Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We must be a very lucky family, because we were visited by a leprechaun this year! I used to always have one visit my classroom, so word must have gotten around the leprechaun world that we are a leprechaun-friendly family =). Rylan wasn't quite sure what to think when he first saw the green footprints, but he quickly warmed up to the idea when he got a special leprechaun treat, and then a hunt for gold! Hopefully Lucky the Leprechaun makes it an annual tradition to come visit us, because it will be so much fun when they can remember from year to year.

We started the week by doing a few St. Patrick's Day activities. I had a lot more ideas that I wanted to do, but it just didn't happen. The dangers of Pinterest! Too many ideas, and not enough time! Decorating our windows for St. Patrick's Day! We love these gel clings and you can usually find them in the dollar section at Target. Super simple, but keeps him entertained for a while.

Our St. Patrick's Day sensory tub: green split peas, St. Patrick's Day buttons, green shot glasses, and some felt shamrock's and gold that I made for an activity last year.

Hunting for gold

Making some tie dye shamrocks. Who knew coffee filters made such great crafts! They're one of my go-to activities for every holiday and theme, because they're really simple and you can change it up to make whatever you want. Adding some color with dot markers...

Then squirt with water to create the tie-dye effect.

Set out to dry and voila! Super easy craft and decoration. We love to hang them in the window because they look really pretty with the light coming through.

Playing with the sensory tub with baby Hope.

Making a salt rainbow. Salt painting is definitely one of my new favorite activities!

Adding some food coloring and water with droppers. Wow, it's magic! Watch it spread.

So proud!

After a week with some fun activities, it was finally time for the main event! That leprechaun was definitely busy the night before and got into some mischief!

Rylan came downstairs to discover some green footprints on the window (actually, we had to point them out =)):

Hmmm...what are these green footprints on the window? Not quite getting it yet...

Look, a note! Leprechauns like to leave special notes, complete with limericks and all (although we discovered that Papa didn't quite know how to read limericks =))

The note led us to our special leprechaun treat...Lucky Charms!

Where else did that leprechaun go? To the fridge! That must be how the milk turned green.

Leprechauns make quite a mess!

He even used our toilet! "He needs to flush!"

I've never seen him eat a bowl of cereal so fast!

Later that morning we headed over to a friend's house for a garage sale.

Enjoying some rainbow sherbert! St. Patrick's Day is apparently a very sugary holiday.

Beautiful girls! Hanging out with Miss Krystal. I love this picture of the two of them!

In Lucky's letter, he told us that he was going to find his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He mentioned that if he found it, he may come back later. Apparently Lucky found his gold, because during nap time he came back! Unfortunately he couldn't stay and play, but he did share some of his gold with Rylan and left him his own treasure hunt. He had to follow the rainbow of clues (complete with limericks again), to find his own pot of gold!

Clue #1- Hidden in Mack, of course.

Yellow! Halfway there...

Each time he found a clue, he had to bring it back here to read it, and then line them up in rainbow order, of course.

There's blue, almost there!

Jackpot! He found his pot of gold. Yes, more sugar =). Good thing St. Patrick's Day is only once a year!

After we came downstairs, we realized that sneaky leprechaun had tricked us! He told us he had left, yet somehow the gold ended up in his room, and it wasn't there when he woke up. Rylan was very intent on finding and catching that leprechaun (or the little green guy). He wanted to "catch him and turn him into a pet!"

Rylan and Papa headed upstairs in search of that leprechaun!

Unfortunately, he was just too tricky and they couldn't find them. Instead, they spent the rest of the afternoon taking turns being leprechauns and chasing each other around! Here is Papa the Leprechaun hiding from the leprechaun net.

I'm going to catch you! (Just ignore the giant mess of toy soliders on the floor in the video =))

My little leprechaun - much cuter than a real one!

Caught you! (Although a little unfair since the leprechaun seems to be distracted by his toy soldiers)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!