Try It! And You'll Be Saying Hail Marys till St. Patrick's Day

It's been a tradition of mine for several years now to have Lucky Charms for breakfast on St. Patrick's Day. It's not exactly authentically Irish, but it's fun and easy.

This year I was cheap. I bought the Malt-o-Meal version of Lucky Charms. It tastes the same, but is called "Marshmallow Matey's" Which is even less authentically Irish. I think it's actually more Australian. Maybe Pirate-y? Nonetheless, breakfast was delicious.

The big celebration was later that night. Our wonderful downstairs neighbors came over, Anna and her family came over, My Spanish teacher, Iris, and her husband came over, and Toshi came over. We had a wonderful dinner (Vegetarian, alcohol free, Irish Stew and Irish Soda Bread) followed by even yummier dessert;

Toshi brought brownies;

Julie brought homemade chocolate cookies with mint frosting;
and Iris brought green caramel popcorn!
I made apple cake and Anna made the most delicious green drinks; Pistachio pudding drink (which Drek loved) and key lime drink (which I loved)!

All the kids followed the leprechaun's footprints...

through the house, around the house and to a pot of gold!
It was so much fun!

We played a few games, the first one was based on an Irish game, where you have to throw burlap sacks across the field with a pitchfork. We threw little burlap sacks across the room with forks.

The kids played hot potato, and then the adults played a game with green Irish dice (bought for seventy-five cents from D.I. Score!) and candy;

You sit in a circle and one at a time, roll the dice. If you roll doubles, you get to take a treat out of the middle (you have to announce what you are taking). If someone already took the treat you wanted, you say that person's name and the candy. If they have it, they give it to you. If you got the person or the candy wrong, you don't get anything. Play continues until all the treats in the middle are gone.

It was a lot of fun. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!