St. Patrick's Day!

St Patrick's day is my new (relative term there) favorite holiday.  It's been my favorite for a while, but I like to call it "new" because it keeps the day expectation free :).  There are a few traditions that have developed over the years and I think I did most of them, but overall, the thing I like most about this day is that it's not SUPPOSED to be a big deal, so if I do ANYTHING- it's special and fun :).  Even the littlest things are cool that day.  I don't have to do much planning although, this year I remembered to put most of the stuff I needed on my Walmart order which was incredibly convenient.  And I had started my Altoid gifts a couple weeks in advance but really a couple weeks late since they were originally supposed to be Valentine's Day gifts.  But I digress.  Bottom line- I love this day!  This year it was a lot of fun to have Nate here to enjoy it all with me :).  

For breakfast we had Lucky Charms of course.  Need to remember to get two boxes next year.  As always, they ate the marshmallows and left everything else in their green milk :).  I remembered to put the drop of green food coloring at the bottom of their bowls so that their milk changed color :).  

I made these cute rainbows for their lunches:

Erika let me try this Shamrock hairdo.  It was a little bit much for me- and didn't really look like a shamrock, but she loved it :).  I made the hair thing a few minutes after doing the hairdo.  Took me all of 3 minutes.  Love that!

So during the day I finished their little Altoid/Leprechaun games.  This was something I've been looking forward to doing for a very long time.  Took me a while to make them all, but it was so much fun.  They turned out really cute too.  I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I had not procrastinated it all til the very last possible minute, but for what they are- I'm glad it wasn't too much more work.

After picking up Erika, we ran a few errands, then came home and got started on the treasure hunt.  It was a little tricky, trying to write and leave clues without Erika seeing them.  We wanted it to go all the way to the Ponds, so we were out for quite a while.  We had to hurry home so Nate could get the Jr. High kids while I finished the treasure hunt.  I had the idea to do a photo treasure hunt next time- I think we might do that for Easter?  Anyway- the kids came home and it was like Christmas as they all got anxious for the hunt.  They are such troopers, running all the way to the ponds and back.  They know it's totally worth it of course :).  I wish I'd kept all the clues to put pictures up... oh well.

So they got back for the last clue, the "pot of gold" (we love that the leprechauns are so literal and use one of our cooking pots for the gold candy :) ) it was in the oven!  Then there was one more clue to go look on their pillows and that's where they found the "Leprechaun Toys"!  They were all so cute showing them to each other and playing with them for a few minutes.  I loved it :).

Erika got a mini painting kit. One of the easier ones, just some water colors in a sucrets bubble pack with a broken paint brush and half sheets of index cards :)

Charity got a mini s'mores kit.  I'm so glad I remembered this idea from Pinterest.  She loved it :).  As you can see :).

Kelly got the Pool Table.  This one was the one that triggered this whole idea.  This is the one I started a couple weeks ahead of time.  It turned out pretty cute with the mini sixlets and coffee straw folded into a triangle.  This one was kind of my pride and joy for the moment :)

Luke got Tic Tac Toe because he used to love this game.  I'm not so sure he loves it as much as he used to though... oh well.  Travel tic tac toe for our road trip this summer!

Everyone was so offended that Molly didn't get one... oops.  Nate didn't get one either :(  They seem to still be smiling regardless though :)

This is the other one that took a lot of work and thought.  I was SO happy when it actually worked!  The only bad thing about this one is all of the pieces have to be put in just so in order to fit!  But look, you can even see the pom pom going through the hoop!  Pretty awesome.  I invented this one all by myself :).  Balsa wood and all!

Jack loved his before he even got it :).  His was a fishing pond of course.  Seems you can never have too many fishing ponds :).  We weren't sure which one to give him until he was testing them for us while I was making them.  He was set on the fishing pond :).  This one ended up being really cute as well.  And very simple and easy!

Lastly, the Bean Toss (instead of Bean bag toss :), cute right!?) was Nate's idea.  I was glad we had the vinyl and I think it turned out pretty functional!  I never could have prepared myself for how much he would love this thing!  He carried it around with him all day probably making the neighbor kids jealous (wink, wink).  I loved how much he loved it.  He's such a fun, easy to please kid.  I love his obsession with leprechauns this year as well.  I think everyone's heard the story about the footprints to the "hat".  I love it.  And I had nothing to do with it!  I didn't even sign the treasure hunt this year because I didn't want to feed his obsession.  He assumed it anyway, but it wasn't signed by any leprechauns :).  

After the hunt they snacked on another rainbow :).  I really love the new rainbow focus of St. Patrick's Day.  More than the green when it comes to food.  

This is when most of my fun ideas ended :).  It was on to a regular Thursday evening for us.  I did get a few pictures of the kids together which takes me back to the first one I took back in Taylosrville with my three little babies.  I've missed a few years in between, but other than that, I just love that tradition.

I wish I'd chosen a different location is all.  But you get the idea.  One serious one and the rest goofy!

I took Kelly to her Lacrosse practice, came home and helped Bradley with his baked potato dinner, took Noah to an extra scout meeting where they passed out the food drive bags, then headed back out to get Kelly.  

I was feeling really festive and made this as my wallpaper for the rest of the month.  I just love this day!! It's not like normal holidays though, where there's so much anticipation you're totally bummed when they're over!  It's just over :).  And you get all excited for the next one :).