Weekend Goodness- Baby Shower and Irish Dancing Edition

Friday:

I know it's not the weekend, and it was actually during the school day, but it was too cute/fun not to share! 

We had a mini "Irish Fest" on Friday for some of my 4K kids and some of the daycare kids from the daycare next to my school. Although Rosie hasn't Irish danced in a really long time, she came to dance for the kids since I couldn't do a whole lot of that :) 

The kids loved it! Even the really little ones watched quietly and nicely :)
Rosie did a jig, reel, and hornpipe (and then jig again because it was requested by the little ones) by herself. I joined her for a quick treble reel. 

I did "St. Patrick's Day" by myself.
Man, was it hard work! Whew!
Rosie said all the moms and teachers watching were worried that I was going to go into labor :) 

After all the really little kids left, Rosie and I taught the 4K kids a jig.
They were adorable! 

 The best part of Friday: My niece and nephew were born! Evelyn and Jack :) They live about 6 hours away, so I won't get to meet them for a while :( But the pictures I have seen are adorable. I am SO excited they were born and that they are healthy! Happy birthday, little babies :)



Saturday:
My  mom came over in the morning and helped me organize the nursery. I'll post pictures of it soon! Saturday afternoon was filled with more baby things- Dan's side of the family had a baby shower for us. The theme was "Welcome to the World, Little One"

Dan was fishing all weekend with friends, so I left all the baby shower gifts at his moms because it would be too hard for me to bring them all home. I had nothing to organize that afternoon but felt like I needed to do something. I decided a good 'something' would be to look at baby clothes and get a cinnabon. It went well- I found 2 cute little newborn-sized outfits and a women in front of me in line at cinnabon turned around and said "Oh you just look adorable! Your belly is so cute!" :)

Sunday:
My mom and I went to a baby consignment store. It was okay- there wasn't a very good selection of things. I did a million loads of laundry when I got home and then waited for Dan to get home from fishing. Once he did, we picked up the shower gifts from his mom's and I organized them. It was good/busy/tiring weekend!


Only 2 more weeks until spring break! I am so ready for it!

Weekend Goodness: St. Paddy's Day Edition

Look at that big basketball belly :) 

The weather was SO nice on Friday! 

So Dan and I went for a walk and got some frozen yogurt. Mmmm!

This Saturday was the St. Paddy's day parade.
I love parades!
The weather was perfect, I was with people I love, and we managed to get a great spot! 

My mom was in the parade with Wee Seamus :) 

And my dad was in the parade with the Milwaukee Hurling Club
(I didn't get any good during-parade-pics of him though)

Dan and I made reuben rolls post-parade. 

They were a delish afternoon snack

I also got some strawberry rhubarb pie (not homemade this time) in honor of Pi day!
I thought it was cool that it was 3.1415 this year :) 

 Somebody (Meagan) strategically placed little vikings around our house that we have been finding randomly :) 

Dan and I took Maggie and Nella for their first nice, long walk of the season.
They were wiped out afterwards! It was great :) 

Happy almost St. Patrick's Day!

Weekend Goodness: Irish Fest Edition

Milwaukee Irish Fest is one of the best weekends of the year. 

It has everything a good festival should: food, music, dancing, friends, and family. 

Everyone in my family volunteers to some extent each year. My dad and brother help set up, my mom and dad bartend, and my siblings and I do random things through out the weekend. This year, we volunteered for "Pirate Paddy"- kids/families get a 'passport' and have to stop at stations around the grounds. Dan, Meagan, and I started our weekend in the kid's cultural area- talking to kids about Irish dancing and  putting tattoos on them. 

Paddy and Molly McFest are the mascots of Irish Fest. We like to get a picture with them every year :) 

Meagan's birthday was on the Saturday of Irish Fest and Molly's was the Tuesday before. We went to my parents for a good Irish breakfast (that included bangers and black pudding) for their birthdays. This breakfast also included cake- the perfect breakfast :) Because there are so many of us, we have to take multiple cars to the grounds. Ours was obviously the party car. 

