St. Patricks Day

It’s getting close to leprechaun season – well, at least in the Ali house. For the past month or two we have been gathering supplies (read: old boxes, scraps of paper, tubes) in preparation to build our leprechaun traps. You see, O has this book called “The Night Before St. Patrick’s Day” and let me be honest it’s a pretty shit book with terrible rhymes but he likes it because the kids in the book build a trap for the leprechauns. Rumor has it that if you trap a leprechaun, then the lucky little leppy will have to show you were his or her stash of gold is. The reality is plain and simple – O is a boy and he loves to build things. The fact that we might be able to get rich out of this is just a side note.

During this last school break, O and Eric built the base of the trap and then this past week O and I added all the decorations. This is right up my alley! We dug out the hot glue gun, the pipe cleaners, glitter glue, scissors, all the fun stuff from our crafty box. We discussed how to make a ladder out of old (not used!) pap smear sticks (for my friends out there – you know how much I love using these sticks!) and had quite the discussion on how tall leppy’s were, how far they could jump, if they were scared of heights, this project raised all sorts of interesting topics of conversation.

The traps are pretty much done. We have to find some coins or gold or something shiny and interesting looking to get the attention of any leppy’s that make it to Djibouti but for the most part, I consider this project complete. Now we’ll have to see what happens on the night before St. Patrick’s Day…if I don’t come to work the next day it’s because we trapped a leppy and I now have a pot full of gold!

The finished trap...the leppy is supposed to walk up the steps and slide down the tube where the green arrow is.

See the little door cut in the corner? This is so after the leppy gets caught, O can open the door and get him out! Tricky!

More rocket ships and boats

Eric's decorated side of O's trap

The ladder up to the top of O's trap...decorated with decorations from my 30th birthday party!

This is my simple box trap...with enticing words to try and get the leppy to steal the treats...