A lot of this stuff is minutiae but, really, life is composed of little moments…

This past weekend was really nice. Albeit I was so sour on Friday night, I felt better as the weekend progressed. I had some time to myself. I watched Society of the Snow and am on the 4th and last episode of Working: What We Do All Day series created (?) and narrated by Barack Obama. These series reminded me of Nickel and Dimed classic by Barbara Ehrenreich. The series is interesting but is falling a bit flat for me.

Saturday… Gymnastics for both kids, then a play date for R at his friend’s house (which happen also to be our next door neighbor). While R was at play date, I brought L to her piano lesson. Placed a grocery order online, L’s friends came over to play. Spent most of her playdate outside. I started on corned beef and cabbage. The house smelled amazing. Put on some Irish dance music, was doing the jig (my own, terrible, amateur version) in the kitchen. T was creating a leprechaun trap with the kids out of an old Amazon box.

The trap did capture a leprechaun (we have evidence: green foot prints in the morning) but he escaped, leaving some candy behind. Such a trickster!

On Sunday, we realized we had a leak in the downstairs bathroom. Not good for our water bill or house feng shui. T spent about three hours fixing that, and I took the kids out of the house and into the reservation. The weather was delightful and we spent 1.5 hours hiking and throwing rocks into the river. I just love that place. The sink is no longer leaking, yay! Upon getting home and after lunch, we watched Riverdance on Netflix – a good family animated film for St. Patrick’s day.

An absolute highlight of the weekend was the Trinity Irish Dance company performance at NJPAC in Newark with L on Sunday night. I probably enjoyed it more than her but, holy moly, those dancers are talented. You just can’t help but bounce in your seat, and clap, and stomp your feet.

We made a mommy and me date out of it! Drove to Newark at 5pm, went out to dinner at Dutch’s Restaurant (inside the Tryp Hotel) next door to NJPAC. I loved the decor and the blue and pink lighting. We had ceviche, Baba Ganush and olive board, and pasta and meat balls. Also, dessert and hot tea. A couple next to us said “this is the cutest dinner we’ve ever seen!” as they were walking out. And it really was so wonderful to have this experience with my oldest kiddo.

The only down side was the cost of this whole evening: $120 for tickets, $28 for garage parking at Newark, and $100 for dinner. Also, the event had an intermission, and finished quite late. We were home at around 9:30, and L was so, so tired. So to bed she went.

Ultimately, I am proud of myself to go out on a Sunday night because, as you all know, I am an introvert, and Sunday nights (or, most nights) are for reflecting, reading, getting ready for the upcoming week, and crawling into bed at 7PM. BUT- this was an Irish dance performance on St. Patrick’s Day so an exception was made.