Family Fun in March

Although March is nearly half over, I realized that I've got another Family Fun printable to share! Download this March Family Fun printable and plan some family fun!

There are just too many things to celebrate this month not to plan in a little special family fun! This month, we've got three holidays to celebrate at our house -- St. Patrick's Day, Easter, AND my wedding anniversary. So, some of the things we're doing around here this month are:

For Saint Patrick's Day

• Build a Leprechaun Trap: Ella had to make one of these for an assignment when she was in Kindergarten. What can I say? The girl loves to create things! She's started making one all on her own. Our dining room has been a disaster as pieces of the trap are in various states of completion. Spoonful.com (formerly Family Fun) has some Leprechaun Trap crafts if you're looking for ideas.
• Make a rainbow treat: I'm hoping to make a special dessert for Saint Patrick's Day. I've got some cool small round pans. I thought it might be fun to do different colored layers and pile them up into a tall cake that I disguise as a leprechaun hat. We'll just have to see how the weekend plans go! We might just settle for cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles.
• Make a St. Patrick's Day dinner: I love this Irish Stew and Irish Soda Bread. I think I have my dinner plan for Sunday. I might even splurge on some good ol' Irish butter or Dubliner cheese at Trader Joe's.

For Easter

• Make Easter Cookies: Baking Easter cookies and "painting" them is one of my favorite childhood memories. It's on our to-do list for sure.
• Dye Easter Eggs: The girls and I haven't really done this before. Their Auntie Jamie helped them do it one year, but shockingly I never have. I just might attempt it this year.
• Make an Easter Craft: Right now we're working on a kid-friendly craft for Life as MOM. I think it is going to look pretty cool. Stay tuned!
• Make Homemade Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels: This recipe from Good Cheap Eats is soooooo good. The girls love these. It's been a few months since we've done it, but I've been craving them lately.

How are you going to have some family fun this month?

DIY Woven Felt Coasters

It's March! Time to take down the Valentine's hearts and add some splashes of green around! Coasters are an inexpensive -- yet useful -- way to change up your decor. 

Last month I made some fun little coasters out of ceramic tiles. With the "I love you" written on one, they had a bit of Valentine's Day flair. This last week, I created some new GREEN coasters that would be great for St. Patrick's Day.

Do you remember paper weaving? We used to do it every year in elementary school to make Thanksgiving placemats. I always loved doing it. Last week, I called on those long-unused paper-weaving skills and tried it with felt for my coasters. It was rather enjoyable to do. Stop by DIY Your Way today to learn how to make your own DIY Woven Felt Coasters.  

If you like paper weaving, this woven paper storage box is a fun project too. I just love to re-purpose something and make it pretty. These boxes turned out even better than I thought they would. I would love to make more...I just gotta find the time to do it.

Leprechaun Trap

In the past week, we've experienced: two sets of out-of-state visitors (both very fun), two children with fevers, one 40th Birthday celebration for my brother-in-law, one (very rare) date night in Santa Barbara, and the return of my cough that previously lasted a month. Yeah, things have been kinda busy around here. Then again, they usually are.

One of the things that has been on our to-do list for the past two weeks is one of Ella's very first big school projects. The first was a collection of 100 things for the 100th Day of Kindergarten. That was easy peasy compared to this one. For this one, Ella needed to design and build a Leprechaun Trap! Of course, with all of the events of the past week, we didn't get started on it until, well, last night. There's nothing like waiting until the last minute!

We looked to Family Fun for some leprechaun trap examples and around the house for some supplies. With a box, some posterboard, scrapbook paper, fishing wire, a clear deli container, a medicine cup, rocks, green felt, a couple of beads, some paint and gold glitter, we crafted Ella's very first leprechaun trap.

This trap is of the "dropping cage" variety. We've got the plastic deli container suspended inside the box by fishing wire and held in place by the "pot of gold" (aka a medicine cup painted black and filled with glitter covered rocks). When the leprechaun enters under the rainbow and picks up the gold, BAM! The cage will fall on top of him...or at least that's the theory. Ella took the trap to school today. Tomorrow just might be a very eventful day at school!