Today was a "Good Mommy" day!  Mike had to go to an early morning Elders meeting and I was home with the munchkins on this cold St. Pat's Eve.  So I decided that - seeing as it was only 32 degrees out - we would forgo the Annual St. Pats Parade for a nice WARM St. Pats Celebration.  We started the morning with our traditional "Daddy Is At Work Breakfast" at Pauls' Donuts.  Basically it's a reason for me to 1) get out of the house and 2) Get a cup of coffee while the kids eat donuts.

While driving there, I get a text from Joel Keen that says, "Are you ready for some Big 1's".  I almost couldn't see the road I was laughing so hard.  He told me that when we got home there would be "BIG CUPS" there.  I was a bit scared but seeing as my mind (and his) are frozen in their 12 year old state and are constantly in the toilet, I was super excited!  As I pull up the kids start screaming "MOM, LOOK WHAT THE LEPRECHAUNS LEFT US!" Again, I almost fell over laughing at Leprechauns leaving us the big ones!  But here was our St. Pats Surprise from our awesome Pastor!

  

I barely had the car in park before they were jumping out to claim their prize from the 'Ole Man Keen Leprechaun!

When we got inside I told them we would be making Leprechaun traps.  Now thanks to Lorén's teacher she came home a day ago saying that we needed to build a Leprechaun trap.  Apparently they read about them in school.  If you trap one, you get the Leprechauns pot of gold.  (OOooookay).  But I thought, "Heck, I'm going to have a good mommy moment."  So, I gave them supplies and let them go to town.

I have a confession to make.  As a teacher I used to get so MAD when I gave an assignment to the kids and I could TELL their parents did most of it for them.  It irritated me to no end.  Well now that I'm a mom I need to take of my own Parental Perfectionist Hat (as my co-worker used to call it) and let them do their own projects.  I really wanted to jump in and say, "Oh just do this or that" but I bit my tongue because this was THEIR project and they needed to make it their own.  And look at what they did. . .

So please remind me to always shut up, let them be creative and enjoy seeing their beautiful work!!!

In other news, I decided that the teachers needed a little teacher gift.  When I taught first grade it always lifted my spirits to amazing heights when I received a gift letting me know the parents appreciated me.  It always made getting through the day/week so much more rewarding!  So from time to time I try to give the teachers a little something to let them know that I appreciate them. . .and not just on Teacher appreciation week.  So I always hated February and March.  There never seemed to be breaks and the kids were just extra hard.  So I decided the teachers needed a drink. . .and chocolate. . .or both . . .together. . .In a cupcake!  Oh yes!  They got Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes!