were all so happy to have the cute little man around.  Evangeline loved sitting with him on the couch.  She got kick out of everything he did.  She said, "he's so cute, I can't stop looking at him".

 

Savannah and Lily had lots of fun with him around too. 

 

I think everyone did a good job making Kyle feel loved that day.  I also think everyone had a great time picking out hilarious 40-year-old birthday cards.  Kyle had a captive audience as he opened his cards and gifts. 

 

I had a picture of his guitar put on his cake.  I think he liked it.  

 

And look, my 2014 blog book came!  It was fun to get to show it everyone and reminisce about the past year.  

 

Happy birthday, Kyle!  You're a very special guy and we love you very much.  

In Like a Lion

Well, we got our big snow over the night.  The only problem is it came to late!  I'm ready for spring!!!  The one thing I do still enjoy about a good snow is the way it slows things down a bit.  Everything is so still and calm.  It's nice to shake up the rhythm of things from time to time....but enough.....bring on the sunshine and warmth.  



 

For the past two years we've participated in the children's art show at the Gaslight Artist Colony.  This year Evangeline won 3rd place in another contest she didn't know she entered.  She was so, so, so excited to see a ribbon hanging next to her picture when we toured the gallery.  She also won 5 dollars, but that was nothing compared to the ribbon.  She can't wait to take it home.  She titled it "The Story of the Flowers". 

 

Kyle introduced Evangeline to Harry Potter last week.  He wanted her to have some concept of who he was for our upcoming Disney/Universal trip.  She got a little obsessed. 

 

I must have said something irritating....

 

Kyle and Evangeline did a lot of Harry Potter sketching.   

Evangeline's got quite the social calendar going on these days.  It seems like she's always getting invited to birthday parties.  We had one yesterday for Ben Sheehy.  As soon as we entered the bowling ally Evangeline headed straight for the clowns and instructed Butterbean to paint a butterfly on her face.