St. Paddy's Lunch, P.I.F, & Birdhouses!

Good Morning, I sure hope everyone remembered to set the clocks ahead! I ran around last night changing them before I went to bed. I was pooped last night. We had a full day. My good friend Johanna was coming over with her three daughters, the youngest only 4 months old, and we had a St. Patrick's themed lunch that was very fun. I know I was supposed to take a bunch of pictures, and I'm usually good at that, but unfortunately once she came, I never got to! I only took a photo of my table decorations! :( We had a nice time ~~Caitlin loves to play with her daughter Olivia who is 5, and Lilah who is 3 and seeing baby Ella was such a joy. I haven't held a new baby sine Caitlin was that size, and I was melting. The day went from food, to fun back to food (naturally) and that little Ella so I never got to photograph our day!

On to the luncheon, I made tea -sized corned beef sandwiches, potato salad, a big salad, a cheese platter and other goodies the kids love like mozzarella sticks, hash brown patties and chicken nuggets. We had Irish soda bread, shamrock cookies, cupcakes....and more. Caitlin was so happy to give her friend's our little favor. It was a leprechaun pipe filled with chocolate gold coins, a necklace and a green "glo" bracelet. We had a really nice time~Jo is one of those gals that you chat the whole afternoon away with and then wish she'd stay for dinner! Caitlin loved playing with her friends, and I also think she enjoyed being an "older" sister to Lilah. Next party up is our annual "Easter Egg Coloring Party" on Holy Thursday. That we do with our neighbors who live behind us and this year we''ll be including Johanna and her three girls.

So I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Cat Nap Primitives, and she posted about Pay It Forward. She saw this idea on another blog and I want to pass this on as well as I believe it's a truly great and fun thing to do. Now listen closely and hopefully you will participate as well:

When something good happens to you, turn around and pass the goodness on to another. But instead of paying it "back", pay it "forward" to the NEXT person. Like a kindness chain. Keep it going. Now I think all of us love getting surprises in the mail, I know I do, so this is the thing--The first five who comment on my blog, will receive a little gift. You must send me your address of course and I will send you a little gift. In return, you must write a blog post explaining "Pay It Forward" and send goodies to your first five posters. You are now "Paying it Forward". Now you don't have to send everything out immediately. There's no pressure here. Over the next couple of months, if you'd like. As Gina said, we want this to be a joyful experience.

I've been painting birdhouses for a display I would like to do on my porch for the Spring/Summer. I finished the barn the other night and have another drying. I had previously done the other two. One has black capped chickadees (a family favorite bird), and the other is sunflower themed---one of my favorite flowers. I painted them, then used rub on transfers. I love sunflowers so much. They always look like such happy flowers, and I love how they look in country decorating. I just have to spray sealant on them, and they are good to go on the porch. I'm waiting to go back to Lancaster to pick up this black wrought iron shelf that I plan to display my birdhouses on. It will be a perfect size cause it's kind of a "tower"shape and will fit nicely in the corner of my porch; not obstructing my chairs.

I guess that's it for me. Bill has two business appointments this Sunday morning to get to and then he'll be back before lunch, and we're heading to the Hicks Nursery Garden & Flower Show. I'll have some nice photos to post from that, I'm sure! Enjoy your day!