Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I always felt so "Irish" on St, Patrick's Day because my middle name is a tribute to my Irish heritage. Growing up I was told stories of my great-great grandma Rachel Ellis O'Neil who came over here from Ireland and settled in Midway, Utah. I was named after her and her daughter (who was my great grandma Rachel Violet) and loved hearing stories about the amazing women they are. It was a sad day that I realized that I am really only 1/16 Irish, but I claim it proudly because it is from this amazing Irish woman that a long line of women in my family has come.

My favorite memories of St. Patrick's Day came from Kindergarten and First Grade. In Kindergarten, Mrs. Petersen taught us this song that I still remember to this day and taught to my kids this year:

Today is the day of the wearing of the green
Today is the day when the little people are seen
Today is St. Patrick's Day so if you're Irish me Lad
Join the celebration, there's a lot of fun to be had!

 Then on St. Patrick's Day in first grade, I walked into the classroom to see little black footprints all over the walls and ceiling and learned a leprechaun had snuck into our room looking for gold. This felt like the most exciting day of my life! My Mom heard about this and started doing this as a tradition in our family, and it was always so magical! So of course, I had to continue it.

But first, we had to lure a leprechaun in so me and the kids made a leprechaun trap.

We covered the box with paper that we decorated with "rainbow" colored glitter glue and put stickers on the back. Then on the front we advertised we had "free gold" and put stairs to the top where we had a false floor.  The floor was paper and we made a cut in the paper so when the little leprechaun came to snatch the gold he would fall through.

We also made a rainbow to get his attention- this was definitely the BEST part for the kids. I knew my kiddos were too young to draw a rainbow, so I had the idea they could glue little fuzzy balls in a rainbow shape. First, we had a great time sorting the colors.

 Then I used glue to draw a rainbow arch that Annalise would fill with one color of balls, then I would draw a smaller arch of glue under that one and she would fill it with a different color, and so on...She loved it so much she wanted to make rainbows until all the balls were gone.

The finished project was beautiful and almost all the work was done by Annalise by herself- she was thrilled!

The morning of St. Patricks' Day we checked the trap and found this note:

Dear Kids- HA HA
You tried to trick me, but I tricked you
I took your gold and hid your baskets too!

The leprechaun had escaped with our gold! But we were clever and left some baby powder on the top of the trap so if he did get away we could follow his footprints:

"Footprints" are baby powder and created  by using my pointer and middle finger

They led right out the front door! He was long gone...

The kids found their buckets of treats and green pinwheels that a glued a little rainbow button to:

We dressed in our green:

This was the perfect shirt for Annalise because it says "I'm a Wee Bit Irish"
and that's true- she has only one Irish ancestor that I know of- her great, great, great
grandma- but she is very significant because she is my and Annalise's namesake
for our middle names, which is Rachel. Her name was Rachel Ellis O'Neil and
she created a long line of amazing women starting with her daughter and my great-grandma
"Mama Violet" and her daughter, my absoluley incredible, one of a kind Nana,
then my beautiful and wonderful Mom, then me, and then my darling Annalise.

Best picture I could get of Jonah that day. He felt he needed some
more green, so he smeared frosting all over his shirt!

Then we made some Shamrock cookies for good luck:

Yum!

The night ended with the kids taking a bath in some fun, green colored water! 

Even though I am only (but proudly) 1/16 Irish, I definitely have the "Luck o' the Irish" when it comes to my family!