Hanks in Town, Part 1: Dad's Birthday and St. Paddy's Day Celebrations!

On March 15th, we were privileged to get a visit from a few of the Westward living Hanks family members!

We started out the party by literally throwing a party for Grandpa Hanks' Birthday! During which, Grandpa had lots of help opening his presents and even got to enjoy some yummy German Chocolate Cake!

After cake, the girls got busy readying everyone for St. Patrick's Day. They started by painting EVERY ONE'S toe nails and fingernails GREEN! Even if it was against their will :)

Next came the temporary tattoos!

And Grandma even brought some green necklaces for everyone to wear. We tried to get a normal picture, but... alas!

Then right before bed, the girls planted green M&M seeds to see if leprechaun magic would change them into anything special by the morning.

Morning brought great excitement as the girls rushed down from their bedrooms to find...

LEPRECHAUN FOOTPRINTS!

And the leprechauns had used their magic to turn the M&M seeds into flower lollipops! Hooray!

The leprechauns even left some magic white dust that turned into green pudding when milk was added :) Needless to say, we were very grateful that Aunt Janna and Grandma knew so much about preparing for St. Patrick's Day so that we were able to see all that magic at work!

 

After we'd all calmed down from the magical excitement, we bundled up (because it was the coldest day I have ever experienced out here) and went downtown to see if the leprechauns had visited the river with their magic. It was a long cold walk, but luckily there were many hands to help keep the kids moving. Uncle Eric (who had also stopped by to visit for a few days while on business) even  carried Brooklyn on his shoulders much of the way...

But fighting against blasts of cold air and working out our shoulders was totally worth it! That river was GREEN and I'm so glad after 4 years of living here that we finally got to see it!

Happy (very late) St. Patrick's day to all!

To be continued...