Finally!

It's the end of a very, very, VERY long day. It all started when my alarm didn't go off this morning and didn't stop until 30 seconds ago... The kids are finally in bed and I have a second to breathe! Since my alarm didn't go off this morning, I started off rushing and never stopped. Literally, never stopped. To compound things, Matt has clients in town, so he still isn't home. UUUUUGH! I am so ready to relax!

Today is my day to help out in Katherine's class, and as soon as I arrived the kids ran up to me, forming a circle around me and excitedly yelling and jumping. One little girl had tears in her eyes. With all of them yelling and screaming around me, and her teachers laughing at the situation, I could only hear two words... "SLIVER FAIRY".

So here's the little story behind it....

While we were in LeMars this weekend, we all went to Cleveland Park. For those of you not familiar with LeMars, it's a super cool park with lots of different activities for the kids -- and it's all made out of wood. Wouldn't you know, Katherine got a sliver. Oh, and not just any sliver either -- oh no... unfortunately it was pretty good size. If her tears were any indication, you'd think she shoved a tree trunk in her hand. She was a total water factory. Literally, every time we'd even TALK about it, she'd turn on the tears. It was almost laughable. We tried everything -- soaking it, putting ice on it, rubbing it, everything we could think of, but nothing worked.

Out of desperation, we invented the "Sliver Fairy". Think of the tooth fairy, but rather than teeth, this little girl collects slivers -- oh, and she's only in LeMars because she watches over the park. Pretty far fetched, I know. Laughable, really. But after a few minutes, she was a believer. She totally drank the sliver fairy juice, but still wouldn't let anyone get near her hand. Every time someone tried, the tears would start. UUUGH!

So, what was a mommy (and Grandma) to do? I'll tell ya! Let her fall asleep on the couch, pluck the sliver out, and carry her into bed. Since she was sleeping with Grandma, I wrote a note from the sliver fairy, attached the sliver and put a couple of bucks next to it all, and went to bed. The next morning, as I was getting out of the shower, she came running downstairs with a huge smile on her face and showed me the note and the sliver. Oh happy day!

I have to say... I think there's a small part of her that thinks we're full of phoney baloney. Seriously, she totally wants to believe, but I'm not entirely sure she does. She almost snickers every time she says, "Sliver Fairy". I guess that's part of the magic of Santa, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy.... EVERYONE believes, so it's easy to jump on the bandwagon, but starting something new??? Not nearly as easy!

Anyway, she took the sliver and note from the sliver fairy and showed off the proof to her teachers and class. The rest is history! Needless to say, several kids are going home to profess the existence of the sliver fairy, and her teachers are having quite the laugh.

I have a ton of pictures from the weekend, and I'll edit them and post them soon. I'm still having problems with Katherine's birthday pictures, so I may have to beg Danyel to help me out! Pictures soon!