The Bishop's Office: A Leprechaun History

I tried to explain to Kate and Adam this morning that we wouldn't be having any messy visits from Leprechauns today. We need to keep our house clean for showings and I had banned leprechauns from the house. Adam burst into tears and proclaimed he was not going to school today.

"What about the leprechauns at school?," I inquired.

"They aren't real. The teachers just come and mess up the room." Then he continued, "Remember last year when we were all sitting downstairs and Kate went upstairs to get a diaper for Colin and we found the note from the leprechaun in the leprechaun trap? That was the best day EVER!" (See below for the full story.)

Kate was upset because she had made a trap. She had spent the morning positioning the camera in a small box in an attempt to catch a shot of the sneaky Irish lads. I tried to consul them we might find some mischief outside later and I would be sure to move the camera trap into the backyard.

That afternoon Mason and I found a small black kettle on the front porch with a note that read:

When Kate and Adam got home we went excitedly to the backyard to find the treasure! After discovering several misleading pots ("No gold here!" "He he he!") we decided to check the camera trap I had put under the barbecue. To our great surprise we found a shot of the leprechauns and even caught some video of them stashing their gold.

"Hey, what's this?"

"I don't know."

"Hey this big black thing looks like a great place to hide our gold."

"They'll never find our gold here. He he he!"

Inside the barbecue we found the treasure, a large stash of gold coins. They were immediately consumed.

St. Patrick's Day is a fun holiday at our house, sparked years ago by Kate's love of magic and mischief.

Last year we made cookies (shamrocks and gold coins) and then set a trap so when the leprechaun tried to eat a cookie the stick would fall and the box would close on him. No luck. He got away and left us a note and some green candy.