For all resource links please check out the entry “Saint Patrick’s Day Resources“.

March 11-12

The Bodhran was our first instrument to cover this year. We are reusing the videos from our previous year with just as much enjoyment. So I am going to re-embed them in the entry of course! (they will also be in the resource entry)

Today we saw daddy off to the office and are running solo. Thankfully we had our St. Patrick’s Day themed book of the day – St. Patrick’s Day by Gail Gibbons. And started working on our poem for Friday.

Book of the day

We started work on our leprechaun trap… a great way to learn the rainbow since we changed out plain sticks (which were actually MORE expensive???) with coloured ones!

Working on our box

The twins painted our 3 heart shapes to make our shamrock for the lid.

Green paint and the twins

Our second instrument covered was the Uilleann Pipes…

We played some simple but fun St. Patrick’s Day themed board games that you can find on Education.com. (link on side bar)

Gaming together

Trinity made her Trinity teaching shamrock (yes yes her and Emanuel with their religious names confusion… O Come O Come Emmanuel was a horrible song for a small child who kept saying BUT I AM HERE).

Our Trinity representing the Holy Trinity with a fun craft

And Echo proved how much she HAS grown with her new proficiency with getting into the fridge and asserting her wish to have what SHE wanted WHEN she wanted it!

Hot dogs???

We even squeaked in a Wild Kratts episode on the Tasmanian Devil.

Tasmanian Devil

Our Tuesday started us on the Irish/Celtic Harp….

and the Tin Whistle.

Just like last year the sound of the tin whistle is a siren call… a siren call to DANCE!

Trinity and I used a JoAnn’s kit and made a pretty St. Patrick’s Day themed headband.

Crafting

So pretty and festive

And of course we continued the work on our leprechaun trap… think it will tempt one well enough???

Finishing the lid

Our book for today was Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola. St. Patrick has quite a few interesting legends connected to him. We have 6 we wrote about but we did not include the one where he prayed and a man turned into a FOX or where horses were lost and his hand glowed showing the way! Seriously, there is a lot of interesting things connected to the patron saint of Ireland!

With our book about the Saint

Echo napped through the tin whistle so she had a Bubble Guppies dancing moment.

Get down

And dance

We also made our monthly mini poster for the ‘fridge. March! What do you think of when you think of MARCH?

March

Girls in pretty dresses simply must be photographed!

So pretty.. this is a dress I added a sash to over a year ago to alter to fit our skinny minny… and now it actually fits… better

My girls together

And for us… a “romantic” dinner and a movie… well some anime…

noms

With it being spring break around here the boys ALSO got some time with the neighbours in the snow!

So much snow

St Patrick has been interesting and the weather cooperating… not bad not bad!

All smiles

I am not sure how many of my readers are aware of what the initials WIP mean but for many people it means WORK IN PROGRESS… now I honestly can say the dreaded WIP’s are not TOO numerous here in the Reinsch-Johnson home BUT they DO exist. One of the biggest thorns in my side is a WIP cross stitch that has chased me for YEARS… as in I think I began it back when Emanuel was little… it has morphed from tentative gift to tentative gift and for a while was placed out of sight. With the move to this present location the dreaded project was thrust out into the open (partially due to not having a safe place to store it and partially because seriously I NEED to get it done!) where any and all could see it. This has had the sad repercussion of people actually engaging me in conversation regarding it… Ohhh so it is by THAT artist (it is a Teresa Wentzler) and ooo when do you figure you will have that done… and how are you going to frame it… well, enough is enough… this WIP is officially PROGRESSING. I am at the drawing board for Christmas presents right now so I have no excuse, well until Ken buys me the duct tape he has promised me… but then again who can resist rolls of brightly coloured and patterned duct tape? I know I can’t. So… in keeping with my promise to myself to not unveil this piece until it is DONE DONE, here is a tiny chunk of progress… 

Just a bit

We are in full St. Patrick’s Day learning mode… another story today of course!!

Today's book

Rainbows have been added to our decorations… thanks to Trinity and Emanuel. Trinity cut MOST of hers out and then conned Emanuel into doing the rest… you turn your back for ONE minute! 

St. Patrick's Day curtain

I am hopeful that MARCH will be the month for Gavin to finish his cross stitch. He is making some progress but lacks the drive to go back to it every day. 

Stitching

Of course with fresh Play Doh in the house there are MANY spontaneous creative group moments. Note that in the below picture Echo is given “twisty crayons”… while she is one smart cookie it is not the best idea to tempt fate and give her something that seems so much more… edible!

Around the table (Emanuel was still napping!)

We started with some Ireland related videos today. I found the official Discover Ireland youtube feed last night and had it set up to watch their whole series. We skipped the first one on Bed and Breakfasts and the boys watched 2-13… the one item shared with Mommy during her bath – Ireland apparently has over 90 beaches! 

Each of the kids drew their own special pictures about yesterday’s Sledding and Skating Party. I love seeing what stood out for each kid… Trinity’s was very cute with a picture of myself with a marshmallow in my hand by the fire… with the bag of them on a table! 

Trinity's

Zander and Gavin's

Inside

I love having them reflect back on an event and create some sort of art or other memorandum. 

Emanuel's

We have worked on our mini books… cut out pieces for a couple games (pictures to follow tomorrow) and of course played Legos… I am amazed at how well the boys are sounding out their words now and the excitement that they feel for themed pages. Put a shamrock on most anything right now or a well placed Leprechaun and they are all over it!!

So we made it through our Monday with a minor amount of fuss and bother. I am hoping the rest of the week will follow suit. After all we have a birthday party in the city on Saturday followed by Sunday School. I honestly am not planning anything else until AFTER Echo’s surgery… so if you feel the urge to see our little pixie before it please let me know, we should be home! 

Our little girl