Most Certainly Not: To Catch A Leprechaun

If you were presented with the challenge of building the perfect leprechaun trap, would you know what to do?

M2's teacher sent them home this weekend with the mission of building a leprechaun trap.

I'm sure M2 would rather have donned her storm trooper outfit, which she created from an upside down Cat-in-the-Hat hat from Dr. Seuss' birthday, but that would probably just scare the little buggers away.

[You have to wonder what she's thinking about...she rarely wants her photo taken, but asked specifically for me to take her photo in this outfit, in this pose.]

M2 spent a lot of time running around this weekend. Today, she spent a lot of time outside with the neighbor girl and I had to practically do battle to make her come inside the house. I reminded her she needed to make her leprechaun trap and then we set to work.

I had suggested she use a shoebox, but she would hear none of it. She picked a box from our vast collection in the garage. We removed the flaps from the box and then set about covering it in light and dark green cardstock. She was most concerned about what would go inside.

She wanted cotton balls...to encourage the leprechaun to come inside, take a load off and eventually fall into a deep sleep so he could be TRAPPED!

She also wanted gold coins to attract the leprechaun.

And then, the most brilliant idea of all...PEZ and M&M's to draw him in even faster. Of course M2 would see the wisdom in drawing the leprechaun in with candy.

She even sacrificed her last handful of M&M's and almost an entire pack of PEZ (what pieces I couldn't get glue on fast enough!) to make her trap its most effective.

She asked me to help her stack the Pez but not to stack them too high in case they would fall over and scare the leprechaun from the trap. Of course, she couched all this with the caveat, "I know we probably won't catch one...or will we?"

She designed her own gold coins to place on the back wall to draw the leprechaun in even further...she thought he would like the "17" coin and was especially pleased when I told her that St. Patrick's Day is ON the 17th.

"WOW! I did not even know that!" She is a riot.

She spread the coins around on the back wall to make the leprechaun want to crawl on top of the cotton balls and try to remove the coins.

And, like any good military kid, M2 recognizes the value of cover. She insisted we place a blind over the trap...made from yellow paper (like gold coins, Mom!) which obscures almost the entire front of the trap.

I said, "Don't you want to be able to see the inside of your trap?"

"WE don't need to see the inside...just the leprechaun does and they are short."

She has a point. So, a blind was adhered to the top of the trap. She figures once he goes in, he'll be dazzled by the coins, fall asleep in the cotton balls and then WHAMMY!!!!! Leprechaun TRAPPED.

Leprechaun trap -- complete. Now, it's on to the remaining dishes, laundry, adoption paperwork, Jump Rope for your Heart website creation, preparing for work tomorrow by reading a bajillion cases...yeah, good times.