Sister- brother bonding time

 Irish Fest has a whole section for Irish dogs! My mom brought Wee Seamus to the canine area to hang out for part of the day. He got lots of hugs, pets, and kisses from adoring fans :) 

My friend, Caitlin, got to experience Irish Fest.
I was volunteering for Pirate Paddy (in the blazing sun)- this time letting kids color ocean/lake pictures.
She met up with me later to see We Banjo Three- they were awesome.

On Sunday we volunteered (again for Pirate Paddy) in the canine area- we gave kids dog stickers and let them do scratchy-art on a a shamrock. 

There are SO many good treats at the Fest. I randomly got a cake pop- but some of my favorites are:
Shamrock twist (it's basically a twist of fried dough with cinnamon sugar on it), Irish stew in a bread bowl, baked potatoes, reuben rolls, bangers and mash, fish and chips, sour cream and chive fries, eggplant strips with parm, shamrock cookies, and roasted almonds. 

Mom, Molly, Rosie, Meagan, Me, Dan, Sean, Dad
Family time at Irish Fest! 

We're a little weird :) 

We saw dancers from almost all of the Milwaukee based Irish dance schools. We saw a little bit of a variety of bands (ranging from Scythian to Gaelic Storm to the Willis Clan to We Banjo Three). We shopped. We chatted with friends we haven't seen since last year. We ate. We walked around- a lot.

The best part of Irish Fest is the Scattering. It happens on Sunday night, right before Irish Fest is over. All of the performers from the weekend gather in the Aer Lingus stage and jam. They play music and sing songs. It's a big party for all of us and it's awesome. The sing "Wild Mountain Thyme" as the last song every year- the whole crowd joins in and it's such a cool moment. If you've never been, you should definitely go next year. 

Weekend Goodness- LaCrosse Edition

First of all, Friday's Talent show was great! The kids did such a good job. There was singing, dancing, gymnastics, and instruments. It turned out that the other teachers who were supposed to be in the talent show dropped out at the last minute. So I was the only teacher- it was a little goofy, but fun- and the kids liked it :) 

I used to teach Irish dance in La Crosse at a dance studio. Dan and I went to La Crosse this weekend to watch their recital. It was really fun sneaking into the dressing room to say hi to all of them. A bunch of the girls didn't recognize me at first because the last time they saw me my hair was really long. They were all so excited to see me and happy I was there to watch them dance. 

I took care of these three kids while I was in college. (The oldest one Irish dances and was in the recital)
Dan and I stayed with them while we were in LaCrosse and we love them so much! 

We were hanging out by the fountain at Riverside park and told the little ones  we had to go because it looked like it was going to rain. There were still other people there when were leaving and Evi, the little one, asked why people were still their. I said I don't know, but they might get wet. She responded with, "Yeah, they might get rained on and then die." I thought it was hilarious. 

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He started playing the piano! He takes lessons and has a recital coming up.  So adorable. 

It down poured on and off all the way home. 

I now I'm off to drink some hot honey lemon water to soothe a sore throat I woke up with. 

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

This is how I looked when I met my classes in the hallway to pick them up:

Their reactions ranged from silently staring at my hair, to asking if it was my birthday, to being freaked out. One little guy (who is an english language learner/ spanish speaker) kept saying "wooaah! real?" with a frightened look on his face. Once he got past my major change in hairstyles, he noticed my "crown". For the rest of the day, he would say things like, "Ms. McElwee- Crown. You princess!"  

I invited the kindergarten classes to my room to watch me dance for my morning class. I don't think 4 classes of little ones have ever been quieter. I might need to wear my Irish dance stuff to school every day :) The afternoon class got to watch my mini Irish dance lesson with their 4th grade book buddies. The 4th grade teacher told me that all of her boys tried to do the jig when they got back to their classroom. It was really fun to watch a bunch of kids learn about something they have never seen before.  It was also fun breaking out all of my dance gear again :) 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Happy 30th anniversary, mom and dad!