St. Patrick's Day idea + Musical Monday: When Irish Eyes are Smiling

Last year I wrote a post with some fun ideas.  You can find it here. This year we are doing a few of the same projects, and adding a few new ones.  We couldn't head to my grandma's this year for our usual St. Patrick's Day party, so I'll be making the corned beef and cabbage myself this year.  I'm going to use this slower cooker corned beef and cabbage recipe.  I'll also make a simple Irish soda bread and this pistachio mallow salad .

A lovely Irish blessing:

"May the road rise up to meet you, 

May the wind always be at your back. 

May the sunshine warm upon your face, 

and rains fall soft upon your fields. 

And until we meet again, 

may God hold you in the palm of His hand."

The girls are dressed in just about the only green (and orange; that's Irish too, you know!) they've got today.  A good friend crocheted the girls some little shamrock hairbows.

For breakfast I made these fun Lucky Charm parfaits I saw on Pinterest.  We always have green eggs and read Green Eggs and Ham too.  

 

We did two projects after reviewing some information about Saint Patrick here .  

1. Mosaic Shamrocks Irish Flag- 

You could easily adapt this to fit your own preferences.  You could do a big shamrock, perhaps using bits of green paper in different shades or you can use our idea and make three shamrocks to form an Irish flag.  To make the shamrock just trace a heart to make the shamrock and add a little tail.  

 

 

2. Trinity Shamrock- 

a very simple project to show the kids the lesson St. Patrick taught about the Holy Trinity using the shamrock. 

And for the musical selection for Monday, I had to choose my favorite Irish song sung by my 

favorite B-B-B-Bing Crosby!

"When Irish Eyes are Smiling"

                        

Top o' the mornin' to you all and have a blessed Saint Patrick's Day!

More Scripture Gifts for your Child(ren) and Family

Last week I posted about a project we are working on in our mom's group to help our children know and love Scripture more.  You can find some fun ideas in that fun post here.

This week I have a few more to share that we worked on.

1. Mosaics

I found that I had some old matting that I hadn't used when framing some pictures, so I pulled them out to see if I could find a use for them....and I found one.

First the girls and I tore up colored construction paper and glued it on like a mosaic.  Next we looked through piles of unused photographs that were extras from scrapbooking and the girls picked some of their favorites.  I cut them out and we glued them on top of the mosaic.  Later in the evening after they'd gone to bed, I put a layer of Modge Podge over the top.  In the morning, I read the girls some different Scripture verses and they each chose one for their matted frame.  We used pretty scrapbook paper for that part and glued them onto the back of the matting. Then I poked a couple holes in the top, let the girls choose a pretty colored ribbon and we were done!

   

Hang them on a nail on the wall....

on a doorknob....

Or stick it in a frame.  Easy and the kids loved helping to make their own Scripture verse project.  

2. Chalkboard Picture Frame

This project is really simple, but could be made a bit more pretty if you chose add extras.  I kept it super simple because we had several projects going at once.  I covered the cardboard back of a picture frame with chalkboard paint (2 coats) and let it dry.  Then use chalk (I can find nothing but sidewalk chalk since we moved so forgive the not-at-all-cute writing, but you get the idea) to write a Bible verse for the week.  

3. Scrapbook Bible Verse Frames

Find some scrapbook paper scraps and get creative making a cute little design.  Leave a place to write a special Scripture and put it in a frame.  I'd like to make a dozen or so of these and switch them out for each month of the year. 

Under the Sea picture frame art

So it was time to revisit the picture frame art with a new twist.

What you need:
picture frame(s) (whatever size(s) you prefer), window markers, fish stickers, crayons/markers.

1. Get a white piece of paper the size of the frame.  Let your child find all the BLUE markers/crayons in their stash and color the whole thing with the different shades of blue.

2.  Get out your fish stickers and let the kiddos stick them all over their now-blue paper.  I found these fish stickers for 99 cents at Target.

3.  Find the blue and white window markers and let the kiddos color the glass part of the frame.

4. Put the paper inside the picture frame and you have a multi-layer "under the sea" picture to enjoy.

Picture Frame art

When I was picking up some scrap booking materials in Target the other day, I saw window markers.  I have seen them before and passed over them because, quite frankly, I don't want my children coloring all over my windows.  Not with "special" window markers and not with normal markers.  But when I glanced at them, I had a sudden inspiration.  PICTURE FRAMES!  Picture frames have glass and I can display the girls' art without using my windows.

Also we can clean off their frames every few weeks and make another.  I plan to hang their frames in between so that we can all admire their work and then we'll clean off the glass and make a new picture.  I started by letting the girls create simple "freestyle" drawings on the glass.

They wanted to color on both sides of the glass, which looks pretty neat and gives the pictures a bit more depth.  Check back for more picture frame art in the coming weeks/months because I have some other fun ideas to try out with these cool markers!