Foiled again ☘️

Well, here we are again. March 17th and we have a leprechaun trap in our house. I don’t even fight it anymore. My daughter climbs on my lap in front of my computer as we search for some ideas for the best trap yet.

Over the years, she has learned of the leprechaun’s ways and skills. She’s gotten inside the mind of the leprechaun. Because of this, every idea we looked at or thought of was quickly shot down because “he will just bring the ladder with him,” “he will see the hole and step around it,” or any number of other escapes she anticipated in her head. So this trap had to be GOOD.

We decided on an obstacle course design. The idea being that he will be having so much fun maneuvering through all of the equipment that he won’t even see the trap coming.

At this point, I turned the actual building over to my husband. I have made all of the past traps with my daughter, so I decided he needed to have a turn 😊 And as her imagination enfolded, the design for the trap definitely sounded like a daddy/daughter project! She wanted a box of some kind that would snap shut when he entered.

And that’s what she got. Because daddy is awesome. They built a box out of popsicle sticks, and then he installed a trip wire that moved a stick that was holding the box open. When the stick moves, the box snaps shut with a rubber band. GENUIS. She was over the moon. It was exactly what she had envisioned.

They continued to construct the rest of the mini obstacle course. Complete with army crawling under a pallet, climbing a cargo net and falling into a cushioned landing, monkey bars, jumping through tires, and then the last step, crawling through the box to get to the 3 gold coins at the end.

Just before bed time, she set out the trap. Ready to reel him in and then Snap! Trap him!

But in the morning, much to her chagrin, she found no leprechaun. The trap DID work though! It DID trap him! Can you believe it?? But that sneaky guy figured out how to push at some loose floorboards and escape out of the bottom. AND steal the gold coins! He also left a bit of a mess in our living room, as he usually does. And as my daughter knows, she has to clean up the mess because she invited him here 😊(What’s too funny, is that she cleaned up some messes that were HERS and she just didn’t remember. Like the knocked over garbage can by her craft table. “Oh, the leprechaun did this too!” Not so much messy kid 😜)

She’s already talking about next year. But she says she doesn’t really want to trap him. Just wants him to stay so she can see him and do some nice things for him. Then later, of course, she was talking about how to fortify her trap from this year, lol! The trap is just a STRONG invitation to stay until the morning, right??