Rathdrum Prairie version of Swan Lake

Thousands of beautiful white Tundra swans are making their way back to western Alaska in their annual migration. The chain lakes of the lower Coeur d'Alene River and Cougar Bay on Lake Coeur d'Alene are regular stops but this year the recent rain and resulting snow melt created a "lake" in the fields on the Rathdrum Prairie.

On Friday afternoon several hundred swans created a field of white while they rested in these ponds just off Huetter Road north of Wyoming Avenue. What an incredible sight and one that even longtime area residents say they've not seen on the prairie before.

The third annual Minnow Madness, a middle school take-off of Coeur d'Alene's cross-town rivalry between CHS and LCHS, Fight for the Fish, is 6 p.m. Thursday at Lakes Magnet Middle School.

Faculty from Lakes and Canfield Middle School play a bragging rights basketball game while the students light up the place and rock the rafters with their enthusiastic cheering. Canfield won the title the first year and then Lakes last year. Lakes Principal Jeff Bengtson and Canfield Principal Nick Lilyquist are looking forward to the rematch. It's a fun family night out that gives these middle schoolers some solid experience in being great fans. And the trophy is pretty cool, too.

If you're celebrating the wearing o' the green for St. Patrick's Day, the 9th annual parade in downtown Coeur d'Alene is a great place to start on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. Kudos to this year's Irish royalty ... Grand Marshal Matthew Higgins, Irishman of the Year Jeff Woolsey and Irish Colleen Zoe O'Brien. The parade and celebration are a labor of love for Ilene Moss, owner of All Things Irish, in conjunction with the Coeur d'Alene Downtown Association. Saturday's weather will be absolutely perfect for a March parade: sunshine and almost 60 degrees which makes the theme, "When Winter's Dreams Become Summer's Magic!" fitting.

Mindy Hatcher and Pam Houser have been friends for a quarter century and were business partners for a decade. Together with their husbands they take annual cruises, which they did this past month. Wardrobe is important on a 10-day cruise so Pam and Mindy had each bought a few new things. But even they were stunned to show up at the pool on the first day wearing the exact same swimsuit. What are the odds? A few nights later they met for dinner and once again had the whole matchy-matchy thing going on, this time with their blouses. Maybe they should start shopping together!

Saturday marks my 28th wedding anniversary to one of the nicest guys on the planet. Bert and I share the day (month and year, too) with one of my favorite couples, Michael and Anna Pearce. Anna, aka Patty Duke, and I like to joke that we just kept doing it until we got it right. 1986 was a banner year for us both.

At lunch to celebrate my sister Janna's birthday with our mother we got to chatting about the famous Oscar selfie with Ellen DeGeneres. At 82 years and 11 months old Mom had never taken a selfie. So we did and now she can cross that off her bucket list. The photo didn't crash Twitter but it did garner nearly 200 "likes" on Facebook.

Happy birthday today to DeAnn Johnson, Will Henderson, Sylvia McCormick, Josh Vesser and David Wegner. Tomorrow Paula Sharp is the birthday girl and on Friday Tom Capone, Wayne Cofield, Bud Evans, David Cehr, Candace McEnespy, Teri Rouse, Fabian Medina and Sheila Kemmis will celebrate.

On March 15 Bill Haughton, Todd Christensen, Len Crosby, Rick Noordam, Barry Rubin and Zack Yost take another trip around the sun. Look for Colleen English, John Bujosa, Cindy Marcella, Cathy Riorden, Kelly Moore, Ken Kress, LauraLee Johnson and Dottie Pichard to blow out their candles on March 16.

Combining a little luck o' the Irish with their birthday celebration on March 17 are Cody Peugh, Keith Hutcheson, Patty Conkle, Mike Gump and Nichelle Price. On Tuesday it's a birthday for Chris Englebrecht, Dawn Johnston, Julie Bjornson and Bret Merry.

Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. She was voted Best Local Writer for 2013 by the readers of the North Idaho Business Journal. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com.