It was Carter’s idea. He wanted to set a trap. Cody was not as sure, being the big first grader that he is, that Leprechauns even existed but he did not want to be left out of the fun.
Step One: Locate an Amazon box (Leprechauns are big fans of Amazon and will sometimes catch a ride in an Amazon box to conserve their magical powers of transport.)
Step Two: Cut the flaps off the box and set them aside to be used as ramps.
Step Three: Turn the box upside down and cut a smallish hole in the top. Save the piece of cardboard you have cut out; this will be the trapdoor.
Step Four: Write something on each flap to alert the Leprechauns that on the top of the box they will find delicious and/or free food. Place the flaps around the box to make ramps for the little fellows to walk up.
Step Five: Use magical Leprechaun food to make a trail up the ramps, in this case we used some sort of rather stale breakfast cereal Carter brought home from his preschool class. There were colorful marshmallows in the mix so if I had to guess, I would say that it was Lucky Charms.
Step Six: Carefully replace the circular piece of cardboard you reserved as the trapdoor over the smallish hole in the box. With the greatest of care, place an extra special piece of Leprechaun food on top of the trapdoor. We used a green marshmallow.
Step Seven: Go to bed and dream Leprechaun filled dreams.
If all goes according to plan a Leprechaun will sneak into your house, see the trail of food going up the ramp and follow it. When it gets to the top, it will notice the lovely green marshmallow and rush over to eat it. The weight of the Leprechaun will cause the trapdoor to fall taking the Leprechaun down with it.
The boys woke up this morning and checked on the trap. They noticed the food had been eaten and the trapdoor had fallen in. They ran into our bedroom to tell us that they had caught a Leprechaun! Unfortunately that was not quite true – our trap had failed.
What we did not expect to happen, but what had happened, was that the Leprechaun built a ladder out of toothpicks and dental floss and escaped.
He must have been in a hurry for he left behind not only his ladder but his small green hat of felt and green glitter.
While we did not catch a Leprechaun this year, the boys were pleased that we had captured evidence of the Leprechaun’s existence.
Hope you all have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Shoes On The Wrong Feet 
Those leprechauns are slippery folk. I have been trying to catch one for years, although I haven’t gotten as close as your sons. They are very creative and smart! I bet they’ll get one next year! 😉
They are quite the quick thinkers and experts at illusion, those silly leprechauns. Perhaps next year we will both be lucky and catch one.
That’s one clever elf…the MacGyver of leprechauns!
You got that right! Cody wanted to know how he was able to build the ladder out of toothpicks and floss while inside the box. I told him that I thought leprechauns carried knapsacks with various outdoor survival items as well as the proper dental hygiene with them at all times.
That’s brilliant! 🙂
I really thought so too until I started looking at the related articles section. I was going to add some links to other people’s leprechaun traps but then I found several that went way above and beyond with their structure and decoration. It make our Amazon box and stale cereal look pretty sad. The hat was my idea and Husband came up with the ladder – the perfect touch! I have never claimed to be crafty so I was pretty impressed with our handywork. 🙂
Is it quite a tradition then? I’d never heard of it before but it looked a lot of fun.
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, awesome
Thanks! Glad you stopped. 🙂
Love it! What a nice leprechaun you almost had! Too bad he got away. 😦
We were so close! Never did we think that he would carry with him all he needed to make a ladder and escape. It was fun to find the ladder and the green hat though. Perhaps next year we will catch one.
Awesome 🙂
Hehehe – it was such fun!
Having boys is so fun. I LOVE the trap. Hilarious!
Yes it is. 🙂 The trap was a great success even if we didn’t catch the little bugger.
That is one clever little Leprechaun but very likely he was worried about being caught as someone may follow him to his pot of gold. 🙂
Carter had great plans for that pot of gold – something to do with buying more hot wheels cars. 🙂
Be sure to take some photos of the slippery little tikes and enjoy spending the money.
Ah but he got away, so we are left without that pot of gold for yet another year.
SHOOT!
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that’s amazing! Love it so much!
Hehehe – it was a lot of fun. I will so miss this age.
Awwww…look at that face!!! Evidence!! We would have been great friends. I spent my whole childhood trying to find pixies and brownies and elves. Sadly no one told me about this fantastic contraption your boys made. Send them my love and the genius behind this 😀 Sharon
We did not know about leprechaun traps until last year when Cody’s kindergarten teacher had one in her classroom. It was so much fun! I hope the wonder and magic of this age hangs around awhile longer.