St. Patrick's Day tom foolery

For the Family Home Evening activity last week, we made these mobiles. (I cut out those little shamrocks by hand...it took all day!) I asked everyone to think of if they found a pot of gold, what would they do with their wealth? They were supposed to write it on the shamrocks.

I put things like take a trip to Thailand (although I'd wait until the fighting stopped), buy a new dryer (to match my new washer), travel the 50 states, etc. Daniel was a little more general: food, clothes, toys, etc. Nathan put things like "spend", "save", "buy", "give." Leah only did two. One was buy a horse (what a surprise). Rebekah's four choices were: treats, clothes, strawberries and a doll for Sarah (so nice of her to think of Sarah!). Joseph make a lot of circles on his shamrocks.

I was thinking I'd get great insight into Chad's secret dreams and private shopping list. I should have known something was not going right when I saw the length of his strings on his mobile. I gave it the shortest clearance from the ceiling and the lowest shamrock came within 1/2 inch of the floor. Chad had 6 shamrocks. Here is what he wrote on them to do with his pot of gold: "Hide it from Daniel", "Hide it from Nathan", "Hide it from Leah", "Hide it from Rebekah", "Hide it from Joseph", "Hide it from Sarah". Good thing we only have 6 kids...someone might have felt left out! Good thing he only had 6 shamrocks...he might have hid it from ME!

This morning the kids awoke to find that a leprechaun (or two) had been a little naughty during the night. All the chairs and benches were on the table, the couch pillows were stacked in the middle of the floor, their backpacks were dumped and scattered in the living room and the milk in the fridge had turned green! Additionally, there were little segments of crumpled green paper streamers throughout the room.

No one was cranky this morning. There was too much fun for negativity. Leah and Nathan both took a piece of green streamer to school. I think it was for "evidence". Nathan is hovering right around make-believe and reality. I told him leprechauns were just for fun, but the results of the morning, along with Leah's complete belief, are almost too much for him.

Since this morning, the magic has worn off for Joseph. He's been throwing tantrum after tantrum. I think the leprechauns are playing a joke on me, now!