Happy St Patrick's Day!

Or as Maddie likes to call it  

Happy Leprechaun Day!

 

Daddy left Maddie a special note this morning!

 Maddie sported her cute shamrock hair clip!

 

A special treat left by mommy & daddy, breakfast and a few sweets!

 

Yesterday Maddie made a map for a leprechaun to follow to the end of the rainbow and the all important pot of gold!

 

Kiddo sported her green for the day!

A special St Patty's Day treat! Green white chocolate pudding with crushed mini Oreos, topped with whipped cream and gold sprinkles!

Sticker Crafting- St Patty's Day

What better way to end the week than with a completely MESS FREE yet absolutely adorable craft?! Friday afternoon Maddie was feeling crafty and I was feeling exhausted. Instead of tossing the usual crayons and paper at her I grabbed a package of dot labels out of the craft closet and guided her in a super cute craft!

My first thought was just use the green labels and let Maddie go wild making shamrocks but then we decided to go a little further. We ended up using green and yellow dot labels, green and black construction paper, crayons and a glue stick.

While Maddie worked on making shamrocks I cut out a few pots out of black construction paper.

To keep things even less messy and Maddie on task (which is a major issue lately) I glued the pots onto the green construction paper. When I finished gluing I was able to sit back and let Maddie go wild. So simple, so clean and so entertaining for Maddie!

She decorated with shamrocks and filled the empty pots with gold!

Maddie finished up with crayons by adding rainbows to all of her pictures. A perfect mess free activity to end a very busy week!

Magically Shrinking Lucky Charms

 Maddie has been so excited about 'Leprechaun Day' so when I spied this Easter tree at Target's Dollar Spot I knew there was a craft in our future!

We broke out my ridiculously large collection of Sharpies and some Shrink Film that I have had tucked away forever.

I traced a few St. Patrick's Day figures onto the film and then Maddie set to work coloring them all in. We ended up with 3 leaf clovers, 1 4 leaf lucky clover, a rainbow, a few leprechaun hats, and a pot of gold!

I took care of the baking which always seems like a fail to me. No matter what I do they always seem to curl up and I have to rush and attempt to flatten them. Oh well.

I made sure to punch holes in each charm before they were baked and then we finished them off with a bit of festive baker's twine so Maddie could hang them from her tree.

I think they all turned out just adorable and I know Maddie will be eager to redecorate her tree for Easter!

Rainbow - riffic

I think this is the first time that Madison completed a project 100% by herself with absolutely no help from me. She didn't ask for help. She didn't tell me she couldn't do it. Instead I provided the materials and walked away. Forty five minutes later Madison showed me the beautiful rainbow she made all by herself!

On another note can I tell you how excited I was to find that you can buy pre-cut tissue paper squares?! Maybe I am the only one that gets excited over something so simple but I love em'!

Counting Coins

I picked up this package of St Patty's Day coins at the Dollar Store with some sort of counting game in mind. Then I found the Pot Of Gold Math Mat at makinglearningfun.com and had a plan! I was hoping to use dice for this counting game but of course I couldn't find any so we broke out the princess cards. I picked out the 2, 3, 4 and 5 cards for us to work with this time.

Madison and I took turns drawing cards and placing the correct amount of coins on the mat. She decided whoever covered the mat first won! We probably covered the mat 5 times before she had enough but I was surprised at how well her number recognition has come along!

Saint Patrick's Day Prep

I do not like corned beef and hash. Sam I am.

Blech.

Photo from Kraftfoods.com

Usually I end up making this delish Irish Beef Stew recipe that I found on KraftFoods.com but hubby was hoping for something a bit different this year.

Off to MarthaStewart.com I went and found these two lovelies! Chances are I will end up making both next week!

Photo from MarthaStewart.com

This Irish Beef and Stout Stew looks super easy and yummy! Thank you Martha!

Photo from MarthaStewart.com

And this Roast Beef with Horseradish Sauce looks uber delish too!

