Yep, We are Those Kind of Insane Parents

Lately, I have seen a slew of comments from angry parents that feel that the level to which holidays are celebrated are out of control...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-howerton/can-we-bring-the-holidays_b_2903040.html

Yeah, probably... but to that I say why not?  At our house we get pretty into St. Patrick's day.  I am pretty sure my kids don't even know what the holiday is even about, (nor do I really... maybe I should visit Wikipedia after I am done posting this).  What I do know is that years ago in a Family Fun magazine far away, we were introduced to leprechaun traps and we were intrigued.  And so the holiday for us has become one magical day of the year when leprechauns sneak into our house looking for gold and our one chance to use our ingenuity to catch them.  In a world where kids grow up so fast, and so many rules exist now to limit fun, I relish the idea that for one extra night of the year a little more magic and imagination exists in the hearts of our children and keeps them young and innocent for just a minute more in this short span of childhood.  And ultimately, I also hope that they are treasuring up memories of parents who bring fun and creativity into their lives.

So yeah, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day to the max.

This is how it went down this year.  And darn it all, I never remember to get the before pictures of the traps!

Ian ran out of time and had to go simple.  He used a fountain cup, cut a big slit at the time and stuck a gold coin on the slit.  The leprechaun steps on the lid to get the coin and BOOM falls into the cup.

Ashlyn, on the other hand drew plans for weeks trying to figure out the ideal trap.  Here she used her all time favorite Ramen Noodles packaging, cut a large hole in the top, saran wrapped it, put a coin on top of the hole and saran wrapped it some more.  Leprechaun climbs on the trap, cuts a hole to get the coin out and falls into the trap.

UNFORTUNATELY, those sneaky devils always steal our toothpicks, plastic utensils, etc. to make complicated ladders and retrieval devices and both coins were stolen with no leprechauns to show for their hard work.

Charlotte cleverly coated a box on all sides with honey.  If the leprechaun touched the box to climb to the top to get the coin, he would become stuck in the honey.  UNFORTUNATELY, the leprechauns borrowed some toilet paper to take the sticky edge off the trap and with a homemade ladder, they retrieved the coin.

Don't even ask me how this one worked.  Tanner's ideas area always very complex.  He did hot glue a penny to the bottom of this container and filled it with water.  The leprechauns apparently tried to get his coin, but weren't successful, however neither was Tanner because as you can see... no leprechaun.

And I didn't get a very good picture of it, but you can see a cage in the background.  Tanner taped toilet paper to the top and stuck a coin on top.  If the leprechaun stepped on to the toilet paper to get the coin, he should fall through and become stuck in the cage.  He lined the inside of the cage with paper so the leprechaun couldn't simple climb out.  However, that tricky leprechaun used some toilet paper to climb right back out of the cage.  Shucks.

The leprechauns also left the kids silly notes about hating our cat and destroyed the kids school artwork.

But the piece d' resistance was the "kid trap" the leprechauns set for the kids.  They used a St. Patrick's day basket that Ashlyn had made at school and filled it with gold (rolos).  When the kids ate the rolos, a box would fall on their heads.  The leprechauns aren't too bright though, because they picked a small oatmeal box.  Not sure how big they think kids are?

The also tried to barricade the stairs to keep the kids from getting up in the morning.  The kids had a hysterically funny morning reading all of the notes, finding out what the leprechauns did to their traps, and sharing some leprechaun gold from the kid trap... all for the cost of an hour of their parents time and a bag of Rolos.  Not bad for a lasting fun family memory.  I think we will keep this tradition.

Along with the advent of Green Eggs and Ham for dinner.  Yum!