It’s coming up to that time of year again, the day the world turns green to celebrate St Patrick. For this St Patrick’s Day we decided we will make a little fuss coming up to it and have some fun with it.

No doubt we will have a few rainy spells coming up to it and that’s when these easy crafts can come in very handy!

Suitable for any age and fun for all. Though be warned, my table is painted rather than paper by my 2 year old. I tend to put a plastic fun tablecloth down that I got for €2 in Dealz, large tubs of washable paint and let them have at it. Everyone has as much fun as they want and I just wipe away the paint after with very little effort.

Arts & Crafts Fun:

1. Paper Plate Mask:

What you need:
Child friendly scissors, washable non toxic paint, paint brushes, card (any colour but green for less work/mess) or green paper, ruler if you’re particular about straightness, Paper Plate and PVA glue.

1. Cut the inner circle out of the paper plate (start this off for your child).
2. Draw out a long strip (bottom on the top hat), a smaller strip for the black part, a large rectangle, and a small square outline (the gold square in the picture) and you or your child, if they’re able, cut it out.
3. Paint the remaining outer of the paper plate orange and leave to dry.
4. Paint the large strip and the rectangle green if not already green card. Paint the smaller strip black and the square outline yellow or gold.
5. When this has all dried, glue it together like the above picture and there you have it, a fun leprechaun mask!

2. St Patricks day Garland:

What you need:
Child friendly scissors, washable non toxic paint, paint brushes, empty toilet roll x 3 (the number depends on how big your garland will be, any ribbon but rainbow if you like and PVA glue.

1. Cut each toilet roll into as many thick circles as you can manage (I managed 5 for each).
2. Paint them all green and let them dry.
3. Make small indents in each to make them into heart shapes.
4. Spread glue in the pointed part of each and stick three together into a shamrock shape. If you would like a stalk, I cut some circles into strips and glued them between the three heart shapes.
5. Use your scissors to put holes in the middle heart on either side and feed the ribbon through.

Food Fun!

3. Pasta Pesto

What you need: Shop bought pesto and spaghetti or if you’re less lazy than I am:

• 175g fresh basil leaves
• 225g Parmesan, grated
• 55g pine nuts
• 2 large cloves of garlic
• 225ml extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. If you’re making your own pesto, throw all the above into a food processor and whizz it up. It’s worth noting, I am terrible for not measuring out ingredients but once I taste test it’s a very easy recipe to adjust. If you want to get extra nutrition into your child you could also add broccoli to the ingredients and add peas after its all mixed up with the spaghetti.
2. Cook the spaghetti in boiling water as per the pack instructions.
3. Mix the pesto into the spaghetti and sprinkle some more parmesan on top. 

4. Green Pancakes

What you need:

• 1 2/3 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 medium banana
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (water works too)

Method

1. Add 1 and 1/3 cup oats to a blender and blend into flour.
2. Add banana, spinach, and almond milk (or water) to the blender and blend until everything is mixed.
3. Add an additional 1/3 cup oats (not oat flour) to the blender and mix for a couple seconds.
4. Heat your pan on medium low and let the mixture sit and thicken.
5. Scoop 1/4 cup batter onto the lightly greased griddle. Wait about 2-3 minutes, then flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
6. Enjoy with lots of fruit and maybe some maple syrup or whatever you like!

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