TOP O’ THE MORNIN’ TO YA!

If you’re looking for a magical party to augment your holiday fun on St. Patrick’s Day, I enthusiastically recommend this high-engagement activity. Keith and I have offered a version of this party structure countless times, originally for Valentine’s Day. It will work for any holiday (except maybe Lent and Yom Kippur). Here’s some photos from one of our past Candy Store parties.

It starts with kid’s envisioning their candy store. It’s a lesson in business and branding (at which they’re becoming quite experienced with all the “store parties” under their little belts).

They decided they needed to pick a fabulous name. Rather than the predictable Shamrock Candy Store, they created the Shazam-rock Candy Store for that extra splash of excitement. I was enchanted! Then they needed to make signage, store labels, price tags. They also decided how their print and online advertising photo should look (you can see it in the top banner photo of this newsletter).

Then the kids needed to build out the store in our dining room, which they decided would also be a gift shop with green boas, hats, and accessories. They also added a cafe in the kitchen so they could serve beverages and offer customers a place to relax and savor their treats. This seems to be the most fun part of the party for them.

The grand opening was a huge success. We paid in gold coins which we purchased at the door. There was lots of complex math involved in calculating our bills. The prices seemed to be fluid depending on very vague parameters. Discounts sometimes exceeded the price. We also caught the owners several times consuming their own products! Concerns about Russian oligarchs and money laundering aside, these are all potential improvement projects for their next enterprise.

The sales and customer service skills were superb. For only two gold pieces, Paw got to take a souvenir photo with the owners (see above). The candy was exceedingly delicious, but Paw liked the Guinness best.

There was even entertainment, contests, and prizes! This included a sing-along of Irish classics, a vicious contest of Keep-Your-Balloon-Aloft, and some Irish jigging. You can see the balloon contest winner at the prize table picking out a shamrock necklace for her prize. The Shazam-rock Candy Store, Cafe, and Gift Shop was a pot of gold at the end of our holiday rainbow. Such delightful fun! I hope you host one sometime.

AFTER THOUGHTS. As our kids and grandkids aged through their childhoods, a large part of their creative play essentially became practicums in various adult roles and activities. If you are stuck for a play idea for the kids you love, just noodle on some occupations. These are exciting times for them and trying on these roles is a great confidence builder.

If you’ve not had the heart-pounding pleasure of seeing the wee leprachauns hiding in your yard or dancing at night under a full moon, you really need to look harder. I assure you, they are into all sorts of mischief right under your cute little nose. Even so, you don’t really need to see a leprechaun to catch one. You’ve heard the tales, so you know what catching one means — you get three wishes and a gold coin (these are worth more than $2,000)! He also needs to tell you where his pot of gold is hidden. So, laddies and lassies, let’s trap one!

5 SIMPLE STEPS TO MAKING A LEPRECHAUN TRAP

1) Get a shoe box or something similar made of cardboard. Cut a hole in the lid that is about twice the length of a deck of cards.
3) Leprechauns are drawn to green so use paint, markers, stickers, crayons, etc., to add some green flourish to the box and lid.
4) Get a bit of honey. Jelly works on the young leprechauns, but they have less gold in their pots. Squirt a little honey or jelly inside the box.
5) Put a light piece of cloth or tissue over the hole in the lid so the leprechaun won’t know the hole is there. Put a penny on the cloth or tissue. If it falls through, you can just put it inside the box.

The leprechaun will smell the sweet honey and sense the coin. When he hops up on the top of the box, he’ll fall through the hole, getting stuck inside. Yikes! Now the hard part. Follow these next steps closely or you will fail to get the wishes and gold — and you might get cursed!

HURRY! You have to hurry when you catch your leprechaun. If they are trapped too long, they wilt and the magic leaks out of them and you will get nothing.

DON’T LOOK AWAY! Leprechauns are members of the Fae family, which means they are actually a part of the fairy world. As long as you are looking at the leprechaun, he has to abide by the rules of magic. If you look away, they are free and can disappear or curse you. He will be trying to distract you so look away. DON’T DO IT!

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU SAY YOUR WISHES
The Leprechaun will try to confuse you so your wish is said wrong. For example, don’t say, “I wish I was younger,” or he might make you just one second younger or make you a baby. Say exactly how much younger you want to be.

MAKE THE POT OF GOLD YOUR THIRD WISH Some people don’t know you actually have to wish for that and use up their third wish on something else by accident. The leprechaun will be trying to trick you into forgetting.

NEVER SAY “WISH” ACCIDENTALLY If the leprechaun is talking too fast and loud, don’t say, “I WISH you’d be a little quieter” because that will count as a wish.

