Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pin It My little leprechauns want to wish everyone a very happy day!











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fun food friday: shamrock lad and lassie

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I made the kids this sweet little St. Patty's day lunch last week and they just loved it. I used a shamrock cutter to cut some white and green tortillas and used them to make the kids some quesadillas. Shaped quesadillas are so easy and fun to make - the possibilities are really endless. Here is how I made this lunch:

Shamrock cheese quesadillas on spinach and plain tortillas. I used food markers for their faces, apple hats, carrot hair and beards and a sprinkle on the hats.

Silicone muffin cups filled with lucky charms cereal, and yogurt with shamrock sprinkles.

Gold banana coins around the plate.



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rainbow cupcakes

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How about a little rainbow cupcake for St. Patrick's Day? I won't really call this a recipe because I used a boxed cake mix and a can of frosting, but it was a super simple treat to make for the kids. I tinted the frosting blue, used jelly belly jellybeans for the rainbow and gave it a whipped cream cloud. Easy, fun and delicious.

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button rainbows

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Here's yet another craft to satisfy my button obsession. I tried to get Cam to make a button rainbow, but he really had no interest in it what so ever. He finds throwing buttons across the room much more fun! Kirsten had fun sorting all the button colours and then she glued the button on all by herself. My little girl is growing up and just loves doing things all by herself now. Here is how we made this:

What you'll need

buttons - in rainbow colours
glue
canvas

Directions

1. sort your buttons into different coloured piles
2. glue your buttons on the canvas in a rainbow pattern



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this week in bento boxes

Pin It We have a few St. Patty's day bento boxes in the mix this week. Most of them are more snack-ish than lunch-ish. Kirsten has been having both pasta days and pizza days at school each week for a fundraiser for the school. When she has the pasta and pizza days I like to pack her a little snack of fruit or veggies too. I think I was sprinkle happy this week too. Now that I look at the picture, I see way too many sprinkles. Oh well, you're only young once, lol. I also got some new bento boxes - lunchbots. I love that they are stainless steel. I bought the 2 yellow ones and 2 orange ones. The yellow ones are a bit smaller than the orange ones and they are a great snack size. The lids can be a bit tricky for Kirsten to get off, but we have practiced lots. I found the yellow ones to be a bit looser than the orange ones. They are also not leakproof, so don't pack anything too liquidy in them. Otherwise, I think they're pretty great. Here are the bento's:



Here we have a cute little St. Patty's day snack bento in our yellow lunchbot. I never buy sugary cereal, but couldn't resist a box of lucky charms for St. Patrick's day. Kirsten thought it was a real treat. She also had some sliced nectarines with shamrock sprinkles.



This St. Patrick's day bento was for her afternoon nutrition break. She had a shamrock ham and cheese sandwich. She also had a cute little shamrock silicone cup with craisins and some pretzel sticks. The top tier held some sliced kiwis.



This was a snack bento for a pizza or pasta day. She had a shamrock smoothie, and some sliced kiwi with blueberries. I added a few mini marshmallows and used my food safe markers to draw on some shamrocks.



This was another snack bento. The lucky girl had some lucky charms cereal again and some sliced strawberries with rainbow sprinkles.



And lastly, another cute St. Patrick's day bento in my orange lunchbot box. She had some blueberries with shamrock sprinkles on one side. On the other side I places some silicone muffin cups in the compartment and she had 2 mini broccoli and cheese quiche with the cutest little smiley faced broccoli picks I have seen. This pick set it too cute!

Here are some of the supplies (or similar) that I used to make these lunches:




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fun food friday: somewhere over the rainbow

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I *think* I may have already used that title last year, but it's 5:30 AM and I'm too tired and lazy to check. So, this may be a somewhere over the rainbow, part 2. This one is a breakfast though, so it's definitely different. Besides chopping up the fruit, this breakfast was incredibly easy to make and didn't require any fancy tools to make it - just a regular kitchen knife. My kids love fruit, so they thought this was a real treat. This would make a great St. Patty's day breakfast. Here's how I made it:

Rainbow - sliced strawberries, oranges, pineapple, kiwi, blueberries and purple grapes

White toast cut into cloud shape with a knife and a sunny side up egg sun.

Happy Friday everyone!

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make your own rainbow watercolors

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I found the idea of making your own homemade watercolor paints on Martha Stewart and I absolutely loved it. Now that we've made our own watercolors, I'll never use anything else. These watercolors are absolutely amazing. I think they are far superior to any other watercolor paints I had previously purchased for my kiddos. It also makes quite a bit, so I bought some awesome individual containers and just close the lid after we use them and have lots leftover for the next time. I also love that you can control how bright/vibrant the colors will be by adding either a little or a lot of food coloring. I like vibrant, so that's exactly what mine are. I'm including this craft in our St. Patrick's day activities because we used our watercolors to make beautiful rainbows. Cam really wasn't interested in making rainbows, but Kirsten was really excited and did an amazing job. She painted four of them! I framed one of them and it looks amazing. Here are the instructions to make your own watercolors:



What you'll need (for each color):

2 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp white vinegar
1/4 tsp light corn syrup
1 tbsp cornstarch

We made 6 colors - so you will need 6x the above ingredients



gel food coloring
6 bowls
spoons
airtight containers

watercolor paper
paintbrushes

* This recipe made a large batch and I was able to make a set for both Kirsten and Camden to have their own *

Directions:

1. in each bowl add the above ingredients - 2 tbsp baking soda, 1 tbsp white vinegar, 1/4 tsp light corn syrup, 1 tbsp cornstarch. Mix until everything is well dissolved. If the mixture is too thick, add a little bit more vinegar. You basically want it to be like an oobleck or gak consistency (can be formed but then melts away if you let it go).

