St. Patty's Day

Our St. Patty's Day was probably very different than most... which is a good thing.  Ours started out by waking up pretty stinking early (we even had to wake the kids up, and that's saying something) and driving out to the east side of the state.  There, Gaetan went to all day capoeira workshops and I got to spend some QT with a good friend Ashley.

Baby Girl enjoying herself... she was just eating her foot, but she put it down before I could get a picture.

 The sun was in Duder's eyes and he wasn't thrilled about it, so I let him wear my sunglasses for a little bit...

Then he saw Lucy's hat, because the glasses kept falling off, so he gave that one a try... he may look like he wasn't amused, but he wore that for the rest of the trip. haha

We started out our girl time (with the kiddos, of course) by going to Ikea.  Not to browse, but just a quick purchase.  We finally had a little extra money so we could get Duder a twin size mattress for the bottom part of his bunk.  Oh man, was he excited to see that mattress... He looks so small on it, but he loves it!

After that, a good friend Pipoca (I guess her real name is DeAnna, but I don't think I've ever called her by that... mostly her capo name) took a study break to come to the farmer's market, Kerrytown and a cloth diapering store.  Now, I know that probably doesn't sound that exciting but it really is.  :)  Ashley doesn't have a car during the week, so to be able to run around and do some errands was really nice.  I always like farmer's markets... I didn't get anything this time, but usually the produce is so worth it being a little more expensive.  And you know it's local, so you're supporting that cause too!  Kerrytown is this cute little market right next to the farmer's market with a lot of fresh things, and a lot of items you wouldn't find in your ordinary grocery store.  It's a pretty happenin' place and the aisle were kinda small, so the double stroller had some difficulties at time, but it was good.  Ashley bought some delicious steak (which we had for lunch) and other various items for the rest of their grocery week.  I took this opportunity to get the kids a snack, since the steering through the aisles were a bit challenging.  Next, we hit up a cloth diaper store because I was almost out of detergent, and the place I have gotten all my cloth diapering needs doesn't ship anymore!  The store was amazing... and if I had more time then I probably would've browsed a little bit more.

The kids passed out in the car ride back and Duder actually stayed asleep once we got back to their place, and through the transfer from the car to the guest bedroom.  So it was just the girls for a little bit, hanging out, eating and being silly.  After lunch I did a little shopping through Ashley's closet and got some great comfy winter stuff (for next year) and she got to purge some stuff for donation.

Duder, zonked out in the guest bedroom

We also got to go on a great walk and just talk about whatever.  I think the most relaxing part about the visit was that we didn't have to be doing something to be enjoying ourselves.  Being neighbors for a few years we definitely got used to just hanging out while the other person did whatever, and it was good.  No pressure to entertain.  No putting out weird fronts.  Simple.  It was wonderful.

I had never tried laying Lucy back in the stroller, but she seemed to think it was comfortable enough and passed out during our walk.

And I'm sure that Gaetan had a lot of fun at the workshops with the boys.  :)  I'm glad that he got this break to do something that he likes to do, and I know that he loves his family, but everybody needs a break from that too.

So all in all we had a great day.  It was a bit of a long/late one, but totally worth it.  I just felt so refreshed at the end of it, even though I was beat dead tired.  Definitely miss not having them (Ashley and Sunil) around, but it just makes the times that we do get to hang out that much better.

JVG