I’ve always loved St. Paddy’s day, and then I lucked out and married a cute Irishman. We spent part of our honeymoon in Ireland, and the green island holds a special place in my heart.
A few weeks ago I asked the Tinkerlab Facebook community for some ideas on what I could do with a huge pile of old sheets. I got tons of great ideas, and we started by making a Simple Clip Fort. I’m working my way through the list, and today we’re making a photo booth backdrop for St. Patty’s Day.
Before going to bed I hung a white sheet over one of our curtain rods and secured it with two big clips.
I cut a handful of shamrocks from green paper and placed them on a table with double-stick tape. Altogether, the prep took me about 10 minutes. When my kids woke up, they were excited about the invitation, got dressed in greenish clothes, and we got right to work. playmodel.
I helped 3-year old N stick some tape to the back of the shamrocks. Double-stick tape is tricky stuff for little hands! Then she and my 1-year old stuck them to the sheet. Well, my 1-year old mostly tore the shamrocks in half and we had to find a more constructive activity to distract her for a few minutes.
I moved a green rug over to the curtain area and that’s when the dance party started. I snapped a couple archive-worthy photos for the family photo album, and then it was mostly just playing in fron to the clover curtain.
On St.Patty’s Day itself, we serve up green milk in mugs, delivered with a bit of magic. We add a couple drops of green food coloring in the bottom of a dark mug, the kids say “Sean Beggorrah,” and then we pour white milk into the mug for a leprechaun-delivered surprise. This tradition comes down through my husband’s family and I haven’t met anyone else who does this. Is this part of your St. Patrick’s Day traditions?
We’ve been talking about building a leprechaun trap, but I’ve never built one before. Have you? Do you have any tips? And I’m always thinking about fun ways to add magic to this holiday and would love to hear how you celebrate St. Paddy’s Day with your kids.
My daughter’s kindergarten class just built leprechaun traps. The parameters were that it needed to be no larger than a shoe box, they are small you know. The children also needed to think about the fact that leprechauns like shiny things and are generally naughty and don’t obey signs. There were some very shiny traps with interesting signs. Some of the traps only had shiny on the inside, one child made a shiny path up to the box, with the shine going over the edge of the box and into it.
That’s really cute. Â But It’s St. Paddy’s Day, not Patty. :)Â
Oh, for goodness sake!!! Can you tell the Irish doesn’t run in my blood? I made all the changes and can’t thank you enough!
The little guys visit our house at night. We leave traps (last year we almost caught one!). They leave a big mess with chairs turned upside down, pillows on the floor, and decorations messed up. They usually leave green pee pee in the potty and turn the milk green as well. In the end they escape but feel bad for leaving a mess so they leave a note saying maybe next year and leave some gold dollar coins or gold chocolate coins.Â
Oh, that’s hilarious! This is exactly what I needed to read. Thanks for the ideas.
My oldest is almost 3 so this is the first year we’ll really be doing anything…I plan to serve Cheerios for breakfast with green coloring hidden underneath to make magical green milk…Friday we’re raiding the recyclables to build a trap…my husband and my date night will be messing up the house and leaving a trail of paper shamrocks and green glitter around to follow to a treat: a mini cauldron I snagged in Halloween clearance filled with jellybeans and topped with a pipe cleaner rainbow! I’m excited:)
That’s an adorable plan, Kristal!! I think I need to get busy making green confetti tomorrow. Have a fun day (and date night!).
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