Posts from — March 2011

The other day a friend came over for some chai and she chuckled at my pathetic orchid plant. My always-way-more-thoughtful-than-me sister* had brought the orchid along on my last visit, and it was quite beautiful. Was I intimidated, though? Yes. The orchid marketers tried to overcome my trepidation with a ginormous tag (still hanging) that insisted “Orchids are Easy!” followed by these directions:

An orchid’s success is as easy as A-B-C!

Always wait until the bark or moss is almost completely dry before watering.

Be sure to keep you Orchid out of direct sunlight.

Confidence that you will be successful! Orchids are easy to care for.

My immediate thought was, “How can these people stand to write something that so blatantly disregards the rules of parallelism?!? The ‘C’ needs to begin with an action word, not a noun!” This was particularly troubling because they could have gone with “Care for your orchids with confidence and you’ll be successful!” Really, it was just a little disappointing. Also, they offered additional directions on the flip side of the tag. Which, I thought, didn’t bode well. I mean, if they were so easy, why did they need a flip side with small-print directions?

I followed all directions precisely, yet the blooms fell, one by one. I guess, in retrospect, I didn’t follow C. But surely I couldn’t have killed my plant by my own lack of confidence. . . right?

The last flower has fallen to the tabletop.

So when my friend came over, I basically had a stick in a pot. With a big tag announcing how easy it was to grow my dead plant.

On the bright side, the pot itself is lovely, and it matches my living room to perfection.

Today J showed me a delightful craft that she’d made by putting plastic beads on a branch. But she needed some way to display it. Luckily I had a lovely plot, and, thanks to the rice-and-paper whites fiasco, I’ve got cute little ornamental stones.

Ta da! I offered to help J find more beads, but she was adamant that it already expressed her Artistic Vision.

*I thought about this later and realized “always-way-more-thoughtful-than-me” was not a very helpful description for those of you who might want to know which sister it was. Because, truly, there is a high standard set in my family, and I frequently fail to attain it. Anyhoo, I meant M.

How about this fabulous weather today? I hope you had a chance to play outside. We took our first bike ride of the season (with our beloved Trail-gator), which is always excellent. One stop on the trip was to Stewart’s for the 50-cent ice cream cones.  I’m sorry that I forgot to remind everyone! I’d forgotten, myself, until my kids arrived home from school and reminded me.

We also had our first spring swinging session. There was still too much snow for serious underdogging, but it was excellent, anyway. There was dramatic dance on the front lawn, some scootering about, and an annual favorite: we’re discovering the many toys that were accidentally buried under the snow over the winter.

Tomorrow’s full of excitement, too, with an early-morning assembly to attend and the gala learning fair in the evening. Yes, M is done, and quite pleased with herself. Here’s what I’ve found for this weekend:

All Weekend:

• Disney’s The Lion King concludes at Proctors.
• The Junior League’s American Girl Fashion Show is on Friday night and twice on Saturday. Tickets are $35.  See the TU’s Parent to Parent blog for details.
• Shenendehowa High School’s musical, Babes in Arms, is playing  through the weekend at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $12.
• You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown is playing on both Saturday & Sunday at Steamer 10 Theatre. Tickets are $12 at the door, or get the 10-ticket Steamer 10 Pass for $90.

Charlie Brown at Steamer 10

Evening of Friday, March 18th:

• It’s Art Night Schenectady from 5-9 pm.
  

Saturday, March 19th:

