St Patrick's Day Buskirk Style

I kinda love St. Patrick's Day because it is a small holiday with low expectations. Catie's teacher asked for a little class party so that kicked it up a notch, but overall it was pretty low key and full of green and gold.

I managed to find shirts for all the kiddos at The Children's Place on sale a week ago. That is HUGE for me. Normally I am buying stuff the day before. 

After Andrew went to school me and the girls lounged a bit and made homemade play dough (thanks to the great recipe from The Imagination Tree). Kevin took Ryan to an allergist appointment.

After gathering a lot of materials, Catie, Annabelle, and I went to TK for a class party! I set up some fun centers with a few parent helpers.

The stations included the following...

1. Spin Art Shamrocks using salad spinners
2. Digging for Leprechaun's gold (ice excavation)
3. Fruit loop shamrock necklaces
4. St. Patrick's Day BINGO
5. Shamrock making play dough station
6. Build a pop out rainbow
7. Make a rainbow fruit pizza (greek yogurt, sugar cookies, and pieces of fruit in rainbow colors)

We also had fizzy shamrock painting and a gold hunt ready to go, but we didn't get to those.

After school I got a diet coke and literally sat on the couch for 3-4 hours feeding this crazy girl. That is her favorite cluster feeding time. Good thing the kids like to jump on the trampoline for awhile.

We also took some pictures. I sure love her.

She tried out the Bumbo too.

Ryan ran around getting into mischief like any good little Leprechaun and the big kids kept trying to guess when the actual Leprechaun was coming to our house. Apparently he was too tired last night and this morning.

We ate dinner, the kids jumped more on the trampoline, and then finally at 7:30pm they came inside and discovered that the Leprechaun had destroyed their rooms. Catie had a table on her bed, there were books in Ryan's crib, messes everywhere, and chocolate coins all over the floor. The Leprechaun had even left the toilet green. 

After laughing, squealing, and inhaling chocolate coins we finally got everyone calmed down and into bed. Besides a few minor tantrums and injuries and maybe a thirty minute period where everyone was crying... it was a pretty good day. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Thank goodness it is Friday tomorrow and next week isn't conference week!

St. Patrick's Day Mayhem

I love holidays, but I think St. Patrick's Day is my least favorite... maybe because I don't own anything green?

As a teacher I always created total mayhem in my classroom on St. Patrick's Day with footprints and chocolate coins scattered about along with tables and chairs knocked over. I always hate cleaning up the mess, but the reactions from the kids was always seriously awesome.

Fast forward over 10 years (can you believe I started teaching over 10 years ago?? I feel old)... and when Andrew was two I started doing sneaky Leprechaun stuff at our house too.

Typically it involves making a leprechaun trap the day before- nothing fancy... it is all kid created... and then the leprechaun comes the next day.

This year we forgot to make traps before we left for Utah and Andrew would not let the idea die. I think he got brainwashed in kindergarten ;) He spent all morning today looking for the perfect box for his trap and then got Catie all excited too... so after school they both worked on their traps for awhile.

I felt terrible because we didn't have any coins, so we swung by the party store and grabbed some.

The Leprechaun ended up sneaking into the house while I was taking a "nap" and destroyed the kitchen. Catie came downstairs and found me asleep on the couch and the kitchen covered with gold coins and candy. I think she must've scared him! He left the screen door wide open when he left. Can't believe I never heard him! ;)

We ended the day with green pancakes and green milk for dinner along with shamrock green rice crispy treats!

The day after St. Patrick's Day we had two friends and their kiddos come over for a low key party. We ate green mac & cheese, made fruit loop rainbows, went on a chocolate gold hunt, and ate Lucky Charms rice crispy treats. It was so fun!

Next up... EASTER! Definitely a holiday I like better. Can't wait!