Treasure Hunt For St. Patrick's Day

 My fellow crafty and very good friend, Gwen, sent us golden nuggets at Christmas time. They were filled with sweet treats and little treasures for the kids. When these arrived in the mail I hid them in the yard and Emma and Grayson went on a golden nugget hunt. They thought this was wonderful and so did I!
These adorable little gems have been on my list of art to-dos for months now and I knew I would find the perfect reason to make them. I think a golden nugget hunt is the perfect activity for some St. Patrick's day fun.

materials needed:
walnut shells (remember to try and keep the shells in tact when cracking)
gold paint
hot glue gun
tiny treasures and sweets

Once you have shelled all your walnuts, lay the shells out on some newspaper and paint them gold. Let dry completely before filling with your goodies. The kids helped me paint these gold, but I had them get into some clay while I filled them. I used some teeny tiny figurines, charms, coins and of course some sweet treats. For the unwrapped edibles be sure to wrap them in a little piece of tissue or wax paper before placing in the shell.
Now to close the shell add a few drops of hot glue on the edge of the shell and close. This will be just enough glue to keep it closed, but also to allow those little fingers to easily pry the shell apart and giggle with excitement as they find their little treasure.

Thank you Gwen, for this great idea and even more so for your great friendship!

St Patrick's Day Painting Fun

 Remember that paper roll heart stamp I shared for Valentine's Day? Well, stamp it three times to make a simple little shamrock and a wine cork makes a great stamping tool too! Yes, you must sacrifice and finish that bottle on wine for the sake of your children's St. Patrick's day art fun. Someone has to do it, right?

And lastly, Grayson and my sweetie nephew Nicholas enjoyed stamping with some shamrock cookie cutters. I put an assortment out the next day and Emma made a entire cookie cutter scape. She had fun filling the images in after with markers. This is an easy set-up activity, great for lazy weekend mornings. I have shared this over at Kiwi Crate, join me there.
Can you believe just four more days until we are mid March! This year is flying by.
Happy St Patrick's Day!

Making Kale Chips with Kids

 My kids are always in the kitchen with me. They both love to be a part of every step as I cook. We usually put on some nice music and enjoy time together. Not only is this time a special part of our relationship, but it is also the first step in teaching them to make healthy choices and to lead a healthy life.

 One of our favorite snacks is homemade kale chips. They are so easy to make and who wouldn't want their kids snacking on kale?! Emma loves making these are can pretty much do it all on her own now, besides the oven part, of course. For our simple recipe check out my Kale Chip tutorial on Kiwi Crate.   

St. Patrick's Day Fun!

 Boy, am I excited! My brother and sis-in-law are arriving this Wednesday for what seems to be becoming our annul St Patrick's Day visit. Kind of random, but hey, I'll take any visits, anytime from my wonderful and very missed family. Last year we had a lot of fun doing the walnut treasure hunt (see below) with the kids, but what we all will never forget is the big epic fail corned beef and cabbage we made (and smelled like for the next three days.) Maybe an Irish pub is in our future this time around.
I started rambling to say..I will be busy having lots of fun and wanted to get a few things posted so here it goes....
Above is our rainbow crayon I made with Grayson. He thought this was very cool and colored rainbows for quite some time with his great new coloring tool! This one is over at Kiwi Crate.

 I mentioned these already, but all the details are on my post from last year...St. Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt. We did this with some of Emma's school friends the other day and it was great watching all the kids search for the golden nuggets.

 Get the details on this great "pot of gold" party favor over at Kiwi Crate. Emma loved putting this rainbow together, but really loved adding the chocolate coins!

 Last year we made these rainbows after seeing our first rainbow in Portland. It was a nice sign that we had lots of rainbows in our future here. This craft has been a very popular one for me. It was a lot of fun too and every time I see it I think why do we not do that more? I think I may break out the watercolors tonight. If you want to join me, check out last years tutorial on just what we did Coffee Filter Rainbows.

Lastly, my sweet girl and her love of accessories! I had to make a compromise with her (yes, at age 4, oh boy)...no hot pink hair strands, but I did agree to a Rainbow Ribbon Hair Clip. Much sweeter.

Wishing you a creative and festive week!

