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Celebrating Memorial Day: Patriotic Traditions!
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Here are some great family traditions for celebrating patriotic holidays: Memorial Day (May), Flag Day (June 14), Independence Day (July 4th), and Veterans Day (November).
Attend a local parade or other event
Many towns hold parades, fireworks, or memorial services on certain patriotic holidays.
If you live in Beaver County, PA or the Greater Pittsburgh Area you can find local events posted here or on my local Facebook page: Beaver County Family Fun.
Display and/or carry a flag and wear poppies
Wear red, white and blue
(Video here)
Make a patriotic themed craft
Teach the kids to salute servicemen/women and veterans
Teach the kids the Pledge of Allegiance
Here’s a video of Adaline reciting the Pledge of Allegiance when she was 3 years old.
(Video here)
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Need more inspiration? See how other bloggers celebrate patriotic holidays…
*Flag Tag Relay Race: @ Spoonful.com
*Flag Day activity for kids: Flag Hunt!: @ No Time for Flashcards
*4th of July Neighborhood Bike Parade: @ Busy Kids Happy Mom
*Making Memorial Day Special and Fun For Your Kids: @ Disney Family
Patriotic Balloon Volleyball, Patriotic Color Race, Plan a Patriotic Party for Memorial Day
*10 Kids 4th of July Celebration Ideas: @ B-Inspired Mama
Have a Kids 4th of July Party, Decorate the House, Play with a Sensory Bin, Make a Kids 4th of July Treat, Dress Up, Have a Picnic, Do a Craft, Learn about Independence Day, Have a Kids 4th of July Parade, Decorate Your Bike
*Our Family Flag: @ Beauty and Bedlam
”What better way than the 4th of July to create your own Family Flag? Use construction paper, felt, or fabric. Select…symbols that represent each member of your
family.”
*Activities to Teach your Child about Memorial Day: @ Premeditated Leftovers
Have a History Lesson, Observe the Moment of Silence at 3 PM and Important Tradition, Learn About Your Military Relatives, Gather for a Family Cookout, Learn a Patriotic Song Together, and More Patriotic Activities for Kids
*10 Ways to Celebrate Memorial Day with Your Child!:
@ Super Coupon Lady
Go to your local cemetery, Fly your flag high, Find out about Memorial Day events in your city, Bring donations to your local veteran’s hospital, Enjoy children’s Memorial Day books together, Make a patriotic themed craft, Wear patriotic colors, Take a moment of silence, Attend a Memorial Day parade, Teach your kids to place their right hands over their hearts when they see the flag go by
*Memorial Day for Kids {A Few Ideas}: @ Fun-A-Day
A Simple American Flag Craft, Drawing Pictures for Marines (or other servicemen/women), Visiting a family member’s grave
*Memorial Day Activities for Kids: @ My Kid’s Guide
Make bouquets and wreaths, Make flags, Visit the local veterans hospital, Memorial Day Activities for Kids: Visit Veterans, Read stories on Memorial Day, Everyone wears red, white and blue
*10 ways to say thank you on Memorial Day: @ The House of Hendrix
Use your phone, Tweet use the #wearegrateful hashtag, write a letter, Fly a flag, Attend a parade, Make patriotic cookies, Pray for the families, give a discount to veterans, offer to do yard work, Do something
*10 Memorial Day Traditions That Are More Meaningful Than a BBQ:
@ The Stir Cafe Mom
Visit a veterans’ home, Visit the local veterans cemetery, Attend a parade., Attend a memorial service, Raise your flag, Honor the National Moment of Remembrance, Hoist a POW/MIA flag, Visit a battlefield, Watch/Listen to the National Memorial Day Concert, Share a photo of your beloved fallen soldier/airman/etc. on Facebook or Instagram.
*Discover and Share Memorial Day Traditions and Activities: @ PBS.org
Displaying the Flag, Visiting Gravesites, Participating in the National Moment of Remembrance, Visiting Local Veterans Homes and Hospitals, Attending Memorial Day Parades, Experiencing the Nation’s Memorials, Brushing Up on Family and American History, Wearing Memorial Day Poppies
*5 Family Activities for Memorial Day Weekend: @ Parent Society
Get out and grill, Watch a parade, Watch the fireworks, Snag some savings, Root, root, root for the home team
*Celebrating Memorial Day with Children: @ No Twiddle Twaddle
Honor a soldier’s grave, Read books that honor soldiers
*Sharing Memorial Day with Kids: @ The Educator’s Spin on it
*Memorial Day Books for Kids: @ 3 Boys and a Dog
How does your family celebrate patriotic holidays? Let me know in the comments!
