Irish Eyes are Smiling!

     Happy St. Patrick's Day!! I have to admit I just love this holiday.  It is so much fun and there's so many things you can do with it.
     I so miss SPD when the kids were younger.  They would create the most elaborate Leprechaun traps ~ why didn't I take pictures! The mischief caused by the escaping Leprechaun entertained them to fits of laughter.  Some of my favorite memories are from when I was teaching pre-school but I already wrote about that 2 years ago ~ obvious hint to link back to that post HERE

     Onto 2013

Earlier this week I sent SPD care packages out ~ yeah I'm that great a Mom.  I got all of my ideas from interest and the whole thing took just a couple of hours.  All pictures are from the original sites where I've linked the recipes to

 
Leprechaun Hats~ aren't these cute!  I bought 4 containers at the Wbox store for 88 cents.  Waiting for the paint to dry was the longest part.  Take her advice and sponge the paint on.

Green Caramel Popcorn ~ so easy and yummy.  going to make a double batch of this for Patrick to take to work Sunday
Candy Rainbows I didn't have the right size bags so I just cut the licorice in half ~ it is candy the kids aren't going to care.

I filled the hats with the popcorn and put one packaged candy rainbow in each.  I couldn't find the candy coins.  Crazy as it sounds the candy rainbows cost more than the other two combined.

Dinner

I'm so excited to be having a small dinner party.
My menu is pretty basic:
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Homemade Irish Soda Bread
Real Irish Butter (woo hoo so glad stores carry this now)
Beer and Hard Cider
Green Desserts (as healthy as possible)
I am adding two new appetizers ~ both healthy.
Using a shamrock shaped cookie cutter on spinach roll-outs I'll create shamrock chips
I saw a cute presentation of cucumbers that create a shamrock
I'll serve both with a light spinach dip

Image by FontMeme