St. Patrick’s Day Dinner

Valentine’s Day is over now, so it’s time to start thinking about St. Patrick’s Day. I have this fun, fun friend, who is a mom of 6, who is always doing fun things with her kids. I went to a Halloween dinner at her house one time and holy cow, she went all out with the spooky stuff. It was a fun night for sure. I decided I wanted to do a St. Patrick’s Day Dinner with my grandkids, so I had to put my thinking cap on and decide what to do. I thought I would share it here, in case you are looking for something fun to do with your family that won’t cost a fortune, will be easy and fun too.

Every year on March 17, the Irish and the Irish-at-heart across the globe observe St. Patrick’s Day. What began as a religious feast day for the patron saint of Ireland has become an international festival celebrating Irish culture with parades, dancing, special foods and a whole lot of green. (History.com)

Growing up I thought I was German. I am not. I don’t know why I thought that, maybe because I was born there or something. I am actually Irish and English. Funny story about that. My husband is Scottish and English and when we were in Scotland, we talked to this guy who knows all about family names and history and found out that had we been around back in the 17th or 18th century, we would have been like Romeo and Juliet.

For our fun dinner, I went to the local dollar store and got some fun decoration for the table and set it up. The grandkids liked that a lot, especially since they got to take the necklaces home with them. Then I came up with a menu of green foods. When you’re thinking of your menu, try to center it around what your family likes to eat. You can pick foods that are naturally green, like green beans or peas and also things that are easy to dye, like the mashed potatoes and vanilla pudding.

I’m not a huge food coloring person. I don’t use it much at all, but it was a must for this meal. I do have to say that I got some funny looks about the foods, but we ate it and the food coloring didn’t change the taste of the food.

Here we are at our table. I seriously took about 10 pictures and in every single one, at least one kid was moving. I don’t know what the deal is with that. Why don’t kids ever sit still? So, this one has a blurry Lily. I think Owen was really tired because he looks like he is in this picture and he wasn’t doing his regular super hero moves before or after dinner.

My center piece cost me $3 for all of the parts at the dollar store. It was super simple to make too. I cut part of the ends off of the flowers, cut two holes in the hat and slid the flowers through the holes. Next, I used my glue gun and put glue around the holes on the inside and outside. I love that glue gun glue dries so fast. Everyone loved my centerpiece and for the price, you can beat it.

Does your family celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Let me know how below. It would be fun to have some other options to keep the celebrating going.

If you’re looking for a fun decoration to make that is quick and easy too, check out this sign I made a couple of years ago. I love having it in my entry way.