Thursday, March 11, 2010

Celebrating St Patricks Day

Hey everyone.... so if you haven't heard- I am guest posting over at Tatertots and Jello today- and it's ALL about St Patricks Day!!! Click here to check out some of the crafty ideas I posted over there-

So now that we have decorations, shirts and pot's of gold covered- lets move onto traditions!!
Traditions-
As I mentioned before, St Patricks Day was a big deal for us and we have a lot of traditions that I would LOVE to share
Morning-
First, when we would wake up in the morning there would be a trail of shamrock confetti from our beds  to our little Leprechauns filled with treats that were somewhere hidden in the house.
During the night, the leprechaun turned many things green- the milk, toilet water, water, bread etc...
We always had fun running around seeing what he turned green.

My wonderful fun aunt also shares the same love as me for this fun holiday and also has some great ideas... seriously, it is her favorite holiday!!!
When my cousins were young, my aunt would sneak into their rooms at night and paint footprints on their faces and arms and hands (She used a q-tip dipped in green food coloring). It was just her way of starting the day off with excitement!
Attire-
We of course loved getting dressed up in our green- this of course is a must-   Green wigs, blinking head gear/ jewelry, googly glasses, arm socks etc
Basically- the tackier, the better!!
 One fun idea is to collect a bunch of outrageous green hats and have everyone wear them for dinner!!
(here are some we have collected)
It is also a must to use an Irish accent whenever possible- a good CD of irish songs would help with this
Movies
Some great movies are the Gnome Mobile & Darby O Gill and the Little People
Food-
An important aspect of any holiday.
 For breakfast, we love having Lucky Charms with our green milk (sorry I know many don't like the idea of green milk.. including my husband- but its fun and hasn't killed me yet) We also like to make heart shaped waffles to form a shamrock or just plain green pancakes. Other ideas used would be french toast used with green bread, bacon with little leprechaun footprints (food coloring), green juice etc....

Dinner we like to have the traditional corned beef and cabbage. My grandma loves cooking corned beef in the crockpot and adding cabbage, potatoes and carrots and a big onion. Very good.
My family also makes a Lime Green Slush and believe me, it's amazing. Also have you tried Pistachio Pudding Salad... also a perfect festive treat.

I have never tried Irish Soda Bread, but am going to this year. Anyone have any good recipes??

I also made these fun shamrock cupcakes this year to give to neighbors and friends. I saw the idea at Family Fun awhile back
What you do is place paper liners in muffin cups and fill each halfway with the batter. Next take some foil and roll three balls per cupcake and insert them evenly around the space between the liner and the tin

Allow the cupcakes to cool, then remove them from the tin.
Cover each with green frosting. I used a little piece of green licorice for a stem
or another idea is making rainbow cupcakes I made my son a rainbow cake for his birthday last year and it was so fun- sure would be cute for St Patricks Day

SO have I convinced any of you to celebrate St Patricks Day??? Or have I scared you all off by my crazy amount of love for the holiday??? How do you celebrate St Patricks Day??  I would really love to know

13 comments:

  1. Hi Chelsea!
    I told you I'd be stopping by! :) What a cute family you have! I love those rainbow cupcakes...I may just have to bake a batch of those myself! Hope you have a great day!

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  2. great ideas! Saw your post on Tatertots and Jello!

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  3. Last year I made this Irish Soda Bread. It was the first time I'd made Irish Soda Bread and I wanted it to taste just like the one we had eaten recently at an Irish Pub. This was it!!!! http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amazingly-Easy-Irish-Soda-Bread/Detail.aspx. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

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  4. Oh, awesome ideas! I love it! We always make corned beef and cabbage, but my picky snicky kiddos just think it's super gross. This year, St. Paddy's is during spring break, so my mommy friends and I decided to get the kids together for some green fun. I am not hosting at my house, so I have to come up with some activities! I will say- you have inspired me big time! I am gonna have to come up with some good stuff! Those shamrock cupcakes are a for sure!

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  5. Wonderful cute ideas! Love the blog! The shamrock cupcakes ROCK! Stop by and say Hello!
    Jamie
    lovelongtime.blogspot.com
    maddiemackdesigns.blogspot.com

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  6. Honey great job! You are amazing!

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  7. Super cute ideas! I found your blog through tater tots and jello!
    emilycalldesigns.blogspot.com

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  8. Love the cute ideas- and so many in such a short time! Wow! Found you through tater tos and jello and so happy I did. I'm a midwest girl too- southern illinois!!!!! Where are you?

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  9. what a ton of great ideas!!! Saw your post on Tatertots and Jello! I may just have to make those cupcakes!! how cute!

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  10. Hi very cute ideas!
    From your fellow RN

    Pamela
    NE OH

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  11. Great ideas!! We also have a leprechaun that turns our milk green and we looove green pancakes. I was soooo excited because I never met anyone who shared this tradition. My kids love it!!! Others look me strange when we tell them about the milk. Never thought of the toliet water. I'm going to try it. I think I'll try the garland,too.I really love St.Patty's Day- such a fun,fun day.

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  12. I am new to your blog and I love it! You have such wonderful ideas!

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  13. Thanks everyone for your sweet comments!!! I am trying to get to all your blogs and get to know you better- glad there are other St Patricks Day LOVERS out there!!

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