It has been a marathon weekend! Aside from Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day is hands down the family favorite.

There are many reasons why we go all out for the holiday. But the main reason is due to my grandparents.

My Grandfather went by the nickname “Irish.” It wasn’t until I was about 12 or so that I learned that wasn’t his real name. It’s because of them that all of us cousins go a bit overboard with the holiday. Especially now that they’re not with us anymore, it just makes that bond with us stronger. (Above my grandpa’s shirt says, “You can always tell an Irishman…but you can’t tell him much. My grandma’s shirt says: “Pay for me, I’m married to an Irishman.”)

We actually kicked off the holiday on March 2nd with the Winter Park St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It’s way early, but whatever!!! We had lots of green on, but it was so cold we had to bundle up.

Last weekend, we packed up the family and headed up to St. Augustine to catch the Celtic Music & Heritage Festival. It basically was all about bagpipes and beer. A few important things we learned from the trip…1) The kids were bored, perhaps leave them at home next time. 2) We should have come for the whole weekend of events because there were a ton of them and I feel like we missed out a bit. 3) I pretty confident I could play the bagpipes.

The whole week has been around decorating shamrocks for Patrick’s classmates, drinking Shamrock Shakes and preparing for the big weekend of St. Patrick’s Day!

Events and festivities started on Thursday with the Alive After Five event in Sanford, with an Irish-theme. You basically pay $7 for a wristband and then there are over 50 booths set up where you can eat samples. We definitely got our money’s worth in all the food and drinks we consumed! My youngest alone ate FIVE cream puffs. Also – free Irish Car bombs! (Also note the awesome classes with the shot already built in. Genius!)

I still can’t believe we went out on a school night – but it was fun!! Friday was a day of work and then off to our School’s Family Fun Night. My oldest son couldn’t really stay for the whole night due to football practice. This is when having only two kids is perfect – divide and conquer. Dad took B to football and I got to stay at the school for some family fun with P. His only goal the entire time was to “dunk Mr. Garrett in the dunk tank.” So I had $5 worth of tickets to make this happen. On his very last try, this happened:

Saturday, we woke up to TWO football games for B. They were both championship games – so no pressure! They won the first game but lost the second in a dramatic, tense finish. But that’s ok! It was a great season and thankfully, it’s now over. Trophy’s for everyone:

After football, off to celebrate Nana’s birthday at our favorite family restaurant, Red Robin! My in-laws are from Michigan where these are common place. Here is Florida, they are just arriving…and we’re so thrilled!! Happy Birthday Nana!!

After cake…it was off to bed so the Leprechaun’s could come. They come every year and generally leave behind a mess of toilet paper and turn all the water in the house green. Since we stayed the night at my in-laws, we weren’t sure if they would find us…but they did!!!

Look at how happy these three are that the leprechaun’s came!

Then some time for a silly picture – boys only…(yes…Papa died his mustache green…)

With picture fun over, we packed up and headed to Lakeland for Tigers baseball!

My husband is a born & bread Tigers fan, but for some reason never made it out to Lakeland.  I’m pretty sure I can say that he loved it and will be back soon.  Some friends met up with us there to celebrate a belated birthday for my husband.  We figured a trip to the ballpark would be a great way to celebrate.

You can read more about the game from my son’s point of view HERE.

Some highlights in pictures….

And now I’m exhausted and will be going to bed very soon!!

How was your weekend? Do anything fun/crazy for St. Patrick’s Day??