Photo from FamilyFun.com

No matter what I make for dinner I KNOW I will be making these Rainbow Cupcakes from FamilyFun.com with Madison!

Potato Print Shamrock

We started our St. Patrick's Day crafting this weekend with a potato print. A simple enough craft that we sliced a potato in half and Madison stamped the shape of a shamrock. Super easy craft yet Madison loved the finished product!

Of course no project in our house is complete without a bit of glitter too!

Happy St Patty's Day!

First let me say how happy we are to have Milo home! He got neutered yesterday and had to spend the night at the animal hospital, but he is home and doing well! He did earn himself a cone last night though, but he is looking awfully cute in his St. Patty's Day bandanna!

Today's activity was supposed to be an opportunity for Maddie to use her scissors but she cut a piece or two and handed them over to me to finish up.


I drew a shamrock on a sheet of white cardstock for Maddie to glue on and then gave her a few strips of green paper and her scissors.


She was happy to glue all the bits of paper on the shamrock though. And then of course she asked for the glitter!


Beautiful!

I figured I would also post the recipe I am using for our St. Patty's Day dinner. Personally I can't stand corned beef and cabbage so that was a no go in my house. Instead I found a recipe for Irish Beef Stew on Kraft Foods; one of my absolute favorite recipe sites! I can't tell you how tasty it is until tomorrow though!



Irish Beef Stew

Prep Time: 15 min

Total Time: 1 hr 30 min

Makes: 6 servings

2 Tbsp. oil

1-1/2 lb. trimmed boneless beef round steak, cut into 3/4-inch thick chunks

2 Tbsp. flour

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) beef broth

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 env. GOOD SEASONS Garlic & Herb Dressing Mix

3 medium potatoes, cut into 3/4-inch chunks

3 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 pieces

3 cups hot cooked noodles

HEAT oil in 5-quart saucepot on medium-high heat. Coat meat with flour. Add to saucepot with onion; cook and stir until browned. Stir in broth, tomatoes and dressing mix. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 30 minutes.

ADD potatoes and carrots; cover. Simmer an additional 30 minutes. Remove cover; simmer 15 minutes or until meat is tender and sauce is thickened, stirring occasionally.

SERVE over noodles.

REVIEW: Absolutely Delicious! I will definitely be filing this recipe away to use again. I did make a few minor changes though. I added some fresh chopped garlic, and about a quarter cup of Guinness beer while I was browning the meat. I also ended up cooking it about 20 minutes longer than suggested to make sure that my veggies were perfectly cooked! I also didn't add the noodles, I thought they would be a little too much for this recipe.

Handprint Rainbow

Maddie loves doing any project that requires tracing hands (she asked me to trace her elbow today) so I thought we could make a great rainbow and pot o' gold out of her hands for St. Patty's Day!


Let me just state for the many of you that have asked how on earth I manage to trace a two year old's hands that I really don't! I sort of get a bit of an outline that looks like this and then make it look like a hand of a child and not of some strange alien creature.


I traced Maddie's hand on a variety of colored cardstock and then provided paint dotters for each hand.


Maddie took care of coloring all the hands.


I took care of making the pot of gold. I traced a circle on black for the pot and then punched out yellow circles for the gold. After I added a little gold and black glitter for a little sparkle!


Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Muffin Tin Monday!

Today's Muffin Tin Monday theme was GREEN! Yeah! Not too hard to prepare which was nice!

Top: Green melon skewers, green peppers and ranch dressing, broccoli and ranch dressing
Bottom: Garlic toast triangles, pasta with pesto sauce, key lime pie yogurt with green sprinkles
Today's favorite was the green melon skewers!


And here is our green straw decoration for the week.


Maddie also has a surprise pot o' gold cupcake for this afternoon! shh!


We also did our first St. Patty's Day project this morning. Who doesn't like a little finger painting in the morning?