St. Patrick's Day 2010

Ah, St. Patrick's Day.

If you remember, I told you in another post about how much Elisabeth loves/dreads St. Patrick's day. Well, this year it was nothing but love for her. Not only was she not scared at all of a leprechaun coming to visit, she was thrilled. She really wanted to capture the leprechaun and ask him for one wish (which would be to turn into a wizard) and then she would let the leprechaun go and tell him that he could come back any time.

So, the night before, she and Evan constructed this:

From what they explained to me, the leprechaun would read this note:

and then would go try and get the penny. Once he tried to take the penny, that top carboard section would spring shut, trapping the leprechaun in the plastic milk carton. Elisabeth felt it was fool proof.

The next morning she woke up fully expecting the leprechaun to come during the night. When the trap was still not touched, we explained that you never know if or when a leprechaun would show up. She then hurriedly got ready for school because their classroom was going to do all sorts of St. Patrick's Day things.

While she was at school, I started getting ready for our own St. Patrick's Day shenanigans. I had a full Irish dinner planned, plus cupcakes with green frosting that needed to be baked. Not to mention that a leprechaun needed to visit us. I literally spent all day in the kitchen.

But, when Elisabeth came home, she found this:

and this:

and this.

She was beyond ecstatic! The leprechaun also left a note saying thank you for the penny, but that she'd gotten trapped in the house that Elisabeth had made her so she'd had to chew her way out (aka: staple remover used a the top of the cardboard) and that the cats had chased her around the house. She also left a bowl of green banana candies (think Runts candy, only green) in a bowl with a note saying, "Your cats drove me bananas! From: Maggie the Leprechaun". Elisabeth was on cloud nine and talked about how next year's trap will have to be stronger and that she hopes it's Maggie who comes back next year because she was so nice. She then proceeded to lecture the cats about not chasing small people dressed in green when they come to visit our house.

We left the "mess" that the leprechaun had made as it was until Evan came home so he could see it. Then we ate!

Our meal:


I made Irish soda bread from scratch. It was super easy to make and tasted great!

We drank some Guiness.

The Guiness was also used in our Irish Stout Stew. It was a recipe that came in our monthly local liquor store newsletter we get. Cause we have a family discout there. Just keeping it classy, people. Keeping it classy.

The stew, by the way, was super good and super filling!!!

And, we ended it with chocolate cupcakes with green frosting.


Hope you all had a fantastic St. Patrick's Day as well! (and that no one's suffering from the "Irish Flu" today!