The kids started collecting recyclable items they wanted for their traps a few weeks before the day. Emma came up with a shoe box with a trap door, all green, with a sign that said "Step here for gold", and the top was decorated in {fake} gold and jewels. Cal used an oatmeal box, filled it with bells, decorated it in green and shamrocks and then made a "diving board" out of popsicle sticks. Lucy used a shoebox and painted it with rainbows and wrote "leprechaun" on it. She put a rug over the hole she cut. And I helped Cov make a little one out of a lantern we had. They were ready!
The night before St. Patrick's Day, Dave got super sick. I have never seen him this sick, and I will spare the details, but it was so bad, he was loosing blood. It was scary! He slept not a wink all night. And I didn't sleep much either since I was so worried about him. In the morning, he headed into the E.R. right before we woke up the kids. We thought he might have to be life flighted out to Billings, but luckily, he was okay and it was a bad virus/infection, things that could be taken care of here. He was at the hospital all day being checked, got some IVs and medicine, and monitoring. He was released in the afternoon and feeling much better. By the next day, and after lots of sleep, he was back to normal. Lucy the night before cried before bed because "I'm worried Dad isn't going to make it!" she said. When I told the kids in the morning (without giving very many details) he had to go to the hospital, they were so upset. But Emma said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help him get better here and so he wouldn't have to go to Billings. But if not, she said, please bless that all will be okay. I was so impressed with her prayer and thankful she understands that our will isn't always God's. When Dave sent us a message and said he'd be okay, the kids were all so relieved. Dave had a bad viral gastroenteritis, infection, and H/O IBS at once but he made it out. The kids commented on how Heavenly Father answered our prayers. It really made us all think of how lucky or blessed we all are and how fragile life is and we need to cherish each day.
When the kids woke up, they thought it was so funny that we got toilet papered indoors from our leprechaun. "This is the funniest leprechaun ever!" they said! There were also little green shamrocks colored on the TP, the kids said that's where the leprechaun went to the bathroom. It looks as if their traps were tampered with, but the leprechaun left a few things - a necklace for Lucy, a Claddah ring for Emma (which is an Irish symbol that represents love, loyalty & friendship), and green beards for the boys. We had a breakfast with green milk, green waffles and green creamy caramel syrup. It was delicious, but I kind of had a hard time eating. There was toilet paper in the kitchen but the kids had to take it off because they thought it was weird in there, though they liked playing with it over the rest of the house.
After school, we played and did the usual friend Friday. Then we had our St. Patrick's Day dinner. Dave finally fell back asleep so he missed out on the fun but was good because it helped him heal. We had spinach and cheese shamrock quiche, fruit & veggie rainbows, and green lemon-lime pineapple punch. The girls helped set the table and decorate. We ate and enjoyed the meal. Then we played a "roll a leprechaun" game, and it was fun to see what all of the kids came up with and their fun art work. We listened to a little Irish music, we were going to learn some songs but tried to keep it quiet for Daddy. While I was cleaning up a little bit, Emma came up with some fun games for the younger kids, including "Irish games" to help get them to clean up which she thought was so tricky. She's such a great sister and will be such a great mom some day! We had a shamrock hunt after that where the kids had to find hidden shamrocks and could trade them in for a couple simple green prizes and treats. We had a cake Emma made that was a butter rum bundt cake swirled gold and green. It was tasty and it's so nice to have such a helper! I wasn't going to do dessert because I was pretty tired from all of the excitement. Then we read a book called "Fiona's Lace" about an Irish family, which was very sweet. After that, we had scriptures and prayers and crashed and slept well, feeling very thankful for the many ways in which we are blessed!
"Always remember to forget
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day."
The troubles that passed away.
But never forget to remember
The blessings that come each day."
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