Catching Leprechauns – Take Two

Brynlee's "Three Wishes" Handout from preschool today.
P.S. Brynlee wouldn't let me take a picture of her unless she got to lay on the kitchen table with the little pot of gold by her head.  Whatever.

It was first thing this morning that Brynlee made the bold announcement.  She held her shamrock shaped cinnamon toast in one hand and triumphantly explained that this was the year she’d be successful in catching a real live leprechaun. 

{Sidenote: After last year’s St. Patty’s Day breakfast Brynlee made me cross my heart, hope to die, stick a thousand needles in my eye that I would never, ever, EVER again serve her green eggs.  Ever!  Not even on St. Patrick’s Day.  They are so gross, mom!  And to make sure I wouldn’t forget my promise she reminded me numerous times throughout the year.  But don’t think the green egg promise stopped me from using an entire bottle of green food coloring to color everything but eggs, or from using my shamrock cookie cutter on toast and any other edible items.  This cheesiness of mine . . . it really is hard to contain}

Anyway, her statement caught me off guard.  Because one) she remembered about last year’s catching leprechaun?!  She was three last year!  Okay, almost four.  But still, not very old.  It suprised me that she remembered.  And, two) last year she had used up all the decent leprechaun catching idea, and all of them were unsuccessful, and three) how was I going to break it to her that real live leprechauns are really hard to catch.  Like impossible to catch.

But don’t think that stopped her from trying.  It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I told you that every second of our 2011 St. Patrick’s Day was spent searching for leprechauns.  Because seriously, every second of our 2011 St. Patrick’s Day was spent searching for leprechauns. 

Bryn searching for Leprechauns

She made a rainbow Fruit Loop trail from the back door to a cardboard box.  The plan:  when the leprechaun ate the fruit loops she would jump out and trap it with the cardboard box.

She wrapped a piece of licorice in packaging tape, sticky side out.  The plan:  when the leprechaun ate the licorice it would get stuck to the tape.

She built a sandcastle in the sandbox.  The plan:   when the silly leprechaun tried to enter it would get stuck in the sand.

She lined up Jace’s matchbox cars.  The plan:  the leprechaun would confuse the imposter cars with his own car.  And then when the car wouldn’t start she would grab him.

She sat out St. Patrick’s Day cookies, she painted rainbows as decoys, she closely examined anything green, she lined up chocolate coins and when that didn’t work she exchanged them for real coins, she colored water green, she sang creative leprechaun chants, she made up poems, she watched ‘how to catch a leprechaun videos’ on YouTube {no joking}, she ate all her lunch to give her leprechaun hunting energy, she even had me write the leprechaun a little note.  Dictated by her, of course.

And although she found thousands of clues and even swears that she saw a leprechaun run out from underneath the couch while I was vacuuming - she still ended the day empty handed.  Bless her heart.  But on the bright side, I guess there’s always next year.

Hope you got your hands on a Leprechauns pot of gold, or a lucky charm, or at least some green food coloring, a shamrock cookie cutter and some Farr’s rainbow colored ice-cream.