A Shamrockin' St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

This is a holiday that, I think, is less frequently celebrated when you are a parent to young children. St. Patrick's Day pre-kids consisted of lots and lots of drinking. Now, the only green beverage we've been gulping in this house is milk! (And it was dyed that way, not rotten or anything). But, I love any excuse to celebrate and do fun things with my kids; and when our van started to make some worrying noises I knew I was going to be spending the day inside with the kids while Mr. Bee took it to his cousin's.

Our St. Patrick's festivities started last night after the kids went to sleep. After the kids were soundly asleep I made a leprechaun made and delivered mini green cupcakes! That same leprechaun also hid some St. Patrick's Day gold around our house with a special pot of gold to be found at the very end. Imagine The Toddler Bees' surprise when they woke up this morning!





After the excitement of a treasure hunt we were able to sit down to a delicious pancake breakfast. But not just any pancakes! We had shamrock shaped pancakes! I attempted a leprechaun hat, too, but it didn't quite turn out. And the batter was dyed green but it was hard to tell when they are cooked. But, hey, a pancake is a pancake and I'm not one to turn down buttery-syrupy-cakey goodness.




Once breakfast was over I pulled out a game of St. Patrick's Lucky Bingo. Bingo is very popular with Toddler Bee and he managed to beat me 5 times (I only won twice!). We used the Leprechaun gold from our hunt as markers for our game so we could play multiple times.

Green coins were found at our dollar store. 

Next came snack time:

Carrot stick beard, raisin eyes, cucumber and celery hat, and an apple slice smile

Shamrocks out of cucumber and a leprechaun man! So my leprechaun is a little beady-eyed and broad-mouthed...we can't all be super models.

We even made some special green dessert for after dinner! It's Oreo cookie crumbs on the bottom, vanilla pudding dyed green, topped with whipped cream, and a mini-cupcake. (Mr. Bee is not a fan of whipped cream, the crazy man.)

Even our lunch today was green! I added green food colouring to a pot of water and made pasta. At first I tried using my neon green dye but that didn't seem to be making any colour changes. So, I went with a darker green (about three/four drops) and it turned out perfectly! We had skewers of pickles and cucumbers, too, and a cold glass of green milk.

We played a few more rounds of Lucky Bingo before Mr. Bee was able to make it home (with a repaired vehicle, I might add). I was even a nice wife and made our roast dinner since I knew Mr. Bee wouldn't be home in time to do it.

It was a great St. Patrick's Day and even though The Toddler Bees didn't really know what was going on it was a fun way to break up the monotony of winter and a great excuse to have fun with the kids!

A very LOVEly Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! Yesterday Mr Bee and I celebrated Valentine's Day without kids, so today I was able to focus entirely on having fun with the kids while Mr. Bee worked (poor man).

Our day has been filled with a variety of activities and fun-filled adventures. And let us not forget candy! There has been plenty of candy.

The other day we made our Love Goggles in preparation for today. Toddler Bee didn't know what they were for, but he loves binoculars and any reason to make some. They're very easy to make: all you need are toilet paper rolls, paints, and decorations (we used tissue paper, craft paper, and glitter).

This morning, we used a red paper plate to make Valentine's hats. You could decorate these if you wanted, but ours were already red so that seemed perfect.

Now, you're ready for a scavenger hunt!

I cut hearts out of craft foam and taped Hershey's kisses to them. Then, when the kids were playing upstairs, I hid them along with loose kisses around the downstairs. Scavenger hunts are always wildly popular with the Bee Children and today was not an exception. Toddler Bee was running around finding candies and whooping in excitement. Baby Bee hid and ate kisses while everyone else was busy with the hunt. She's a sneaky one, that baby.

The last thing Toddler Bee found was a decorated shoe box filled with treats. I had plans for this, too, but time started to run a little low...Maybe it will make another appearance at a later date.

So much candy!

We played a few rounds of BINGO and used more Kisses for markers instead of Bingo dabbers. I made the sheet myself and chose to do shapes and colours instead of images. It was fun (Toddler Bee kept shouting BINGO!!) but it's also a good way to buff up on colours/shapes.

And, the foam hearts I used for the scavenger hunt, were recycled and used in a game of Fishing for Love! All you need to do is remove the Kisses from the hearts and add some metal paper clips. Then, I tied some string onto a wooden spoon and attached round magnets to the opposite end of the string. You can find adhesive backed magnets in craft or dollar stores.

Lunch was another LOVEly affair. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make egg in a basket...but it sort of lost it's shape as it cooked. But, he also had a heart-shaped sandwich, and a cute little hot dog/cheese love struck heart.

After lunch, we made our "All the Things I Love" craft. It's similar to the Grinch graft we made over Christmas, only shaped like a heart and listing only things he loves. As always when I do an activity like this, it's fun to see the types of answers he comes up with. Apparently, he loves money...and orange motorcycles.

Then, we used some more craft foam to make a photo frame! Just make sure when you cut out the centre space you make it smaller than your photo so the picture doesn't fall through the opening!

And finally, after much begging I let Toddler Bee have some candies...but not before he sorted them by colour! Another great learning opportunity!

All of that brought us up to now and the kids are taking a break from all the excitement to watch a movie. It has been a wonderful day. Valentine's Day where people focus all on love and we were no exception to that. I am thankful to have a wonderful husband and kids. And I am very happy that I am able to have these fun days with my kids and help them create so many happy memories. The smiles on their faces makes it worth all the hot glue burned fingers, paint on furniture, and endless amounts of craft supplies that never seem to be contained to one place.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your day was filled with love and lots and lots of chocolate.

Beautiful flowers from the loves of my life!

My husband...a romantic with a sense of humour.