May Day (May 1st) Traditions
May 1st is “May Day”! On May Day there is a tradition of leaving baskets of flowers or goodies hanging on your neighbors’ doors anonymously. Other ways to celebrate May Day include the Maypole, building fairy houses, making/wearing a floral hat or wreath, and even a Magic Jellybean Lollipop Garden (a tradition that my family does for Easter). Below you will find a round up of May Day ideas from around the web including traditions, maypole tutorials, May Day treats, and free May Day printables.
You can find inspiration and tutorials for May Baskets on my May Day pinboard. A May Day Basket post will be coming someday. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year. Who knows?! (I sure don’t.)
MAY DAY TRADITIONS
*6 Ways to Celebrate May Day: @ WikiHow
Adding a Maypole to Your Backyard, Warming Up By a Bonfire, Trying Other Dancing, Enjoying May Day Food and Drink, Celebrating May Day with Flowers, Trying a Little May Magic
*The Most Fun May Day Traditions: Magic Morning Dew, Fairy Houses and Foliage Accessories: @ BunchFamily.ca
*Jack in the green: @ Wikipedia.org
*Creating Summer Hats: @ Creative Connections for Kids
*May Day Flower Headband Tutorial: @ Simple Simon and Co.
*May Day – Magic Jelly Beans: @ Nothing But Country
*Super Mommy Secret~May Day Tradition: @ Secrets of a Super Mommy
*An Old-Fashioned May Day Celebration: @ Mrs. Gore’s Diary
*Montessori Inspired May Day Activities: @ Living Montessori Now
A great collection of links to May Day Activities
*LOCAL SPRING FESTIVALS!
Check your local community to see if they are hosting a spring or May Day festival!
Adelina from @ Home Maid Simple shared her family’s trip to the Provo Spring Festival complete with Maypole dancing!
*Carrying on the May Day Tradition: @ Omahaha
MAYPOLES
*Paper Towel Roll Maypole Craft: @ DLTK-Kids
*Children’s Maypole Tutorial: @ Mommy Blessings
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*Making a Maypole: @ MarthaStewart.com
*Maypole Dancing and DIY Maypole: @ How to Run a Home Daycare
*May Day and DIY Maypole: @ Montessori Mischief
They used a tall floor lamp as a maypole!
MAY DAY TREATS AND SNACKS
*DIY Mini Maypole Cakes: @ Studio DIY
Cute Maypole bundt cake made with a stripey straw and ribbons.
*May Day Cupcakes: @ Cupcake Project
*Maypole cupcakes: @ Martha Stewart
*Maypole Cake: @ Fiskars
MAY DAY PRINTABLES
*Start a May Day Tradition with these Free May Day Printables: @ Happy Money Saver
*May Day Surprise: @ Creative Preschool Resources
Free printable tag
*Free Printable May Day Gift Tags: @ Skip to My Lou
*DIY Printable May Day Basket: @ Alpha Mom
*Printable May Day Basket Template: @ Printables4Kids.com
*Free Printable May Day Basket (cone): @ The Neighborhood
*May Baskets Poem and Poster / Coloring Sheet: @ DLTK
Do you celebrate May Day? What’s your May Day tradition? Let me know in the comments!
April Holiday Traditions
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April is almost here and it’s time to start planning your holiday traditions!
Here are some ideas for family traditions for April holidays.
*30+ APRIL FOOLS PRANKS TO PLAY ON YOUR KIDS
If you’re not really digging the idea of pranking your kids maybe you can come together
as a family and create some silly and foolish April Fools Day fun with these…
*APRIL FOOLS DAY FAMILY TRADITIONS!
*FREE APRIL FOOLS PRINTABLES!
Just print and prank! 😉
*EASTER TRADITION: MAGIC JELLYBEAN PRAYER AND LOLLIPOP GARDEN
*FREE PRINTABLE EASTER BUNNY PAW PRINT TEMPLATE
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2011
*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2012
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*EASTER TRADITION: EASTER BUNNY TRACKS 2013
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*50+ EASTER EGG DECORATING IDEAS
*NATURAL DYES FOR COLORING EASTER EGGS
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How to Make Leprechaun Footprints: Video Tutorial
How to make leprechaun footprints: video tutorial
Here’s a quick video tutorial showing you how to make the leprechaun footprints that you see in these posts:
*Leprechaun trickery is afoot! and
*St. Patrick’s Day Tradition: Leprechaun Footprints.
I also included some footage of Adaline discovering the mess the leprechauns made in 2013.
(Watch video here)
To make leprechaun footprints:
-Put green Crayola washable fingerpaint on a plate, piece of paper, or thick paper towel
-Make a fist and dip your hand into the paint (dab off the excess)
-Press your fist onto your surface of choice
-Use your pinky finger to make toes
-Repeat using other hand
More details:
-It takes me about 45 minutes to make the mess.
-I do ALL of the prints for one foot/fist at the same time so that I don’t have to keep switching hands.
