St. Patrick's Day Plan B

Last St. Patrick's Day I tried to be all festive with a photo shoot and cooking Guinness beef stew and Irish soda bread. This year, I dressed the kids in green shirts and went about our day. James somehow ended up wearing the shirt I picked out for Jackson. It's a 3T, but he still looked cute.

Our big plans were to go to the museum to meet up with Jackson's former teachers and classmates. I learned via Facebook that his old school was having a field trip to the museum. Since Jackson didn't have school today and we go to the museum every week anyway, I let Jackson decide if he wanted to go. I didn't really want to go since I was hoping to avoid seeing the director for the rest of my life, but of course he wanted to go.

The first person we saw was his 2's teacher, followed up by his 3's teacher. I have such love and admiration for these two women. Jackson adores them and I'm certain the feelings are mutual. (The director was standing beside them, though she only offered a quiet, "hello" and nothing more.)

It was crowded but manageable. The trio were able to wander the entire time. Jackson was excited to say hello to his friends anytime he ran into them, but he mostly played with his siblings. They spent a considerable amount of time in the grocery store.

Outside of the craft area there were tables set up with experiments. The kids got to create green snow with water and some kind of magical powder. I was impressed with how encouraging the staff members were towards the trio's participation.

I packed a light lunch for the kids to eat. I planned to have picnic at the park across the street from the museum.  When we arrived, there was not a single parking space! I drove to another park on the other side of the railroad tracks. It was in a somewhat questionable area, beside an abandoned building. We were the only people there, which was nice after so much stimulation from the museum.

Like yesterday, the trio took their time eating. Jackson ate quickly before checking out the playground and rock wall.

Jackson proved to be a phenomenal big brother by waiting at the end of a big slide to catch each of his siblings. I sat at the top to help each toddler on the landing and make sure they didn't go the opposite direction which had a drop off.

We'll likely refer to this park as the "tennis court park" since we had the tennis courts all to ourselves. The court was completely fenced in, which meant the kids could safely run free. We had races and played peekaboo behind the net. I didn't bring any balls so Jackson and I threw his cup back and forth over the net.

I love when things work out better than planned!