St. Patty's (or Paddy's) Day Celebration - Catching A Leprechaun

 
One day last week, our daughter told our youngest grandson that Nana thought she saw a Leprechaun while out feeding the birds.  Ewan is almost five years old and this made him very excited.  He asked a lot of questions.  Heather told him he would have to wait until he came to our house and maybe he could see for himself.  Since St. Patrick's Day is in the middle of the week this year, we decided to have our annual dinner today.

 
In preparation for the day, my husband decided to make an adventure out of it.  He found a brush pile in the woods.  I knew he was spending some time in the garage and woods, but when I saw him cutting the fingers off of an old leather glove, I had to ask questions.

 
 He was making hinges for the entry door to the Leprechaun's house.

The Leprechaun is a naughty little guy.  He stole a few pieces of twig furniture right off the porch.

After getting the Leprechaun house set up, he planned a trail to follow to find it in the woods.  When everyone arrived my husband Mike explained to the kids that the day we went for groceries to get supplies for our St. Patrick's Day dinner, we left a package on the porch.  In the bag was some silly string and plastic Irish eyeglasses.  They were for the kids to play with.  When all the groceries were put away, we realized that the package was missing.  We were pretty sure the Leprechaun took it.  They needed to look for clues to see if we could find the items and probably the Leprechaun.  The first thing Ewan spotted was a yellow bag.

He called to the rest of us, and we began looking for clues.  The naughty little Leprechaun worked his way through the woods leaving a trail of silly string and the packaging of the glasses.

Here we go, Ewan telling the big boys the plan.

Oh my gosh, there it is.  Who is going to brave enough to look inside.  What if the Leprechaun jumps out and bites.  We said all you do is grab his beard and he won't bite.  Of course, Jack, one of the youngest was the bravest.  He opened the door and all that was inside was the POT OF GOLD with the missing glasses and other golden treasures.

Oh look, a Pot of Gold and other stolen items.

The boys had fun.  Melissa opted out.  I guess this wasn't too exciting for a 14 year old girl.

When the adventure was over we ate our dinner.   There were fourteen of us.  Our family plus my son in law's parents.  It was a beautiful March day and everyone was happy.  It was a perfect day.  For my Tuesday recipe this week, I will post how I made the corned beef this year.  It was similar to how I have made it previously with a few important variations.