A Leprechaun Adventure

It has been a week since Allie walked home from school wearing her leprechaun mask the whole way, with its big ears and orange beard. As we walked, she told me all about the leprechaun that had paid a secret visit during recess. When they came back to the classroom, the room was "all messed up" and a note was left to look in the bathroom where the toilet water had been turned green. She really, REALLY wanted to see a leprechaun. It had never occurred to her to try to catch one until we went to the post office a half hour later.

The postman at the desk smiled at my girls, commenting to them on how quiet they were being. Allie responded in a half-whisper, "We're trying to find a leprechaun."

Again, he smiled, and then said, "Well, one year my son set a trap and caught a leprechaun!" He went on to explain the ins and outs of the trap as the girls listened, their eyes wide.

Thanks to the postman, Allie had a plan. Obviously, she would set a trap. She and Sami got right to work, using Legos to make a sort of pavilion. Their bait was a gold-colored bouncy call just sitting in the middle... but Allie realized her "trap" wasn't much of a trap at all, since there was no way to actually trap the leprechaun. So I jumped in and helped. I grabbed a shoe box, tied a short piece of yarn around the ball, and tied the other end to an unsharpened pencil, which held up the box-- the idea being that when the "leprechaun" would try to steal the "gold" he would pull the string with it, which would pull the pencil over and drop the box over him. The idea wasn't flawless, but it was a pretty convincing trap to a six-year-old anyway.

The next morning, Allie woke to find the box had dropped. Thinking they caught a leprechaun, but too scared to open the box themselves, the girls asked me to open it. I lifted the lid, and they gasped, "The ball is gone!" Indeed it was, with the empty string still attached to the pencil... but a note sat with it.

Where's the gold? Look in Mommy's drawer! Ha ha! -- The Leprechaun (Seamus O'Malley)

All three of us went to my nightstand drawer. Allie opened it to see a velvety drawstring bag-- a bag that had held my gold bracelets. Upon opening the bag she found the ball, but my bracelets were gone. She went to school, hoping the leprechaun would do the right thing and return my gold.

A couple hours after she came home from school, I pointed to another note stuck to my door.

If you want your gold, I ne'er can tell.
So look in your room, and look really well.
-- The Leprechaun

We "searched" my room until I opened one of my jewelry box drawers. There sat my gold bracelets, where they had been hiding the whole time.

Of course, Allie wanted to thank the leprechaun, so we left him a note... and included an addendum (at Allie's request) asking him to stay with us so "we could teach him how not be naughty." The next morning, we found Seamus's reply, "Sorry, Allie, I can't. But thanks anyway!" She was devastated, hanging her head in despair after having read his response. She got over it, but it took a good twenty minutes at least.

Plus, all the cupcakes, presents, and ice cream from it being Sami's birthday as well helped to drown her sorrows.

Ride 'em, Drew!

I put Drew on the bouncy horse, and he had a good time wigglin'... and making me laugh.

TICO Warbird Airshow

Friday afternoon I pulled the "TGIF" section out of the paper. The front cover advertised the TICO Warbird Airshow to be held over the weekend in Titusville. We have several airshows of some kind every year around here, but in the nearly five years we've lived here in Brevard County we have never gone to one. I really, REALLY wanted to go this time. That night Kev had the Scouts over here for a leadership training camp out, so it wasn't until they left late the next morning that I got to talk to him about it. He was game, so we loaded the kids in the car and grabbed some fast food to eat on the way. We arrived nearly an hour later... to be told by the soldier dressed in camo and manning the parking lot entrance that they only took cash for admission. Since we never have cash (and they wouldn't take a check), we turned around... and since we were in the middle of nowhere, we couldn't really find a convenient ATM. We set up camp across the road in the grass out in front of a commercial office building, and at least fifty people had the same idea. We sat there for 2 1/2 hours watching the WWII planes, fighter jets, Blue Angels, etc. fly practically right overhead. But we got some fun pictures and videos. I wish we could have gotten a video of the two F16s that flew over us, but they came so fast we couldn't even hear them coming... till the roar hit us (of course when I was facing the other way). Sami screamed and burst into tears, Drew cried (half-heartedly), Allie never lost that goofy grin, and I yelled "Holy crap!" and nearly hit the deck. Even Kev's heart was pounding. So awesome!



I almost busted out with an impromptu performance of "Danger Zone."

Drew's Latest Feats

I often forget to talk about the Drewster. So here's what he has been doing lately.

He started pointing a few weeks ago, starting the day some friends were babysitting him while Kev and I were at the temple. We returned, and I walked in the room for Drew to look at me and point.

Mrs. Williams, the director of Sami's preschool, taught Drew how to blow kisses last week. He gets some pretty good sucking action-- much more advanced than the "mmme!" Allie would do at the same age. It took her a while to master the kissy sound.

