Searching for Luckey the Leprechaun

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We were invited to such a fun St. Patrick's Day party Friday night and we almost didn't know it! The week I was hosting pre-school, Kelton handed me a folded-up paper that he said was sitting on my door step. I put it in my "in box" with my other mail and went ahead with preschool. Later on I opened it up and scanned it quickly. The title said, "Join us in the hunt for the Lander leprechaun's treasured Pot O' Gold." It was signed by Hiolair, Darcy, Kyna, and Riona. I didn't read the entire letter and left it in my stack of mail. A week or so later, Kris asked me if I was going to the party. I said, "what party?" She explained what the letter was so I went home and read the entire thing.

"Dear Friends,
You are invited to attend our St. Patrick's Party! In order to be the first to find the leprechaun's pot at the end of the rainbow you and your teammates must follow our clues and gather the necessary information to unlock the leprechaun's hiding place.
If you remember your Irish folklore (if not, you can brush up at www.yourirish.com), leprechauns have inhabited Ireland for centuries, living in the undergrowth of the Irish countryside. Well, it seems that, like many of their human countryfolk, some leprechauns have decided to try out life in these United States, even Lander, Wyoming. Leprechauns are mischievous and intelligent but harmless to humans. They have magical powers including the ability to grant three wishes as well as the ability to vanish into thin air. It is said that every leprechaun has a pot of gold hidden deep in the countryside and that you can find the leprechaun by finding his pot of gold. We, the Lander League for the Protection of Leprechauns, want to give a big friendly welcome to our local leprechauns. We are hoping that you will join us in trying to find and welcome them.
If you dare to attend and believe you are up to the challenge, come join your friends for an evening of fun. All who prove themselves daring, swift, and brave will be eligible for induction to the League.
Please follow the RSVP instructions below and await further instructions. We hope to see you there!
Party Date: Friday, March 13th Start Time: 7:00 SHARP
Your League Hostesses: Hiolair, Darcy, Kyna, and Riona
(Our true identities will not be revealed until the night of the party but be assured we are friends of yours, you probably see us weekly!)
RSVP's are mandatory!
To secure your spot in the hunt, send an email accepting our invitation (or have a friend send it for you) to irishpartyfun@yahoo.com. Please respond by 10 pm on Fri, Mar 6, 2009."

An additional attached note said:

"Hi friends,
We're looking forward to seeing you on March 13th. Hopefully, we have given everyone enough time to find babysitters. Please dress warm enough to be outside in whatever weather we have that evening. Each person needs to bring a flashlight. Be at the northeast corner of the Pamida parking lot by 7 pm to meet your team captain.

Please RSVP as soon as possible!

Sincerely,
Hiolair, Darcy, Kyna, and Riona"

When I RSVP'd they sent back an email with the list of others who had RSVP'd and still signed the email with their secret names. Pretty soon the buzz between my friends was who might be these four secret people. We had lots of suspects. Alison, I seriously suspected you because of how creative you are. Some of us accused each other of being the culprits. I thought Wendy was involved since Kelton was the one who gave me the invitation that was supposedly on my porch. Kris thought she'd seen Wendy hand the note to Kelton when she dropped him off at pre-school. It was really fun to try to figure out who these four people might be.

You know how I love Davinci Code, National Treasure, and shows like Monk and House, because I love how they follow clues and figure things out. (I love to play "Clue" -- right now James is saying, "hey, remember that time I won on the very first guess?" Yes, James, I remember... lucky guess...) Mysteries, clues, treasure hunts, thinking things through and figuring them out... I just LOVE that sort of thing. So this whole idea was so enjoyable to me.

A week before the party I received an email asking us to be team captains. There ended up being several teams and the captains received a packet of information to read before we arrived and to call our team members to give them instructions. This packet was also left anonymously on our porch. We called our team members to tell them what to bring and where & when to meet. It was still such a mystery who might be planning this event. Many people from both wards were invited. The group was getting bigger and bigger.

We all met at the Pamida parking lot at 7:00 p.m. We each had colored arm bands to distinguish the teams from each other. We were the blue team and we had us, the Pehrsons, the Broughs, and the Stueklers on our team. At exactly 7:15 we were all loaded into our various cars (each team needed to fit in one car) and were allowed to open our first clue. All of the clues were written in a very detailed and clever way. We also had an envelope of emergency clues that we could use if we needed them but we would be deducted points if we did.

Our first clue led us to Sawmill Campground up Sinks Canyon. We dug in the saw dust under the buffalo until we found our next clue and a miniature mug for the leprechaun. We were supposed to bring all of the leprechaun's gifts back to him at our destination point. Our other clues led us to Abernathy's Greenhouse, Lucky Pond (and nearly a mile walk in the dark with our flashlights to get there since the gate closed at dark!), the church, the Chamber of Commerce train caboose, McManus Park, North School near the sanctuary, and then finally to our final destination of City Park. One of the clues involved doing math to figure out which letter each number represented. At that point I turned around and accused Carol of being one of the party planners. "This is cub scouts!" I said, "you have GOT to be involved!" Carol is a big scouter. She's also very creative. By the end of the night, she had folded and admitted that she was one of the 4 planners of the party, but that she hadn't known any of the destinations or clues, and she wouldn't tell us who the other 3 planners of the party were.

We also had to fill out a quiz about Irish folklore. We guessed on some answers, but didn't know others, so we used our "Phone a Friend" option and called James' mom who looked them up on the internet. I don't know if Phone a Friend was really an option, but it didn't say we couldn't call for help... so we did! We got 3 of the 5 answers right. There were a couple other things to read or figure out, some words to unscramble, and clues to decifer. It was so fun.

When we ended at Parks & Rec, we were the 6th group there. We were pretty sure my friend Celeste was involved because her husband had taken charge at the Pamida parking lot very everybody took off. So we figured we knew 2 of the women, and I still suspected Wendy so those are the 3 names we first wrote down. Seeing the decorations in Parks & Rec with all the detail and lights and water fountain, I knew Sister Duncan must be the 4th person. She used to be Cameron's Webelos leader, and whenever she did Arrow of Light ceremonies, she went all-out with the decorations and used lights and water and similar things to how she'd decorated the Parks & Rec building.

Turns out we were right about 3 of the people... the party planners were Celeste, Jean, and Carol, and one who I never would have thought of -- Ramona. There were 80 couples invited and I'd guess at least 40 of them came. Our team won 2nd place even though we were 6th to arrive because we had enough additional points and didn't use any of our emergency clues. We ate refreshments and had a fun time visiting with all the people there, who were a large mixture of both wards. Here are a few photos from before it got dark:

We were searching under the buffalo's belly for our next clue.
everybody gathered at Pamida before taking off:

What a fun night! We didn't get to bring home a pot of gold, but we did meet Luckey the Leprechaun and had a wonderful time being Irish detectives!