To Catch a Leprechaun

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, Sean's teacher assigned an optional project - a leprechaun trap!  I asked Sean if he wanted to make one and he said yes! After we brainstormed together and I searched the Internet for ideas, we decided on a design. The design was also influenced by a tip from Sean's grandpa that leprechauns are not very good climbers unless they have a ladder :-)  Essentially, we'd lure a leprechaun with pennies as bait to the trap and up a ladder leading the leprechaun to the top of a tall oatmeal tub, and then the leprechaun would fall in and be stuck!

With Clare helping, we started with an empty oatmeal tub and began to paint it green...

...and then we took a short break for some drama over who got to use the purple paintbrush (hint: it wasn't Clare):

That didn't last too long and soon we were all calm and painting the tub green together :-)  Once it was painted, we set it aside to dry and focused our attention on the bait - shiny pennies!  But we didn't have any pennies that were super-shiny, so we took a little science break to shine up our pennies.  First, we made a solution of white vinegar and salt.

Next, we soaked 4 or 5 pennies at a time for about 10 seconds.  

Then, we rinsed the pennies in water.  

And finally, we dried them off and polished them until they shined bright enough to attract leprechauns.

After this, the kids messed around with the water for awhile before lunch and nap.  After nap, I took Clare to the craft store for some more decorations for the trap.

Later that evening, Sean started on the ladder...

...and the next morning, we got busy decorating the trap and setting the bait.

We added a rainbow for a bit of insurance that the leprechaun would follow the trail of pennies up the ladder to the rainbow.

And in case the leprechaun should approach the trap from the back, Sean wrote out a sign:

Finally! The trap is complete and ready for Sean to take to school on Monday.  On Tuesday afternoon, he told me that his trap caught not one but TWO leprechauns!  He was so pleased!

 And a picture of our little cuties ready for school (and parties) on St. Patrick's Day:

Just Peachy

We took the kids to our favorite nearby farm to pick peaches last week!

We lined up and waited patiently for the hayride ... so patiently:

Clare and Daddy on the hayride out to the orchard:

Photobomb!

This year's crop is a booming, apparently.  The kids filled up 4 bags (2 whole pecks) in about, oh, six or seven minutes.

The kids picking:

Handsome daddy picking:

Once we'd finished picking, we hopped back on the hayride and took a tour of the apple orchards to preview next month's crop!

There was a performance of "Alice in Wonderland" at the main farm area. Daddy and Clare stayed to watch while Sean and Mommy went to check out the rope maze...

...the giant tires...

...and the petting zoo!  Look at these baby goats!

After Sean had his fill of the animals and Clare had her fill of the play, we went to the playground:

Rock climbing with my babies:

And after all that fun, we had some dinner and ice cream:

With full bellies, good memories, and a whole bunch of peaches, we went home.  The next morning I got to work on the peaches - I froze a bunch, made peach-blueberry pancakes, and peach-basil jam.

Fourth of July Weekend

This July Fourth was a little unusual for the Sooy Kids in that we didn't go to any parades and we didn't see any fireworks.  Since Hurricane Arthur was busy churning off the coast and sending rainstorms our way, the towns in our area postponed most of the Fourth festivities.  That didn't ruin our long weekend, though!

Instead of fireworks on Thursday night, we went out to a new ice cream shop that opened up by us...

and we watched a storm roll in:

When we got home, we had a movie night ("Robots") and the kids went to bed, with visions of the beach dancing in their heads.  But first thing Friday morning, Mommy ran a 5K race under very cloudy skies...

 Luckily the rain held out, only sprinkling a little before all-raining on our way to the BEACH!  It rained at the beach most of the day on Friday, which was great for watching soccer but the kids were a little restless. So, we bird-watched, colored, played games and dominoes, and snacked.

And we cleaned:

And watched the "dunking bird":

The skies eventually cleared, though and we were able to have our own sort of fireworks with sparklers!

These jumbo-sized sparklers came courtesy of Uncle Peter & Aunt Andrea - leftovers from their wedding!

The next morning was clear, cool, and bright. We had breakfast and played on Grummy and Pop Pop's deck...

...and in the hammocks:

Clare loves to relax in the hammock...

...while Sean treats the hammocks - especially the "pea pod" hammock - like an amusement park ride:

After spending time at the beach on Saturday, we had a Fourth of July party at Grummy and Pop Pop's house with Grandma and PaPa, too!  After dinner, Mom-Mom Jackie gave the kids a fishing lesson:

She showed the kids how to thread a worm on the hook, how to cast the line, and how to wait...

and it turns out we didn't have to wait very long - the area around the dock was teeming with fish! Mostly sunfish:

Sean liked petting the sunnies - Clare was hesitant:

We caught several sunnies, but always put them back in the lake.

Sean loved everything about it - the worms, the fish, the rod - everything! Clare took awhile to warm up but soon she was getting close to the worms and petting the fish, as well!

A snap of Sean's very first fish:

And then Uncle Peter caught a bass! 

Mom-Mom Jackie set about cleaning the fish but... it flopped off the deck and swam away.  Clare burst into tears!  We thought she was upset about Mom-Mom Jackie cleaning the fish, but it turns out she was upset about not getting fish for breakfast the next morning!

After all the fishing excitement was over, we had another sparkler show before saying good night.

The next morning we watched the Wimbledon final while enjoying strawberries and cream:

And we had another afternoon at the beach followed by beach-chair-fort-time in the driveway:

And Mommy and Daddy got to play mini-golf!

It was a good long weekend, celebrating America's birthday!