I Am Emme: The Leprechaun Strikes Again

I blame this whole thing on Wes's teacher. He goes to Pre-k at a catholic school whose mascot is the "fighting irish" and so they're obviously pretty into St. Patrick's Day down there. It all actually started last year (this being his second year of Pre-k) when his teacher had the kids make leprechaun traps and the naughtly little fellow would come into their room when they away at recess or gym class and mess up the place -- tipping chairs over and and drawing on their chalkboard. And Wes ate this up. He was so intrigued by the whole thing and it was just pure magic to hear him talking about it. Now, myself, although being one of Irish descent (My mom's maiden name is McGuinness) I never really got much into the holiday. Mostly because as an adult that just means drinking all day. But this, this little ruse of leprechaun trickery was right up my alley. So last year Josh and I played along and after the boys were in bed asleep on St. Paddy's eve we wrecked the house with green footprints and spilled food to make it appear that the leprechaun had paid us a visit too. Wes was thrilled the next day when he awoke to the chaos - which of course means we are now locked into keeping up the leprechaun charade every year from here on out ;)

We threw this whole thing together late Sunday night and of course the battery was dead in the good camera and having no time to charge it, all I have are a sorry collection of iphone photos to share with you.

This year I thought a rainbow made of crepe paper would be a fun alternative to the green footprints to switch things up a bit. This of course leading to a pot of gold, which was actully just gold wrapped rolos in a salsa dish...but you get the idea ;)

And here's a little sneak peek at our yet to be finished back entry. I was hoping to have finished after shots to share this week but...as you can see by the painters tape still covering everything we have not had much progress. Not only did I have to work this weekend which threw a wrench into our plans but one of my light fixtures has still not arrived and my bench cushion needs recovered. So. We're working on it.

The leprechaun was up to his old tricks messing up the house. He even graffiti'd Oren's St. Patrick's day craft we had hanging on our Foyer mirror that Miss Lori sent home the other day.

As per last year he left a mess in the bathroom including green toilet water (food coloring) that somehow turned blue overnight?

Happily, the whole thing was a hit and the boys gobbled it up. There were even green eggs at breakfast but I'll spare you the picture since, as it turns out, green eggs are an extremely unappetizing site. But it was fun to turn an ordinary monday into something a little more special. And even though it's a little extra work and I stayed up maybe a little later than I wanted to setting it all up, I have to remember they will only be this little for so long. Soon the magic in days like these will be gone forever, and seeing their excitement and the smiles on their faces makes the effort totally worth it.