• From 8:30-10:30 am, the Empire State Aerosciences Museum is hosting a Pancake Breakfast. Apparently they do this on the third Saturday of each month, but I’d never noticed it before. $5/adult, $3/kids ages 5-8.
• The Children’s Museum at Saratoga is having a Barefoot Books sale. I love Barefoot Books.
• Learn about Backyard Maple Sugaring from 10 am until noon at Grafton Lakes State Park. It’s $2/person, $5/family.
• At 11 am, there’s a special reading of A Very Hungry Caterpillar at the Niskayuna Barnes & Noble. Stories, craft, food, all led by the lovely Miss Pam. In fact, if you go, please tell her that I sent you and that I called her “the lovely Miss Pam”. Then offer to buy her a chai. It’s also at the Colonie Center Barnes & Noble.
• There’s a Children’s Star Show at 11 am at Henry Hudson Planetarium in Albany. It’s $3/person.
• Kids 6 and under and their families can enjoy Saturday Stories at 11 am at the Bethlehem Public Library.
• From 11 am until noon it’s Little Wonders of Science: Cat in the Hat There’s No Place Like Space at the Schenectady Museum. It’s free with admission, but call ahead to reserve a place and a free book to take home.
• From 1-4 pm, it’s Family Fun Day at the New York State Museum. Arts and crafts, plus a special performance of Jack and the Beanstalk by Opera to Go at 2 pm–but you should get there a little early. They are super-talented and fun.
• They’re Maple Sugaring at 1 pm at Up Yonda Farm. It’s $4/person.
• From 1:30-3:30 pm, it’s a Maple Sugar Open House at Five Rivers. Hands-on activities and tastings.
• There’s a Full Moon Snowshoe Hike scheduled for 6-8 pm at Moreau Lake State Park. $2/person.  Call to check conditions.
• The Albany All Stars are having a Roller Derby Bout at the Washington Avenue Armory at 7 pm. $12/adult tickets at the door, $4/child.

Sunday, March 20th:

• Again, it’s a drive, but the Farmers’ Market in Cooperstown has another Sugaring Off Sunday from 8:30 am until 2 pm.
• At 2 pm, there’s a dramatic monologue by Mary Brown, Abolitionist at Pruyn House in Colonie.
• There’s A Little Sunday Music at 2 pm at the Bethlehem Public Library.
• Take a Discovery Hike at 2 pm at Albany Pine Bush. It’s $2/person, $5/family.

As I was washing dinner dishes, M (who, after wavering, is not a believer at all anymore) said to me, “I hope the–ahem!–leprechauns come to our house tonight and make some sort of mischief like turning our toilet water green.”

I sighed over the pan I was scrubbing. “I just don’t see that happening, M. Seriously, have we ever had leprechauns visit our house?”

“But Mooooooom,” she wheedled with a smirk. “You have to encourage J to belieeeeeeve. She’s not going to be young much longer.”

Well, okay. Point taken. But I can only take responsibility for so many magical creatures. Why, just last night, I had to hunt for a golden dollar and  come up with a clever way to answer J’s request for information about what exactly happens to all of those teeth. (T.F. answered, “We’re not allowed to tell what we do with our tooth harvest, but it does involve magic.” T.F. also writes very, very small, with curlicues, when she’s not chastising someone angrily.)

So am I going to hide a pot of chocolate golden dollars or leave a trail of green glitter on the floor? Ummm, no.  Stop the madness, people! Seriously,  do you ever look at Family Fun and think, God I long for the days when mothers just shooed kids out of the house to go play instead of doing endless freaking enrichment activities? When I was a kid, St. Patrick’s Day was like a punishment. People tried to pinch you and then your mom would make corned beef and cabbage for dinner.

Okay, I don’t mean to have such a bad attitude. I love some crafty, cooking fun. It’s just that, then I tucked J into bed, and she asked, “So is this the night that leprechauns come out and roam the earth?”  And all I could think was, really? When did this become another holiday that involves scheming after bedtime? Because after bedtime, I am done. I need  to clock out and vegetate, thank you. And I know, I know. How hard would it be to dye the toilet? But why would leprechauns suddenly dye our toilet? There would have to be some sort of context. And then I’d be setting a new precedent, and next thing you know I’d have to come up with something clever and green every year. No. I won’t do it.

Apparently J’s class made leprechaun traps at school, and J’s particularly thrilled because her group decided to go with her “rainbow slide to nowhere, sucka!” design. She’s convinced that a leprechaun, gold, and glory will be waiting for her in the kindergarten classroom tomorrow morning.

Well, I don’t know about that, but we did, at least, determine that each girl has somethin’ clean and green to wear. As is her custom for special occasions, J laid out her clothes.

She might not acquire any gold, but at least she’ll be stylish.

Meanwhile, in the time I took to write this post, I could have dyed some toilets and crafted up some St. Patrick’s Day themed crap.

I have to wake up early for a 7:30 am appointment, plus I’m just not feeling all bloggy tonight, so here are some random links that you might enjoy.

I wrote about a bunch of old ads I found in my attic at All Over Albany. I think they’re pretty funny.

