Setting Traps

Dear Kids,

In the lead-up to St. Patrick’s Day, Marshall became fascinated by leprechauns. He wanted to catch one so that he could steal the pot of gold. “Then I’ll be rich!” he shouted with glee. I doubt that he really understood what it would mean to be rich. But then, one doesn’t need to understand economics to be intrigued with the idea of tiny, magical men who stash pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, right?

Marshall was so eager to catch a leprechaun that he made a leprechaun trap. It was a contraption that couldn’t possibly have worked, and yet a surprising amount of thought went into it. It was almost plausible. What he lacked in materials, he made up for with his imaginative use of the items on hand, including a plastic spider.

Leprechaun trap

The finishing touch was the note. First Marshall drew a birthday cake (an appealing image to lure in the leprechaun) on a piece of paper, then he dictated some text for Daddy to add to it. Here’s a close-up of the finished product.

This Is Not a Trap

“This is not a TRAP! Go and get the candy!”

He set this first trap on the evening of the 15th. He laid it out on the dining room floor. I asked him why he thought he could catch a leprechaun in our house, and he informed me that leprechauns visited people’s houses at night. That was news to me, but I had to admit that it made sense. Santa and the Easter Bunny go to people’s houses, so why not leprechauns?

On the morning of the 16th, we found that the trap had been sprung and that the candy bait was gone. Interesting. So he set a new-and-improved trap that night. On St. Patrick’s Day morning, not only did we find that the trap had been sprung and the bait taken, but there were two pieces of gold in the trap!

Well, they were chocolate candies wrapped in gold-colored foil, but they might as well have been gold. The two of you ate your chocolate greedily, quite pleased with yourselves and your leprechaun trap.

Marshall wanted to set another trap that night. And who can blame him when the reward was chocolate? But I explained that leprechauns go on vacation after St. Patrick’s Day. So the leprechauns are safe, at least for now.

But the Easter Bunny had better watch out!

Love,

Mom

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3 Responses to Setting Traps

  1. sprite says:

    He’s lucky the cats didn’t catch the leprechauns. I bet they’d have had a lot of fun with them!

  2. chick says:

    Yes, and I’m pretty sure I would not want to see what the leprechauns looked like after Peeps was done with them!

  3. Pingback: Leprechaun Trap 2015 | Blue-Footed Musings

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