St. Patrick's Day Roundup

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Happy St. Patrick's Day! Whether you celebrate the day, or if you just enjoy the various green, shamrock, and rainbow crafts that accompany the day, I hope it is a good one! And if you do not celebrate St. Patrick's Day at all, happy Monday! Here is a roundup of our St. Patrick's Day crafts and activities, and some of my favorites from other blogs. Check them out if you are looking for a last minute idea for today or some ideas to pin for next year! 

Shamrock Printing for Toddlers

Fine Motor and Color Sorting Rainbow

Coffee Filter Clovers

St. Paddy's Day Play Dough

Contact Paper Rainbow Play

St. Patrick's Day Sensory Bin...

...and a fun extension activity to go along with it!

Colorful Rainbow Heart and Shamrock Mobiles

Green Sparkle Slime

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And some St. Patricks Day crafts and activities from many other great blogs (all can be found on my St. Patrick's Day Pinterest board as well)!

1. I love this rainbow spaghetti from Fun at Home with Kids! (and you have to check out her series of five posts from last year, helping a leprechaun find his gold - this is the final post which has links to the first four posts - I cannot wait to try these when Skyler is older! So so cool!!)

2. These rainbow sun catchers from Fireflies and Mud Pies are so beautiful!

3. This super stretchy rainbow treasure slime from Growing a Jeweled Rose looks like a blast!

4. I have seen bell pepper shamrock prints, like this one from Learn ~ Play ~ Imagine, and love how simple but perfectly shaped they are!

5. No surprise that I love hand and foot print crafts! (there are six different links hidden in there :) ) This shamrock footprint craft from Sassy Dealz is so adorable!

6. Also from Sassy Dealz, these wine cork shamrocks remind me a lot of our carrot print shamrocks. Such an easy and sweet decoration!

7. The baking soda fine motor play from Little Bins for Little Hands is awesome! We will definitely be doing this one next year!

8. I love the idea of using straws as a painting tool. These St. Patrick's Day straw painted shamrocks from Mess for Less are great!

Edit: Our attempt at a foot print shamrock this afternoon - not exactly as pictured in the sample picture haha. My little one is quite flat footed, but we had fun ;)

I love Skyler's little footprints across the side of our poster board.

 

On Family Weekends and Slime

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It has been a full and fun weekend with daddy home and the welcome, almost-springlike weather allowing us to be outside every day! We have been spending every minute possible walking and playing at our favorite outdoor places. 

On Friday we had a walk planned with a friend, but the sky was looking iffy so we went to the mall nearby to do some laps. The little friends had fun running around the mall which was empty since the stores has not yet opened - perfect for toddlers! In the afternoon, Skyler and I headed to my dad and step mom's (with a seemingly endless amount of vehicle toys to play with and an awesome bearded dragon to observe). My hubby picked me up from their house when he got off work and we had a date night, leaving Skyler on his first overnight (with us staying at home)!

Minneapolis/St. Paul locals or anyone checking out the area, if you have never been to The Happy Gnome you have got to try it!! We had the best meal (maybe ever) and after dinner were very pleasantly surprised by a coffee shop called Nina's Coffee Cafe that we just ended up walking by. We camped out there are awhile, trying to find live music or a movie but did not find anything of interest so ended up home before 11:00 - we must be getting old ;)

I was coveting the owl paintings leading up the staircase to the tiny upstairs nook we took over!

Joe signed up for a 5K near our house Saturday morning, so we were up early to get him checked in, then we walked down the street to our favorite bakery and took our goodies down the street the other way to one of our favorite coffee shops :) We spent an hour or so there before he had his race and then I got to hang out and read my book while he ran (and not even one chapter into my book I saw him cross the finish line). It was so strange waking up and leaving the house within fifteen minutes, not changing Skyler's diaper and clothes, or having to feed the little one before rushing out the door (always late, I turned into a perpetually late person when I became a mama!)

 In the mason jar is this chia pudding topped with strawberries - my new favorite breakfast (I vary the toppings)!

I was so excited to pick up our baby boy! It is always so wonderful to see him even after a short time away. We went right home for him to nap and then had fun with a new activity in the afternoon. We made some sparkly green slime!

We used this recipe from Blog Me Mom for one ingredient slime.

At first, Skyler just wanted to observe, and I could tell he didn't want to touch the slime, so I grabbed a rubber scraper for him to use and then he was a very happy boy! He spent at least twenty minutes stirring his slime, and never ended up touching it with his hands. 

 Skyler kept trying to find different ways to stir the slime and loved to "spin" the scraper to play (far right)

Checking it out up close!

Skyler asked to play with the play dough for awhile, so that is what we did! He proudly said to me "press!" as he filled his clover, and he got creative with the beads daddy got at the race, using them to make imprints on his play dough. After the play dough, he also wanted to play with our color toss game and vehicle sensory bin (a very blog-activity centered day)! I love when he asks to play with the materials I make for him :)

 Wearing his necklace and then using it as a "belt!!" :)

We attempted our first lake walk this morning at Lake Harriet, my very favorite place to go for walks! It was pretty chilly, but we saw a ton of dogs and many close airplanes, and Skyler told me the color of every car driving by - with all of the exciting things to see he was a pretty happy guy considering how cold we were by the end!

We warmed up with coffee and snacks at one of our favorite bakeries, Rustica. Joe will probably not love that I am putting up these pictures, but I thought it was so hilarious how similar my two guys looked while sharing a pastry :)

We do not normally go out to eat and get coffee every day, but with our first weekend as a family in so long, it was definitely a great way to celebrate! I hope you had a great weekend and have a wonderful week ahead!

 

Rainbow Heart and Shamrock Mobiles

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Since our heart garland countdown was taken down with Joe's return from training, I have been missing the decoration on our mantel. I have wanted to make a shamrock version with multiple hearts, so using various colors, I made these heart and shamrock mobiles (and a garland) as a replacement. To make the heart mobiles and the garland, I cut pieces of scrapbook paper into one inch strips, and once I found a stapler that would actually punch through four layers of paper, I got to work folding them into the heart shapes I wanted.

To minimize the number of staples I needed, I would fold the bottom strip of paper into a heart shape and slip the next color in between, then staple them together. When I got to the top heart, I placed a piece of string in between and then stapled that in with the last piece. 

I was able to make a ton of heart mobiles with just one piece of scrapbook paper in each color, so I hung them all over the main floor of our home! I love the pops of color everywhere, even though the number of decorations is slightly overkill :)

 The blank space above our television got a trio of mobiles.

The garland was replaced with this rainbow version, except I did not need as many as with the countdown, so instead of one hole punched in each heart I strung the yarn through both sides of the paper hearts. Three of the mobiles were hung, cascading, above the mantel.

Our festive and colorful living room to chase away the end of winter! 

 And the dining room got some rainbow colored cheer as well. 

All of the heart mobiles and the garland, made with just one sheet of scrapbook paper in each color!

The light paper of the mobiles makes them constantly twirl, and Skyler loves to watch them move! Skyler saw them all hanging after his nap, and he spent a lot of time lying down on the ground to watch them spin and saying "heart" while telling me all of the colors!

The next set of decorations used green and shamrock scrapbook paper. To make the shamrocks I made three hearts with green paper on the outside and the shamrock paper on the inside, facing out. I made the stem by bending a piece of green scrapbook paper.

A set of these festive shamrocks was places above the gallery wall behind our couch. 

These colorful decorations are so cheerful and are a wonderful accompaniment to the "warm" weather we have had in Minnesota lately! Walks outside every day and some bright home decorations sure help to improve your mood after a long and cold winter!