Today is St. Patrick’s Day.
Yesterday was the day before St. Patrick’s Day. Also, the day I found out Allison and I would be arranging some sort of “creative activity” for the pre-school classes where Ava goes to school.
Allison did most of the work. She got up at 5am this morning to pull everything together. I charged the battery for my camera. It was a relatively even amount of work on both our parts.
My wife got the class excited about St. Patrick’s Day by telling stories of that sneaky little leprechaun.
After that, we led the kids outside where we had created a nifty little leprechaun trail and hid goodies.
{note the leprechaun footprints…a classy touch}
The search for that little green menace begins…
SCORE!!
Where could he be??
{note brave boy with net}
Dangit. He’s not in his house.
Back to the class…
He must have been in here while we were outside!! All of our stuff is messed up!!
Oh look…we found a letter from the leprechaun. It reads:
Hello, Butterflies!
Now, what do you think?
I was here and gone
As quick as a wink!I’m a little leprechaun
All dressed in green,
The tiniest man
That you have ever seen.I danced in your room
and hid a surprise.
I don’t remember where,
but look around with your eyes.Mickey O’Maley, The leprechaun
A SURPRISE?? WHERE??
LOOK!! I FOUND IT…HIS POT OF GOLD(en milk chocolate)!!
Tons of fun was had by the Butterflies, Bumblebees, and Frogs. Oh, and us of course.
It’s good to be home.
P.S. – My kid is weird.
I love it that you just made it cool to be wierd.
Viva la wierdness!
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Fun is Free!
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Ha ha…love the title of this post. It’s so weird seeing white kids on your blog again.
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My kids have always loved this leprechaun game! So cute!
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Cute!
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Cute Ava she is the coolest weirdo we know
Love you Ava
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What a cute, cute, cute idea! Sounds like you might need some Galerie leprechaun eggs…. Can you tell what season I am working on?
xoxo
P.S. glad you are home safe and sound!
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Such good and creative parents you are! I have weird kids too…. but weird is cool.
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This is so cute! I wish ours were little enough to do this with!
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This is sooooo brilliant. I love it! And Ava may be weird but she’s also the coolest of the cool.
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aww! This is so cute! I’ve always been a big fan of treasure hunts! Your wife did an amazing job with organizing it! You did good work with the pictures too
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Wow, you sure did charge those camera batteries awesome!
ha. Loved the activity. Very clever and the kids look totally hooked on all of it!
Have a great day!
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So fun! What a creative last-minute idea, Allison!
And great pictures! Love the idea of the little house with the table and chairs.
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I think you should have painted yourself green and jumped out from behind a bush.
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Love it!! Great job on the St. Patrick’s Day fun!!
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terrific idea – ya made me cry with the one beautiful little girl and her quizzical look when she found the candy coin. Your kid isn’t weird – but she is very expressive/emotive – very!
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Did Allison write that poem?
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Allison says:
March 17th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
@Elaine, I didn’t…I found one online and switched a few things around. I also have had this idea in my head for 2 months. I just didn’t get around to pulling it all together until early this morning
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Elaine says:
March 17th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
@Allison, it reminded me of the Hobgoblin song. You’re pretty awesome, by the way.
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thats super cute!! reminds me of something my second grade teacher did after we read Charlie and the Chocolate factory…only it was Oompa Loompas who scrambled everything up, not leprechauns. I still remember it!! such a fun day
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Weirdness is a spiritual gift – I was heavily anointed with it!
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Cute kiddos, love the net a couple of the kids had, have memories of those things and a gazillon preschoolers trying to catch anything moving. All kids are weird especially when the parents are around. Just ask my Mom, she’ll tell ya. Glad you manned up and got the battery charged.
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What a great idea…I am sure the kids LOVED it!
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Weird is good! I love the events Allison planned out, I was thinking Easter, but then the whole pot of gold showed up. Great ideas.
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Awww. Sweet.
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Why does this title bother me? I can’t wait until we can start looking beyond color all the time. I still have that problem, too. In fact, the first thing I noticed was the non-White, biracial-looking children in the first photo. Too bad they didn’t get any cameo shots like the White kids, but I guess that would negate your title. Will we ever start looking at others as just co-existing individuals?
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Allison says:
March 18th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
@Memoria, I didn’t come up with the title, but I’m sorry that it was offensive to you. Ava’s best friend in her class is Alexa (2nd picture down little girl running full speed). I found it interesting that when Ava first started school and I would say, “which one is that?” she would never describe the other girls by describing their skin color. I always think that in that way I wish I could be more like my 3 year old.
I find myself describing clients all the time by their physical build to the girls I work with…she’s blonde and a little overweight, she has short dark hair and is built really cute. I usually judge more often on a persons general physical attributes than skin color, wish I could get over that too.
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Plano Mom says:
March 18th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
@Allison, I have made a conscious effort to describe people in positive, affirming ways, such as “she has long, beautiful auburn hair” or “he has dark blue eyes,” and I have found that people have difficulty with those descriptors – it is when I point out what one would think as a negative – “she’s a bit overweight” – that is when people recognize and remember. It is a challenge to know how to use our fallible human language to best describe God’s endlessly diverse creation.
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How I enjoyed those pics. Thank you for sharing. Those kids will always remember that day. Good it included outdoor fun.
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The preschool years are so much fun!I loved doing that stuff with the kids! Everything is so magical to them. My kids are older, but they still love things like that – my ten year old recently brought up Easter – “that bunny will still come right mom?” “MMMM maybe!”
“I LOVE that rabbit mom! Remember, mom how he hid EGGS for us mom? Do you THINK he will do that this year?
My 14 year old daughter enters the room – “He better!” music headphones in her ears – She is so tough!
” Oh and mom – remember how he always leaves his fur ( stretched out cotton balls) all over the house? and he always gets a big bunch of it caught in the door!? Remember Mom?! That rabbit makes such a mess! He is such a HOOT! ( HOOT???) Mom do YOU think he will come THIS year?”
He is SOOOOO subtle! Sure, Nate I’m sure he will come;)!
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TheDan says:
March 18th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
@JJ,
I’m 28 and my parents still buy me Easter Candy.
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JJ says:
March 18th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
@TheDan,
Mine too! She also makes me meatloaf and stuffed peppers – just for me – my hubby and kids don’t like them. I will be doling out the candy too – I’m such a Mommy! I remind my daughter that when she rolls her eyes and calls me Mooom in that teen voice – “but remember I’m your Mommy too!” Gets a smile everytime;)
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Gosh I needed that, so cute, great job. Your kid is not weird, so cute.
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That was too cute !
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Glad you are home safe and sound. You have some pretty cute womenfolk. Allison is a gem! That net is too funny!
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Hey Ryan – my niece, Meghan Corson is Ava’s preschool teacher!!!
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Love this! I know a kindergarten teacher whose class makes a big Gingerbread Man on the first day of school. When they go to the cafeteria to retrieve him from the oven he’s gone. They spend the rest of the day looking for him; the library, the nurse’s office, the principal’s office, etc (meeting everyone along the way) then go home that day without finding him. The next morning this teacher doesn’t have a single crying, homesick student because they all can’t wait to get to school to see if he is back. (Sweet pics of the little girl with Downs by the way. We have one ourselves! Our little adventure maker.)
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SO CUTE!
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No, no. I see a few morsels of chocolate goodness in there
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“P.S. – My kid is weird.” RRRRahahahahaha!!
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