Spring Break 2011--The Adventure Continues

Thursday--St. Patrick's Day / Green Day



You can't start a day any better than Leprechaun's bringing you green milk and St. Patty's Day decorated Krispy Kremes. So with a sugar rush in tact we decided to go a little green. Or is that grow a little green? I found little flower pot kits at Toys-r-Us (of all places) that came with bucket, seeds, soil and directions. Even though my favorite color is green I ended up with a very black thumb so this sounded pretty fool proof!


Blake opted not to get his hands dirty in the mixing of the soil or putting it in the bucket--and barely brushed the seeds onto the soil before I put the rest of the soil on top. So this would be the only picture of Blake and his green bucket. He was really fine just watching me do it and then riding his scooter. It's his Spring Break too so whatever floats your boat . . . .


Brock was a little unsure at first about mixing up the soil. It came as two big soil pellets and after adding water and working it over it re-hydrated and turned into soil. But I was proud of him and he got his hands in there pretty good!


He actually got a little possessive about putting the soil in the bucket. I went in for an attempted assist once and got denied! So he pretty much did it all on his own.


Once Bryson got the hang of it he got into working over his soil and planting his sunflower seeds.


Here is the actual planting.


Ta-Daaa!


Aunt Kaley came to play in the dirt with us. Yea!!! Here she is helping Bradley get his soil ready.


Bradley finishing up the job.


After Quiet Time (the most blessed time of day) we made Chocolate Chip Green M&M cookies.


Bryson and Blake became my baking assistants in hopes I'd let them eat some brown sugar out of the container like their dad does. Sorry boys--Mom is not that nice!


Meanwhile, Bradley and Brock play some weird game of watching Brock climb into the laundry hamper. Why anyone would want to go inside a BOYS laundry hamper is beyond me. Possibly that's why I have a tendency to steer clear of laundry in general!


Our St. Patrick's Day dinner was a much better experience this year. I learned from my foolishness last year in letting them pick something green to use as part of dinner when after all was said, done and cooked, pretty much everything was rejected. This year we had Grilled Chicken marinated in italian dressing, rice, veggies and my new favorite party drink--Jones (Fill in the Flavor Here) Slush Punch. We of course used Jones Green Apple.


Our Green Apple Slush after we had consumed most of it. You can almost taste it, can't you?

Here's the 4-1-1:

Jones Slushy Punch (A Tribute to my brother Brett and the other 5 GEARS)

Fill ice trays with whatever flavor of Jones soda your heart (or party) desires. I used 4 ice trays full and it yielded servings for about 10. Freeze the soda in the ice trays. Once frozen dump the ice into ziplock bags to save. If you're like me, you don't have 4 ice trays hanging around so the freezing was a process. About 15 minutes before you are ready to serve plop your Slush cubes into your punch bowl or pitcher and let them thaw a little. Then mash with a spoon or potato masher and add 1-2 liter bottle of 7-up or Diet 7-up. (We used Diet and it was really good!)

I got this "recipe" from another Laurel Advisor who said she uses it all the time for parties and baby showers because it's so easy to change the color!

Back to our dinner.






Bryson, Brock and Blake enjoy a cookie from our earlier baking efforts.


Brock was so funny. He'd take a sip of the punch, immediately wrinkle up his nose and make a total sour face, then go back for another sip. It was like "This is totally not good in one way but I've gotta keep drinking it!" Another Jones man in the making!


By the end of dinner things got a little silly with Brock going off on a kissing fest. He planted this one on me and started giggling. BTW: Many Thanks to Aunt Kaley, the official photographer of St. Patrick's Day/Green Day at the Grover House. Nice work Babe!