Why do people wear shamrocks on St. Patrick’s Day? Because regular rocks are too heavy! [ba-da-bing!] St. Patrick’s Day is a favorite at our house. (We have 2 favorite St. P. Day birthday girls around.) Since one of them is my sister, we often celebrate this holiday with some birthday fun.)

I have been thinking about how to make the day a kid-fest. (Instead of the traditional beer-fest, which is generally not considered a good idea for kids.) I thought I would share my ideas so far and see what you guys are up to. I am sticking with many of my ideas from last year. Here is a rundown of the day that I have planned:

-Have a leprechaun sneak in. If the weather is not too cold, crack a window and sprinkle a trail of glitter from the window to any little tricks or pranks you want to play on the kids. I am going to lead to the fridge, where that silly leprechaun has turned our milk green. (Do as many or few little pranks as you’d like. I will add them as I think of them.)

-There are a ton of great games at Family Fun to play.

- Make sugar cookies (shamrocks, of course) to deliver to friends. (We can be leprechauns and drop them on the porch, ring and run.)

-Since the potato is so quintessentially Irish, I think it would be appropriate to make cards to go with the treats with potato stamps.

-If that isn’t enough crafty fun (and you know that is what I am all about!) How about making your own leprechaun hats to wear. (Since cookies and cards are more than enough for us, we will probably do these tomorrow so we can just wear them on S.P.D.)

-For dinner, we will be having the traditional green eggs and shamrock cakes (scrambled eggs with some dye and green pancakes shaped like shamrocks.) The Jensens make pancakes for almost all of the holidays, my favorite are pumpkin pancakes. You could do a traditional Irish meal or green mashed potatoes, green

Let me know if you have anything good. I’ll update with more ideas too. In the meantime, have fun!

These are fairly quick to put together and the girls have loved them! They look great made with fun foam. (Which you can get for less than a dollar at any craft store.) I’ve listed my directions for the basic hat, but feel free to make it your own. You may want to get out your art box and embellish with sequins, glitter, flowers or whatever works for your child.

Materials:

2 sheets of large green paper (or fun foam)

1 sheet of yellow

1 sheet of black

scissors

glue/tape

Directions:

1. Using one of the sheets of green, make a cylinder around your child’s head. You want it to be fairly tight so that it doesn’t fall over their eyes. Tape the seam while it is still around them to get the exact size right.

2. Cut the height down if you want it shorter (I think it looks cute pretty long, I also cut mine on a slant to make it crooked.)

3. Set the cylinder on the other piece of green paper and trace around the base, then make another ring around the base about 3 inches out. Cut out each of the circles (So you should have a ring shape and a solid circle; these will be the brim and top of the hat.)

4. Now set the the circle on top of the tube and use strips of tape to secure it to the sides on the inside of the hat for paper. If you are using fun foam, you will have enough of a lip to put a ring of glue around the edge of the tube and then set the top on. I used a few strips of tape to hold it in place while the glue dried.)

5. Similarly, you can glue or tape the edge of the brim to the base of the hat. If you are using foam, glue around the inside edge and set the cylinder inside and let dry. If you are using paper, it will be easier to tape it on. by putting a few pieces on underneath the brim that will wrap up the inside of the tube (put them on perpendicularly.) You will also want a few pieces around the outside of the tube that are on parallel. Keep he pieces fairly small and put them on so that 1/2 is on the tube and 1/2 is on the brim.

6. Now add a black band and cut out a yellow square for the buckle. Embellish with anything else you want. I think I also used my potato stamp to add a jaunty shamrock with some wire.