St. Patty's Day Parade

The Sunday before St. Patrick's Day brings the Philadelphia St. Patrick's Day Parade, and after having such a great time last year marching with the Notre Dame Club of Philadelphia, we decided to join in the fun once again.  The boys took the train into the city with Daddy so that I could drive separately after singing at church. One was ready for a nap, the other was ready to party.  Can you guess which was which?

A friend of mine at work has a little knitting shop on Etsy and offered to make us lepruchan beards for the holiday.  They were so soft and funny!

Joergen totally refused to wear his... maybe next year!

When we found our line-up spot, we were excited to see that we were right next to both Cathleen's Irish dancing school AND the Sons and Daughters of Derry!  What luck!

The parade was once again very s-l-o-w to get going, so we had to wait for a couple of hours in line before it was our turn to move.  So, we found ways to keep occupied!  Joergen busied himself by running from the sidewalk to the street and back again about a hundred times.

The Alumni band entertained us with some tunes:

... and the drummer even gave Liam a lesson:

Finally it was time to step off!

Remember when I said one was ready for a nap?  :)

Right from the start, Liam and Brighid took their jobs of passing out beads and greeting the parade watchers seriously!  They did an awesome job.

And sometimes, Liam would socialize a little too long with the crowd and have to run to catch back up with us!

Unprompted, he walked up to a police officer along the parade route, wished him a Happy St. Patrick's Day, and gave him some beads.  I think it made his day!

He also found a dog along the parade route that was as big as he was:

Rounding up to the Ben Franklin Parkway:

As we got onto the Parkway, all of the sudden our sleepy Joergen caught his second wind, hopped out of the stroller, and got his march on.

And just like his big brother, he started greeting the crowd and wishing all a Happy St. Patrick's Day.  It was too cute!

Our group approaching the stage area.  Last year they cut to a commercial just as we arrived.  Would we make it on this year?

We made it!  Check us out here.  We are in the 3:00-4:00 pm segment, right at the 19 minute mark.

After the parade, we were stopped by Maria Papadakis, a reporter from Philly.com, who was doing a video segment on the parade for the website.  She interviewed the ND Club with our Liam standing proudly next to her:

After the segment when everyone was leaving, Liam walked up to the reporter and said, "Happy St. Patrick's Day!", and she loved it so much she asked if he would mind saying it again for the camera.  Would he mind?  Have you met Liam?

You can watch the Philly.com segment here.  Our group is interviewed around the 1 minute mark, and make sure you watch right at the very end!

Liam even made it into the Twitterverse when the reporter tweeted about him later that week:

#liamfuturestar?

St. Patrick's Day itself was much, much calmer in comparison...

We had leprachaun milk and green pancakes for breakfast, then off to church where Liam wore that same green ND t-shirt he had worn to the parade to church, with a clip-on tie and blazer-- on his insistance. We had our traditional corned beef and cabbage that evening and a couple of pints of Guiness for mommy and daddy.  All in all, a pretty perfect day.  Feeling blessed and lucky!