Early St. Patrick's Day Fun

So we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day a little early at my house. It was just easier to celebrate today when we would have all day, instead of just a few hours after work tomorrow. Plus Monday is staff meeting day, so I get home even later. Celebrating today just made more sense. So, on behalf of my family, St. Patrick I apologize.

Last night S and I made green shamrock and leprechaun cookies. OK, the cookie cutter was labeled “gingerbread man,” but when you dye the dough green leprechaun sounds so much better, don’t you think? K didn’t help make them, but she sure did help eat them. Twice today I caught her hiding under the dining room table with a green tongue. First thing this morning, S and K discovered the little pots of gold coins a leprechaun had left for them on the dining room table. After lunch S and K were thrilled to discover the leprechaun had tricked us. It wasn’t gold coins on the table after all, it was chocolate! (The set of six pots and bulk gold coins cost less than $5.00 at Meijer.)

Later on, we “found” the Treasure Stones the leprechaun had left. (Treasure stones are rock-like balls that have a treasure hidden inside.) By far they were the highlight of the day. Both S and K loved pounding on them with the hammer to get at the treasures. Pop over to Skip to My Lou for the directions. You are supposed to let them dry for several days, but I didn’t. I just baked them for 4 hours instead of two, at 200 degrees instead of 170, and then let them sit over night. They worked just fine. Try as I might, I could not get the stones to look less poop-like. When we found them, S actually thought the dog had an accident on the floor. I even rolled them in sand to lighten the color and give them a better texture. (The grand total for the stones was $3.99. That was for the treasures – super balls and miniature sea creatures - both from Target. I had all the ingredients for the stones on hand.) The sea creature treasures were a big hit. S had to have his sea star, squirming eel and shark in the tub tonight. I’m not quite sure why it is a “squirming eel” but all day long it was never just an eel; it was always squirming…

After we hammered open some of the stones, my husband noticed the rainbow from the prism we have in the window was shining on my lap. How perfect was that? We found the treasure at the end of the rainbow!