Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2009!

Last night for Family Home Evening, we decided to make a leprechan trap. The girls painted their own version of a rainbow.Then we hid a cage in "clouds" and filled a cup with Lucky Charms to lure a leprechan. Okay, so they were Marshmallow Mateys, but we're okay with a generic leprechan coming to our house.
We explained to the girls that leprechans are little, red-haired, and love to cause mischief. They like to make messes, hide your things, and eat Lucky Charms.


And then I thought, wait, do I really need to trap another one?

This morning, Chloe woke up shouting, "There are octagon footprints in my room!" She followed them down the hall.
Addie helped, too.

In order to properly investigate the trap, they needed to have appropriate leprechan hunting gear on.

I didn't have another shamrock headband, so Addie settled for a ribbon around her head. Don't worry, she liked it fine.


They were so excited to see their trap worked. The leprechan got away, but he did leave his treasure behind.

And in completely unrelated randomness, look what I found in my hanging geraniums yesterday. Our little mourning dove has two eggs in there now. On the one hand, I think it's really cool. On the other, I hope I'm not running to the animal rescue in a couple of weeks. Every year different birds build their nests on our back porch, and every year, the parents get scared off after the babies hatch. And now I have the added dilemma of watering or not watering the flowers. Note to self, next time I try to take a picture of her, turn off the flash.

And for other recent crafts at our house, we made bird feeders. Don't worry, they really did think it was fun. I grew some bird feeder gourds last year and we finally got around to making them into feeders. If you've never grown these before, I highly suggest it. They have large, velvety soft leaves and pretty white flowers, and the gourds are bright green while they're growing. Then you let them dry, cut a hole and shake out the guts. We decorated them, then glued a stick in for a perch. Very simple.



Addie thought the paint was delicious.




So did the squirrels. I meant to take a picture of the finished product and just didn't get around to it until after a squirrel spent all morning enlarging the holes we had cut in the gourds. I can't say I'm surprised. They completely destroyed our feeder last year. Ah, nature.

7 comments:

Tanja said...

So Wonderful! Love the yellow on Addie's lip!

Sandy said...

I love the leprechaun trap! Kimball made one for school, but I wasn't that motivated at home this year. I won't show my kids your post or they'll be jealous:)

Okay, HOW did you get your birdhouse gourds to stay good?? We grew some - they got really big and looked awesome, then around Thanksgiving they all started to mold. Some lady had told me that they'd mold, but then you scrub it off and they're still good in the spring, but ours got soft and yucky, so I had to throw them out. I'm scared to try again this year, but I thought it'd be a really fun project:( Any tips would be greatly appreciated - yours turned out really cute!

Missy said...

I had never heard of leprechaun traps or the lucky charm fun of St Patrick's Day before - what is wrong with me. Do me a favor and remind me next year so I don't end up doing the same old LAME thing I did this year: Absolutely Nothing. You are so creative. Love the feeders.

Janelle. said...

You are so crafty. I forgot it was even St. Patrick's Day this year...i didn't even wear green...I'm terrible. Well, I'll have to file away the leprechaun trap idea for another year. That's cute.

Katie said...

You're such a good crafty creative mom. I need to take some lessons. Love you!

Jennifer said...

Ruth, what a great idea for St Patty's day! Thanks for that post, it made me laugh.

The Evers Family said...

What a cute idea! You have guts letting Addie handle paint. You're a fun mom!