2. add your food coloring to each bowl and mix well - we did a rainbow of colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

3. pour your paint mixture into individual containers, leave the lids off and allow to dry completely - at least overnight.

4. give the paints to your kiddos (I made a set for each kid) with a paint brush, watercolor paper and a cup of water and let them paint away!





Idea from Martha Stewart



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shamrock smoothies

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This is the first post of many fun St. Patrick's day activities we've been up to in my house. Most people have heard of shamrock shakes, but I wanted to make the kids a yummy green smoothie. I just used whatever I had on hand at home and added just a wee bit of green food colouring to make it just a wee bit more green. The kids absolutely adored them - as did I. We all love smoothies in this house. Here is how you make them:



Ingredients:

3 bananas, sliced and frozen
3 kiwis, sliced
1 cup vanilla yogurt
milk to desired thickness
small bit of green food colouring (optional)
whipped cream
rainbow sprinkles

Directions:

1. place your frozen banana, kiwi, yogurt and milk in the blender and blend until smooth.
2. pour into cups and garnish with whipped cream clouds and rainbow sprinkles.



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fun food friday: another lucky lunch

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I know, St. Patty's day was yesterday. In my defense, I actually made this lunch for my kids last week and had to wait until Friday to post it. I can't exactly post a fun food friday on say, Tuesday. That just wouldn't be right. Anyway, this was really fun and easy. I got the pepper idea from Martha Stewart and it's just brilliant. Unfortunately, neither of my kids like peppers and they didn't eat them. They loved everything else though - especially the rainbow cupcakes. We made these earlier in the week and you can find the recipe here . Here's how I made this lunch:

Sandwich cut into circle shape. Sliced green peppers for the 4-leaf clovers. Vanilla yogurt with green sprinkles and a rainbow cupcake for dessert.



Linking up to For the Kids Friday
Linking up to ABC and 123
Linking up to Tot Tuesdays

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They're always after me lucky charms!

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Sorry, I couldn't resist. I don't normally buy sugary cereals, but really wanted a box of these lucky charms for St. Patrick's Day. I laid them out on the table and Kirsten adored them (I knew she would). Camden tasted them and spit them out (good boy!). He's only laughing in the pictures because he was throwing them across the room (bad boy!). Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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rainbow cupcakes

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These rainbow cupcakes are so much fun. I saw the idea on Family Fun last year and I've been waiting to make it until now. St. Patrick's Day is a wonderful excuse to make rainbow cupcakes, don't you think? It's a little extra work, dividing up the batter and colouring it, but totally worth it. These little babies are gorgeous - and taste great too! Here's how to make them:



Ingredients

White cake mix
Food coloring (red, blue, green, and yellow)
Baking cups
Whipped cream or white frosting

Instructions

Prepare your favorite white cake mix, then divide the batter evenly among six small bowls. Following the chart below, dye each bowl of batter a rainbow color. Follow directons on back of food colouring box to get orange and purple shades.

Line 16 muffin pan wells with baking cups. Evenly distribute the purple batter among the cups, then the blue, and so on, following the order shown. As you go, gently spread each layer of batter with the back of a spoon to cover the color underneath.

Bake the cupcakes according to your recipe directions. Before serving, remove the paper wrapping, and if you like, top each cupcake with a whipped-cream or white frosting cloud.

Even the empty wrapper is pretty!



Idea from Family Fun

Linking up to ABC and 123
Linking up to Tot Tuesdays
Linking up to Kids Get Crafty
Linking up to For the Kids Friday

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rainbow shaving cream bath paint

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I decided to include this fun activity with our St. Patrick's day stuff because we made the paints in rainbow colours. This activity is beyond easy and fun. I made one for each of the kids so they wouldn't have to share and there would be no fighting over who got what colour and so on. That was brilliant. It was beautiful, quiet play time. The kids really adored this and played in the tub until the water was cold. I had to fully drain the tub and re-fill it with warm water so I could still give them a bath and get them clean after all this fun. I think they would have played for hours. If you have some foaming shaving cream and food colouring, you can make your very own rainbow bath paint. Just for the record, I have white bathroom tiles and it washed right off beautifully. Here's how to make it:

What you'll need:

foaming shaving cream - I got the stuff for sensitive skin
food colouring
container - I used a silicone muffin pan and it was beyond perfect
paint brushes



How to make it:

1. squirt some foaming shaving cream in each of the 6 compartments of your muffin tin
2. add food colouring to each one to make whatever colours you want - I did rainbow colours. Mix them up well.
3. give to your kiddo in the tub and let them have a blast!









Kirsten's rainbow:



Linking up to ABC and 123
Linking up to Tot Tuesdays
Linking up to Kids Get Crafty
Linking up to For the Kids Friday



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