st patricks day

friday, elizabeth came home from school and asked if she could make a leprechaun trap. i told her she could use whatever she could find around the house. off to work she went. she worked most of the afternoon on it. at one point, taylor was helping her, and then decided that he wanted to make his own.
this is elizabeths:

you can't see this in the picture, but she has a bridge and a door. i'm not sure what's with the little pink purse attached to it.

and this is taylors:

it's hard to tell in the picture, but he has a set of stairs on the bottom left.

needless to say, they did not catch any leprechauns. but they DID get left some treats. the leprechauns left us green chocolate chip cookies, and took the painted rocks with them.

then, when i went to make lunch, i discovered they had colored the pancake mix green!

the kids had fun, and that's what's important.

war paint

i have these giant, double-sided, poster markers. they sit on top of the fridge. until recently, they have been untouched by my whirlwinds. this morning, that all changed.

shannon and ashley, aided by a table chair i'm sure, climbed up and got them down. after having retrieved the fruit snacks, and eating some 20 of them.

here's what i discovered....

first smiles

not quite 6 weeks old, and starting to smile!

hindsight, and wishes

i was looking through taylors scout book today.
first of all, i discovered that i'm the one that is supposed to be marking off achievements. i thought they did them all as a den.
second, i discovered that one the requirements to getting his bobcat, is to have a safety talk. there's a booklet in the front of his scout book that talks about what needs to be discussed, and how it helps satisfy a requirement. i'm wishing that i had that information 3 years ago. it would have given me some ammunition to use to get a better idea of events. maybe then, we wouldn't be waiting for a conclusion more than 2 years later.

i decided that we are going to start doing badge requirements as family home evenings.