More St. Patty's Day Game Ideas

St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, but I thought I'd post a few more activities my boys enjoyed.  Better late than never, right?

I added some plastic shamrocks and green gems to our dried peas and gold/green coins in our sensory tub.  The boys especially liked using the little rake and scoops to uncover the treasures in the box.

I found this fun place value game to use with Mr. One.  You pick a coin and have to place it on the mat to make a 4 digit number.  Once you place your number, you cannot move it.  Whoever has the biggest number wins.  Confession time:  We haven't played this one yet, but I think my first grader will like it.  We'll have to try it out sometime this week before I put it away for next year.

We played roll a rainbow again.  Anything that involves candy is pretty much a sure-fire hit at our house.

Mr. Three loved throwing our split pea shamrocks into a pot (or just at his brothers...).

Looking for more St. Patty's day fun?  Check out my pinboard here, or my side label for St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patty's Day 2012

That mischievous leprechaun struck our home again.  He almost didn't make it, thinking to just call it quits for the day and go to bed.  However, when he heard Mr. One saying he didn't think leprechauns were real, he knew he had to prove him wrong.

What did he do this time? 

He managed to sneak almost all of the green toys out of the boys' buckets and made a trail to the front room, where it appears he stayed a while and played. 

 

 

Then, I guess he must have felt a little guilty about the mess, so he left a little peace offering gift:  a bag of gold and green candy.

Mr. One was so excited about the evidence of our leprechaun's visit.  Maybe he's a believer again.  The second thing he did (after spying the mess and waking his parents up way too early) was to run and open the fridge.  I was so confused by this until he said, "Well, I guess that leprechaun forgot to turn our milk green this time!"  (The things kids remember!)

After everyone was up for the day, the boys were pretty cooperative and cleaned up the giant mess without too much complaining while I made green pancakes.  We made Dad's famous Cody pancakes, of course.  I also put out various toppings for our breakfast:  lemon curd, strawberries, peppermint whipped cream (plain may have been better, but I had this in the fridge already), butter, maple syrup and peanut butter.  The boys loved topping their pancakes with different combinations of toppings (some better than others...).  Yum!

We spent the rest of the day listening to U2, running errands, building with Legos, cooking, cleaning, playing on the Wii, playing with some of the St. Patrick's Day games I have made (more on that later) and had a great Irish dinner with extended family that night.  I'm not a fan of the corned beef and cabbage, but the red potatoes, Red Lobster biscuits and pistachio pudding salad (you know the one with cool whip, pineapple, mini marshmallows and dry pistachio pudding mix) were fantastic.  I could have eaten all the pistachio pudding stuff myself...  Then we had angel food cake with lemon curd, strawberries, chocolate sauce and whipped cream for dessert, with a little green cinnamon crumb cake on the side.

At the end of the evening, my family surprised me with a little informal baby shower, with gifts for soon-to-be Mr. Four, me, Mike and the boys.  It's nice to have some new things for this little guy (after three boys, much of my baby stuff was pretty worn out).  It was so very sweet of them to do, and we really appreciated it.  I can't wait to see this new little guy and kiss his tiny face!

I'm more than lucky to have such a wonderful family (both close by and far away), I'm blessed.

It was fun to spend time together and pretend to be Irish for a day.  I can only imagine what that leprechaun will think of next year...

St. Patty's Day Mischief!

Many of you may know that we have an especially mischievous leprechaun that loves to visit our home for St. Patrick's Day.  This year, he was at it again.

It seems that this particular leprechaun has taken a few furniture arrangement classes (maybe he needs to study a bit harder...).  He decided to try his hand at rearranging our home.  Now all the dining room furniture is in the living room and the living room furniture is in the dining room.  Now we can all cozy up to watch a little of our favorite shows on the computer, and eat in the same room with our library and TV.  Mr. One suggested we leave things the way they are for a few days.

He also magically turned our milk green and left a mess of Lucky Charms and M&M's on the kitchen table.

We had shamrocks littering the floor and couch.  Luckily, he was nice enough to leave a fun new game out on the table as well.

Roll a Rainbow was a game I found here (love her blog, so much eye candy and fun ideas).  It was so simple and my boys loved playing.  The rainbow is made from office dot stickers on a half sheet of white cardstock.  I only had red, yellow, green and blue dots, so I colored some yellow dots with an orange marker to make the orange dots.

The basic instructions are to roll two dice and add the correct M&M to the rainbow that correlates with the chart.  So, if you roll a 3 and a 5, you have 8 dots, so you place a yellow M&M on the chart.  The boys loved this game. (Even if they do look less enthused in these pictures...)

