St. Patrick's Day Parade

Today we kicked off our week long St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

It started with breakfast when I sprinkled some shamrock mix onto Julia's cream cheese bagel and applesauce.  And, although she turned down my green smoothie offer, she was so happy to see the sprinkles on her food and dug right in!

After breakfast we got ready for the St. Patrick's Day parade.  Julia participated in the parade with her Irish dance class whose colors are red and black, so she was all decked out in those colors.  The rest of us wore green and us girls used the face paint to add a shamrock to our cheek.  It turned out to be lots of fun and the atmosphere was really festive!  Unfortunately Julia's dance school was #185 in line of about 190 and the parade seemed to run late....which meant we were waiting at our line-up area for about 2.5 hours until we finally started to move.  The girls were amazingly patient waiting their turn and the parents were well prepared with snacks but I sure do hope that next year we are earlier in the parade or waiting in a sunny, warm spot!

Michael and Brianna came down to watch the parade and Chris and Emma joined them on the Parkway.  Emma loved the parade and their seats were great since most of the dance groups performed right in front of them.  When everything was over we went to dinner at TGI Friday's since all the Irish restaurants in town were standing room only.

It sure was a great kick-off to this year's St. Patrick's celebrations!  Let the party continue!