-It takes about 5 minutes to clean up the footprints.
-The footprints wipe off easily with water. You may want to use some soap if the paint was on long enough to dry.
-My daughter enjoyed cleaning up the footprints.
Has a leprechaun ever visited your house? What kind of things have your kids thrown in the toilet? Let me know in the comments!
*March Holiday Traditions
*Leprechaun Visit 2013: Little green footprints!
*Leprechaun Visit 2011: Magic green milk, footprints, and more!
*50+ FREE St. Patrick’s Day Printables (Links)
*The time that Buddy the Elf stole a picture from my blog!
*30+ April Fools Pranks You Can Play on Your Kids!
Great for Leprechaun tricks and Elf mischief as well!
*Easter Bunny Tracks: Paw Print Trail!
*Santa’s Magic Sooty Bootprints!
This post is linked to…
SITS craft link up / SITS Sharefest /Kids Activities Blog: St. Patrick’s Day
March Holiday Traditions
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March is almost here and it’s time to start planning your holiday traditions! Here are some ideas for family traditions for March Holidays.
March 02 is Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America Day (March 03 for 2014)
*Celebrating Seuss
Celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday with green eggs and ham, create a Foot Book,
and make Thidwick moose antlers from hand tracings!
*A Splendiferous Dr. Seuss Breakfast
Green eggs and ham, bread butterside up, and Moose Juice!
*FREE Dr. Seuss Fonts
These free Dr. Seuss fonts can be used for printables, invitations, birthday parties,
baby showers, school classrooms / preschool, and more!
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*Dr. Seuss Posts
Links to all of my Dr. Seuss posts.
St. Patrick’s Day is March 17!
Leprechauns, shamrocks, clover, green, rainbows, and pots of gold!
*St. Patrick’s Day: Leprechaun Trickery
All of my posts in the “leprechaun” category in one convenient place
*Leprechaun Visit 2011
Leprechaun tricks, pranks, and mischief. He leaves green footprints,
turns the toilet water green, turns the milk green, and makes a huge mess!
*Leprechaun Visit 2013
More leprechaun trickery including green footprints, and toilet papering the house!
*50+ FREE St. Patrick’s Day Printables
*30+ April Fools Pranks to Play on Your Kids!
These April Fools pranks also work great as leprechaun,
Elf on the Shelf, and Thing 1 and Thing 2 mischief!
Easter is usually in April (like this year, 2014) but sometimes it happens in March.
Click the label above to visit the “Easter” category for related posts.
St. Patrick’s Day Traditions: Leprechaun Footprints
In 2011 we had a leprechaun visit our house for the first time. We woke up to find that he had left green leprechaun footprints all over our kitchen and laundry room, he’d turned the toilet water green, and made our milk turn green in the glass! The following year on St. Patrick’s Day I had a one month old baby and I’d ask Santa Claus (head of all legendary figures) to please keep the leprechauns away. Last year the leprechaun was back to his old tricks again!
The leprechaun entered magically through the back door and then made his way into the laundry room where he hopped from the floor, to the washer, to the dryer, to the toilet, to the floor again, to the sink, and back out into the kitchen. Did you know that leprechauns hop? Well, they do. In fact they can jump really high straight up into the air making it easier for them to get into mischief.
While hopping around the laundry room the leprechaun left his green footprints everywhere…including the toilet seat…and grabbed onto the toilet paper to tp the house!
The leprechaun had unrolled the toilet paper all over the kitchen!
When he left the laundry room the leprechaun hopped onto the highchair and over to the table where he must’ve dropped some gold coins out of his pockets while running in circles. Next he hopped down to the floor and onto the wall!
The leprechaun’s next stop was the playroom.
We have tables lined up along the walls where the kids can sit and read books, build with blocks, or play with play sets. The leprechaun ran across the play tables to the art table.
The leprechaun unraveled paper onto the floor and scribbled a picture.
Next the leprechaun slid down the roll of paper and hopped onto a table in the middle of the room before going back to the kitchen where he left through the back door.
The kids were excited to see that the leprechaun had visited, especially since he had dropped some chocolate coins. Jon didn’t even bother to take off the wrapper before shoving them in his mouth! 😉
When the leprechaun visited 2 years ago I was stuck cleaning up the mess. The good thing about a 3.5 year old is that they think cleaning leprechaun footprints is fun, so I gladly let Adaline do all of the scrubbing 🙂 It wipes up as easy as Crayola washable fingerpaint! 😉
(**Click the image below or watch the video for details on how to make leprechaun footprints!**)
You can see the mess that the leprechaun made in 2011 and all of the mischief he got into by clicking the photo below.
Has a Leprechaun ever visited your house?
Let me know in the comments!
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Fun and Dysfunction 