Happy St. Patrick's Day!

After a couple of weeks of leprechaun tricks and laughter, the big day finally arrived! We donned our green clothing and celebrated with a big breakfast, a final visit from the leprechauns, and a delicious Irish dinner. 

The boys woke up to these adorable green bins filled with lots of great green fun and games from the leprechauns (almost entirely procured from the $1 Store): giant glasses, silly bobbing headbands, Irish ties, beach balls, green jump ropes, green bubbles, green candy, sour cream-n-onion sun chips, and of course, Lucky Charms!


 

We enjoyed our happy little family breakfast together with our Lucky Charms, and of course green milk and orange juice (the colors of the Irish flag, afterall). The boys loved the shamrocks hanging over the table!

After an afternoon at Moto-X (our gift to the little man), we enjoyed a yummy late lunch of corned beef reuben sandwiches on rye, cheesy beer soup, and the requisite green beer.

Those Pesky Leprechauns!

Being that my husband and I are both half Irish, we figure that somehow that makes our kids 100% Irish...two halves make a whole, right? So, St. Patrick's Day happens to be one of our favorite family holidays! The leprechauns make yearly visits to play tricks on the kids, leaving them a little piece of gold each time as an "apology". We build leprechaun traps to catch them, and we just spend the first half of the month having some jolly green fun!

We dyed the milk green and served with leprechaun mustache straws.

They brought in every stuffed animal from the house to cover his bed. 

Apparently, even when a leprechaun relives himself, it's also green. The "footprints" were courtesy of some green tempera paint, the pained outside of my fist (the foot), and a painted pencil eraser (the toes).

  

The leprechauns brought magic "seeds" (green Skittles) with directions to plant them in sugar and wait patiently for the green sugar cookies that resulted. The anticipation was killing him!

Crayola bath fizz tablets are the best ever! The boys loved their green bath (just use 1 blue tablet for every 2 yellow).

The leprechauns moved his entire bed into the bathtub (he lasted in there for about an hour).

They scattered his clean laundry all over the upstairs. He followed the trail to find a bedtime snack.

The spinning rainbow with the gold treasure hanging underneath was the source of a lot of laughter!

This was the absolute favorite trick of the week! Thanks to the miraculous safety pin, when he went to grab his underwear at shower time, out came the whole lot! He laughed for a long time!

We love getting creative with our leprechaun trap building. We created the box in colors of the Irish flag with a rainbow on top to "trick" the leprechauns into thinking they'd find gold. The leprechaun hat with gold pieces and a fake "top" was a hit, also. 

Green Eggs and Pizza?

We had an absolutely fabulous birthday celebration for Dr. Seuss, complete with stories, special treats, and fun crafts. 

We started our day with a fabulous meal of green eggs and bacon (we just aren't big ham fans...and hey, it's a pork product, right?).

And we all enjoyed reading the book together while we ate, of course. Breakfast and a show = good times.

In the background, you can see the super, super simple Cat in the Hats I made for the boys: large white construction paper with 2 red stripes glued on, then stapled ONLY AT THE TOP so you can adjust the base around each child's head and secure with tape. Easy, cute, and fun!

The next events of the day involved some great fun and food with the neighbor boys. We made crafts, created and ate some festive Dr. Suess-themed treats, and read some of our favorite stories.

The boys all decked out in their hats, ready to have some fun (and wipes on the table to head-off the messes).

We started by making and eating our desserts.

The Cat in the Hat pizza was a huge hit!

The Thing handprint crafts were just too cute to pass up!

The fish mobiles (made from tracing the boys handprints) were a big hit!

 

Racing Day, it's Racing Day!

So, my mom told me this week that she understands why I go to bed tired (doesn't everyone?) and why I wake up tired everyday. Apparently I do too much? Well, I just love every chance I can get to create a party and a celebration. Including our racing Sunday every February for the Daytona 500. This year marked our second year of Race Day party fun! I draped the kitchen table with 2 red comforters (the only way I could have the entire thing covered to the floor). I gathered everything car related from the house and decorated the table top and the area underneath so the boys could play. I printed the flags from the computer and taped the to the table. Hanging from the chandelier were race-car themed Valentines that I bought a week ago for only 50 cents! I taped them together and hung them on pieces of curling ribbon. Easy! I also personalized with $1 store frames I had lying around, one for each boy. 

 

The baby-man is having a great time. 

Food also plays an important role in this exciting race day. Race car hot dogs are an easy, and fun, meal to make. Sorrund hot dogs with crescent dough; bake following package instructions. Once completed, attach wheel-shaped pasta with mustard, cut a slice in the top and add a pickle chip for the window, and decorate with the topping of your choice. Serve with a side of frozen mac-n-cheese wheels.

The stoplight nachos are a huge hit (even with the baby-man who loves the guacamole). It's just a large tray, and white bowls filled with salsa, queso, and guacamole, surrounded by tortilla chips. Easy, tasty, and fun!

Dessert is the ultimate treat on race day...race car brownies. Bake, cool, and cut brownies into squares.

Chocolate...yum, yum, yum!

Attach Reeses mini cups with chocolate icing as wheels. Cut out a small seat and nestle a gummy bear or a teddy graham in the driver's seat. Complete with the number of your favorite racer, piped in the appropriate icing shade.