Malta Mama reminds us that it’s the Pass it On Sale this week. Folks, I’m just not much of a shopper, so I tend to forget about these things. Even when clever readers like Claire tell me about them! Sorry.

I was just talking about geeky history books, but Kristi from On the Edge is looking for light chick flicks, so if you need recommendations, check the comments.

Albany Kid recently had a post about area Moms Clubs, and more recently, she put together a list of local blogs.

If you get all mad when Facebook starts censoring breastfeeding pictures, here’s a video on feminism and covering up I saw on GeekMom. And poke around more and you’ll find, like, a jillion posts about pi from yesterday (3/14, remember? they don’t call themselves Geek Moms for nothing). Oh! And GeekMom also told me about Dear Teen Me, where young adult authors write letters to their teen selves.

At dinner tonight, 3 out of 4 members of the family love-love-loved the main dish. Alas, J wouldn’t even taste a smidgen. Her loss. She ended up eating bread and butter and grapes for dinner. You can’t win them all.

So, I had food on my mind, and then I manipulated M into eating asparagus by mentioning casually that it would make her pee smell different. Yes, I know: it’s inappropriate table-talk. But it got the job done.

Anyway, it all made me think about methods for getting children to eat vegetables. In the grand scheme of all American children in 2011, I’d say that my kids are pretty good eaters. They’re not super-stellar, but usually they’ll try things, and they eat several vegetables. I give a lot of credit to Ellyn Satter‘s advice on feeding kids, which I’ve said before. If you’re trying to get your kids to eat vegetables, here are some techniques I’ve used that have worked for me.  And actually, they work for grown-ups, too.

No value judgments

One of Ellyn Satter’s big pieces of advice is not to say things like “You have to eat two bites of peas before you can have dessert.” Because that sends the message to kids that they have to go through the chore of the yucky, stinky peas in order to get the valuable reward of dessert. If you’re early enough in parenting to follow this advice, it works pretty darn well. My favorite example is the time when M was 5 and J was 2. They asked for dessert and I answered honestly that we didn’t have any. They went into the kitchen and soon I heard them laughing uproariously. They had outsmarted me, found dessert, and started eating. What was the dessert? Carrots. I conceded defeat.

Another thing along these lines is that even when we’ve served dessert, I usually leave the vegetables on the table. My kids have eaten a bowl of ice cream after dinner and then gone back to snacking on broccoli while we chatted after dinner.

Modeling

Even though I do an Academy Award-worthy job of acting like I don’t care if they’re eating ice cream or broccoli, I just rave about my vegetables. Once I happened to be eating salad while J was eating chocolate. J said, “I know you like salad much more than chocolate.” I told her that I liked both, but that a big bowl of salad made me feel good, while a big bowl of chocolate would give me a tummy ache. I didn’t say that I exclaim over delightful salads in her presence while furtively scarfing down my favorite chocolate chips when she’s out of the room. That’s my little secret. Or, you know, now it’s our little secret.

Frozen Vegetables

My kids love frozen vegetables directly from the freezer. Peas, carrots, corn–they somehow perform a magic spell as long as they’re still Popsiclesque. On more than one occasion I’ve said this at a playgroup: mothers expressed disbelief, we’d trot to the freezer, break open a bag, and the majority of the children would start chowing down.

Presentation & Novelty

I think that part of the frozen attraction is its sheer novelty. It works in other ways, too. Artichokes are such an interesting vegetable to eat that my kids instantly wanted to try them. They shun salad, but they’ll both use lettuce as a wrapper when we make our special Asian burgers. Come to think of it, the side dish to that is cucumbers, carrots, & red pepper strips that have been blanched in boiling water with some rice vinegar and sugar. My kids just like variety. For carrots, sometimes I put out the big ones, green tops and all; other times I’ll cut sticks or put out the baby-cuts; or I might shred them extra fine, like in our spring rolls, which is the only way that I can eat raw carrots without gagging, myself.

