What else do we need?: Top O' the Morning

Last night, I came home from my Montessori class around 9:30pm. When I walked back to the bedrooms, I found Cameron still awake. "WHAT are you doing up?" I asked.

He was laying with his head at the foot of the bed and he was holding a periscope. Outside his door were this year's leprechaun traps. "I'm sleeping with my head by the door so that I can hear the leprechauns. Because I built another Lego bridge trap and when the leprechauns fall in the water, it will probably make a gentle plop and I'll wake up. But I won't sit up! I'll just sneeaak my periscope up over the edge of the bed and then . . . HA! . . . I'll see them!"

He was up a long time.

Much longer than one certain leprechaun would have liked.

And then, this morning, I woke up at 6am to find Cameron's face inches from mine. "I woke up at 3am," he whispered. "I think the leprechauns must have made a noise. But I couldn't see them and then I fell back asleep."

In the hall, we examined the Lego bridge trap. The leprechauns had been greeted with a handwritten note, inviting them to cross the bridge and go through the tunnel where they could help themselves to our gold. Little did they know that the bridge was slippery!!! Alas, the leprechauns had built a small raft of popsicle sticks and used it to cross the waterway beneath the bridge. There, they came across the tunnel. It was an oatmeal canister with the end cut off. Stretched across the far opening was plastic wrap, cleverly decorated with a rainbow and a pot of gold.

We had assumed that the leprechauns would be so enticed by the gold that they would run through the tunnel, failing to notice the double sided tape! Cameron examined the trap. "I woke up last night," he said, "and realized that if leprechauns wear shoes, they'd be able to escape this trap. They'd get stuck by the tape and just take off their shoes." But instead we found a wee leprechaun vest. We are conjecturing that a leprechaun leaped over the tape in his haste to reach the gold, only to bounce off the plastic wrap, landing on the tape, where he was forced to take off his vest to free himself. "I hope he had a shirt on underneath!" giggled Cameron. They had also left a rather reproachful note that led Cameron to say, "Maybe next year we should leave something for them instead of trying to catch them."

As always, leprechauns are gracious and generous. This time they left some "O'Jelly Bands" which they explained that they wear as bracelets. But when the boys attempted to wear them, they found they were only big enough for their fingers!

They had also left some Hex Bugs which they wrote were cars that they had planned to drive to the end of the rainbow. These have proved to be the highlight of Matthew's day. We have spent hours building Hex Bug obstacle courses. Cameron suggested that next year, we leave the leprechauns a Hex Bug spider that they could use for mass transportation.