He finally caught on to the signs I've been doing for about nine months, and started signing "food" and "please" about a month ago. Although, he seems to have given up on signing "food" and just signs "please" for absolutely anything he wants. Figuring out what exactly he wants now is the trick.

He says "mama," "Mom" (which I think actually refers to his blanket, but whatever...), "Mommy," "Da" and "Dada," "C'acker" (cracker), and "hi" and "bye" (not very often, though). I have heard him repeat book and baby as well, but the meanings don't mean much to him. He loves to say "Uh oh", too... usually when he drops his dinner on the floor because he thinks it's nasty, which is every night.

He had his 15 month check-up yesterday-- 24.6 lbs. and 31 in. 50th percentile for both. But his head is in the 80th percentile. I wish I could remember the measurement, though. He has been taking steps for about a week now, and wore shoes for the first time today.

Cute Drew!

In the Past Month

Saturday I attended Deseret Book's Time Out For Women at the Convention Center in Orlando. I hadn't planned on attending originally. It has been really busy around here, and with Allie's birthday being the same week, I just figured it might not work out. Plus, honestly, the last time I attended, which was three years ago, my experience wasn't all I had hoped it would be. I ended up going with a group of ladies from the 2nd ward whom, while very nice, I didn't really know... and it felt a bit awkward. I really had hoped a group from our ward would go with me, but no one (besides one friend who declined) responded to my email invites. So when it came back to town last year, I wasn't all that disappointed that I had a nursing, and fairly newborn, baby that I didn't either want to leave or bring to the all-day event. Wouldn't you know it, though, that a group of my friends ended up going that time around? But this year, a friend from the second ward asked, and I politely declined, knowing (as I said before) that my weekends were extremely busy, worried that I'd end up going with a group of people I didn' know all that well, but also feeling (in a martyr-ish sort of way) that my attendance would naturally make everyone else from my ward not want to go. But then Jill approached me a week ago, asking if I wanted to take a ticket her mom had bought for her sister Kim that she wasn't going to end up using. At the same time a scheduled Scout camp out was canceled. So I accepted..., but then declined the very next day when I realized that since Jill and her mom would already be there, staying the night in a hotel from having also attended the Friday session (for which Kim's ticket was going to another friend in the ward), that I wasn't going to be able to drive up with them-- meaning I assumed I'd be sitting alone, which would be lame. Once Jill realized my concern, she assured me that the intention all along was to meet up with me there. So I went... and I had a good time. Who'd 'a' thunk it?

Allie turned six this past Thursday the 4th. She has been waiting for this day since she turned five. Weekly I would hear laments of how her birthday "was sooo far away!" and "would never come!" In all the birthday talk she, of course, had to include grand plans for her party. We choose to not throw a party every year for our kids, but I figured this year would be one of those party years just because she hadn't had a party since she turned three. I found out about the Ice Cream Depot having BOGO (buy one, get one) Pajama nights every Thursday night, and thought since her birthday fell on a Thursday this year, that going to the ice cream shop that night might be fun. So she made up a list of friends to invite, and I invited their families, as well as her Grandma and Grandpa Smith. Unfortunately Allie forgot to add some friends to her list, and I feel terrible about that! Anyway, we made sure to dress in PJs, I had a purse full of quarters to give out to the kids to play pinball and ride motorized elephants and motorcycles. We ate ice cream, and Allie opened presents. And she's still talking about it! And I also realized that this might be a birthday she actually remembers and talks about years down the road. That made me smile.


The day before Valentine's Day, Kev and I enjoyed his Christmas present to me-- tickets to see Harry Connick, Jr. at the King Center. We literally may have been the youngest couple there, but I didn't care-- Harry was a truly talented performer. Incredible musician with a killer sense of humor. When I wasn't smiling and tapping my feet, I was rolling with laughter. I would go see him again in a heartbeat. That concert was a great idea on Kevin's part. Two for one! One gift took care of two holidays! He's brilliant...

I had a sweet moment with Sami Saturday night. Perhaps it didn't start out sweet, though, since she was being whiny and uncooperative, not getting ready for bed very quickly. I decided to put in a new Alex Boye sacred CD I had purchased at Time Out For Women earlier that day. He sang hymns like "Jesus, Lover of my Soul" and "I Know That My Redeemer Lives," and Sami perked up. "Mom, he's singing about Jesus!"

"Yes he is, Sami." I got her out of the bath and dried her off.

"Why is he singing about Jesus, Mom?"

"Because he loves Jesus."

She continued to look at me. "Why does he love Jesus?"

"Well, Sami, do you love Jesus?" She nodded. "Why do you love Jesus?"

She thought for a moment and then responded quietly, "Because he's special."