MAKE YOURSELF LUCKY You can increase your chances of prevailing by putting a lucky charm in your pocket: rabbit’s foot, horseshoe, picture of a rainbow, a four-leaf clover, etc.

Leprechauns are very hard to catch, so don’t feel sad if yours gets away with your penny. Maybe he will leave you a little note to brag about how clever he is, or maybe a little surprise. That makes a very nice keepsake and gives you proof you were close. Maybe use more honey next time. Good luck!

Our family’s folklore includes a character named Miss Ladybug, an insect poet and founder of the Ladybug Literary Society. Every now and then, she issues a Writing Challenge for a particular type of poem.

She also makes a little instruction sheet on how to write the poem, shown above. Help yourself if you’d like to use this invitation to a Limerick Challenge for your young poets. Also use Miss Ladybug’s instruction sheet and sample limericks if they need some guidance. You can find them HERE

The invitation you see above will go out to my family on March 1st with Miss Ladybug’s instruction sheets. The prize will be a pot of gold (aka the money in our coin jar). Contestants are allowed one entry in the prize drawing per original limerick.

I just love a lazy recipe, especially if it starts with Devil’s Food cake mix. It screams easy baking ahead! Full disclosure: I have not tried this recipe yet, but I cook and bake a lot from the Six Sisters Stuff website. This is their recipe and I can’t wait to surprise the grandchildren with these Leprechaun Shoe Cookies (although the Six Sisters call them Grasshopper cookies). I am especially excited about the filling. They had me at “peppermint abstract!” Click HERE to get the recipe. (Photo from Six Sisters Stuff)

Even though I won’t make the cookies until St. Paddy’s Day looms, I have written my poem. The poem’s story was told to me by my great grandmother Whalen who came to this country from Ireland. She swore the tale was told to her by the leprechaun himself. She even had an old photo of his shoes. (I assume she was full of blarney).

If you bake your own batch of Leprechaun Shoe Cookies, I heartily believe they always taste better with a poem. You may want to write one, or feel free to use mine if you like. I share.

I realized this fall, that the last of my grandchildren are too grown-up for Ugly Bugly the Witch Poet. We have enjoyed her horrors over the past two decades, but it was time for her to travel the world and look for a new husband. I have ghost-written a few postcards to the kids since she left. They keep us abreast of her arrests, evil plots, and adventures with her sister Ickity Lickity. The postcard above was the first one from Argentina. I sent it to the kids for U-Bug shortly after Halloween.

I was getting ready to write a little postcard from her to the grandkids from Dublin for St. Paddy’s, when I realized I was missing a huge opportunity here. So, first of all, Ugly Bugly is going to start writing letters rather than sending postcards. I plan to write a multi-episode witchy story through her letters — real cliff hangers that really make these countries of the world come alive. I will be starting in March in Dublin on St. Paddy’s Day. We’ll see if this idea has any traction or if Tik Tok prevails. Stay tuned.

If you have any fun ideas for kids, I’d sure love to hear about them. I’m always looking for ways to make a little magic for them.

As I was putting together this love letter to you, I was thinking about the Irish in my family, the famine they endured, crossing an ocean to start fresh in a foreign land. Young me looked for heroes, and I didn’t have to look far. Their courage made them heroic in my mind.

I recently read about another grandmother who was a hero to her family. She had been a nurse living in rural Georgia for most of her life. But after almost seven decades of living on a small farm, she enlisted in the Peace Corps. She spent almost two years serving the people who needed her most in India — a half world away!

One of my favorite authors and Stoic philosophers is Ryan Holiday. He wrote about her recently. He said, “We’ve talked before about showing our kids that it’s never too late–and in this simple, selfless decision, Lillian Carter showed that in so many ways. She was showing them that we’re never too old to make a positive difference in the world, to be of service. That we’re never too old to take risks or to step outside our comfort zone. But more expressively, she showed them that you’re never too old to follow a dream.

As she wrote home, “If I had one wish for my children, it would be that each of you dare to do the things…that have meaning for you as individuals…but not worrying if you don’t please everyone.”

Encouraging our children and grandchildren to be courageous is good, but it’s just a faint whisper compared to the example we set. We need to model courage, showing them how to tame our fears and do what’s right. Who knows what goodness might result. For Lillian, her actions were a powerful message to her family. You may recall her son became our 39th president.

When the children you love are looking for heroes, let them find you among them. Sending love. — Mary May

Book recommendation: COURAGE IS CALLING by Ryan Holiday

• • • GRANNY BUNNY ARCHIVE • • •

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