If a leprechaun visits your house on St. Patrick's Day, here are 17 silly tricks he might leave in his path!

For the last several years, we've had a peculiar visitor to our house on the eve of St. Patrick's Day. A tiny leprechaun pranks us with his mischief but always leaves a few treats behind for good luck.

As a young mom, I knew that we'd have visits from Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. But I was surprised when my kindergartener's classroom was turned upside down from a leprechaun! She had worked with her classmates to create traps from recycled materials to catch the little guy. They came up empty handed.

Don't make the mistake I made of thinking the leprechaun only visits schools! If the leprechaun needs to make a visit to your home, here are 17 pranks he might play:

1. Turning the toilet water green. This one seems to happen a lot and always brings on a bad case of the giggles.

2. Making plants and bushes bloom marshmallows. You'll see he often borrows from April Fool's Day pranks. :) Take a look at Jodi's idea over at Meaningful Mama.

Leprechauns have the power to make plants and bushes bloom marshmallows... because why not?

3. Turning furniture upside down. We've seen this one on a smaller scale with dining and desk chairs but some leprechauns go big and turn over couches or shelves.

4. Leaving various objects in the shape of a shamrock. We've had all of our shoes arranged in a big clover, but also watch out for utensils, straws, crayons, and more.

5. Adding googly eyes to everything on your child's breakfast plate/bowl. This meal is really well done.

6. Sometimes leprechauns leave behind green droppings.

Leprechauns leave the smallest of notes like these from A Bit of Bees Knees

7. Messaging on the smallest of papers.

8. Turning the milk for cereal green.

9. Rainbows are a go-to for leprechauns. We've had some colorful fruit plates, and this jello would be perfect, too.

10. Beware, they often leave a lot of these green footprints around your house.

11. Replacing light bulbs with green bulbs so that the early morning action of turning on the lights feels totally different.

12. Writing taunting messages on chalkboards, whiteboards, or right on your floor.

13. Crafting these adorable leprechaun images with your photos and paper plates.

14. Rocking the party with a bucket of these golden nuggets that might be more like painted rocks.

15. Planting this rainbow scavenger hunt all over your house. These free and fantastic printables might make your want to do this all year round.

16. Gifting with these special golden treat boxes filled with favorite rainbow candy.

17. The best leprechauns leave behind a bit of their treasure, and we always have a share of the pot of gold hidden somewhere in our house. Chocolate gold coins for everyone!

Hoping you've kissed a bit of the blarney stone this year, and you receive some of these silly pranks at your house! Happy St. Patrick's Day.

xoxo, MJ

We took a quick trip to Michael's today, and we were greeted by the countdown sign: 43 Days until Christmas. I always have mixed feelings about getting into the Christmas spirit too early, but I do admit that the decorating, the shopping and making, and the glimmer in my children's eyes... well.

So we turned our anticipation into a fun project. You know I love a good corny joke, and we made up a whole batch to put into an Advent calendar.

I'm delighted to partner with Steph from Modern Parents Messy Kids to offer a great free printable countdown with jokes for every day! Yes, holiday-themed sillies to uncover for a quick laugh, for school lunches, for bedtime giggles.

I might be a little excited about it!!

We made ours into the shape of a tree to serve a dual purpose of holiday decor and joke teller. The printable comes in two parts: pages of colorful, numbered ornaments paired with 24 jokes to attach to the back of each. Run on over to MPMK to download, pin, and share yours!

Are you ready to break out the holiday spirits?

xoxo, MJ

I am a big fan of silly jokes. I am not ashamed giggle at the ridiculous, and it's fair to say that my sense of humor resembles the age group I used to teach, ten-year olds. Since I've been out of the classroom for nearly a decade, my children get the brunt of my humor via lunch box notes.

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week, but any week (or day) is a wonderful opportunity to express our gratitude to teachers for their creative work to open up the world to our children. Having spent a few years studying and working as an educator, I can safely say that (besides parenting), there is no more difficult task than guiding students.

And as a teacher, I loved getting the super thoughtful creations from my students and the super practical gifts from their parents. So why not combine the two?

These jokes make great additions to thoughtful giftcards to local coffee shops or craft and teacher stores. They can personalize a wonderful batch of cookies or a gift basket filled with gardening tools and succulents.

Maybe a big bag of stickers and stamps would be a nice gesture for a new elementary teacher? Or perhaps a box of delectable chocolates topped off with a funny?

Among our favorite gifts to make for teachers are these chalkboard frames. And these printable jokes would make a great card on the top and allow even the most timid of children to express the joy of gratitude to a great teacher.

Print out both pages of fun jokes that you can send along with a simple daisy from your yard or a generous donation of Scholastic books!

You can download page one of basic jokes here and page two with librarian and math teacher humor here.

If you share in the joy of silly childhood jokes, follow Pars Caeli on Instagram or Facebook and get a daily joke sent right to your feed (doodle is complimentary).

How are you showing the love to the teachers in your life?

xoxo, MJ

Image and idea from Jen at Classic Play

Happy April! Bring on those showers and flowers. Our family is in celebration mode today for my hubs whose birthday is today and who has happily handled April Fools jokes his whole life. He's such a good sport. Happy birthday, my love!

April 1 brings us the silly, the ridiculous, and the over-the-top - it's the perfect kind of day to have some fun. And it's not too late to do these easy peasy jokes on your kids. I love the elaborate and extended pranks, but for my kiddos, a simple introduction to the idea of April Fools is called for.

Here are my top picks for the simply wonderful jokes of the day:

1. I'm a little biased, but I think Classic Play always has the greatest resources for fun with your kids. And, no doubt, Jen has a great treasure trove of April Fools jokes. I love how she and her children illustrated these quick pranks over a breakfast.

2. Martha Stewart's team crafted some fun ideas with food. The mashed potato sundae is a classic and one that I think would get my kids. How about yours?

3. Have you done (or been on the receiving end) of the frozen cereal trick. Put the milk in the bowl first, set it in the freezer. Take out and add the cereal. It will leave your little ones dumbfounded, in the best way. The full how-to is found over at Parenting.com.

4. For the youngest set, I think a batch of freshly baked brown E's is a great way to go. Your child will be glad to know his/her letters, but sad/laughing that they'll miss out on the chocolate treat.

5. This last one is a great surprise prank that I might do for fun on some other day of the year. Why not put googly eyes on every food in the fridge? It's such a hoot to open the door to sets and sets of eyes staring right back at you!

Are you setting up any jokes this April Fools? We're off to set up a silly scavenger hunt for the birthday boy. Here's to a great April!

xoxo, MJ