Kiss Me I'm Irish Hat

C was pretty excited about his hat. He came up with the idea himself and I happened to have a green plastic plate for a sturdy base.  He happily wore it to school and I was surprised it survived the day!

The brim holds paper airplanes.

there is a pocket on one side that has a hole to an inside pocket to hold snacks.

Who wouldn't want to kiss that little Irish (mixed with a few other things) face?

A House for a Leprechan

Other years we've tried to set some Leprechaun traps hoping to catch a little guy and strike it rich with a pot of gold.  We are still waiting.  Fun info here about how to catch a leprechaun. This year the boys are trying a new approach - make a lovely, welcoming space that a leprechaun would like to stay.  The theory is then he will be so happy with his new home he will reward you.

This is C's house: several rooms, a poem he wrote for the leprechaun, jewels, shamrocks, coins, a rainbow - 

What more could a leprechaun want?

E's is simpler with a rainbow arched doorway and sprinkled gold everywhere.

Update: after several nights of vacancy hotel Leprechaun is closed. 
"I guess Leprechauns only live in Ireland and don't like to travel much," C

St. Patrick's Day Party for kids...

We had a little Irish celebration in playdate form, right after school. Decorated sugar cookies, drank green apple juice - spiked with sparkling water, and hunted for leprechaun treasures in the basement.  I hope everyone had a lucky day too!

The Leprechaun Lap

Happy St. Patrick's Day

At our house St. Patrick's Day is a fun holiday, my husband's family is of Irish descent so we like to celebrate.  Here are a couple glimpses of our day...

Dubliner cheese a a favourite, so what better today for lunch, cucumber and cheese sandwiches...

The afternoon passed with a lot of leprechaun traps being set up, these are only a few, our house is a mine field for leprechauns...

And of course we ended the day with Karate, Japanese style. Oh wait that's every Wednesday and not Irish.  Today, we had our, once a year, corned beef and cabbage with roasted potatoes.  I think I'm getting better at making it....

I hope yours was fun and full of good luck!

You can take a rainbow, wrap it in a sigh, soak it in the sun and make a strawberry lemon pie...

This is a easy and fun way to use your coffee filter rainbows to decorate for St. Patrick's Day.  Glue onto some organza ribbon, with a shamrock in between and in the window they catch the light.  Don't forget the give-a-way that ends tomorrow!

Not that this song has anything to do with St. Patrick's Day, just rainbows and I have been singing it in my mind for over 3 days

Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two
The Candy Man, oh the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

Who can take a rainbow, wrap it in a sigh
Soak it in the sun and make a groovy lemon pie
The Candy Man, the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Who can take tomorrow, dip it in a dream
Separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream
The Candy Man, the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good
Yes, the Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good
a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man
Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man
Candy Man, a-Candy Man, a-Candy Man

Painting Rainbows

This was a fun and easy painting project.  I found this idea on Charlotte's Fancy and she has step-by-step instructions. I thought they would be perfect rainbows for St. Patrick's day decor.

I love these Bingo style dot paints, they are easy even for toddlers and so mess free.  You can get real bingo dobbers, but watch out, they are not washable and may be slightly toxic.

We got ours at Fred Meyer but they have them all over.

Classroom Craft - St. Patrick's Day, a Four-Leaf Clover

In the boys' kindergarten class this last week we made fun Good Luck cards for St. Patrick's Day.  The idea is from one of my favourite blogs - Zakka Life. She uses an ink pad for hers and they are much neater, but the kids in the class loved getting their hands in the paint even though there was an ink pad too.  We used folded over green paper for the card, glued a white square on it and painted away and wrote a few words too. They loved embellishing the cards.  Whoever the recipients of these cards will be they are definitely LUCKY!

Supplies: White and green paper, green paint, and thumbs (scissors and glue sticks are optional)

Wee footprints

The boys had a lot of fun making these 'leprechaun' footprints to use in a game for their St. Patrick's Day play date/party. It's too late for St. Patrick's Day this year, but I was thinking little footprints would make cute wrapping paper for a baby gift.

Luck 'o the Irish

This week started out with high fevers, flushed cheeks and a postponed notice for our 2nd annual St. Patrick's Day play-date/party. We finally recovered and had the party at the end of the week. No one seemed to mind celebrating on a day other than the 17th, but it does explain how late this post is. My husband's family is lucky to be Irish all year long, so I guess it's ok to celebrate that any time.

Paddy's picnic, we had green Jello jigglers to eat with our fingers and some moms brought green rice krispies too!

Leprechaun footprints to follow to the gold...

This is our hunt for leprechaun gold, we hid gold covered candies and coins around the bedroom for everyone to hunt. Something that worked really well was all the kids put their finds in a big bowl together, then divided it up evenly at the end of the game.

We sent balloons and gold home with our guests and hopefully early bedtimes after all the heavy-duty playing.

Irish Blessings to you and yours

Welcome Crafty Crow readers! i was so excited to be featured this week, thanks for stopping by. I'd love any comments you have. Being the week that it is, I'll send all of you an Irish blessing -

May joy and peace surround you,
Contentment latch your door,
An Happiness be with you now
And bless you evermore.

Trap

E didn't have any luck catching Leprechauns with this one, but he asked me to put the photo on my computer.