Paddy's Day 2014 ~ i knew there was more to this day!

What a very special St Patricks Day we had on Monday!

In years gone past the kids and I did very little on this day. We would watch from the kitchen window for the boats to gather marking the beginning of the sea parade. Then we would wander down to the village to watch the land parade before heading back home again. But this year was different, there was so much more...

Garry invited Benny to march with him and the rest of the Courtmacsherry Harbour Lifeboat crew in not one, but two parades!!

I made Benny a 'Courtmacsherry Lifeboat' badge out of felt and sewed it onto one of his smart jumpers. Garry gave him an official RNLI tie (that was so long on him we had to tuck it up several times), I bought him a new white shirt and he wore his school trousers and shoes and of course his felt RNLI pager. He really looked the part and was so, so proud.

 

 The first parade was in Clonakilty, so we drove there early enough to have lunch and meet up with some other crew members first.

 We met in the pub that Garry works in and had a lovely lunch. Benny said it was his 'first best pasta'!
We finished up and the lads got their gear on and we joined the parade just in time.

 Benny was so great, he walked ahead of the rest of the crew the whole time. He waved with both hands and smiled and was so confident and proud.

 He took it so seriously and my heart is just so full of this little boy who had no fear of the crowds or the new situation. Who embraced his love for the RNLI and his admiration of Garry and wore that proudly.

 Garry was so proud of him too.

 As soon as that parade was finished we hopped back into the car and drove back in plenty of time to watch the Courtmacsherry sea parade.

 Then Garry and Benny left us to march for the 2nd time...

 I'm just so proud :-)

But our day didn't end there, we went along with lots of other families to the local pub and the kids ran around while we had a few drinks. Then we bought chips from the van and ate them wandering along the road back to the hotel.

We had so much fun at the hotel. They had set up a big screen with cartoons on it for the kids in the backroom with a big long table where they could all sit together, and play and chat leaving the grown ups space and time to socialise too. Which we did. It was really wonderful, I had so much fun and I really 'got' the spirit of the day. I am so grateful to Garry for the whole day. It certainly was a 'first best' day :-)