It all started when I picked him up from school and he had a funny mustache on...I asked him, "Grant, why do you have a mustache painted on your face?" To this he replied, "For when the "Sneaky Man" comes to our school to steal the pot of gold coins". Hmm, I thought, apparently the "Sneaky Man" is how they are referring to "leprechauns" at school. Is this more PC than Leprechaun? Are there some tiny little men with red beards, hats and silly shoes living underneath the rainbow that will be offended if we call them Leprechauns? Regardless, I figured out what he was talking about and we carried on from there: Here is a photo of Grant, Gwen and Cam (our neighbor's grandaughter who Grant thinks "is GREAT") riding their scooters after school that day:
Other misconceptions/conversations regarding St. Patrick's day with Grant:
1)Lesson 1: Clovers are not Clovers in Grant's eyes: Me;"Grant, look! Your school has hung a clover flag!" Grant: "Mom, that's not a clover, that's broccoli".
2)Lesson 2: Apparently, the latest and greatest project to do with your kids is to make a "trap and attempt to catch "the Sneaky Man" when he comes to your house (in my 30 + years, I've NEVER heard of this tradition).
Now, realize that it was 2 pm when I realized this new tradition after reading about it on a friend's facebook page; I, of course, went into "oh my gosh my kids will be scarred for life if I don't make a Sneaky Man trap with them" mode and scoured the internet looking for something I could put together with them and not spend a ton of $ building. Here is what we came up with:
Green felt wrapped around an empty bread crumb container, with a construction paper "trap" lid. On top is some "gold bait (ie. Reeces Peanut Butter cups) The idea here folks is that the Leprechaun, er...Sneaky Man...will notice the gold bait on top and climb up the ladder to snatch it, but will be surprised when the top of the hat caves in! Brilliant! This MUST work!
3) Lesson 3: Apparently the "Sneaky Man" has gained rank with the Easter Bunny and Santa.
Grant to me, "Mom, do you think the Sneaky Man will leave me presents?" Me: "Grant the Sneaky man is not the Easter Bunny, nor is he Santa Claus. In fact, he is SO SNEAKY that he's kind of mean and he steals all of the gold money from people." Translation: Come on kid! Give your mom a break! I put together this Leprechaun trap project idea in the last 2 hours at work, I DID NOT have time to think of buying you presents to go along with this idea. Sheesh!
Luckily, I had stashed away a couple of Hero masks that the Easter Bunny WAS going to leave in their baskets.....
As you can clearly see, the Sneaky Man, came, climbed the ladder, took the gold bait, and left the kids' hero masks...left a trail of rainbow Skittles....but he did not get caught..this year.
Grant jumped 3 feet out of bed when I told him to wake up and go see if he "caught the Sneaky Man". Here's the video from it:
Don't mind Gwen SCREAMING in the background. She's quite a mommy's girl in the mornings and was NOT happy Dad went to get her from her crib.
Oh, and one other FABULOUS recipe I want to share from The Yummy Mummy blog:
Here's a picture of the ones I made for our St. Patty's day celebration
Love the "Me;"Grant, look! Your school has hung a clover flag!" Grant: "Mom, that's not a clover, that's broccoli"." Tooooo funny!!!
ReplyDeleteI also have never heard of this trap thing or anything else to do on st Pats except drink! Kiran and kids set up traps at his school and he was so excited, he wanted to put up the trap again that night.
Love your blog!
Sarita