It's Not Easy Being Green

 We sure love St. Patrick's Day and dreaming all year long of how we are going to finally catch one of those tricky leprechauns and steal there gold.  The kids get trickier every year!

This was Ian's trap this year.  He has been very into fishing lately and thought the leprechauns would probably be enticed by fishing too, especially when fishing for none other than a RAINBOW trout.  The catch is that when they climb up onto the "fishing platform" they will break through the paper and fall through the cup and become trapped.

Ashlyn's trap was very artistic and clever this year.  The leprechauns would be enticed to try the "rainbow slide" only to find out that the pot of gold is bottomless and they become trapped in the container underneath.

Tanner's traps are always pretty complicated to explain, but always involve toothpicks and saran wrap. 

Charlotte went for the old trap propped up by a Lincoln Log bit... 

And Whtilee had a trap that had a false bottom hidden underneath a four leaf clover.  When the leprechauns step on the clover, they will fall into the box. 

Bronson was very into games this year and came up with a leprechaun version of Don't Eat Pete.  When the leprechauns climbed up onto the board game to play, they would fall through the false bottom that was cut in the box underneath one of the game squares.

The kids decided that we also needed to have a St. Patrick's Day family party night this year since the holiday fell on a weekend and we could stay up late.  So we made some green cookies and watched Disney's brave since it takes place in the setting was in Scotland and it was close enough to Ireland and the accents and traditions. 

Unfortunately, we didn't eat all fo teh cookies and the leprechauns tried some too.  They were quite rude! 

Needless to say, we weren't able to catch one this year either.  Here are some of the ways they busted our traps: 

They also tried to ambush the kids and block the top of the stairs so that they couldn't come up. 

And set a "Kid Trap" of their own...

And pulled a few tricks: 

This is how the kids woke up! 

Tanner got away with just a green freckle or two.

No one was too sad about not catching a leprechaun especially when they left us mounds of gold candy, which just so happens to be our favorite.