Starting a new family tradition

So I've been a busy little bee planning my St. Patrick's Day celebration. I'm a very excited little mama let me tell you!

As I mentioned in my post Three Books, I've been busy reading (well sort of!). In the book "The Christian Moms Idea Book" I was reading a chapter entitled "Traditions". This got me to thinking. Since I've started planning a fun St. Patrick's Day this year, I've decided to make this year the beginning of a new family tradition.

When I was growing up, my family didn't have many traditions but there is one that I remember and one in which I really enjoyed. Now, there were probably many families who participated in this tradition but nonetheless, it was fun for me. Every year on Christmas Eve my parents allowed my sister, brother and I to open one gift from under the tree. I always tried to open one that I thought was exciting enough to help build my excitement but not too exciting that it would spoil Christmas morning, so I chose carefully.

Well now that I'm a mother, I really want my children to have fun family traditions that they can look forward to every year and why not start with a simple one? So that's how I chose St. Patrick's Day. I'm hoping to make this simple holiday a fun and exciting day for my family and one that my children would feel excited about enough to invite their friends and possibly their significant others WAY down the road! he he =)

So this is what I've been cookin' up over the past week or so....

Last week I went to the dollar store in search for fun inexpensive St. Patty's Day decorations...I found such cute stuff! I found this adorable leprechaun hat,



a "Kiss Me I'm Irish" headband,



green paper lanterns,



two shamrock centerpieces and garland,



and these cute green Chinese take-out containers which will be decorated with the cute ribbon and garland I found.



Over the next couple days I stopped at a few more stores and found cute St. Patrick's Day 'jimmies' for the cupcakes I plan to make,



teenie tiny cupcake cups in a metallic green, St. Patrick's Day paper plates and napkins,



clover cupcake cups,



AND...this is the cutest thing...I stopped at Babies 'R Us looking for something completely different and came across this adorable leprechaun hat for Evan! Yep it's baby size! Just wait until you see him in it!



Here is most of the garb together:



My sister-in-law and I are going to make shepherd's pie for dinner (maybe I'll color the mashed potatoes green???), my sister is making a GREEN garden salad, my mother-in-law is bringing green jello and I'm making a fun green punch!

Next I decided to make homemade peanut butter cups. These were inspired by my sister-in-law who made these for her hubby for Valentine's Day and by the teenie tiny cupcake cups I found!



I'm also making these cute clover sugar cookies that will serve as a 'goodie bag' treat that will go inside the green Chinese take-out containers along with the peanut butter cups! These will be gifts I'm making for my family to take home!

Can I just tell you how hard it was for me to find a simple clover cookie cutter? I first looked at the dollar store, nope! Then at Michaels, nope! Then to Williams-Sonoma, a cooking store would surely have a clover cookie cutter, nope! Then to Pottery Barn Kids on the advice of an employee at Williams-Sonoma, nope! Then...I went to a different Michaels and wouldn't you know it, they had a whole basket full of them! And just because I was curious, I went to the party store next door to Michaels and guess what? Yep, they had a set of clover cookie cutters! A SET...of THREE! What the heck! A cooking store doesn't have a clover cookie cutter but a party store does??? Anyway...I bought both. But here's the kicker....when I got home I decided to check my bag of cookie cutters and you know what??? I ALREADY had a clover cookie cutter!!! Anyway...I now am the proud owner of not one, not two but five clover cookie cutters!!!



Then for dessert, I'm making all green cupcakes! I put green food coloring in the cake batter along with some green sugar. I filled the clover cupcake cups with the batter and this is how they turned out...before and after...



I'll post the final product tomorrow! I bought this cute decorating set for the icing...we'll see how it turns out!



And I'm surprised Ben actually agreed to this, but I found these cutesie shirts at Old Navy for only $5!!! And the best part is is it came in a onesie for Evan!




And to top off the night, Evan is going to sport an Irish sleeper to bed and wear a bib for dinner! I know, I know....a little much...but I'm having fun!



I'm hoping to get a little Wii action in with maybe some Wii sports or some Guitar Hero on the Xbox! This of course will be after Evan goes to bed....poor little guy will be all pooped out!

So there you have it...I can't wait for tomorrow (well actually tomorrow is officially now today)! I'll post all about it on Wednesday!

Until then....have a HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY everyone!