Timing and Availability

We have some form of cut-up or easy-eat vegetable available always, usually in a little bowl in the fridge that’s pulled out for mealtimes. Our biggest hits are carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas. When our little friend who likes red peppers comes over I always have pepper strips, because my kids won’t eat them and so I try to use the peer pressure. When I set the table for dinner, I always put the veggies out first. Then my hungry children will eat them while they wait for the other stuff. Generally speaking, my kids aren’t allowed to eat in the living room at all unless it’s popcorn on a movie night. But I’ll make an exception for vegetables, explaining that they’re neater (because I’m still trying to act all neutral about the food) than, say, crackers or chips.

Gateway Drugs

Plenty of parents have luck with the gateway drugs of butter, cheese, and ranch dip. Actually, only butter works at our house. It’s why J is hooked on artichokes (butter + lemon juice + garlic salt = J’s version of nectar), and it’s the only way I ever managed to like carrots at all (by boiling the hell out of them, then caramelizing them in sugar and butter. Strangely, my daughters both turn up their noses at this candy-like version).

Flat-out Deception

I’m not above it. Most notably, there are my fabulous berry & spinach smoothies. When I became overwhelmed with zucchini and yellow squash during CSA season, I shredded tons of it and stored a bunch in the freezer, and then I figured that I could try sneaking some into my tomato sauce the next time I had pasta. Guess what? Everyone thought that the sauce was better than usual! Woo, hoo!  I’ve also made chocolate cupcakes with beets in them, and my children were eating them happily until Cute W, for reasons unknown, decided to tell them about the secret ingredient.

Eliminate the Texture Issue

My kids will avoid chunky tomato sauce, but crushed tomatoes or a smooth sauce are just fine. Pretty much every kid in my extended family also loves our traditional pureed potato leek soup, which we make with an immersion blender. We love our immersion blender. These days I’ll often blend some of our vegetable soups because the kids might avoid the vegetables, but they’ll eat the broth without noticing if it’s a little thicker with vegetables. I sometimes have texture issues myself, like with my recent eggplant dip. Sometimes it works the other way, too. For a while M became weirded-out by guacamole, so we switched to sliced avocado for a while.

Gardening & CSAs

Kids are more likely to eat foods if they help raise them. I talked last year about gardening with kids, and some CSAs let kids participate. Plus, of course, the produce is better. Sometimes for fun we have a contest between the grocery store and the farmers’ market produce.

Yes to Produce Policy

Generally, if my kids request any kind of produce, I’ll buy it. Sometimes I’ll even ask if they want to pick out anything in the produce section or at the farmers’ market. But I specify that whatever they choose can’t be wrapped (see, there I go avoiding saying “no cookies”). Otherwise they’ll absolutely pick out a Dutch Dessert. Because they’re smart girls. And there’s also a limit on overpriced fresh berries.  Of course,  I completely love both of these items myself. If  money and calories were no object, I’d totally throw a big pile of fresh raspberries on an enormous chocolate tart.

Those are some of our most clever vegetable techniques. But we’ll also have entire days go by in which my children will eat no vegetables whatsoever. And that’s part of why I love Ellyn Satter, too. Because according to her, if I just offer the good stuff, my job is done. Which I try to remember on the days when they turn up their noses at everything. But seriously, there’s nothing like children eating vegetables happily to make a gal feel like Super Awesome Mama. If I could get my children to eat red pepper strips while M coaches J on her reading, I think I might actually levitate.

Have any good methods or recipes, anybody?

I ran a quick errand today. After 5 pm. Wearing only a sweater. And I didn’t have to turn the car’s headlights on. Yippee!

Okay, it seems like sort of a slow week, but if you’re new to the blog, you should know that there are also regularly scheduled events on the What About TODAY? page.

Here’s what I’ve found for this week.

All Week:

• Disney’s The Lion King continues at Proctors.

Monday, March 14th:

• From 10 am until 12:30 pm, it’s Family Place Workshop at the East Greenbush Public Library.  It’s a free program for caregivers and their children ages 18 months to 3 years. Pre-register.
  

Tuesday, March 15th:

• From 11 am to 2 pm it’s a “moderate” Red Oak Ridge Snowshoe at Moreau Lake. Call to check conditions. It’s $2/person. There are several scheduled snow shoe hikes at Moreau Lake, but so many are long that I’m not listing them all in the post. Check here if you’d like to go on another day.
• There’s a free, 45-minute concert of Irish music at noon at St. Paul’s Church in Troy.
• Drop into the Albany Public Library at 4 pm to Make a Musical Instrument from recycled material.
• The Times Union and the College of St. Rose are hosting an event for Parents on Cyber-Bullying from 7-8:30 pm at Saint Rose. It’s free, although it’s a good idea to register. There’s more information from the TU’s Parent to Parent blog.

