Our original spring break plans of heading to New Mexico for the week were canceled when my minis requested to keep daycare open and spend some time with friends. After all, this would be their last spring break with their friends. Luckily, they have a week and a half off for break, so I managed to switch around my days off, take all of their daycare friends, and fit in three days of nonstop fun. Literally, nonstop movement from 6:30 a.m. until bed.
Day 1 was board games and chatting/catching each other up on their lives. I love the strong bonds these kids share.
Day 2 was crayon making, slime creating, dog walking, and prepping for an early St. Patrick's celebration.
Day 3 was leprechaun craziness! Our leprechauns came back (read their backstory here) and brought friends with them. The kids built leprechaun traps and caught themselves some leprechauns!
Legos were brought up and a new TV bought (for March Madness). Everyone was happy.
We got together with family to celebrate my grandma's birthday. While she's no longer with us, she knew how to throw a party so we did just that in her honor. It was wonderful, minus our night ending with a kids throwing up from a migraine. Everyone got grandma back scratches (pictured above) before the night was over.
We had TONS of broken crayons. I gave the kids permission to peel the wrapper away and break the crayons even smaller. It's been years since I've done this activity. I couldn't remember what molds were microwave safe, so I melted the crayons in (what I knew was a) microwave safe bowl, then poured them in. They hardened quickly. While all of the bolder, darker colors seem to overpower the other colors, when the kids colored with them, the other colors really popped out. The kids called these 'galaxy crayons' because they looked like the galaxy.
I should also note that everyone wanted these crayons made and everyone complained about the wax smell that filled the house.
Each child got to come into the kitchen to mix a slime. Then they spent the rest of the day playing with their slimes. Each afternoon, I give the bigs electronic time while the littles nap. On this day they opted to put away electronics so they could play with slime instead. Sensory fun for the win again.
While the littles napped and the bigs played with slime, I drank another cup of coffee and got a start on prep for our St. Pat's celebration. I made Lucky Charms cookies and rainbow pancakes. Magically I got both done, put away, and the kitchen cleaned up before naps were finished.
The kittens were not okay with all of the kids in our house! The dog is used to it and LOVED having everyone here. The kittens were irritated because they couldn't peacefully sit in windows without being bothered.
Wednesday March 15 was our St. Patrick's celebration. Those pesky leprechauns left their footprints all over the breezeway trying to get in. Thankfully, those green footprints were cleaned up easily at the end of the day.
Finally one of the leprechauns moved! And he left behind paper confetti because it can be recycled, but he doesn't have good aim. This leprechaun must have heard a kid coming down the hall and gotten messy with the food coloring...errr...I mean,the leprechaun doesn't have good aim. The kids thought the "pee on the seat" was hilarious.
Then we all gathered in the daycare room to make leprechaun traps. Bigs helped littles, some littles just watched, but everyone's trap eventually caught leprechauns that were enroute from Ireland in their adventure for St. Patrick's Day.
A daycare party isn't complete without extreme craziness. Their objective was to keep the balloons off the ground while kids also threw piles of confetti and streamers in the air. The only way I got the kids to stop was telling them the frozen pizza was ready to eat for lunch!
Then our regular leprechauns, Sammy and Michael, summoned three of their friends: Seamus, Cornelius, and Robby.
A favorite St. Patty's snack: rainbow fruit plates for every child. I used to do a giant rainbow fruit tray, but due to Covid, switched to individual plates. I did the plates again because everyone seems to enjoy not fighting over all of the marshmallows, but as it turns out, the giant fruit tray would have been preferred.
One last note after the last visit from our leprechauns. It was a fun, albeit exhausting day.
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