Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The girls and I had a fun St. Patrick's Day while the boys were away skiing for the weekend. A Leprechaun left a rainbow made of colored ribbon trailing from the top of the stairs through and around the downstairs until it finally ended in a pot of gold coins. The girls had a fun following the rainbow and were delighted with what they discovered at the end! There was also a path of shamrocks leading to another treasure of green Hershey Kisses. Nothing like chocolate before breakfast to start the day off right! The silly Leprechaun left his hat in the refrigerator so we've had some fun posing with that! We also played Four Leaf Clover Bingo, using a board I made to work on shape and letter recognition. I got this great idea from Mandy at Twin Trials and Triumphs and just altered it a little to make it work for a St. Patrick's Day activity using green marker and shamrocks to cover the spaces on the board.

We then headed in town to spend the day with Aunt Tammy, Aunt Allison and cousin Gemma. The girls loved spending the morning in the city with some of their favorite people! To conclude our St. Paddy's day activities the girls did some finger painting with green pudding- YUM! They helped me make vanilla pudding then each added a drop of green food coloring. They finger painted on plain white paper then licked their fingers clean.

Tonight when the boys got home we ate our Irish boiled dinner as a family, a day late but worth the wait!

St. Patrick's Day Art

The girls have a vague comprehension of St. Patrick's Day-a day to wear green and celebrate our Irish heritage. We looked on the map to see where Ireland is, and have talked about leprechauns and four leaf clovers. We made these 3D pics to get in the spirit. The girls glued foam shamrocks onto paper then stuck on pipe cleaners to make rainbows. We counted pennies then glued on our Gold (or copper) and silver (aluminum foil).

Shamrock Cheer...

St. Patrick's day is fast approaching so over the weekend the kids and I made some cards to send to loved ones near and far, Irish and not! We needed to use supplies from around the house so I decided to take a few clovers from the Oxalis plant which has served as our kitchen centerpiece this month. The kids arranged the petals (face up) on card stock, which was placed on top of a thick book which served as our work surface. We laid wax paper over the paper and petals then the older boys took turns hammering the leaves all the way to to the edge to ensure that the green pigment from the petals fully transferred onto the card stock.

The kids then removed the wax paper and peeled back the clover petals to reveal the shamrock prints!

We have tried this transfer before with fresh flowers and often the pressed (or hammered) leaves and petals look so nice affixed to the paper that this becomes the final step.

Leprechaun Slime

Those tricky leprechauns were at it again, concocting a putty that changes shape right before your eyes just in time for St. Patrick's Day. It transforms from a solid to a liquid then back to a solid over and over again. Cameron and I had a blast creating this using just 3 simple ingredients found in the kitchen: cornstarch, water and green food coloring! Cam is into anything science and I was hoping to come up with something for St. Paddy's Day so working together this is what we came up with:

We combined 1/4 cup of cornstarch with approximately 4 TBS of water premixed with a couple drops of green food coloring. Slowly add colored water to the cornstarch in a small bowl, stirring constantly. Add enough water until mixture is no longer crumbly and holds shape. Pick up putty and roll and pound in your hands. Dough should get firm. Relax your hand and dough should turn to a liquidy goo. When mixture starts to dry and no longer spreads out to liquid just add a few more drops of water to keep the fun going!! To add a little smart to the fun explain that the green slime is a referred to in the science community as a Non-Newtonian liquid, meaning it is a non conforming substance which can be either a solid or a liquid, depending on how much pressure it receives.

The mess cleans up easily with warm water, so enjoy the tricks in store with our Leprechaun Slime!