St. Paddy's Day is done...

My niece, Amanda made
Leprechaun cupcakes for
the party--SO cute and yummy too!

We survived another "wearin o'the green!" Haime and I host a small St. Paddy's Day party most years. We both love spring and both claim to have Irish ancestors, so St. Paddy's Day is a great excuse for a party. In addition to our wonderful friends and one of my sisters and brother-in-law and my mom, Chip and Mallory and Carter joined us this year, (Carter attended last years bash but Chip and Mallory partied with some of their friends). Unfortunately, Reece had to work. Haime and I really enjoy spending time with the kids. We are so blessed that they are all living relatively close to us. They have grown to be wonderful young adults and make us very proud. We enjoyed fish and shrimp and grilled chicken (for those who don't care for or can't eat fish) and all the trimmings, and of course, Guinness, Harps and Smithwicks.

I refer to "surviving" because another reason we host this party is because it forces us to do a bit of spring cleaning. We readied the yard and gardens, transplanted some perennials to new beds and brought in a few new annuals. We hauled in potting soil, fertilizer and mulch and hauled out limbs and bags (and bags and bags and bags) of weeds. We pulled out the extension ladder to clean the windows on the second story (yeah, I know...) and Haime FINALLY cleaned out his closet. Obviously a lot of what we did had nothing to do with the party, we just kinda got carried away!

After having survived getting our yard ready for the season, tomorrow I'm starting on my mother's yard. Hers is going to involve everything ours did plus much more chain saw action and much more "haul aways." You gotta love spring cleaning!