Playdate: Little Leprechauns St. Patrick's Day Playdate

 I have so many things to post about, but finding twenty minutes to blog has been a struggle. We've had a full schedule in March and April and I hope to give you a glimpse of some of the fun.

Typically, when spring rolls around, I tend to focus on all things Easter in my decorating, playdates, and parties. My home is usually filled with bunnies, chicks and pastels and I love it. This year, however, I decided to mix things up and go green for St. Patrick's Day. I hosted a Little Leprechauns playdate at our home.

 It was a morning playdate, so I went light on the snacks and purchased Shamrock Cookies from a locally owner bakery, Heitzman Bakery. I typically go with Loft House Cookies, but the selection at our local Kroger was pretty slim and these were still yummy and festive.

When planning a Playdate, I like to develop activity stations that are not only age appropriate, but high interest for the little ones. Plus, if the kiddos are happy, then the mommas get chat and hang out, and let's be real... that is at least 50% of why we go to Playdates! This station I called "Create a Sticker Scene." Preschoolers and toddles LOVE stickers so this station was a favorite.

I pulled out some green cardstock that I had in our home office and placed it on our kitchen table. I had picked up some fun St. Patrick's Day themed puffy stickers at the Dollar Tree and I tossed them in a basket along with some crayons. I've found that puffy stickers work best because little hands can easily peel them off the backing.

 

The second station, was a simple "Play-Doh Play Station." To make it fit into the holiday theme, I used green Play-Doh and kneaded nontoxic gold glitter into it to make it sparkle. In the past I've made my own Play-Doh and there are some great recipes out there, but a few months ago, I discovered that Wal-Mart stores sell Play-Doh for fifty cents a can. You can grab a variety of colors, or in my case, load up on 10 cans of green. Not only did it only cost me $5, it also saved me time and cream of tartar (seriously, the homemade Play-Doh recipes always clean me out of cream of tartar!)

 

The final station was a fun "Photo Booth Station." This was my favorite. To create your own at-home photo booth, all you need is a couple of yards of fabric, something to hang it on, fun themed props, and a digital camera. I use a portable double clothes rack that I had in the basement to hang the fabric and then use duct tape to tape the fabric to the bar.  You could always tape your fabric straight to the wall, but I'm afraid of it pulling the paint off during the removal process and I don't want to have to touch up my walls. The fabric that I used for this photo booth was originally used for my son's Mickey Mouse themed birthday party a few years ago and it was perfect.

 

All of the photo props came from the Dollar Tree and I borrowed the green tub from our front bathroom. It usually stores my son's bath toys.

To tie in the St. Patrick's Day theme in the entry way, I pinned some fun sparkly shamrocks to our repurposed shutters that act as a seasonal display for photos, cards, or L's artwork.

We had a great time and ended up with some super cute photos of everyone from the photo booth that we shared via email and Facebook with the group.