Monday, February 28, 2011

St Paddy's Day--My own version of March Madness!

Ok so I'm known to go a little overboard when it comes to holidays. I find a way to celebrate everything! I love finding new ideas & new ways to teach Karly so I thought I would share some of my ideas for St Paddy's Day.  I just ordered our official Shamrock Seeds, so we should have 4- leaf clovers by Easter if we are lucky! haa. pun intended! I mean aren't we all a little Irish?! Well my husband says he is so we are celebrating!


1: Leprechaun Hide & Seek: 
While we are all snug in our beds the leprechauns come in &; mix up the house while leaving pieces of gold... ex: shoes end up in the pantry but everything is left with a special coins. Some coins are chocolate, some are real money &; some are paper money tickets for " stay up 5 min later" or "lunch with Daddio", "Extra bedtime story"...


2- Blarney Stone Treasures:



1 c coffee grounds
1/2 c salt
1/4 c sand
1 c flour
3/4 c water
Mix together dry ingredients and then slowly add enough of the water to make a stiff dough—you might not need all off the water, so add slowly.
Knead the mixture on a floured surface until fairly smooth,Break the dough into desired sizes. We divided it into 4 equal pieces.  Hide your trinkets (super balls, small plastic toys, etc.) or money in the center of each ball of dough. Bake at 150F degrees for 2 hours (I turned them over half way through)  and then air dry 2-3 days (or longer).  If you make smaller rocks I would dry one hour in the oven and then air dry 2 days or more.  The size of rock and the amount of humidity in your home will affect the drying time.  They will look and feel like rocks when dry. You can also paint them green & add googly eyes on them :) Oh ps-- I think they would make great dinosaur eggs too!


3--Breakfast at our house will consist of nothing less than a big bowl of LUCKY CHARMS (of course) with Green Milk!

4--Leprechaun Treasure Hunt: fill a tub with split peas, pistachios, bamboo rice (anything green!) &; hide some golden coins for a good old treasure hunt


5--Snacks: Nothing a little food coloring can't do!
Green Popcorn


Leprechaun Pudding

Clover Crispies

Pot of Gold:
Pineapple jello. Or if you are health conscience chunks of pineapple works great too!
Rainbow Cupcakes
These were a huge hit last year. She loved it SO much I had to pull it out again this year so fun! a little messy but SO fun!
Take a white cake mix & divide up the batter in separate bowls. One for each color of the rainbow. Add food coloring to the batter to make the pretty colors. Then place 1 T of each color into the cupcake liner & bake as you would normal cupcakes!



So I am still looking for ideas for  an all green dinner. Kar is kinda boy-cotting anything green right now but hoping after a day of all these green treats she will be up for a green dinner. I'll keep ya posted if I come up with anything good. I do know that with dinner we will be having ...

6--Blarney BLessing Biscuits


I take little green strips of paper, wrote a blessing and then laminated them or you can wrap the strips in foil. Our blessings go something like this: “May you always have friends to greet you.” My husband’s, “May your hard work be rewarded. And of course one for Miss karly, “May your sippy cup never run empty” 
I baked these blessings in garlicky cheese biscuits. They taste similar to the ones at Red Lobster when fresh out of the oven. I feel a little bit like Paula Deen even suggesting that someone use this much butter, but they are tasty!
Blarney Blessing Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt (3/4 tsp if using Kosher salt)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup butter, divided
2/3 cup milk
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 to 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp of salt

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl. Cut in 1/2-cup cold butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture looks like peas. Stir in the milk and mix just until the dough clears the sides of the bowl. Stir in the shredded cheese. I make these totally in my food processor.
Melt remaining 1/2-cup butter and add the garlic powder and salt. Form dough into balls (about 2 tablespoons in size, makes about 18 or so biscuits). Dip each ball in butter mixture and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Place your strips of laminated paper in the middle of each biscuit. If I weren’t trying to show there was a blessing in each biscuit in the photo I probably would have folded the strips so they were hidden. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden. Drizzle any remaining butter on top and serve immediately. Since they are best served straight from the oven I made them early in the day and kept them in the refrigerator until they were ready to be baked. 

Activities you ask?
A little hard to see but its all about letters. Match the big A with the little a...
Lace the clover


Clover Count-- match up the Number Clover with the Dot Clover that corresponds 


Stampin Shamrock (with Potatoes)
To correlate in the potatoes...Finish up the activity with: 


OOh which give gave me an idea for dinner-- green mashed potatoes!!! whoo hoo! Sorry random thought!

Rainbow Cereal Art

Ok so I am taking advantage of the little leprechauns & their love of rainbows to teach all about color.

Color Wheel Paint & learning Secondary Colors

One of Karly's favorite morning activities is we take an egg carton, add a little water & food coloring. I find all the little droppers I can find & she drops & mixes. We drop the water onto paper towels & wax paper. She will spend a good hour doing this all while helping her fine motor skills & learning how mixing colors create new colors. It is a real winner!

Ok so here is the start to my St Paddy's Day celebration. I am sure there will be more to come as well. The ideas are endless I tell ya! 



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