March 17, 2010
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Green for St. Patrick’s Day
“We used Lucky Charms for a math exercise today.
That’s called taking something fun and making it boring.”-Our 2nd grade daughterIn Kindergarten, it was all about fun today. They made leprechaun traps filled with fake gold and Lucky Charms (which had NOT been boringly used for learning math), ate pistachio pudding and found green pee in their classroom toilet. And really, what’s more fun than that??The second grader was feeling a bit left out of the fun had by the K and 1st grade classes (hence the Lucky Charms angst), but perked up when she told me that she was the only one in her class who saw a tiny green blur run down the path on the playground. “It was a leprechaun — I just know it!” She also claimed to have found a four leaf clover on our front lawn, but I didn’t see it so cannot vouch for that story.
When our son had a friend come over to play after school, our daughter got the idea that she was going to play a trick on the boys. When they left his bedroom, she snuck in to mess it up, leave a note from a “lepechaun” and scatter money around the room. She was quite proud of herself for being grown up enough to pull this off and for being generous enough to share some of her real coins with the youngsters. It was funny that she was able to play this part without seeming to understand that the adults had done all the tricking at school – not leprechauns. (Hope I didn’t ruin that for you.)
Since I have no green shirts, I went for a green accessory today – a rubber bracelet that says “Donate Life.” So, I made a statement for organ donation while not really succeeding in being festive. I also broke down and served the kids green tinged macaroni and cheese for dinner. It was organic before I added the green food dye, but so much for that.
Basically, instead of wearing green – I acted green. Composting, recycling, reusing…..you know, the usual.
Comments (13)
We should really hear more of your kid’s stories and comments, they are always the highlight of my day!
@draco1531 - Glad they made you smile! They had me laughing a lot today, with all the leprechaun excitement.
i’m pretty sure my girls thought we were celebrating patrick from spongebob squarepants today. it’s hard to explain saints to an unchurched 4 and 2 year old.
Acting green trumps wearing green. Every time. And that quote? Priceless!!!
@lilms_sassy - HAHAHA! That’s hysterical! I am certain that my 6 y.o. son could get behind a Sponge Bob inspired holiday in a heartbeat. I also remember that when he was about 3 or 4, he called it “New Patrick’s Day.” It’s pretty hard for ANYONE to draw direct correlation between a saint and green toilet water, wouldn’t you say?!?
Green is green!
I’m sorry, but I refuse to pretend leprechauns are real, even for the kids. I can’t summon up the gall to insist on the Easter Bunny, much less the freaking leprechauns. My poor children. The magic is missing from their childhood. Sometimes when I wonder what kind of misery I’m accidentally inflicting on them I think about the lack of magic in their lives. Then I get a freaking clue and realize they have two of everything.
@ordinarybutloud - Last year I was backed into a “why didn’t the leprechauns come to our house” corner and essentially told them it’s all pretend. They conveniently “forgot” in time to get in the spirit for school, but I have not done anything to perpetuate or correct this whole scene. I never even heard of such a thing until my oldest started kindergarten, and quite frankly….it’s absurd. Totally absurd. The Mr. asked our son what he learned in school this week and he said, “We’ve been learning about leprechauns.” Wow. As for the Easter Bunny, I was asked flat out today if it’s real and I took the easy way out and changed the subject. I’m a wimp.
@turningreen - if you recall, I told my kids about the Easter Bunny last year. They seem to have conveniently “forgotten.” I mean, my oldest kid is 10. He should at least SUSPECT.
aww let the kidlets keep believing, they’ll stopwhen they arereadyto let go
aww let the kidlets keep believing, they’ll stopwhen they arereadyto let go
I was being very un-green on St. Patty’s day – not only did I totally neglect to wear green, I flew on an airplane (and consumed lots and lots of fossil fuel). Oh, well. I kind of forgot it was St. Patrick’s day all around, in general, what with the traveling with 2 small children while 6 months pregnant thing… (-:
Yay you for being green! I think that is fantastic, and so much better to ACT.
And your daughter – how incredibly sweet!! I love that she both “saw” and “was” a leprechaun! (-: I bet you just wanted to hug her. Love it!
I wish I’d had a kindergarten teacher like that!
Gree pee in the toilets….gotta love it