Alex And The Leprechaun Invasion

I hope this finds you relatively free of tiny little bruises from all the St. Patrick's Day pinches! Last December I revealed we were caught 'in the act' on Christmas Eve. All feeble attempts to explain why we were taping name tags on the presents under the tree while holding stockings and bags of candy at the same time were pretty much a bust. So that's how our youngest (11 next month) got the news.

So with that, I was completely unprepared for what happened today. It's Spring break for our schools this week, which translates into Spring break for Alex too (no chance getting him to focus with his friends and brother out of school). I took advantage of the time off to work on an Easter layout for my digi blog. I'm finishing up when I hear Alex running down the hall and bursting into my room, breathless. "Mom! They were here! The leprechauns were here last night, Mom. I'm not kidding!"

Huh? Okay, my mind is racing, I don't really know what to do with this. Did he forget Christmas already? What's going on here? Is he serious? "Oh yeah? How so?" was all I could think of.

"Okay! Come here!" I reluctantly followed him down the hall, through the kitchen and into the laundry room. It was a long walk, I didn't know what to say! Yup, there it was. Clear as 7-Up, a streak of mud right in front of the door to the garage. Mmmmmhmm. That's suspicious. Especially given the 100 feet of rain we've had this week. Mud. Imagine that! I played along. I even inspected the minuscule specks of water on the kitchen floor, no doubt made by Louie's ears that always dip into his water bowl while he drinks. Yes, I bent over them, even crouched down to run my finger over the suspect water drops left by those pesky boys in green. I stood up, congratulated him on his great detective work and went back to my room to call John.

Here's what we decided: We think if we had a do over, we would not only ante up with Alex about Santa, but would also add this, "If he/she comes into our house in the cover of night while you are asleep then he/she does not exist!" That ought to cover leprechauns, Santa, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy and the Bogeyman. You'd think it would be a given. And now I must contemplate the upcoming Saturday night basket filling ritual. I don't wanna.