We're on a Leprechaun Hunt!

I am a sucker for family traditions. Our family has never had one for St. Patrick's Day, so I decided to come up with one to start this year. On Monday night, a little "leprechaun" snuck into our house while everyone was asleep and paid our kitchen a friendly visit. In addition to some crumbs and open wrappers from the food that he helped himself to, we discovered a few footprints on the kitchen table as well (Since our kitchen tabletop is tile, I just used washable markers to make the footprints. You could re-create "evidence" of your own by leaving a green note, footprints across a newspaper, green glitter...).

After close inspection of the evidence left behind and a little "hunt", we decided to make a Leprechaun Trap (a friendly one, of course!).


The first step was deciding on how to build our trap. I found instructions on how to make a box out of popsicle sticks at kaboose.com and decided that, with a few adjustments, it would be perfect for trapping a little leprechaun. We glued our trap together using larger popsicle sticks. This project was surprisingly easy with the help of my glue gun.


My 4 year old then decided that we needed to diguise our trap as a rainbow. Pretty clever, I thought. This was definitely his favorite part of our project.



We gathered some "gold" coins from our play kitchen and decided to make a path leading the leprechaun into our trap. We will have to wait and see what we turn up with in the morning...

Pop Goes the Pumpkin

If you have been following my blog, you know that I have been dreaming about hosting a Halloween party for the past couple of years. Well, despite having our middle child's birthday on the 26th, I have decided that I am going for it this year. The Halloween party planning has begun! Nothing too fancy. Just a little Halloween Shindig for my kids and some of their friends to help celebrate the SPOOKY season. In the midst of my planning, I have come across some really great ideas that are easy and super kid friendly (nothing too scary, since I am catering to a younger crowd). Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing some of these great finds. I hope that you are able to use them for your own Halloween celebrations.


Today's find is a fun Halloween game called Pop Goes the Pumpkin. This version of a classic carnival game will thrill your guests as well as provide your party with a festive wall decoration. (I will note that this game may not be suitable for younger children. Six years and older would be my suggestion). Guests are given a pin or dart and take turns popping the mini "pumpkins" to discover confetti, candy, and whatever else the balloons are filled with. I think that this is a fun alternative to a pinata for an older group of kids.

Here are the instructions from Martha Stewart:

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

•4-by-5 1/2-foot piece of foam board
•2 yards of burlap or other fabric
•Duct tape
•Removable hooks (such as Command hooks)
•Thirty-five 12-inch orange balloons
•Confetti
•Candy (small, thin types work best)
•Pump, for balloons (optional), joann.com
•T pins
•Green paper
•Ribbon
•Pushpins (or darts for bigger kids)



HOW-TO

1. Cover foam board with burlap; secure in back with duct tape. Adhere it to wall with hooks.

2. Fill balloons with confetti (using a funnel) and candy. Leave a few treat-free to add to the suspense.

3. Inflate the balloons (a pump makes it faster); tie off with a knot. Attach balloons to board with T pins, in a pumpkin shape.

4. Cut a stem shape (download the template) from green paper, and secure with T pins.

5. Cut ribbon; tie onto pushpin handles to make them easier to hold on to (and find, if dropped).

Happy Popping!