St Patrick's Day Weekend

Just when I thought Winter was over (silly me it's not over till 2morrow the equin0x) we got hit with a St. Patrick's Day No'Easter Snowstorm which dumped 11 inches of heavy wet sleety snow upon us!

It didn't deter us however from joining 3,000 runners in Holyoke for the St. Patrick's Day 10K race. The streets were clear except for a few slushy puddles. We were the only stroller runners as far as we could tell. The course was 3 miles uphill and then 3 miles downhill through the streets of Holyoke lined with green wearing beer swilling spectators. It was a lot of fun. Ambiana and I came in just under an hour and Colleen was not too far behind at 1:02:45.

We crashed the after party at the Wherehouse, an old mill converted into banquet space, 4 floors of memorabilia relating to Holyoke and the canals and the mills with great old pictures and artifacts including the cockpit of a big old navy plane built right into the side of the building. There was macaroni, chowder, yogurt and ice cream for us runners and it was really yum!

The big Holyoke St Patrick's Day parade was on Sunday and we braved the chilly afternoon and walked to downtown Holyoke to watch it. They say the crowds were less because of the weather and it looked like the parade was a bit less too, it was really long and we weren't really impressed, not enough floats or clowns, too many dignitaries including John Kerry (remember him?)

We left the parade 2 hours into it with an hour to go and walked back over to the Wherehouse where our state senator was throwing a party, we had told Gaelen about the plane yesterday and thought he would like to play int it. He did. Upstairs they had more free food and cake and a bunch of Irish fiddlers fiddlin' away, they played Ambiana's favorite song for her upon request and she clapped, clapped clapped her hands right along with them!

Earlier in the week Colleen, Ambiana and I went to listen to a children's chorus at the South Hadley Family Center. Colleen and Ambiana joined them for one song, check out the video to hear them sing!!!


Click Play for Chorus footage and Ambiana standing up
and Gaelen in the plane!