Since the chart is hard to see, here is what it says:

Roll a Rainbow!
2,3 green
4,5,6 red
7,8,9 yellow
10,11,12 orange
doubles blue

We had a picnic lunch at the park with some friends, then took a nap/watched a movie in the afternoon.

We had a green dinner at my parents' house, with Zuppa Toscana (kale is green...), breadsticks (dyed green) lime jello, and pistachio pudding (you know, the one with cool whip, pistachio pudding mix, pineapple and mini marshmallows... I'm salivating just thinking about it.).

For dessert, my brother made crepes.  Not Irish.  Or green.  Just delicious.

It was a lucky day.

Play Dough Cookies

We made play dough cookies yesterday.  Here's the recipe.  They were simple to make and fun to shape and eat. 

We used our regular old liquid food coloring (because I was not about to go to the grocery store just for some gel paste food coloring).  The color may not have turned out as vibrant, but they're pretty just the same. 

Enjoy a little something green today. 

Happy St. Patty's to all!

St. Patty's Day Ideas

Here are a few new things I've found on the web to use for some fun St. Patty's themed learning.  Hope you enjoy!

Shamrock color matching file folder game.  This one looked so simple, but it was more challenging for my three year old than I thought!  Find it here.

Another file folder game.  This one is for your kiddos who are starting to sound out words.  I'm printing this one for Mr. One (a great kindergarten game).  Find it here.

This is at the top of my to do list this week:  split pea shamrocks.  The boys will love tossing these into our kitchen pots.  I'm thinking of some other games to use them with.  Will keep you posted if I get that far...  Go here for the tutorial.

A few fun math games, better suited for the K-2 set, but I may adapt some for younger kiddos.  Find how-to's here.

I really want to do this simple color mixing experiment.  With water and not milk.  Now I just need to grab some clear plastic cups.  Here's the how-to for this activity.

Here's some ideas that I have posted in the past that you may enjoy.  Go here and here.

Now, go do something fun with the kiddos in your life.  I may be posting less for the next week or so.  I have a birthday party to plan and a brother getting married!  Good times, but busy times..

The Mischievous Leprechaun Strikes Again

Happy St. Patricks Day!  Our home was struck again by the Wee Folk on this greenest of days...

Shamrocks made a path from the boys' room to the kitchen.

Bowls were sprinkled with green sugar.

Some new St. Patrick's Day activities were on the table, ready to explore.

Milk was mysteriously colored green.

The Trix contained an extra trick of their own:  all of the non-green pieces mysteriously disappeared...

Pancakes turned green.

We had the traditional corned beef and cabbage for Sunday dinner, so we went for a different kind of green dinner.

We had these green enchiladas for dinner, and Mint Brownies for dessert.  Yum! We tried a new brownie recipe.  It was good, but I still think this one is the best. 

We listened to our favorite Irish band, U2.

It was a lucky day!

Here's a little list of the activities for the kids and where I found them, if applicable:

Sensory Tub

I filled a plastic shoe box with dried split peas, added a few spoons and cups and a scoop, then hid some gold coins in the peas.  The boys loved searching for the leprechaun gold.  I plan on using some of the peas to make some of these for next year.  (Didn't get to that project soon enough...)

Shamrock Game

I found this game at Making Learning Fun.  We used Skittles (because they are the rainbow candy) to cover up the card.  I wasn't feeling up to picking out only the green ones.

Leprechaun's Favorite Color

This little book was on Making Learning Fun as well.  I love the little "trick" ending!  We used gold paint to make the coins on the last page.

Shamrock Sort

We used the shamrocks that made our path to sort and put in size order.

Hope your day was full of fun and lots of good luck!

St. Patty's Day Fun

I admit it. I have always loved the magic of holidays. I was probably the last kid to stop believing in the Easter Bunny and Santa. I refused to let practicality and peer pressure squelch my magical childhood. (To be honest, I still believe in Santa.) So, it is only natural that I seize any opportunity to infuse a little fairy dust into everyday life, especially the holidays (with a little help from my creative hubby).

I am not Irish, but why let that spoil the fun? I say, any excuse to celebrate with your family is a good excuse to me.

Personally, I will be wearing green and listening to U2 today to celebrate.

My kids, on the other hand, deserve a bit more fun.


Luckily, the mischievous leprechaun visited our house last night. He hid the Lucky Charms in the pot cupboard. He put the bowls and spoons in the oven. Luckily, he didn't turn the oven on...

He turned our milk green. He left green sprinkles behind in our cereal bowls just to remind us of his visit.

He gave my boys something fun to talk about for the rest of the day.


Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of my friends and family, Irish or not!