We reached the end of our Leprechaun Games adventures on Monday, the official date for St. Patrick’s Day.  Little Man had successfully found six coins through the Leprechaun Cloud and Magic Treasure Stones activities.  Now on this last day of the treasure hunt, he awoke to find that the leprechauns had returned over night to hide the final installment of three coins.  This time they had hidden three coins under three rainbows in the living room.  Just between you and me, the original plan of the leprechauns was to hide the coins and rainbows outside but St. Patrick’s Day ended up being a bone-chilling cold and rainy day.  Therefore the leprechauns took pity on us and left the booty in the nice, warm, dry house.

One leprechaun showing where the coin was going to be hidden in the rainbow of cups.

The first rainbow was found on the living room table crafted out of Little Man’s rainbow cups.  He found this one quickly since the leprechauns used their favorite color green cup as the hiding place.

Little Man found the hidden coin quickly.

The rainbow and coin hidden inside the castle tent.

The second rainbow was hidden inside Little Man’s castle/tent.  He was relieved that the resident dragon (aka really fluffy cat) hadn’t snuck into the castle to play with the treasure.

Little Man with rainbow in hand and recovered coin by his foot. Teddies at the ready to protect from the dragon-cat.

The third and last rainbow was one drawn by the leprechauns on Little Man’s art easel.  The plan was to give us an art project for later on in the day, and a chance to talk about rainbows, their colors and the mixing of primary colors.

The final rainbow drawn by the leprechauns on Little Man’s easel for coloring later.

Once the last three coins were recovered, they were set aside in a fittingly green dish to wait until nap time.  (Now you will notice that at this point in the post there are near to no pictures.  That is because I seem to have lost my camera.  Wah!  More pictures will be forthcoming, but those of the final part of this adventure are gone.  You’ll just have to use your imagination.)

On the way to his bedroom for nap time, Little Man set up the letter and the coins for the leprechauns.  We retrieved his leprechaun letter and rolled the coins back up, leaving it all on his little stool.  When Little Man awoke, his first request was for his toy samurai and the second was to go and see what his leprechaun reward was.  I’m not sure if he thought he needed samurai protection from the leprechauns?  When he got to the stool Little Man found that the letter was unrolled, and on top of it rested a small, wooden treasure chest.  The chest was filled with leprechaun gold, and the letter thanked him for playing with the leprechauns and that they’d be back again next year.  They also welcomed him to look for them at the end of a rainbow whenever he wanted.

The treasure chest was a huge hit, and Little Man was quite impressed that he got so many “golden” coins.  Last night the treasure chest “slept” in the castle/tent so that it would be safe from dragons.  The bottom of the chest was decorated by the leprechauns with his name, a rainbow and the date.  Now I think he’s just plotting what to do the next time he sees a rainbow, and on the island he might not have to wait too long for.

The dragon lurks outside of the castle dreaming of treasure… or at least a quiet, dark place for a nap.