People from one country observing a holiday from another country, while in a third country

Can't ignore our Irish heritage, no matter where we are! 

Yesterday we talked about the true story of St. Patrick, which we always love, and so the kids were eager to observe the day today.  (Rayna, who may have missed the main point, just kept asking, "Do we eat pancakes on St. Patrick's Day?"  So, we did.)

 In addition, some of us dressed in green -- one of us, head-to-toe --

 ... and some of us couldn't find matches to our socks (per usual), but wore at least one green one!

 Some of us danced an Irish jig,

 ...and one of us gave her little brother some green freckles with a marker.

 Pete was speaking at a conference for most of the day, so we had some free time on our hands.  In keeping with our making-breads-from-different European-countries tradition this semester, we made an adaptation of Irish Soda Bread... which was really more like cinnamon-raisin bread by the time I finished adapting.

Then Rayna and I went for a walk around the block to look for some green items.  We found quite a few!  Green fences...

 ...green trash can and roof:

 ...even one apartment painted green by some expressive individual (in the center below)...

 .... and a whole green house.

We haven't seen any green beer here, or leperchauns for that matter, but we felt pretty festive anyway. 

(Although I must admit I was too tired to make the Irish dinner I had planned for tonight --with cabbage and potatoes, which sounds an awful lot like a traditional Moldovan dish -- so we had leftovers.  Irish dinner for tomorrow!)