St. Patrick's Day

We had a very fun St. Patrick's Day this year. The kids built a trap (which we found on familyfun.com) for the leprechaun, but our leprechaun was just too sneaky. We didn't catch him. He DID, however, paint with green paint all over our windows, turn our toilet water and milk green, and leave us some green treats. The kids decided that, mess aside, he must be a pretty great leprechaun if he left treats. They had a great time cleaning up the mess from that naughty leprechaun!

This week, I came home from church a little after my family and found Scotti riding his bike with a dinosaur costume and my ski goggles. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow. It was hilarious. He has a new thing called "motocross," which is essentially bike racing. He gets in uniform, which could be any get up you can imagine, with my ski goggles on. Then, he goes out and rides his bike as fast as he can. His opponent is always called "Lucifer", but in recent times, he's been calling him "Luke-cifer" (in honor, no doubt, of his imaginary friend Luke.) His favorite uniform seems to be to wear his coat with a sweater over the top of it, and then a T-shirt on top. He says the coat and sweater underneath make it look like he has pads on, like in football. He also likes to wear his snowpants with normal pants underneath. Scotti also has taken to working out a lot. He made pretend weights out of some blocks, and he spreads his blanket out and does sit ups and push ups and lifts weights. His entire life revolves around sports, race cars (which I guess is a sport), and competition. He loves it. The only break he takes from it is in reading books and watching TV. Obsessed.

Sammi just seems old to me lately. She takes care of Everett and bosses around Cooper and Scotti so well. She tries to put them in time out, and loves more than anything when I give her responsibility. She has been reading words all over the place lately, which makes her really happy. Sammi has been talking like a baby as of late. I'm hoping it is a stage. My current strategy is to just wait it out, but if anyone has any ideas, I'm open to them. Today, Sammi stood on our bed holding a big stick she found outside and has adopted as her own, instructing Grant and Scotti of what to do on their work out: "Ok, good work Scotti, now here's what we're going to do. Ten pushups and then a new exercise which I'll show you later. Good work dad too. You follow what Scotti is doing, and then I'll tell you what to do next. Great work boys!" Sammi has a little cow which she calls "Reindeer Gold" who she keeps on a leash and takes everywhere she goes. She feeds it and gives it naps and gets mad at us if we are not thoughtful of Reindeer Gold's needs.

This week, Cooper and I (and the other kids, but Cooper got into it most), were super heroes rescuing our yard from the naughty ivy. We had to find it, catch it, and put it in the garbage prison. Cooper played this game with me for four days this week, sticking it out with me pulling Ivy until I was finished. The entire time, he talked in his lower super hero voice, and used his "Super Snippers," "Super Trowel," and "Super Gloves!" He loved it. I had a great time too. Who knew weeding could be so fun. I also read in my gardening book that urine can keep the deer out of your yard and away from your spring flowers. Well, my boys were thrilled to hear that! "You mean when we've got to go, we can go outside?" Don't worry, we've got specific rules about where they can go, and have talked many times about how we don't go in other peoples' yards, but we'll see if they stick to it. They have been really funny about it. Cooper hugs and kisses me so much in a day that I sometimes have to tell him, "Cooper, now is the time for reading books. Afterward, we can snuggle all you want." Sooo affectionate!

Everett has been singing like crazy this week. Grant is teaching him to sing "Zip a Dee Do Dah" and he loves it. His favorite book lately is the one about the ocean. He thinks every fish is a shark and screams "Shark!" every time I turn the page. All day long he asks me, "Daddy? Work?" When I say yes, dad is at work, he sweetly says, "OK." He is such a cutie pie. Somehow Everett goes through 3 shirts every day, and his face is always messy. I just can't figure it out. I hate to wipe his face too much, because he has sensitive skin and gets chapped so easily, but what's a mother to do? My favorite is to listen to Everett sing himself to sleep. That is sweet.

I can't find my phone that has my pictures on it. I'll post some tomorrow if I find it!