Celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a Toddler

It's almost St. Patrick's Day and this year we are going to celebrate it at my house. When I was little, my mom always decorated our house and cooked corned beef and cabbage for supper. I remember how exciting it was when I was small, so I am going to celebrate with my child as well. These are just a few ideas I'm thinking of doing with my toddler. If you have any more ideas, I would love to hear about them in the comments section.

We've actually already started to decorate. We put shamrocks in the windows and we bought Elliott a little leprechaun toy. We put his picture in a frame that says "Kiss Me I'm Irish" and put it on the entertainment center. We put shamrock garland across the top of our doorway out of the living room. I think that is probably all the decorating we will get done this year, though. So we will make up with lack of decorations in other ways.

Think green
We are going to start out the day by dressing in green. I will wear a bright green shirt and dress my son in green overalls, over a matching green striped shirt. My husband might have to work, so if he does he will be wearing his Air Force uniform, which is green. If he doesn't have to work, he will just wear a green shirt with his jeans. We will even put a green sweater on our small dog so she can celebrate the holiday, too.

Get lucky
Even though my toddler doesn't usually get sugary cereal, he will get Lucky Charms for St. Patrick's Day. He will have a small bowl of cereal while I also eat some. His daddy will get to choose whether he wants cereal or eggs, with a little bit of green food coloring. If he chooses eggs, Elliott will get a few bites of them before we put the rest on Daddy's plate.

Green Food
All of our meals and snacks will have something green in them. For our midmorning snack, we will have some fruit. Elliott is just getting into fun shapes so I will cut all the fruits into different fun shapes. The main attraction will of course be shamrock shaped honeydew melon.

For lunch we are going to have sausage and green pepper pizzas. They will just be English Muffin pizzas since they are so easy to make. We will cut them into shamrocks and serve them alongside green beans.

For our afternoon snack we have cottage cheese, with a little bit of green food coloring added. If he still wants something else, we will have lime jello as well.

For supper we will have corned beef. No one in our family really likes cabbage, so we won't be having it the traditional way. We will cook it with potatoes instead. And I will serve garlic bread with extra parsley, to add to the green factor. Of course my son's garlic bread will be cut into shamrock shapes. For dessert we will have pistachio pudding with pineapple in it.

Books and activities
We don't normally do a morning activity because my son takes a nap just two hours after he gets up. He usually just eats breakfast and has some free playtime. We will make sure to leave his leprechaun toy out and I will make up some story about it while we play. When he's ready for his nap we will read a book about leprechauns. If he still wants another story, I will read him another one about St. Patrick's Day. Then I will put him in his bed with a green blanket.

For our afternoon activity we will color. My son is still too young to color within the lines, but he will have a picture with a shamrock and leprechaun anyway. He will get a green crayon and a chance to pick two more. If he doesn't pick his own colors, I will give him blue and yellow. When he finishes coloring, I will write his name and date on the paper so I can keep it a while.

Before he goes to bed, we will give Elliott a bath in green water. We will use green bath tablets to safely color the water. We will use a green washcloth and play with green toys in the bathtub. When he gets out of the tub, we will use a green towel and put him in green pajamas. After we brush his teeth and read him another St. Patrick's Day story, we will put him in bed with his green blanket and St. Patrick's Day will be over.