Trendy Mommies

I feel bad. While my kids and I did wear green yesterday, we were so busy that we did not celebrate Saint Patty’s Day the way it should be celebrated!  Or should I say, they kept reminding me about putting their shoes by the door so they could get their chocolate treats day.  How do they hear about these things? Is that really a tradition?  I know about wearing green and wearing a shamrock but green food? I did love seeing the green bagels when I ran to grab us breakfast sandwiches in the morning and my husband did stop at a local bar for corned beef and cabbage, but no parade for us or Irish songs.

Today is a great celebration for us as we celebrate my dad’s 85th birthday! My sister told me yesterday he was to be a Saint Patty’s day baby but my grandmother didn’t seem to mind he came a day late (she was Italian, born in Italy, his dad’s family was from Scotland as was my mother’s father. It was my mother’s side – her mother’s mother that was Irish – are you still following?) I know everyone is a wee bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day!  Anyway… my kids get to see grandpa, celebrate with a big turkey pie (more on turkey pie Monday in another blog post) and of course have a nice cake to celebrate!  Our family tradition we started a few years ago with the sister’s birthdays is we take each other out to lunch and the person’s who’s birthday it is gets to pick the place.  Last week the four sisters got together to take my dad out for lunch. He loves this tradition! What are you holiday/family traditions?

Last week I wrote about how baby showers have changed and this past weekend I went to a wedding and the whole experience was wonderful and just a great time for all of us (yes, the kids were invited and yes, they were well behaved and had a great time as well) Here are some of the things that were quite different than when we got married (almost 16 years ago)

1.  We were welcomed to our hotel room with gift bags! Yes, the kids received them too. Most of the people from our wedding were not from out of town but this nice touch really made my kids feel welcome.  We stayed at the Cranwell Resort and Spa and it was grand!  The wedding was here too and it was truly a destination!

2. Not only was the cake outstanding but chocolate seemed to be a theme. They had an after party after the reception but it was too late for us but the mother of the bride gave my girls a sweet present of S’mores and chocolate wrapped up so they felt like they didn’t miss out.  The cake was from Chocolate Springs Cafe in Lenox and we visited there and bought some chocolate! It was gone in 20 minutes and tasted so good. It was THE best chocolate I have had in a long time!

3.  Flip Flops – I know this has been a trend for a while but not when I got married. There was a basket of flip flops available when our feet started to hurt from all the dancing. Very nice touch.

4.  Brunch the next day – the kids really enjoyed the brunch buffet with the make your own omelet station and we really enjoyed the fresh squeezed orange juice.

5.  Finally the one thing that seemed to change is that we were the old group! lol! Everyone was so young!

I recently went to two baby showers within the last month. Both my husband’s friends’ wives were having little ones. (finally!)  The fun certainly has changed!  Both were very fun but I don’t remember playing games and getting prizes when my friends were having showers. At the first one it was co-ed and there was a game of Pictionary to start off the festivities. It was men against the women and we had to draw baby items – that was a riot! The other shower consisted of adorable games of guessing what baby items were in the paper bag or what type of baby food was in the jar (people actually tasted it!) But my favorite game was a take on the newlywed game in which the couple had to guess questions about the pregnancy. It was so much fun. Everyone left with a prize too!