The Magic of Childhood

Yesterday Liam the Leprechaun visited our home.

This was the first time my kids had anything to do with St. Patrick's Day. It's never been a big deal to me (except I do always try to wear green), and since D was always in a Jewish preschool, it was never taught (St. Patrick's Day is definitely NOT a Jewish holiday!) This year, with D in public kindergarten, was the first year he'd even heard of the holiday. His class did a whole unit on it, and talked about Ireland, leprechauns, shamrocks, etc. Very cute.

Yesterday we had his class Green Feast at school (I organized it, being the new co-room-mom). Before the party, and while the kids were at lunch, Liam the Leprechaun, whom they had been learning about, came to the class and paid a visit. There was gold glitter all over the room, the chairs were messed up; all in all it was a mess (leprechauns are known to be mischievous!) The kids totally believed it.

Later in the afternoon, we had a playdate with the kids a few doors down. Apparently, Liam had paid them a visit, too, as their toilet water had turned green! I quickly got on the ball and borrowed the mom's food coloring, ran home, and colored our toilet water green as well. When we got home, D was enthralled, and soooo excited that the leprechaun had come to our home too! Next year I will be more on top of it....I will definitely have more fun things that Liam the Leprechaun will have done to our home.

Since we aren't Christian, and don't do Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, it has been really fun for me to engage in these make-believe things for the kids, such as the Tooth Fairy and now Liam the Leprechaun. Childhood is such a magic time, and I'm thrilled that for one year, at least, my son believes. Hopefully we can get through more time of him believing (although he already questioned if I was the tooth fairy when he lost his second tooth a few weeks ago!) It's so much fun to be a parent, especially for time like this.