Preparing for St. Paddy!

Today, I tried to teach Lil Boy about the concept of St. Patrick's Day.

Me: St. Patrick's Day is a holiday that originated in Ireland.

Lil Boy: (Blank Stare)

Me: Ireland is a country far away. 

Lil Boy: Oh! Are we going there on a plane? 

Me: Um, no....

Lil Boy: Yay! Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay!


Me: Sigh.

So St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching. And it really shouldn't mean anything to me because I'm a have a three month old and I won't be going out to drink green beer and tell people to kiss me cause I'm Irish. This holiday isn't celebrated where I'm from, and for most people I know it's really just a fun reason to party and get joyfully drunk. However, it does give me a good excuse to make printables and do crafts and all kinds of silliness. It's also great for a cultural lesson, and there are so many fun St. Paddy's ideas for activities to do with your kids. After I explained to Lil Boy that we were not in fact going to Ireland, we talked about St. Patrick's Day and leprechauns and rainbows and all that great stuff. So needless to say, there will be lots of crafts and activities in the next couple of weeks.

I did some browsing for inspiration and found 16 ideas for free printables, crafts and recipes that you might like to try yourself.

St. Patrick's Day Printables:

1. "Lucky to Have You Printables" by The Crafting Chicks
2. St. Patrick's Day Gift Tags by Hello, Good Gravy!
3. Subway Art by Eighteen 25
4. Pot of Gold Favor Tags by It Is What It Is
 

St. Patrick's Day Recipes:

1. Rainbow Pancakes by Amanda's Diner
2. Chocolate Guinness Pudding by Sprinkle Bakes
3. Shamrock Green Peppers by Martha Stewart
4. Rainbow Cupcakes by Family Fun

St. Patrick's Day Crafts:

1. Lucky Leprechaun Beard by Blissfully Domestic
2. Paper Plate Leprechaun by All Kids Network
3. Tissue Paper Rainbows by That Artist Woman
4. Rainbow Favors by 4 Crazy Kings


To get things rolling over here, we did a fun craft that I like to call shamrock marble painting, using paint and shaving cream. Lil Boy got a huge kick out of doing this, I think he loved the feeling of the shaving cream against his hands.

To make your own shamrock marble creations, you will need:

Supplies:
Green paint
Shaving cream
Paper plate
White construction paper
Paintbrush
Popsicle stick

Fill the paper plate with shaving cream. Add drops of green paint.

Use a paintbrush to swirl the paint around.

Cut the shape of a shamrock out of the construction paper.
Press the shamrock down against the paint/shaving cream mixture.

Pause so your child can revel in the messiness.

Scrape the excess shaving cream off the cut-out.

And voila!

Fun, messy, and the results are so pretty.

Happy crafting!