We have a blast during slow times during the race by playing games that require speed...putting together a puzzle the fastest, setting up an obstacle course through the house, coloring race-themed pictures (Cars coloring books work well), and playing with our many Hot Wheels cars and tracks.

Serve with frozen mac-n-cheese wheels...awesome

                                                                                             

Little Man's Valentines 2013

Totally rocked this idea I found on Pinterest, but made it a little bit easier. He still delivered the cutest Valentine's in the class!

Bought 2 dozen of these from Oriental Trading Co for about $12 (on sale). They came in a variety of colors. Unfortunately, those pesky little stickers in the top left were a pain to get off. So, I scrapped my original idea, for the sake of spending less time and money, and with some simple mailing labels and about 5 minutes on the computer...

...this was the finished product. Andrew was happy, I was happy, his classmates were happy.

Valentine Daddy

As I am sitting here printing and creating tags for Little Man's 14 Days of Valentine's treats, it occurs to me that in all of my planning, I've completely overlooked my #1 Valentine, the hubs. Although I may be a little to late for a "countdown" this year, I can always be prepared for 14 days in 2014 (how perfect, right?). So here's my brain on Valentine's Day...14 Days for the Big Man...

"Thank for being my best BUD." (6 pack of Bud Light)
"You'll always be my HERO." ( a sub sandwich packed for his lunch)
"I'll always STICK by your side." (Slim Jim beef stick OR Chap Stick)
"We go together like cheese and crackers." (duh!)
"I'd be mixed up without you." (Chex Mix)
"We SOda belong to together." (Diet Coke)
"We were MINT to be together." (Orbitz gum)
"I'll always love you, of COORS!" (6 pack of Coors)
"You're the best in the batch! (mini bottle of whiskey)
"Thank you for spicing up my life!" (pepper jack or jalepeno cheese slices)
"You're the sweetest man in the world!" (Butterfinger...the only sweet food he'll eat)
"My heart is PACKed with love for you!" (Some sort of Green Bay Packers item)
"You're the best husband a-ROUND!"(Oreo cookies)
"You're one HOT tamale!" (hot sauce, jalepeno cheese, spicy chips)

For a kid-friendly selection of ideas for your little ones, visit the kid-friendly Valentine countdown blog.

Valentine's Day Countdown for the Kiddo

Gold fish crackers, he loves them.

Nutter-butter cookies. Yummy!

Decidedly a little late on my Valentine's post this year, but not too late for next year! The 14 day countdown to Valentine's Day was a lot of fun for the Little Man. Everyday he came home from school (or woke on the weekends) ready to peak into his heart-shaped bowl to see what treat awaited. I am already imagining the possibilities for next year! And thinking about doing an "adult" version for the hubs (these ideas are at the bottom of this post). Here are a few of the treats we gave him...

Cheetos, the little man's special treat (only once in a while).

A stack of fake money. Great math fun!

Love the Target $1 bins.

This was perfect on Super Bowl Sunday!

The first time he ever ate these, and he's hooked!

My little animal makes life wild!

He had way more fun with glitter glue.

Cheddar flavored Chex Mix.

Apple Jacks cereal.

Teddy grahams (could also use gummy bears).

Now all of this fun with the little man got me thinking. I am putting in al this effort for my only one of the loves of my life. So, I thought about a countdown for the hubs, with fun little gifts to show how much I love him! Visit Valentine Daddy for some inspiration (this list is geared very much towards my own hubby's tastes and favorites).

Other great ideas for the kiddo:
"I am lucky to have you!" (box of Lucky Charms)
"I think you're GRRRRRR-EAT!" (box of Frosted Flakes)
"You're the sweetest boy a-ROUND!" (Oreo cookies, m&m's)
"I want to cover you with KISSES!" (Hershey kisses)

Happier Hanukah (for 2013)

Although we do not actively practice the Jewish faith, I grew up in a predominantly Jewish community, and attended my fair share of Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, Passover dinners, and Hannukah celebrations. I even did some babysitting in a local temple's nurser on high holy days. So, the Jewish fait and its traditions have been a part of my life for a long time. Couple that with the fact that the baby man's godfather is Jewish, and you'll understand why I've decided to include some of these traditions and teachings in my own children's lives. It opens them up to other belief systems and teaches them a sense of understanding  and openness to people of all beliefs and value systems.

Little man in front of our "menorah".

I wanted to find a way to have my boys light the menorah without actually involving an actual flame. So, I came up with this alternative, kid-friendly menorah for the boys to "light".

I started by spray painting some clothespins "brown leather" (to go better with the dark wood in our dining room). I cut 3M picture hanging strips in half and placed them on the back (the picture hanging strips are adjustable once placed, so this way, I could make the row of "candles" even). I placed a piece of gelt in the top of each clothespin.

I used some yellow card stock and an orange marker to create 9 "flames", 1 flame larger than the others for the shamash.

I then took a small gift bag and decorated it with a blue and white snowflake (Hannukah bags are hard to come by in the Denver suburbs, but I plan to look harder next year...or have my mom send me one from So. Florida). The gift bag moves down the clothespin line each day and is used to hold that day's little trinket/gift.

Since the mantle faces our dining room table, we would remove the gelt and the gift bag each night before dinner, say a prayer, and place the "flame" in that nights candle. Of course, we place a "flame" in the shamash (the center candle used to light all of the other candles on the menorah) on night #1, before lighting candle #1. It is larger than the others and glows all week.