Wednesday, March 16th:

• At 10 am, it’s a Preschool Storytime at the Rensselaer County Historical Society. The theme is St. Patrick’s Day. Call to register, and it’s $5/person.
• Kids ages 6 and up can make Paste Paper with Ellen Crane at the Albany Art Room from 3:30-4:30 pm. It’s just the regular open studio price of $8/hour, but contact them to ensure they have enough materials.
• From 3:30-4:30 it’s the Cooking Around the World program at the Children’s Museum at Saratoga. Ages 5 and up, pre-register, and it’s $10/non-member.

Thursday, March 17th:

• From 11 am until noon it’s Little Wonders of Science: Cat in the Hat There’s No Place Like Space at the Schenectady Museum. It’s free with admission, but call ahead to reserve a place and a free book to take home.
• At 7 pm it’s the last Moonlight Ski scheduled for the season by Clifton Park. Let’s hope it’s changed to a hike due to a complete lack of snow.

Friday, March 18th:

• From 10 am until noon, it’s an Eagle Watch at Moreau Lake State Park. $2/person, please call to check conditions and see if you need to bring or rent snowshoes.  And bring binoculars!
• Kids ages 0 to 4 can participate in a free Music Together Demo at 10:30 am at the Albany Public Library.
• It’s Art Night Schenectady from 5-9 pm.
• The Junior League’s American Girl Fashion Show is 6:30 pm tonight as well as twice on Saturday. Tickets are $35.  See the TU’s Parent to Parent blog for details.
• Shenendehowa High School’s musical, Babes in Arms, is playing tonight and through the weekend at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $12.

I have to confess that the flowers on the top of the post are a lie. I haven’t seen any flowers yet. This morning I was all excited that the snow melt had caused a delightfully rushing stream, so I took a picture.

And then I took a look at it when I got home, and it was so freakin’ depressing. Just so brown. And so much snow. I didn’t have the heart to leave it at that. So I had to go to just grub up an old picture that seemed more like spring.

I’m in the middle of reading My Name is Mary Sutter, which is the selection for Schenectady County’s One County One Book Program. I’m enjoying it very much, thank you. Which is not a surprise, since I love-love-love historical fiction. And Mary’s from Albany, so I was thinking that I might spread the word and say it’s absolutely worth a read. Although I haven’t finished it, so things could go south (get it? south!?!).

And then I happened upon the preview video for Sarah Vowell’s Unfamiliar Fishes on Andrew Sullivan’s blog. I liked The Wordy Shipmates, and I just think that she’s so smart and quirky and fun, and the video makes all sorts of silly art out of the Hawaiian plate dish.

So then I decided that I might as well just geek out and make a history-book post. Because I also just finished A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin, which was terrific. A bit of a marathon, but great and moving. If you’ve read it, or if you do in the future, my favorite part’s when the main character makes the telephone call after fixing the phone.  Awesome.

And since it’s a family blog, might I recommend that you try the terribly literate and historically interesting picture books by one of my favorites, Emily Arnold McCully? I’ve already mentioned her in my Girl Power post, but I just keep discovering more good ones, and she doesn’t just have awesome feminist topics like female kung fu masters. She’s also got great topics with boy protagonists.

We had to buy a birthday gift and one of those big cardboard display boards. Plus, all three of us had gift cards burning holes in our pockets. So we all headed to Target. Because I’m just not as strong as Gaga.

I think that I picked up the second-to-last display board in the entire place, and even it had a little rip in it. I should have known. M is finally participating in her elementary school Learning Fair, but she’s woefully behind. She’s got a week, and she’s maybe read two books about her topic. Okay, well, perhaps that’s not so bad, until you realize that all of the display boards have sold out at Target. And that one of my friends’ kids was finishing up his freakin’ Power Point two weeks ago. But I’m confining myself to occasional nagging, and I’m not doing it for her. Even if it kills me.

