Last minute "Leprechaun" sighting tips

I don't remember St. Patrick's Day being about seeing or catching a leprechaun when I was little; I just remember a bunch of pinching and having to come up with excuses for where my green was (it certainly was not a good color on me). Apparently, wearing green is secondary to seeing and/or catching the leprechaun on March 17th. Last year, I helped my daughter's kindergarten teacher paint little green 'leprechaun feet' all over the kids' class work while they were at recess.

This year, the other first grade teacher told her class to build leprechaun traps, but my daughter's teacher did not play into the leprechaun thing at all. So, my daughter put together a quick leprechaun trap in the morning before leaving for school. My intention was to buy some plastic "gold" coins and put them in the trap, but the party stores were completely out. Lesson #1: do not try to buy "gold" coins on St. Patrick's Day. I was able to find a cheap plastic leprechaun hat, so I decided to put that in the leprechaun trap and tell my daughter that he dropped his hat while trying to run out of the trap. Not only did this work, but my daughter was so happy that she immediately called her friend to tell her the leprechaun still came, in spite of the fact that she left him grapes that weren't green. Apparently, leprechauns only eat green foods.

Later, my daughter decided the leprechaun must have stopped by our house before heading over to the church, where her little brother and sister spent their morning. The lady working at the nursery that morning came up with a genius idea: she put green food coloring in the toilet and told the kids that they scared the leprechaun away when they came in the room, so he never flushed, wiped, or washed his hands! Not only did this mesmerize the kids, my older daughter figured out that the reason he had to go to the bathroom at the church was because he ate the purple grapes at our house.