Luck is in the Eye of the Beholder

I'm not sure if it's because I'm half Irish (give or take a few fractions), or if it's because because I always see the bright side of life (my sister can stop laughing now!), but I feel I've lived a fairly lucky life so far. I have a good husband, three great kids, and all the necessities such as food, clothing and shelter. What more could I ask for?
Well, there's world peace, there's for people to take global warming seriously, how 'bout my husband not to go back to war again....
But that has nothing to do with being Irish. When I was little, I always wished I had red hair so that I could be a "real" Irish person. Not really knowing that people from Ireland have all colors of hair and all different eye colors. I assumed they were all redheads with bright green eyes. I had dumb old pond water hazel eyes. Not bright green like the rolling hills of the motherland. So when I was about 16, I told my mom I was dying my hair red. She never let me be too adventurous with my hair in the past, so I was surprised when she said, Okay, and helped me pick out a nice shade. Which wasn't actually very nice. I think it turned my blond hair a nice shade of orange. Orange hair and hazel eyes, yep, very Irish! For a Leprechaun!
My Irish family clan name is Riley. When I was little my mom told me a story about when they came over on "the boat". She said that when they were in Ireland, their name was O'Riley, but to make themselves more Amercian sounding, like many Irish families did, they dropped the "O". However, when the ship landed here in the US, the "O" was waiting for them on the beach.
It sounded cooler when I was little. Anyway, every year my mom's family marches in the St. Patrick's Day parade in our hometown of Madison, WI. They represent the Riley clan. Usually the kids and I are with them, but this year it was too far of a drive.
Here's pictures from last year, though:

{Drew and Louisa marching in the parade. They also got to throw out candy, but this was the end of the parade and the candy was long gone!}


{My nephew Andrew got to push Hunter and carry the Riley/Manson family sign.}


{My mom with the kids after the parade all decked out in their green duds. After the parade we would go inside the state capital building. The parade goes around the capital square. It was a nice place to warm up before we headed home.}