Happy St. Patrick's Day!

An illustration from our storybook, A Little Lair®.

Leprechaun Treasure Box.

Have you heard of the leprechaun treasure box tradition?

On the eve of St. Patrick's Day children are encouraged to leave out a empty "treasure box" in hopes that a leprechaun will find it.  Should your box be discovered, the leprechaun is required to fill it with treasure.  Then he hides it.

If you are lucky enough to wake up on St. Patrick's Day to discover your box is missing, you have all day to find it.  Leprechauns are known to be pretty sneaky, so this won't be easy.  If you find your box by nightfall on St. Patrick's Day, the treasure is yours.  If not, the leprechaun gets to keep it.

Our boys were very excited to try this, so we started crafting some treasure boxes right away.

You can make a treasure box out of just about anything, but it must be small enough that a leprechaun can carry it.  We found some small inexpensive wooden boxes at our local craft store and started with some green paint and glitter.  We know that leprechauns are attracted to bright and shiny things, so we painted some rainbows and added some sparkles and stickers.  If you're short on time, you could even construct a box out of paper.

We're pretty sure you don't need to make this many boxes, but we couldn't seem to stop with just one.

We are definitely counting on having a leprechaun visit us this St. Patrick's Day.  We decorated our Lair door for the occasion and plan to leave our treasure box right in front of the little door so it can't be missed.

Leprechauns leave all sorts of things for treasure:  chocolate gold coins, money, glitter, colorful stones, small toys, stickers...just about anything that will fit.

Is this a tradition that you are familiar with?  We hope you'll try it!

Backwards Leprechaun Note.

Leprechauns love to be silly and play pranks.  Awhile back we spotted this backwards leprechaun note and thought it would be fun to create one of our own.

See if you kids can read it- it's backwards!

Place it in front of a mirror to decode it's secret message:
I may be wee, but I am big on having fun!
Can you find the 10 gold coins I left for you?

Hide some chocolate gold coins around the house and send your kids on a leprechaun inspired treasure hunt!

Click here for the free printable.
Personal use only please.

Favorite Leprechaun / St. Patrick's Day Books for Kids.

Today is March 1st-- only 16 more days until St. Patrick's Day!  Our official countdown has begun!

What a fun & magical day...leprechauns, rainbows, chocolate gold coins, the color green, Shamrock shakes, we love it all!

To get things started, here are our favorite picks for St. Patrick's Day / leprechaun books.  Hurry to your local library or book store to check them out!

1.  Clever Tom and the Leprechaun: An Old Irish Story by Linda Shute

2.  Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk by Gerald McDermott

3.  That's What Leprechauns Do by Eve Bunting

4.  Leprechaun Luck: A Wee Book of Irish Wisdom by Erin Gobragh

5.  Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie dePaola

6.  Jack and the Leprechaun by Ivan Robertson

7.  The Night Before St. Patrick's Day by Natasha Wing

8.  Magic Tree House #43 Leprechaun In Late Winter by Mary Pope Osborne

9.  St. Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons

10.  The Story of the Leprechaun by Katherine Tegen

11.  The Leprechaun in the Basement by Kathy Tucker

12.  Too Many Leprechauns by Stephen Krensky

13.  The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever by Teddy Slater

14.  Lucky O'Leprechaun (Lucky O'Leprechaun Series) by Jana Dillon

15.  The Leprechaun’s Gold by Pamela Duncan Edwards

16.  Fiona’s Luck by Teresa Bateman

17.  Leprechauns Never Lie by Lorna Balian

18.  Lucky Tucker by Leslie McGuirk

19.  The Leprechaun Under the Bed by Teresa  Bateman

20.  The Leprechaun Who Lost His Rainbow by Sean Callahan

Happy Reading!

Get Crafty: Mini Heart Mailbox

Wouldn't it fun to leave a little Valentine treat for some visiting fairies?

Here's what you need to get started:
Print our free template in color on white card stock.
Cut and secure it with some tape or glue.

We've sized the template to fit two Hershey's Gold Nuggets, but really, you could put just about any tiny treat inside.  Even a mini letter or note would be cute!

Leave it outside your little fairy door and wait and see what happens!

These would also make a cute little treat to hand out to family and friends!

Template is for personal use only.

Teacher Resource: Free Desk Fairy Printable

Have you heard of the clean desk fairy?

As a way to encourage students to keep their spaces neat and tidy, the desk fairy will pay a visit after school hours.

The students will know she has stopped by when they find a little note tucked inside their desk or cubby.  She's a great motivator to help kids stay on top of their personal spaces while at school.

Quite a few teachers use A Little Lair® to welcome desk fairies into their classroom.

We've created our own little desk fairy notes to help you get started.  Click here to print the free templates in both color and black and white.

Personal classroom use only.  

Enjoy!

Happy New Year & DIY Fairy Slippers!

Happy New Year!

We thought it would be fun to kick off January with a focus on fairies.  Aside from the ever popular tooth fairy, garden & woodland fairies are a favorite around here.

It was love at first sight when we spotted this fairy slipper tutorial!

Although we don't have any little girls of our own, we can only imagine how fun it would be to craft these adorable little slippers together.  They are the perfect accessory to a crown of flowers and ribbon for the ultimate in fairy dress up play.

Be sure to stop by The Nature of Grace blog for the DIY instructions.  We love that her family also receives fun visits from a leprechaun!