St. Patrick's Day Ideas

It's hard to believe we're already in March and that St. Patrick's Day is coming up! I like celebrating it with the kids and trying to come up with new ideas for snacks and fun. Last year, the leprechaun hid pot shaped bags with candy in them, as well as little pots with treats under the table. Previously, the leprechaun made a rainbow on the wall, complete with a batting cloud and jelly bean rain drops. I have no idea yet what I will...I mean the leprechaun ...will do this year. If you want any ideas, just click on the post links for the directions or the recipes!

FOOD:

• Beef Stew, Soda Bread, Shamrock Pancakes, Shamrock Sucker Napkin Rings
• Rainbow Cupcakes Part 1, Rainbow Cupcakes Part 2 (These will really wow your kids or guests for a St. Patrick's Day treat.)
• St. Patrick's Day Shake (My version of the Shamrock shake.)
• Shepherd's Pie (An easy shepherd's pie recipe that works great for St. Patrick's Day or any night of the year.)
• St. Patrick's Day Lunch
• Make cookies! Cookies are always a hit with my boys and the shamrock cookie cutters are easy to use. We used green sprinkles, as well as green and white cookie icing. (DM TIP #1: If don't have a shamrock cookie cutter, use a heart one. Place the points of 3 hearts together and push down to join. Cut a small strip for the stem and push to add onto the cookie. Bake and decorate! DM TIP #2: I also made Pot of Gold cookies, which turned out to be a big hit. However, I could not find a cauldron/pot cookie cutter anywhere. Eventually I found this cupcake shaped cookie cutter and it worked really well for the pot of gold shape.) 
• Hidden Shamrock Pound Cake
• Leprechaun Donuts

CRAFT/ACTIVITIES:

• Fingerprint Shamrocks
• Shamrock Coloring Page
• Paper Shamrock Decorations
• Shamrock Stamps
• Paper Ring Rainbow
• Stained Glass: Use contact paper and green tissue paper to make an easy shamrock decoration. (Click for directions from my pumpkin stained glass post.)
• Coin Toss Game
• Leprechaun Word Hunt
• Leprechaun Maze

LEPRECHAUN VISITS/TREATS:

• Leprechaun Pots of Gold
• Leprechaun Treat Bags
• Some fun treats for the pots/bags are: green or yellow bouncy balls, shamrock stickers, shamrock sucker (see shamrock sucker napkin rings above in Food), green or themed pencils/pens, chocolate gold coins, gold or yellow wrapped candy (mini Snickers, Starburst, mini Reese's cups, Hershey Kisses, Sixlets, etc. Party City normally has bins where you can buy individual candy pieces, which is great for finding only the colors you want! Some stores even carry bags of a single color of Jelly Belly.)