St. Patty's Day, Part 2

St. Patrick's day fell over spring break this year so we were able to make it an extra fun day! The kids woke and found that our naughty leprechaun, Lucky, had been up to all sorts of crazy antics during the night. He dyed the toilet water green, turned our milk green, left footprints everywhere and turned all our chairs upside down. Carter and Makenna had created quite an elaborate leprechaun trap and were very disappointed they did not catch him this year. I'm mostly disappointed that I didn't take a picture of the trap before they took it apart and chucked it in the trash.

Lucky DID leave a few surprises though. He left a box of Lucky Charms along with funny leprechaun pens that light up and some green candy. The kids loved it! I thought I would get out of making shamrock pancakes due to the Lucky Charms (which I normally never buy but my kids love) but they wanted to stick to tradition.{the kiddos with their surprises. I never managed to get a shot of them in their green outfits and the thought of recreating it was way too exhausting. Oh well!}

We had an all green lunch which the kids thought was fabulous! Green mac n cheese, green grapes, celery, kiwi, green yogurt with sprinkles, green marshmallows and little cans of 7 up.

For dinner I decided to make a traditional Irish meal. We had corned beef, cabbage, red potatoes, carrots and Irish soda bread. I wasn't sure they would like the meal but they LOVED it - especially Addison, which was a huge surprise. For dessert we had mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches:

I had these sitting on the kids' plates before dinner:And made bigger ones for the gals I visit teach:

A couple days before St. Pats I got together with a couple friends and made this darling banner:I love how it turned out and it was EASY and cheap!

I have no idea where my love for St. Patty's came from this year but we've had a blast with it! I've found some fun new traditions that I think we'll carry over from this year too!

{CUTE banner idea and rainbow printable are both from Simple As That}

{PS - I get asked OFTEN about the candy in my apothecary jars and how my kids handle being around it. I can honestly say my kids very rarely ask to eat the candy in the jars. They are used to having it around and when they ask for a piece I usually say yes to ONE piece. I try to keep my smallest jar full of something really yummy because it is less expensive to fill and it is usually what the kids want. Some stuff I don't let them eat - like the Skittles- because I don't want to spend the money to replace it every year. I DO save my candy from previous years so I don't have to invest the money every season. I have two plastic bins full of candy that I swap out in my jars.}