Leprechaun Trap Idea – Best Ever!

After working hard on this year’s leprechaun trap after school last night and before school this morning (because Gabe just HAD to finish it – he couldn’t wait until after school LOL), I must say this is our best one yet!!

Thanks to an idea shared at a site called A Holiday Haven, we had a great jumping off point. I have to give Gabe a lot of credit for coming up with lots of great ideas too, like using his marble works set to construct a support of our suspended cage. He was involved in each step of the process, and had a really fun time :). Julia helped a lot too! You might be wondering, how does our trap work? Well, the rainbow of course will attract the leprechaun, looking for a pot of gold. Once the sneaky little leprechaun sees the basket of gold down inside the carefully covered-up shoe box, he will jump inside to try to snatch it. Being inside the shallow box will not be enough to trap him, Gabe reminded me “Even little guys can climb, you know – he might be small, but he can climb!”. Not to worry – we have it covered! You see, what the leprechaun will think is simply a fluffy clowd floating above the rainbow is actually a cleverly disguised cage Gabe has made out of interlocking popsicle sticks! When he lifts the basket of gold – down will come the cage, HOPEFULLY trapping the leprechaun, so we can ask him where he has hidden all his gold :).

Who knows, maybe tomorrow morning on St. Patrick’s Day we will be a pot of gold richer ;).

For more St. Patrick’s Day ideas, see:

St. Paddy’s Day 2011: AKA “Swiper, No Swiping!”

I never got around to posting photos of the Leprechaun Trap Gabe made for St. Patrick’s Day last spring, so I thought I’d share them along with a few others from St. Paddy’s Day 2011! We were inspired by this one we saw in Family Fun Magazine. Gabe added his own touch by drawing little leprechauns on the hat, and coloring a big rainbow to go above the trap. As I was looking through the photos below, I noticed a theme – little “swiper” hands! Can you see what I saw?

Gabe “made” the shamrock cookies himself – they’re the type you can literally just take from the package. plop them on a cookie sheet, and pop them in the oven (I did that last part)!

I just had to include all three of the photos above! We found the little “leprechaun” in our trap on St. Patrick’s Day morning, along with Hershey’s Kisses “gold”, but Julia couldn’t keep her little swiping hands still long enough for me to get even one photo! Hmm, who’s the real leprechaun, here?

I’m looking forward to making another leprechaun trap with the kids this year – should be fun :)!!!

For more St. Patrick’s Day ideas, see:

Photos from St. Patrick’s Day

Here are some pics from yesterday plus one of my dad and Julia from the day before. The kids and I have colds, so Julia is taking a long nap (for once) and I am letting Gabe veg out in front of the TV. Lazy morning!

From the flower show:

I got a close-up of a shamrock, but I got distracted and forgot to take one of the pretty flowers on the shamrock plant.

Julia and I went to eat at my folk’s house last night and I enjoyed a delicious meal of New England Boiled Dinner. This was before we ate.

I got home in time to get a pic of Gabe with this green shamrock pancake Chris made for him! I wanted to contribute to the fun, so I added the whipped cream and sprinkles.

This photo is from Tuesday. Julia loves her Papa (grandpa)!