I’m just popping in today to share a super quick and adorable St. Patrick’s Day craft you can do with you little ones. (If your kids are older than mine, they might actually make a Leprechaun with the crafting supplies.)
I had saved a few ideas on Pinterest and showed them to Firecracker to pick a craft to do and he immediately chose this Lepruchaun Lunch Bag Puppet. A trip to the Dollar Tree shortly followed for some large googly eyes and brown lunch bags – we already had everything else we’d need.
Here’s what you need: brown paper lunch bags, construction paper (green, black, yellow, orange), large googly eyes, marker, buttons.
Firecracker had been looking forward to crafting all week long and the first thing he wanted to do Friday morning was make our craft. Turns out those brief moments were the best of the day, as a trip to the doctor’s office shortly followed to discover that between my two boys, they had 3 ear infections.
With Treat having just woken up as well, he got to join in the crafting fun. For him, that meant pulling all of the buttons and googly eyes off of the paper bag, but he seemed to enjoy himself. 
Firecracker just wanted to glue a bunch of googly eyes on his Leprechaun[‘s hat] and a few buttons. He had no interest in creating the orange beard.
The night before crafting day, I cut out the paper hats, buckles, and strips for the beard. I then glued it together to ensure that my trusty liquid Elmer’s glue would work. Spoiler alert: it works perfectly.
This book is one that we’ve had for a long time (that’s a 7 month old Firecracker in that picture!). As a rocket scientist, I couldn’t not purchase this particular installment from The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library. I just love the rhyming tour of our solar system and the beautiful illustration. We also have 
A lot of the “step into reading” books contain stickers, particularly if they’re books from a TV show or movie. I’ll usually pick up one of these books before a vacation -a new story and new stickers can always entertain small hands for at least 20 minutes. At first, I’d require reading through the story before getting a sticker. Of course, now that they can pull the sticker off the paper in {mostly} one piece themselves, it’s harder to police the sticker collection.
by Ann Whitford Paul
This book has been a favorite ever since Firecracker’s first Valentine’s Day. My mom sent it in a package. I Love You Through and Through is a simple poem with adorable illustrations. It’s probably the first book I had memorized. The book has resurfaced as the “one more book” before lights are turned out each night.
, tracing their outline in black Sharpie. I put a “Thank You” sticker with each kid’s name on the back.
Today’s sloppy joe recipe comes from my grandmother via my aunt. Last year or so, when my aunt finally got a computer, she was introduced to my blog and has been supporting me ever since! When she discovered that, for me, sloppy joes are synonymous with pre-trick-or-treating fare, she immediately sent me an email with Busia’s sloppy joe recipe.
Sew You Think You Can Cook 