it seems fitting to honor all our st patrick’s day fun on the day, a week and a half later, when i swept up more glitter from that sneaky leprechaun!  i tell you, he was something else!  we dressed in green all week to encourage a sighting!

(and when i saw this picture of myself, i realize even more how silly i looked…especially when i ran into the grocery store)

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by the way, since it was u week we also made the u->st patrick’s day connection again:

the leprechaun wants the pot of gold, the pot of gold is at the end of the rainbow, the rainbow comes after it rains, if it is rainy you might want an umbrella.

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we tried our best to catch him by working on one big trap.  we used an old tree house toy and added a lot of green, gold and rainbows to try to lure him in.

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wouldn’t you know it?  he snuck in everyday when we were outside!  we knew he had been there by the little piles of gold glitter (that he must of dropped from his bag).  he also pooped in our room.  but fear not:  leprechaun poop is small, round, sweet and you can eat it!  (green m&ms…though this nicely sorted pile was eaten by my dog before i could take them to school!)

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he left us notes and tricky clues to find a little fake leprechaun hidden around the room.

he got braver and braver and by thursday i accidentally sat on him (though when i shook out the rainbow cloth he must have been hiding under, all that fell out was gold glitter and a note). 

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we made leprechaun lures early in the week to encourage him to come out at preschool and then at home.

these were simple and fun.

there were a few friends who were SURE they saw him on the playground.  i totally believed them.

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another thing the leprechaun does to us is pee in the water…it turns it green but doesn’t change the flavor at all.

(and lest you fear that someone will think it is safe or appropriate to drink pee, offer pee, be asked to drink pee, etc, we break out of the make believe long enough to have a serious talk about the topic…which inevitably leads to other conversations about safe touch, bathroom parts, etc.  there are so many learning moments!)

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finally, on the final days before st patrick’s day, we made individual traps.  it didn’t seem like we would catch him at school, so we thought it would be best to try on our own.

i put mine up high on a window sill during story time at the end of the day and all of a sudden we heard a funny little laugh.  following the sound, we realized it must be in the trap!!!!  but again, when i grabbed the trap, all that fell out was glitter!  and his laugh stopped.  he must have snuck out of the window.

(i downloaded a sound effect laugh on itunes and started playing it during clean up time.  we’re so loud then that no one heard it until we quieted down for story time.  oh the rush.  it was fantastic.)

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so, with trails of glitter, sweet treats, enough green to see it for a long time, and singing our song many, many times, we celebrated for a week!

bring it on in 2013, leprechaun!