The kids are holding the snakes they made this morning, I'll explain later.
We started off the day in traditional Cotter fashion, as in Kevin did this as a little boy, with green pancakes and milk. Because Kevin is a pancake master he made them in the shape of shamrocks.
The leprechaun says "Top o' the mornin' to ya", the flowers are fake and the book is sorta heretical, but doesn't the display look nice? One day I'll actually buy the Tomie dePaola book on St. Patrick instead of grabbing what's left at the library.
I've never shared Kevin's pancake secret, but I think I will today. It's the pancake pen by William and Sonoma. The man has made a pancake of a monkey swinging on a branch holding a banana. Yes, it's that awesome.
Skeptical, still waking up Pal, shared his glass of green milk with the camera.
And for the adults...
There's actually no Bailey's in them, the cups are just cool.
Now on to the snakes. Irish tradition says that St. Patrick drove all of the snakes out of Ireland, so we made our own snakes to drive out of our house because I didn't want to do that with real ones.
It's a green half sheet of paper cut into a spiral with googley eyes, nothin' to it.
While the kids took their nap I hid them throughout the house and when they woke up they ran around finding snakes. They were supposed to drive them out of the house, but instead they kept hiding them for each other.
Tonight we used our felt board to teach another Irish tradition about St. Patrick, his use of the shamrock. It is said that St. Patrick taught that the Trinity is one in three persons, just like a shamrock is one plant with three leaves. The pattern and idea comes from the preschool book Little Saints.
We ended the day reading a portion of the Breastplate of St. Patrick to the kids.
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
In the full version there is a line that says "Christ in the poop".
It's referring to the poop deck of a ship, HA!
May the road rise to meet you...
