My lucky charm

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In keeping with her tradition of perfect white Christmases and other idyllic holiday happenings, this is what my little lucky charm and I found in the garden earlier this week.

I've been scouring clover patches since I was a little girl, and there it was, just staring me in the face. I was hardly even looking for it.

Miller and I were reminiscing earlier this morning about our last St. Patrick's Saturday. It was a good one, let me tell you. There was jigging, Guinness day drinking, many new friends made (whom we never saw again, of course), and much Irish merriment. I don't think it's terribly appropriate to party down the way we did back then currently, or once our kids are grown, so it's probably safe to say that was it for us as far as wild and crazy St. Patty's Saturdays go. A good last hurrah. This St. Patty's day was pretty tame by comparison. But by Eliza standards, we partied down. I can't remember the last time she passed out in the carseat twice in one day.

By the way, March in Austin is awesome.

(What are these trees? Anyone? Megs?)

The trees bloom seemingly overnight, those iconic bluebonnets pop out, the kite festival, St. Patrick's Day, Spring Break, the Rodeo, March Madness and of course, the beast that is SXSW (South by Southwest, or South By as we locals call it), which absolutely takes over the town. I am always torn between avoiding downtown entirely and getting out into the thick of it - the live music at every turn is one of the many reasons we love living here. Miller has a badge this year so he's been getting a good dose of the South By action, but Eliza and I had a rough end of the week so I'd opted to stay away from the family-friendly free day stuff.

Lizzy Lou hadn't seen much of her papa this week due to his needing to be at SXSW for work. She and I have been a little duo since Tuesday. She was glad to have him all to herself today.

So, what did we do? Post-naptime, we headed out to the convention center to Flatstock 33, a SXSW poster show I'd been wanting to go to. So cool! Fantastic prints by a range of great artists from all over the globe. We picked up a few and I'm excited to get them framed up.

Then we headed down to South Congress, which was the zoo we expected, but totally manageable. We had a delicious lunch at our favorite food trucks:

After lunch, we made our way down to SXSJ (South By San Jose), a laid-back free day concert that we try to attend at some point every year. There's hippies selling their wares, vintage boots for sale, beers, and, obviously, great live music. It's just easy and fun.

She was tapping her leg to the beat and loving every minute. A little Austin baby through and through.

So, after all the excitement, the poor little love passed out in the car on the way home, which always leads to the "should we just drive around until she wakes up? Or transfer her to the crib?" dilemma. We woke her up, and she did not appreciate our efforts to quickly put her back down at home. Aggh. This always happens when you have somewhere to be. In this case, her friend Hunter's birthday party. Remember him? He's her little boyfriend from the pumpkin patch:

So, we eventually just gave in, put her in the car and crossed our fingers. Can't win 'em all.

She was a little bleary-eyed, but rose to the occasion pretty well.

See her little eyes just barely opening? Pobrecita. A big day for her.

Especially since a lot of her besties/twin sisters were there.


This is the failed attempt at getting some of the babies in attendance in a picture together.

That would be a gorgeous natural mohawk miss PJ rocks.

Plus, there was green cake.

And sweet Hunter was dressed as a little leprechaun.

He was a little unsure about the whole thing. Angry leprechaun.

(but don't you love that kid next to him eyeing the cake?!)

It was such a fun day; I'm happily trading in my boozy St. Patrick's day card. I think that hangover at 30 would not be a pretty one anyhow. I'll take the trade off of baby birthdays, sunny outings with my two loves, and climbing into bed at a reasonable hour.



And I have to say, I feel pretty lucky this year.