How to Catch a Leprechaun

My family loves St. Patrick's Day. For most of us, it is because of our traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and Irish soda bread. There isn't a person in this family that doesn't love that meal. Max may even dream about the cabbage at night!

But, for Elise, St. Patrick's Day has other traditions. Last year her kindergarten teacher got them really excited about setting out traps for the Leprechauns that would be sure to visit.

So, here's Elise's efforts for this year.


Apparently, the Leprechaun will follow the trail of Wheat Thins until they spy that delicious mandarin orange under the cleverly disguised bread pan. In their haste to taste its citrusy sweetness, they will knock down the spatula and trap themselves. ('Now where did that bread pan come from?') There they will wait until morning.



Elise was very excited about her tricky trap. It took us all night to convince her to wait until her little siblings were in bed to set it or all she would catch was Cameron, who really likes Wheat Thins.

Sadly, in the morning, Elise found the crackers and fruit gone and the trap still set. Apparently that tricky (and now very full) Leprechaun had gotten away scott free. They did, however, courteously leave a couple of quarters to compensate Elise for her efforts.

Better luck next year, Elise.


It was mismatch day at school on St. Patty's Day. Can you tell? Apparently Cameron also got the memo and borrowed some of Camille's socks.

Gimmee a 'C!'

This afternoon Natalie crawled onto my lap, ready for some affection. She has a barky cough and a fever, so she was happy to stop and sit quietly for a minute. As she rested, Natalie's index finger slid along the logo on my shirt as her little voice carefully spelled 'C-A-B-O-T.'

Camille and I were both shocked and maybe a little disbelieving. After all, she just turned two at the end of December.

When I had her do it again, though, she still got all the letters right.

I knew she was interested in the alphabet. She's been pointing out various letters to me for a while. Sometimes she gets them right and sometimes not. A few letters she knows cold. Every time we go to Walmart she shouts "W!" as we pull into the parking lot.

Is my child brilliant? Am I a paragon of motherly virtue, teaching my nursery-aged kids to absorb Plato, Shakespeare and, of course, Jane Austen?

Well, the answer is probably 'no' to the first. And certainly 'no' to the second. I'm not a paragon of anything.

I blame PBS. It is their fault entirely.

Every weekday morning from 9 to 9:30 I have a blissfully uninterrupted half hour to do the dishes or check my email courtesy of a little tv program called Super Readers.

Cute show. Apparently very educational.

I'll let you know what Natalie thinks of Pride and Prejudice next week. We're skipping John Steinbeck and Thomas Hardy altogether.

After all, a girl's got to have her standards.

What a Difference a Few Hours can Make

Saturday morning was cold and very foggy. Even though we were out of town, Brett needed to get a long run in, so I went along to get some exercise along the river trail. You can't really call what I'm doing right now 'running' or even jogging. I know that because at one point I passed a guy walking his dog and a few minutes later when I stopped and turned around, he was still right behind me. Is that embarrassing or what?! It wasn't even an energetic dog!

I've never gotten to be around fog very much, so I was fascinated with how everything looked along the river.



It made for great people watching, too. Loved this little boy out throwing rocks with his Dad.


Just as we were about to leave, the fog was almost gone and you could see the beautiful promise of the day. The color!



Just a few hours later, we took a group of family members who wanted to go geocaching back to Howard Amon Park and this is what it looked like then.


I know the calendar said February, but the weather said April. It was a gorgeous spring-like day. You just want to sit there and soak it all in, face upraised to the sun.

What was really fun was getting to share a day like this with family. I don't think it would have mattered what we were doing. As long as we were together and outside, we were having fun.


This park has GREAT toys. Once the kids saw them I thought we'd never get them to leave.


By the way, if you want to see the pictures better, you can double click on them to enlarge them. That way, you can either see the subject of the pictures better or get a better view of all my mistakes.

Happy Retirement, Lavelle!

Friday night we went to Richland to celebrate Brett's Dad's retirement with a surprise party. Lavelle has worked at Battelle for 38 years. Amazing. All that hard work . . . and with the same company!


Audrey and Lavelle were at their ward's annual Chili Chowder Feed while we all gathered at the house. When they opened the front door, Lavelle was greeted with a big 'Surprise!' and an avalanche of grandchildren coming in for hugs and kisses.

It was a fun, relaxing night as everyone sat around the table chatting and reminiscing. For those of you that couldn't be there, you were sorely missed. (That is why we are so looking forward to the reunion this summer!) Sarah did a great job organizing the party.

Lavelle telling about the "Cadillac of Ditches."

The hands down highlight of the night was the binder of letters from his children that was presented to Lavelle.


He and Audrey laughed and cried as they read through each paragraph from each child.



I'm not sure they've ever received a gift they valued more. I think it must have seemed like a little payoff and some validation for everything they've sacrificed for their family.



And even if, as someone joked, all the memories seemed a little eulogistic, what a shame it would have been to have kept those sweet things to ourselves until it was too late to share them with the person to whom they would mean the most.



And then the grandkids ate pizza, cake, ice cream and played and played until late that night.

In an effort to escape Grandma's camera, Max inadvertently runs into mine. Nice try, Max!


An empathetic Lily comforts Xander, who didn't eat his dinner and as a result was denied dessert!

Dalia gives me one suspicious wild eye over the edge of her cup. She wasn't buying the picture thing.

We all wished Sabrina could have been there to play with Elise, Xander and Lily. They had such a good time playing together the whole weekend.


Landen didn't believe in wasting ice cream. It was good to the last lick.


Natalie and Landen were constantly in and out of the teepee.

And a couple of bonus pictures for family, who might be interested in the progress of the main floor bathroom remodel. Not done yet, but getting there quickly.