Hanging Rainbow

 While Grayson napped, Emma and I painted a rainbow together. I love our time spent creating, talking and working together. There is something about sitting at our art table that brings us connected in an easy and fun way. I hope in years to come we will continue to share time like this.

We made this beautiful rainbow to hang in our yard as we approach St. Patrick's Day. For all the details on this craft, check out my full tutorial at Kiwi Crate.

Shamrock Tortilla Chips

 I knew those green tortillas would be good for something one day. Look how darling these little chips are and the kids loved them!

 Emma was all over this project! We used our little shamrock cookie cutters to cut shamrocks from the tortilla. Next, we baked them on a lightly greased baking sheet and that was it! Super easy and very festive....I like that!

 For the full details on this fun St. Patrick's Day snack, head over to Kiwi Crate!

Planting Shamrocks

 We are in full swing St Patrick's Day crafting over here! I think it is one of my favorite craft seasons. I don't know why...maybe the rainbows or the sweet shamrocks or the magical sense you seem to feel when reading stories about the two. Either way...I love it!

 After reading a few St Patrick's Day books we found at the library the kids decided they must find some shamrocks. We went on a "shamrock walk" in search of some luck and guess what? We found a whopping total of absolutely none! Apparently we don't have much luck in our yard or anywhere nearby our yard....that would explain last years garden situation.

 We set out to our local nursery and was pleasantly surprised to find all sorts of little clovers. We picked out our favorite and headed home to add the new lucky addition to our Irish abode (I'm not Irish, but I feel confident to say that because we really have no idea what my husband is and I'm sure there is some small amount of Irish in there somewhere.)

 

 The kids decorated the pots with colored masking tape (our new favorite addition to the art table.) We planted our little plants outside and was surprised by how emotional our new plant was. As soon as we started to move the clover plant all the little shamrocks closed up. It was very interesting to see and a great reminder to the kids and myself of how plants are living things too.

 Although, that didn't stop her from snatching one sweet clover off. It was bound to happen, I guess. At least it made for a sweet photo.

 After we finished planting we went inside and did a little research on our new plants. Did you know....
The word shamrock comes from the Irish word "seamrog" meaning "little clover". For more fun facts check out this page all about Shamrocks!

 

Hope this inspires you to plant some "shamrocks" this St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patricks Day Charm Necklace

Holidays are always a reason to celebrate in our home. I love decorating the house and having many traditions to make it special for our family. 

Join us out over at Family Sponge today and see how a milk jug from your recycling bin can become a fun and festive craft for St. Patrick's Day. 

Happy St. Patricks Day to you all!

xo

green owl mama

St Patrick's Day hair clip

I think Emma may give her left arm to get her hands on one of those hot pink hair strand clips. If she spots them in a store I am in for it! I definitely see the appeal for my four year old, but I can not give in. They smell like toxic plastic and look a little too teeny bopper for my little girl just yet.
When I was thinking of a way to make her a St. Patrick's Day hair clip I knew I must add some pretty "hair" attached, but in a softer looking way.

I cut a rainbow assortment of ribbons the length of her hair and used hot glue to attach them to a plain snap clip. For a finishing touch I cut a shamrock from felt and added it on top.

Can you just feel the excitement this brought? It was great.

Rainbow Time- Coffee Filter Rainbows

We saw our first Portland rainbow a couple days ago, it was beautiful. Emma called it magic and I had to agree; rainbows are pretty magical. She also started asking all sorts of questions. Where does the rainbow end? Can we touch it? How does it get there?
This was a great opportunity to have a little science lesson, which meant I better Google rainbows fast to be sure I had my facts right. I found a fun rainbow fact page. http://www.fi.edu/color/rainbow.html
Emma enjoyed learning about rainbows so much we decided to also make some of our own. We broke out our liquid water colors and some coffee filters. (By the way, if you have not discovered liquid water colors yet, it is a must. They are wonderful to paint with.) I folded the coffee filters in half and Emma used droppers to add the paint to our rainbows. Droppers work well with these paints and they are just so fun for kids to use. After they were fully saturated with paint we unfolded them and hung them to dry.
They are perfect to hang in the window as our home turns into a rainbow of colors for St. Patrick's Day....now where is that pot of gold!