St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day isn't for the faint of heart at the Smithson's house.  It's a hard core, get messy, be creative (and sneaky), fun affair.    It starts a few weeks before, when we start to think up our trap ideas and collecting materials.  Since we live in a small town, far away from craft stores, we actually started thinking up our traps early February, but that's besides the point.  After we think up the traps, we start painting and constructing...

The night before, we have to set the traps.  We had a variety of traps this year.  Noelle made a Leprechaun Hotel, Melanie had a box with bait under it and a stick that had a sign to push the stick to turn on a light, and Oliver made a slide with no bottom.  The idea is that the Leprechaun would go down and not be able to get back up. 

It appears that the traps ALMOST worked.  We were visited by 3 Leprechauns that left Skittles and notes. 

The kids have already decided on alterations they plan to make for next year.  I think we might actually get one!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Belated Valentines Day, From us!

These are the Valentines we sent out this year.  I'm in love!

Christmas Eve

In Oak City, the entire town comes together on Christmas Eve for a program.  Well...  the entire town that is IN town for the holiday, but still, it's quite a turn out.  The program consists of a nativity, a play put on by children ages 3-13, some Christmas carols, and then a visit from the busy man himself... Santa Clause.

My kids were really excited about participating in the play.  They had small parts, but by time we actually did the play, the had the entire production memorized... in fact, I'm typing this 2 weeks later, and they are still singing the songs and saying people's parts constantly.  Here are my little actors before the production:

Melanie, as "Mistress Mary"

 Noelle, as "Jill"

And Oliver, as "Jack"

Here they are singing the closing song.  So cute!

All the children did an amazing job.  The play was about dolls in a dolls hospital that were putting on a show for a girl who wanted a new doll.  She wanted Raggedy Ann, but not Raggedy Andy.  The dolls were trying to change her mind by putting on their best performance.  My kids were Mother Goose dolls.  There were also dancing dolls, a bride doll, soldiers, clowns, and a lot more.  It was fun.  I was blessed with the opportunity to help with the play.  It was a lot of fun to get to know the kids.  I also really appreciate seeing some of the older kids take to my little ones.  Oliver and Preston have several older girls looking after them.  That makes my heart swell with joy.

After the play, we sang songs until Santa came.  Then my kids waited their turn to tell the big man Merry Christmas and make their last minute pleads for something special.  Here are some pictures:

Thank you to everyone that put this wonderful program together.  It was definitely enjoyable and I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to participate.  Merry Christmas!

Independence Day (Day 2 of our Trip)

Happy Independence Day!  We were so happy to celebrate such a wonderful holiday with our family in Fillmore.  We started the day with a parade.  The Parade experience is much different in a small town than it is in the city.  In the town, they throw candy...  LOTS of candy (and other things), and the kids can run into the street to get it!  And they did just that!  Here are some pictures from the parade.

My kids are waiting and ready!

 I thought this was clever.  This is Fillmore High School's student counsel.

 The Millard County Library made a fun Dr. Seuss float!  I love it!

 Some of my favorite men.

 This guy slept through all the tanks and fire truck noises.  It's amazing.

 Ready to run out and get more!

 About 3/4's of the way through, this little man was too tired to do any more candy gathering.  In the back ground you will also see my Uncle Brant and Aunt Ruth Ann.

 After the parade, we headed to the Historic Capital Building for the festival.  My kids had stayed up WAY too late the night before, so we didn't stay at the festival for too long, but we did enjoy the grass and the cooler weather.  Here are a few pictures I took showing off the red, white, and blue matching outfits my mother bought them.

 There they are!

 Brotherly Love.

After the festival, we headed back to the house and some of us took naps while the others played at the park.  Friday night, we headed back to Fillmore for an amazing fireworks display.  We laid out a blanket and watched from the softball fields.  It was the first time we have been able to do that (last year we watched from inside our car because of the rain.)  Preston slept through the entire thing.  Oliver was scared, so he rapped his head in his blanket and laid on my lap.  He too fell asleep.  The girls truly enjoyed the colors, though Melanie informed me later that it was the scariest thing she has done "in her whole life".  When asked later what their favorite part of the trip was, Noelle's response was the parade and the fireworks.  I think this was her favorite day.

Happy Independence Day!

Dying Eggs And Finding Them

Time is flying past pretty fast and I finding myself behind and writing things down.  So, over a week ago... we painted eggs.  It was an adventure with Oliver.

And then, after church on Easter.... the kids found them.

It was a good day!

P.S. Preston was all dressed up for Easter as well, but I haven't got a good picture of him dressed nice yet.  He decided to have an accident that day at church and didn't make it home from church dressed nice.  Silly boy!

Sneaky Little Leprechauns

We have a St. Patrick's Day tradition that we really enjoy...  We like to set traps and try to catch Leprechauns.  Leading up to our favorite green holiday, Melanie has been really excited and mentioning it constantly.

A cute funny side story.  I got this message via email from Melanie's teacher on the Thursday before St. Patrick's Day.

" We were talking about St. Patrick's day and she started giggling so much that everyone was laughing. She was telling the other students about the traps her family sets. She said you had not caught any yet but that they had left stuff behind. All the while she was giggling and laughing. So everyone wanted to know if they were real. She said yes and I let them know that my stuff often went missing and maybe they were playing a trick on me. Then I let them know they should talk to their parents about it. "

Perhaps some of Melanie's friends will be starting a new tradition because of Melanie's excitement.  Who knows.  

This year, I wanted the traps to be something the kids could do by almost completely themselves.  Last year they helped make the trap, but it was mostly my work.  This year, I got some recycled boxes that the Leprechauns were sure to get stuck in, and after I wrapped them in green paper, the kiddos did the rest.  Here are some pictures:

 The kids covered them with stickers, wrote "Free Gold" on the side, and put some coins on top to bait them.  We added a ladder to each trap so that the Leprechauns could get to the gold, and we went to bed.  The idea was that the Leprechaun would climb the latter, see the "gold" and fall into the opening on the top while trying to retrieve it.  

Oliver's Trap

Noelle's Trap

Melanie's Trap

 Well... as you can tell, those sneaky Leprechauns tricked us again.  But they did leave a taste of the rainbow.

 And look what some other sneaky Leprechauns left right outside our front door.  This was a surprise to us all.  What a fun way to start our St. Patrick's Day.

Thank you Leprechauns!