St. Patrick's Fail...Thanks, Pinterest.

St. Patrick's Day was two days ago. We did the usual stuff...both kids wore green Irish themed shirts, I had corned beef going in the crock pot (to have with our mashed taters and roasted brussel sprouts-oh and white sauce to go over the corned beef. Which, judging by my FB feed, Americans are completely clueless about. I guess it's a mostly Australian thing???) and even decided to treat Alex, hubby and myself to a Shamrock shake. Small for me. Because you know...that's like half my daily caloric intake right there-packed into green, thick, creamy gluttony. We'll ignore how I had like three a week last year while pregnant. Anyway. I thought I was doing well with the whole St. Pat's thing. I even bought Alex a bunch of boxes of Lucky Charms Rice Krispie treats to bring into school for her party. We were good.

Except that we weren't. Apparently, I missed the memo that St. Paddy's day is now like the new Easter/Christmas. Uhhhh-parently, a mischievous, spritely little leprechaun is supposed to sneak (invade) into your home and do quirky little things like leave green foot prints all over the place, pee green in the toilet and leave chocolat gold coins in its wake. This little bastard leprechaun is supposed to engage in all sorts of good-natured high-jinx. Oh what fun!

So naturally, when I picked up Alex from school, she wanted to know WHY the leprechaun didn't come to our house! He came to Johnny's house and to Brielle's house and to Ashlynn's house...He even came to her school! After all, there were even foot prints on the walls and chairs to prove it! The leprecaun left all the kids at school a green coin too. BUT..Brielle and Ashlynn got gold, CHOCOLATE coins AND Rachel's leprechaun left them GREEN milk.

"So where was OUR leprechaun, mommy?" (It also didn't help that I was pulling Alex out of her school-and therefore out of her party-early for a doctor's appointment. And NOT only any doctor's appointment...but one where she had to get three shots...thanks in part to getting bit by a friend's dog over the weekend...another story).

And that's when I realized I missed the boat. St. Paddy's day is now..."a thing". It's bigger and better than ever. So when did this happen? I don't think I even wore green on St. Pat's day when I was a kid???

But I think you Pinterest savy moms know that Pinterest is to blame. Thanks for giving more "with-it" parents cute ideas for how to make the day extra fun and special and memorable. Those seeds of creativity were sewn in parents' minds all over and a legion of mini red-headed dudes were now responsible for all kinds of crazy hijinks in homes across America...except ours.

So now I know. Memo received. St. Pat's day is a thing. Next year I will be ready for you.

Side note...I wonder if showing her the movie "Leprechaun" would squelch her yearning for a visiting leprechaun? Ok. Bad idea...