Now, normally, we’re not recreational shoppers. But today we got carried away and spent way too much time at the store. The girls’ gift cards were designated for clothes, and they happily chose a couple of lovely spring frocks.

They also tried on a couple of bathing suits. In fact, we were 3 for 3 in the dressing room with the suits. They admired themselves, and I was grateful that girl body anxiety still hasn’t set in (knock on wood). I mean, who knows how many more years they’ll have left to enjoy trying on swimsuits? I know I don’t. Especially, as you’ve heard, when the kids come along to help .

Meanwhile part of my gift card went to a frivolous pillow that seemed made for my living room. This was a total impulse-buy, and I was hoping that it would replace the incredibly disgusting cushion that it’s sitting on. Except that, since it was an impulse buy, I hadn’t measured, and it’s too small. But I think that I’m keeping it anyway.

The exciting part is that the cover is machine washable. That big cushion isn’t, and it’s just . . . probably not sanitary. I mean, it’s unsightly and a possible health hazard.

So it was an afternoon of overindulgence, and I couldn’t help thinking how very fortunate we are. Especially with the latest news of the devastation in Japan. Was anyone listening to WAMC this morning when the woman reporter in Japan was speaking? She was calmly explaining that she’d been speaking with a legislator when the earthquake started, and after another couple of questions it came up that her son was attending school near the epicenter and no, she hadn’t heard from him yet, but she was sure that he was going to be fine. I started crying right there while I was packing lunches.

It’s enough to make you truly grateful for today’s crappy weather, isn’t it?

I slacked off yesterday because I’ve been sick. Which I mentioned in the comments, but you probably didn’t bother to read the comments, did you? Ever wonder who does read the comments?

My mother. She called, commiserated, and advised that I gargle with some salt water. I did.

In addition to general flu-y feverishness, I have [okay, here's where this could be too much information, so just skip down to the bullets if you don't want to know Too Much about me] a whole colony of canker sores under my tongue.  Bad enough to cause a temporary speech impediment, plus I can barely eat. We had Chipotle the other night for dinner, and  I only managed about two inches of burrito.  I mean, that’s, like, unprecedented. The other day I went to the grocery store and I couldn’t find my beloved Orabase. None. I stopped at the drug store on the way home. Still none. Then I had to go home and put my frozen stuff in the freezer, but I left a pile of groceries on the floor and headed to a third store. Hooray! Orabase! I tried to squeeze some out pretty much immediately, and I realized that in order to open it I’d have to cut the end off the tube with scissors.  I almost cried right there in the parking lot. Really quite pathetic.

Here’s what I’ve found for this weekend:

All Weekend:

• The Adirondack Children’s Troupe is peforming Disney’s Aladdin, Jr.  at the Wood Theatre in Glens Falls. Tickets are $12.
• Steamer 10 Theatre opens You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown this weekend.
• Disney’s The Lion King continues at Proctors.
• The Albany Devils have home games on both Saturday & Sunday afternoon. On Saturday, wear green for $12 tickets, and on Sunday, they’re offering a “Family Four Pack” for $62 that includes tickets, hot dogs, and sodas, and the first 1000 attendees get a bobble-head doll. Tickets are generally $19/adult, $14/child.
• Or support college hockey. Union‘s playing in the ECAC Quarterfinals in Schenectady. Tickets are $12/adult, $6/kid.
• Our Own ProductionS presents Aesop’s (Oh, So Slightly Updated) Fables with a child cast in Schenectady. It’s $8/adult, $5/child, kids under 5 free. Their website isn’t updated, so click the title for details from GailSez.
• It’s Winter Raptorfest in Ft. Edward, which is about an hour north of us. Birds of prey, sleigh rides, and more. Free.

Evening of Friday, March 11th:

• Colonie Center is having a Cabin Fever event from 5:30-7 pm, including a Scavenger Hunt throughout the mall with Radio Disney.
• From 5:30-8:30 pm it’s a Parent Night Out at Candyland in Schenectady. It’s $25 for the first child and $15 for siblings, but you must pre-register.
• At 6:30 pm, Castleton Public Library is showing Megamind for their Family Movie Night.

