St. Patrick's Day Ideas and Plans

I'm an idea collector. I don't collect coins, or dolls, or stamps or anything. But I have files and files of photos and internet links for anything and everything that strikes my fancy - crafts, parties, holidays, creative things to do with the kids...
And the past week or so I've had such fun seeing all the fun St. Pat's Day crafts, traditions, and ideas popping up on my favorite blogs. My mom took Tyler for an hour or so this morning while Kaitlyn was in school and I decided to play Leprechaun. So fun! I love all the magic and happy surprises that go along with being young.

Here's my plan:
-the kids will be getting new shirts (Old Navy) from myself and Sam. We have to make sure they have green to wear on the big day, right? Though Katy's shirt only has a touch of green because in general she doesn't really like green. On the other hand, Ty's favorite color is green. Anyway - so this is the little presentation they will find on the kitchen table that morning. I also made Kaitlyn a hairbow to go along with it.

I made the little baggie to slip into Sam's bag next week - he's going to be out of town. Inside it is a handful of Rolos and a little "Kiss me I'm Irish" pin* I whipped up Super Fast, (I can't remember what cartoon that phrase is from but there's a little singsong voice that pops into my head every time I say it lol) which he may or may not decide to wear. I don't know if that's acceptible with the uniforms or if guys are into that :)
- And this is what the leprechaun is going to hide. I'm thinking it will be somewhere out of sight, with either tiny shamrocks or footprints or maybe a path of yarn leading to it.

A peek at what's inside: Lucky Charms (for breakfast), green bubble bath, green foaming bath soap, green tub tabs, tiny juice boxes, a little toy for each, and of course Rolos for the "gold." It looks like a lot of stuff. But I got most of it at the dollar store or the $1 section in Target so it was probably all under $10. The pot is what I use to hold the candy for Halloween.

-the leprechaun will also be turning things green and getting into a big of mischief. I'm sure he'll find the milk and maybe the toilet water with the food coloring, at the very least.
-breakfast will be the Lucky Charms with the green milk
-lunch will be green smoothies and leprechaun sandwiches. Or maybe smoothies and green MacNCheese. This recipe for smoothies uses bananas, peaches, yogurt, milk, ice and spinach and I'm excited to try it out on the kids. Yes I said SPINACH. I would love to find another way to work veggies into their diet and supposedly you can't taste it in the smoothie. (Having such picky eaters worries me sometimes.) Be sure to click on that link. She has ideas for all kinds of green food that sound like a lot of fun.
-still deciding on if I want to stop there or if I will have the energy for green themed dinner and dessert.

*I found the printable links for the pin and the tags on the shirts here. It's also where I found the link for these pillow boxes that the leprechaun put the cars and Pet Shop fish in before hiding them in the pot. I also printed off some little leprechaun clipart that is meant to be stuck on toothpicks and inserted in food. She has gathered lots of fun stuff at that site.

Other things that inspired me but didn't make the cut
-rainbow cupcakes from FamilyFun.com. They also have a recipe on how to make any old cupcake into a 3-leaf-clover shape that was cute.
-http://www.tipjunkie.com/ Always a great source of inspiration. There's more than one post about parties and crafty decor.
-I loved this post (yes it's Secrets of a Super Mommy again - I love that site!) on fun ideas for St. Patrick's Day
-and my friend Dari had a really cute idea too. Every year she has her boys make a "leprechaun trap" (I just love that they get to use their imagination on this one) the day before. Then at some point on St Patrick's Day she sets off the trap (not always first thing in the morning) and leaves a chocolate coin or something small for the boys. She also wants to teach them stuff about Ireland and make them cabbage for dinner. That one's beyond me - I rarely go for the educational! lol
-I've been thinking about making a "lucky" sign (a board painted green with each letter cut out of different kinds of green patterned paper) too. But that always seems to be a project for another day so it's probably going to wait until next year.


And tacking this on at the end because I don't feel like it needs its own post.
Kaitlyn is in LOVE with Hello Kitty. She was given these cute earrings but lost one at the pool the VERY FIRST day she wore them. So sad. The single earring sat there all by itself for weeks until I was looking at hairbows and thought "hey! that would be a good way to use it." So while I had the glue gun out I whipped out a fabric flower and added Kitty to the center. Then I slipped it in Kaitlyn's mailbox for her to find when she got home from school. I just love surprises! :)