st. patty's day party 2012

Once again Dad and Pete turned the Burch carport into a pub for St. Patty's Day.  

This year it was named after a certain someone.

The Real Gus O'Connor's Pub in Doolin, Ireland and Our Version in Phoenix, AZ

The Namesake

The Taber-Burch-Weisse Clan

Some Irish lasses enjoying some green beer

In the Pub

Our faithful Bartender Baabee with some under age men at the bar.

Gus with his favorite Uncle... no offense to the others, it is just true.

 Gus got a turn in the photo wall next to his ancestors.

I couldn't keep Gus out from behind the bar.  He really loved the Keg ice.

And Finn really loved this party mix I made.
It was more complicated then I thought, but really tasty, so if you are interested you can find the recipe here.

I made the discovery that you cannot put green liquid food coloring into white chocolate or it hardens. I used what I "ruined" to make the green shamrocks below and I also made Shamrock Pretzels Cookies with Green sprinkles. Thanks Pinterest for the inspiration.  This was literally my only creative effort into this party so don't give me much credit on that front.

We were very happy to see our good friends the Neffs at the party and to hear they are moving back to the Calle Redonda neighborhood. These girls were my flower girls almost 6 years ago and, oh my, have they gotten bigger.  They are going to have to be my babysitters now.  They took turns chasing Gus around at the party for me, and as you can see he was a fan of both Ellie and Lily.

I didn't get to see that much of the cousins at the party because they were always running somewhere, but Jack took a break to pose with Gus because he is my favorite 9 year old in the world!

Zach and I took turns chasing Gus around because he was a mad man of happy energy.

We frequently had to keep him from walking right in the middle of the cornhole games and trying to steal the bags.

Jimmy was usually just running by me in a blur on his way from one bouncy house to the next.

This dinosaur themed one was a big hit, and Jimmy is still talking about it and asking if they will get the same one next year.

He also was sporting his Irish Viking/Dragon/Dinosaur hat that he is very fond of.

I was happy we got some time in there with Gus before it got really crazy and kids started getting split lips and worse.

Gus loves dogs a lot right now ("oof, oof" as he says) so he was very excited to meet this guy, who was at least five times his size.

There was good music all day, but when the sun started going down the real band came out.

Matt Thornton and company kept people dancing for quite awhile.

Zach moved from Cornhole to Darts.

Gus got snuggly in the "Snug"

We finally got my family rounded up to get in the photo wall.

(note to self: next year do this when the lighting is better, and do something at least a little bit clever or funny.)

Towards the end of the night my dad got "warmed-up enough" to start singing himself.  I missed his rendition of "Courtin' in the Kitchen" (Booooo! to everyone in my family for not getting me), but I did catch a couple other ones he did with Alex Burch.  He was fantastic, in my humble opinion.

There may or may not have been some more craziness past this point in the evening, but I feel it is my familial duty to not eleborate.  I will say that I got my foot landed on by the entire weight of Luke Speier.  I am not limping anymore, but was for a few days after.  It was a great time once again, and I am so happy that I have such a wonderful family who can put this all together.  I feel like I do so little and just get to enjoy it.  Erin, you were greatly missed this year, and of course my Mom is greatly missed every year.  She threw some great parties in her time, and I'm sure she was looking down on this one fondly.  

st. patty's day breakfast

We had another great St. Patrick's Day this year.  More pictures to come on the big party, but I thought I would post these couple pictures from our fun breakfast just so I can get something accomplished.  Growing up, I loved waking up in the morning on a holiday to find something fun my mom had set up while we were sleeping.  My mom loved St. Patrick's Day the most and always did stuff to make it special.  I decorated our dining room table with lots of green stuff including a breakfast of Lucky Charms and Green Milk (thanks Pinterest for the idea).  Jimmy was confused why I had decorated.  He told me the paper balloons were only supposed to be for birthdays.  Gus thought they were balls and wanted to play with them. So much for that. 

I was excited that General Mills issued a bunch of cereals in vintage style boxes that are from my childhood.  

We never really got to buy Lucky Charms, but I very much remember this box. 

first t-ball game

Jimmy just started playing t-ball with the St. Francis-Xavier Athletic Association.  He is on the Blue Jays and is very excited.  We managed to get on the same team as some of our good friends just to make it a little more fun.  He did great at his first practice:

Here are Leah, Pierce, and Jimmy at their first game:

Baabee came to be a spectator and help chase Gus around the field.
(Ball is one of his favorite words lately, and he very much wants to throw them onto the field)

Jimmy has actually done really well.  He hits the ball on the first swing almost every time.

Here are his buddies taking a few swings, too:

 

Jimmy also runs the bases like a champ.
He hasn't run to the wrong base once, which is more than I can say for some kids.

Fielding is a little bit trickier for all the kids since they all pretty much try to chase the ball and form a dog pile on top of it.  They are starting to get the hang of waiting until it comes their direction, and Jimmy has made some good plays throwing the ball to first base. 

I just had to include this picture below because, while it might look random, if you look closely you can see the laughter and goofy grins on the dads/coaches because the whole thing is pretty comical. 

( I also love Pierce's stretching moves.)

And of course, part of the fun is what you get to eat after the game is over.  

We have a whole season ahead of us, so let's hope it continues to go as well as it has so far.  

hubbard swim school

Jimmy recently took swim lessons at Hubbard Family Swim School.  He hadn't been in the pool since the end of the summer so I figured February would be a good time to get him swimming again so he doesn't forget everything he learned last summer.  He got right back in with no problems and  had a great time.  

 Of course, I didn't get great pictures because I was busy chasing Gus around.  

He was sad he didn't get lessons too.   

I managed to sneak a few through the window.

 Jimmy loved getting to go down the Frog slide at the end of each lesson.

The play area also was an exciting bonus and helped keep Gus entertained.

We would have loved to continue lessons, but we are starting T-ball now and I think one sport at a time is good for our schedule.