Every year when I was growing up, Lucky the Leprechaun would come wreak havoc on our house on St. Patrick’s Day. I can remember waking up to a mess of green and gold. Green string that had been strung back and forth across the hallway, green paper shreds all over the floor, gold chocolate coins strewn about. One year, Lucky even (temporarily) tattooed four leaf clovers onto our faces! We would run out to our trap to see if that was the year we had finally caught Lucky. Every year we schemed and planned for days, coming up with the perfect trap that we were just sure would catch Lucky this time. Though we never caught Lucky, he always wished us better luck next year and left a little treat for us – usually Lucky Charms (we never ate sugared cereals).
This year, I found an adorable book about building a trap to catch a leprechaun. Noah and I read the book and went to work on creating our own trap.
He was so cute coming up with ideas all on his own. He was very certain that leprechauns must like chocolate chips and insisted that we fill the bottom of his trap with chocolate chips to catch Lucky! I loved doing this activity with him because he has quite the imagination! We used supplies that I had around the house – yarn, a box, contact paper (to make Lucky’s feet stick to the bottom of our box of course!), popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, stickers, and chocolate chips.
He is so excited to set his trap for Lucky this week! And I must admit, I’m pretty excited to see his face when he wakes up on St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve got a crazy mess planned that will be crazy fun. :). It includes green streamers, balloons, confetti, gold coins, and leprechaun footprints!
To go along with our St. Patrick’s Day theme this week, we also made green slime and filled it with gold pom poms and green and gold coins. Noah had a great time adding the ingredients, stirring our slime, and pressing our treasures into it. We used a slime recipe that admittedly turned out a little gooier than I had planned, but was still a lot of fun! The recipe I used combined glue, laundry soap, and food coloring. Next time we make slime, I think I’ll try this recipe.
How do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?