Saint Pat's and all those sneaky Leprechauns!!

We've been close lately, and me and the old man Pat.

I was informed that St. Patrick's Day is LAME by Gage, because I didn't make as big of a deal as, say, like Christmas. I am ashamed.
So we did try to make it more fun- decorations, green clothes, little cheap hats and necklaces for everyone in their classes, I hosted a preschool party for Lauren's class and let the big kids sluff school and come to the party.
Then we made little plates of treats to sneak over to the neighbors (Leprechauns are sneaky, you see, so we had to be too). We were just going to ring and then doorbell-ditch, but we got caught a lot. It was so funny to see them sneak up to the door all quiet and then once it was rung, they would all yell "RUN!!!" and hammer those little feet back to the get-away car.

I asked the kids if they had liked all the fun stuff we had invented, and by far the doorbell ditching thing was their favorite.
Me: "You guys want to do it again next year?"
Them: "Yeah!!"
Me: "Who should we make treats for next year?"
Pause.
Gage: "Who is the slowest person we know?"
He's always thoughtful like that.

We capped the night off with our local wrestling tournament. Gage took fourth. Out of four.
He did really good though, and wasn't sad about losing until the last match. He had tried his hardest, and looked up to the score board and saw that he had only made one point (the other kid only had a couple more) and he hung his little head and started crying. They held up the other kids' hand and he walked over to Tony and just buried his head in his neck and bawled. It broke my heart. (I could tell Tony was hurting for him, too.) So we took him out for a cheeseburger and let him stay up late with us watching the "Gnome-mobile". He has recovered completely. Just like I tell Tony, a cheeseburger will do it every time. Or Oreos.

We did have an interesting little conversation on the way home, though. Mostly just Tony talking and me listening, really, which is unusual. He said that if our kids are going to do sports, he has to be around. And he can't do it with the job he has now. (FYI his current job is in a city almost 2 hours from our house. Add a 4 hour round-trip commute to a full work day and you have yourself an absentee father.) He mentioned that when we took the kids outside to throw the ball around last Sunday, he noticed an improvement in less than an hour. I told him that I thought that would be wonderful if he could be around more.
So the conversation just sort of stopped there, because this is something that I have been just a hopin' and a prayin' for! It's not a bad job, but our kids are getting older now and they need him to be around. Especially Gage, since his only brother is a toddler and we do not live in a neighborhood where he is regularly around other boys. I am anxious to see if this was just passing talk to sooth his bruised heart, or if he actually intends to make some changes.

Maybe we'll get lucky and find him a job closer to home.
And isn't today the day to hope for luck?
Yes. Yes it is.