Happy Easter!

A few days late!  The Bunny was good to our bunnies yet again this year!  We had a great weekend with beautiful weather and excellent food (if I do say so myself).

Raindrops and Leprechauns

It has been a very rainy couple of weeks here. Because most of our time in California has been during the extreme drought, we don't have a long list of rainy day activities.  We actually don't have a short list of rainy day activities.  So, what to do with two creative little girls during these drizzly days?  Make leprechaun traps, of course!

Audrey has been asked to make one for a school project;  Natalie just made one for fun because she is determined with a glittery, capital "D" to catch a leprechaun in her lifetime.  They spent all morning planning, sketching, gluing, decorating and putting the final touches on their traps.  So cute.

This is Audrey's trap.  It's truly brilliant. She had us glue magnets on the bottom of Ken doll shoes that she thinks any stylish leprechaun will NOT be able to resist.  To make them extra irresistible, she added a sign that says, "magic shoes...do not touch."  

The idea is once he slips on the shoes, he'll climb the ladder to grab the gold coin and fall through the trap door hidden under the green tissue paper and land at the bottom of the tin canister, unable to move because his fancy magnetic shoes will be stuck to the floor!  Love it, love it, love it!!  Natalie helped her make the ladder out of kabob skewers, toothpicks and rainbow loom bands.  

It kept them busy for almost four hours this morning!

This is Natalie's trap.  Slightly more bling-tastic with oodles of glitter and sparkly gems, but ultimately demonstrating the same "pitfall" concept.

 Once the leprechaun enters her sparkly and colorful garden, he'll notice the jar of gems and jewels beyond the cardboard fence.  He'll soon realize that the ladder might lead him right to it.  He'll climb the ladder, step across more sparkly gems and soon fall through a disguised trap door right into the jar of gems with no way out.

 Both kiddos are convinced we'll own a 

leprechaun by week's end.  And I can't 

say I'd be disappointed if they succeed!  

Sweet Spring

It's turning out to be a beautiful spring here thanks to all the rain we've had in recent months.  While Natalie was at her tennis lesson last week, Audrey and I visited the rose garden nearby.  The rose bushes are pruned twigs at the moment, but we found this beauty, a saucer magnolia!  I have somehow lived amongst these trees for almost 4 years now but never really noticed them until this year.

 So beautiful!!

 This girl likes to be head to toe pink, 

just likea saucer magnolia!

 And then there's my totem tree, 

looking just lovely these days!

Happy Spring!