Saturday, March 12th:

• From 10:30 am to noon, an I Got You Babe Yoga class begins at Orenda in Schenectady. It’s for babies crawling to 24 months.
• At Moreau Lake State Park, there’s an Ice Fishing Clinic from 11 am to 3 pm. Call to reserve, and it’s $2/person.
• At noon, there’s a free Electric Discovery Demo at the Schenectady Museum.
• The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will step off in downtown Albany at 2 pm.
• There’s a free Teddy Bear Concert by the Capitol Chamber Artists at 2 pm at the First Congregational Church at Albany. Selections of Bach & Mozart presented for children. Bring your teddy bear!
• At 2 pm, hear Irish Tales with Marni Gillard at the Troy Public Library.
• It’s a Tang Family Saturday from 2-3:30 pm. This is free, but call to register.
• They’re having a Family Sing-along at the main Albany Public Library from 2:30-3:30 pm.
• From 4-6 pm, learn about space research during Our Bodies, Our Earth. . . From Space from 4-6 pm at the Schenectady Museum. Free with admission.
• At 7 pm, the Empire State Youth Orchestra’s Chamber Music program has a free public recital at the College of St. Rose.
• The Sand Lake Center for the Arts has an Irish Music Concert billed for all ages at 8 pm. It’s $16/adult, $10/children.

Sunday, March 13th:

• Schauber Stables is having a St. Patrick’s Day Celebration. Kids hunt for lucky shamrocks, and those who find them will have get free pony rides. The event continues all day, but activities are divided by age, so check the website for details.
• It’s another Sugaring Off Sunday starting at 8:30 am at the Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown. Yes, it’s a long drive. But I love how they are labeling their activities “spring” and I always appreciate their appropriate use of the apostrophe, so I’m all for supporting them. $8/folks 13 and up, $4/kids 7 to 12, kids 6 and under free, and the price includes breakfast.
• From 10 am to 2 pm, Hudson Valley Community College is having their annual Summer Camp Fair. Free, with Radio Disney, a bounce house, and free public ice skating for an hour at the beginning among other activities.
• There’s a Mosaic and Stained Glass Workshop at Thacher Nature Center appropriate for ages 14 and up. $40/new participant.
• There’s a St. Patrick’s Day Kids’ Club at Rotterdam Square Mall‘s Food Court from noon to 1:30 pm. Face painting, balloons, and other activities.
• It’s Yummy Sunday from 1-2:30 pm at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy. Kids will make art out of food. Call to pre-register, and it’s $5/person.
• Make and Take a St. Patrick’s Day item at the Schenectady Museum between 1:30-2:30 pm.
• There’s a Saratoga Reads for Kids celebration at the Children’s Museum at Saratoga from 2-3 pm. Free with admission.
• At 2:30 pm it’s another Beat the Snow Concert at the Schenectady Public Library.
• At 3 pm, the Empire State Youth Orchestra‘s Wind Orchestra and String Ensemble will be performing at Niskayuna High School. $8/adult, $5/child.
• There’s an Irish Family Festival from 3-7 pm at the Saratoga Elks Club. Donations $5/adult, kids 12 and under free.
• There’s another Family Dance from 4-5:15 pm in downtown Albany. Suggested donation is $5/adult, $1/child.

Planning Ahead:

• The Junior League’s American Girl Fashion Show is next weekend. Tickets are $35.  See the TU’s Parent to Parent blog for details.
• The Circus is coming to Albany May 5th to 8th. There’s a pre-sale now with 20% off for some shows, and the super-secret code is Z5275.

Every year I order Girl Scout Cookies from my neighbor and then I find out that Cute W’s ordered from coworkers’ kids, and next thing you know we have a lot of cookies. I know, I know: what’s the problem? Well, I just try to limit the number of completely irresistible items in my house. That’s why Nutella, Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, and the Bucket o’ Margarita must go through a stringent permitting process before crossing the threshold.

This year I thought I was being smart: I only ordered two boxes from my friendly neighborhood Girl Scout. This way, I reasoned, we wouldn’t be buried in cookies when all of those extra boxes arrived from work. Alas, the coworkers’ kids have moved on to other activities, and only Thin Mint and Samoa crumbs remain. Oh, the regret, the despair!

Luckily, there are Girl Scout Cookies selling at both Colonie Center and Crossgates Mall. Even cooler: there’s a special website: just plug in your zip code and they’ll hook you up with the nearest cookie location. God bless America!