Themed Meals

 

I have always loved to plan parties for my family.  I remember starting planning holiday fun when my two oldest were 5 and 2.  That was a magical age. I stayed at home all day with my girls and we didn't make a lot of money, so I remember trying to create Holiday Fun for us.  It started to become a tradition and my girls loved to see what would happen on holidays.  Even when I went back to work outside the home they still loved when I would create Holiday Fun for them, even if it was on a much smaller scale. 

Pinterest has so many ideas for themed meals, parties and activities. So if you feel in the mood to create some Themed Meal Time check out our pinterest board and some of these food ideas we have done in the past.

Holiday Parties.......

Heart Shape Party Food for Valentine's

14 Heart Shape Foods

Green Party- St. Patrick's Day

Breakfast

 Green Eggs and Ham, Green Oatmeal or Lucky Charms

Lunch

Picnic Lunch- Leprechaun Switch

One year we made a picnic lunch. Picture on the left. 

When we came back from running errands to go on our picnic

 our lunch had been turned green by the Leprechaun.

Rainbow Snack

 

Holidays are probably the easiest to create a Themed Meal for.

Have you heard of National Food Holiday Days.  Pick a day and check out this website and you can create your meal around the National Food Holiday.

Did you know.......

March 14th is National Potato Chip Day?

March 25th is National Waffle Day.

March 26th is National Spinach Day.

March 28th is Something on a Stick Day.

Themed Meals for PRESCHOOLERS

Preschoolers love themed meals and can be especially easy to create. 

Use a book for Inspiration:

Try using shapes to create lunch whether it is a orange for a circle, pizza for a triangle

or using a cookie cutter to cut heart shape PB and J's.  

Your PRESCHOOLER will love it!!! 

Pick a letter for the day and make a lunch using that letter. 

C: Carrots, Celery and Cucumbers, Crackers and Cheese, Clementine, Craisins,   

Themed Meals for

MOVIE NIGHT

Polar Express Movie Night

Teen Beach Movie Night

Beach Party

Themed Meals for

Sports

Football Party

The ideas are endless just think of a fun day you want to celebrate and then begin planning!!

Enjoy!
Jan

Simple St. Patrick's Day Decorations

I love St. Patrick's Day, but I don't ever feel like spending more that a few bucks on decorations. Here are a few things I did in my house to make it a wee bit festive....

I grabbed some pillows I already had, and put the"lucky" colors together...

I put some extra RIBBON SHAMROCKS in a basket on an old green Shakespeare book...

Then set it on my TABLE...

(One thing I LOVE about my mismatched chairs, is that I can put any color of decor with it.)

I bought this sparkly shamrock wire at the dollar store, cut it in half, then put it around some candles.  A cake stand or plate holder works great to display anything...

These "LUCKY" blocks that I bought for $6 at Tai Pan make a statement that I like by my family pictures :).

I love this Shamrock for the door (which I bought at Tai Pan for $7)...

Someone else likes it too...

I spent about $13 on St. Patrick's Day decorations, and feel some luck of the Irish hopefully coming our way!

Best of luck to you!

Nancy

St Patrick's Day Activities

I really got into St. Patrick's Day about 5 years ago.  We BELIEVE in all the silly people that come to visit our house during the holidays.  Cupid, The Leprechaun, The Great Pumpkin as well as the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.  It reminds me to play with my girls and to be a kid again. 

Looking back through the years in pictures I realize more and more how quickly those

fun preschool age years go by and I am glad I took advantage of these fun days.   

The Leprechaun is a very tricky man at our house and

visits us throughout the day, changing our food green

and leaving fun things to do and play. 

Here are some of the things we have done over the years.   

1. Rainbow and Shamrock Mobile

Click here, print and cut.  Tape on to yarn and hang.  SIMPLE!!! SIMPLE!!!

2.  Leprechaun Pots



This is a fun tradition we started several years ago.  The night before St. Patrick's Day we painted pots to leave out for the Leprechaun to fill.  We leave the pots at the top of our outside stairs and the Leprechaun fills the pot with gold and green things.  He then hides the pot inside the house. 
The girls have to follow his footprints around the house to find their pot!!



 3.  Green Noodle Necklace

Cook pasta with green food coloring.  Let dry. 
Make necklaces by putting noodles on a piece of yarn. 

4. Shamrock Party



Cut out a bunch of shamrocks and write fun and simple things to do.

Let your toddler pick out of the pot what to do.

1. Go for a walk and find 10 things that are green.

2. Make cookies

3. Make Noodle Necklaces

4. Have a bubble gum blowing contest and buy green gum

5. Color a shamrock

6. Paint a picture of a rainbow 

5. Leprechaun Hats



We cut a green piece of paper to fit their heads like a crown.  Then we cut another piece of green paper to look like a flower pot.  Cut a strip of black paper long enough to cover the flower pot piece. Glue onto green paper, then cut extra black pieces off to fit the shape of the flower pot.   Cut a yellow square and cut a square out of it.  Glue the yellow square that will look like a buckle onto the black paper. Staple the green flower pot onto the green crown and you have a hat.  It is a lot less complicated then the instructions and it doesn't have to be perfect. 

Let you toddler do the glueing and the cutting they will be in heaven!!

6. Green Cookies 

We made peanut butter cookie dough together.  I told the girls to put the dough in a ziploc bag and that we would bake them right before lunch.  When it was time, I told the girls to mix their bag by squishing the cookie dough in the bag.  The girls got so excited that the Leprechaun had come and made their cookies

 GREEN!

 7. Rainbow Paper Plates

Simply tape or staple ribbon or crepe paper on a paper plate to make a rainbow and let your toddler run wild.  My daughter loved this and played with it most of the afternoon.

Here is  blog that has lots of fun other rainbow activities for toddlers!

8. St Patrick's Day Lunch

There are so many fun green foods you can make for your toddler.  We had green tuna fish shamrock sandwiches, green veggies and grapes with green ranch, green cookies with green milk

and green Kool-Aid.

9. Rainbow Fruit

I am sure you have seen this on pinterest and many other blogs.  But this was a lot of fun for my girls to create.  It was fun for me to sit back and watch them as they pop a few  in their mouth while

creating their masterpiece.

10. Green Picnic

This was probably my favorite thing the Leprechaun has done.  We decided to make a picnic lunch on St. Patrick's Day last year.  The girls packed orange jell-o, a clementine, shamrock sandwiches, oreos and doritos.  We decided we would go to the library first and then have our picnic.  When we got back to our lunches everything had turned green!

Silly Leprechaun!

11. Leprechaun Trap

Sometimes the Leprechaun likes to trap the girls in their bedroom.  

12. St Patrick's Day Breakfast

We have had oatmeal with green milk and green eggs and ham, we have had green pancakes and waffles.  One year while I was pregnant the Leprechaun brought us Lucky Charms and turned our milk green which was a hit!



Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Jan

Linking this post to:
A Glimpse Inside
Be Different, Act Normal
 



Ribbon Shamrocks... woven with possibilities!

For the last few years, one of our traditions has been to make these ribbon shamrocks.  
 They are so simple and cheap to make!

My girls love them for the hair....

I think they're fun for a mantle.

They'd look cute on a wreath, a headband, or just hanging by themselves.

Since emerald is the color of the year (read about it HERE), these shamrocks will not only help you avoid getting pinched, but you'll be sporting the "in" color :).

I did not invent these, obviously! I don't even remember where I learned how to make them, but this is my version.

To find out how to make your own, click on "read more" below... 

but first, 

 

ok, now you can click to read more.... (under the "Pin It" button)