St. Patty's Day Recap

We had a lovely St. Patrick's Day here, and I am so happy to write all about it. Jon is finally getting to the point where he enjoys these events (even if he doesn't fully understand it) and Lauren remembers every detail from previous years, so she is quite excited. The combination of the two of them having fun together motivates me to make each holiday special--even the minor ones! I know there will only be a limited number of years for these types of things...

Anyway, we kept with many of the St. Patrick's Day traditions that we started a few years ago. They each woke up to a "shamrock path" that led to their special breakfast. Lauren was up at 5:20am (!) so we told her that was too early--of course--and sent her back to bed until 7. When Jon woke up, he saw the shamrocks in his room and announced, "Look, mama, a big mess!" We told him to follow the path, so he crawled on the shamrocks to his special cereal. Both kids asked for bowl after bowl (since this is the one time of year they get to eat it!) and mostly just ate the marshmallows out of it. :)

Once Daddy got up, it was time for the annual treasure hunt. Gary captured it on film, so you can click here if you really want to see all 8 minutes of it. For the rest of us, a few pictures will do just fine! Lauren's job was to read the clues and then let Jon have first guess at where the next clue was located. This was the first year he could actually participate (instead of just following Lauren around) so she was really good about giving him a chance to figure it out.

The "treasure" was eventually found in mommy and daddy's closet. They each got a bag with some green goodies and some craft supplies that we could use the rest of the day. Lauren's favorite thing was a new set of watercolor paints, and Jon's favorite seemed to be the candy.

We filled up the rest of our rainy Saturday with lots of St. Patrick's Day crafts. We made pots of gold filled with the things that are "treasures" to us. Lauren listed her family, God, and Barbie, among other things, and Jon mainly focused on his Thomas trains and food. :)

We also used bell peppers as shamrock stamps...

...and Lauren and I had lots of fun making rainbows while Jon had his rest time.

Jon didn't miss out too much, though--he got to go digging for treasure when he got up! (Sensory activities are really good for him and he loved finding the gold coins in a big bowl of split peas.)

We also made plenty of special St. Patty's Day food through out the day. The kids ate "leprechauns" for lunch...

...and helped me make shamrock jello.

We ended the day with a pot roast dinner with my parents (I just couldn't bring myself to make Corned Beef and Cabbage again--yuck!), and "Leprechaun floats" for dessert: lime sherbet with Sprite!

And even after all of that, I still have ideas left over for next year. :) It was great to have a rainy Saturday to celebrate, as we had plenty of time to just enjoy being together. I love my kiddos!