St. Patty's Day!

I love holidays! Big, small, made up, real, you name it, I love it! I especially love it now that I have kids and that my kids are old enough to share my excitement.

A few years ago we started a St. Patrick's Day tradition where the kids decorate a special 'treasure box' the night before. Then we leave it in the moonlight and, when they wake up in the morning, the box is GONE! During the night, some tricky leprechauns took our treasure box, filled it with treasure, and hid it! We have to hurry and find our treasure box because, if we don't find it before the sun goes down, the treasure box will disappear and our treasure will be lost forever! Those sneaky leprechauns do leave clues though, as to where they hid the box. This year they left a trail of white shamrocks to follow (we were confused as to why they didn't leave green shamrocks until we realized that those leprechauns were out of green paper and didn't realize it).
Usually the leprechauns aren't too tricky, but this year they must have known that Clayton and Noah were old enough to follow several different trails in order to find the right one, so they were VERY tricky this year! There were trails going off in several different directions!
Funny story: when I woke up the boys this morning (the trail started in their bedroom) I gasped and said, 'Oh no! What happened here!?!' Clayton, my anxiety-ridden child, bolted right up and cried, 'My bed got messed up! Oh no!' I chuckled to myself and explained that beds were allowed to get messed up when you slept in them, then I pointed out the leprechaun trail and Clayton went from anxiety to excitement in no time at all! The boys following the trail. They got misdirected a few times, but they perservered, continued on the hunt, and were rewarded for their efforts!
Noah's sweet sleepy morning face.
They finally found the treasure box! Clayton was so excited! He's at just the right age for things like this. I love it!!
Not sure why this is sideways. Oh well. Inside the box were treasures indeed! There was a green shirt for each of the boys, a green dress for Josie, and candy a plenty!
After we found our treasures, it was time for breakfast. However, imagine our surprise to discover that those leprechauns turned our breakfast green! For the third year in a row! Man, those leprechauns are sneaky!!
The boys are HUGE fans of green breakfast. They ask for green milk all day. I think it looks a little disgusting, but they love it!
The food they had was green eggs, green milk, and green muffins.
My handsome boys in their new green shirts. Thanks leprechauns! After I took the picture, Clayton asked to see it and his reaction was, 'Hey! We're both looking!'. I guess you can tell how rare it is for us to get a picture where they are both looking!
Josie in her dress. Very festive!
What a sweet girl!
It was a great morning. I'm so glad that we have this tradition. I love doing this with my kids!

On a completely different note - we find out TOMORROW where we are going for residency!! I'm so excited I can hardly sit still! So stay tuned!