Growing up we NEVER celebrated St Patrick’s Day let alone had a party or made an Andes Shamrock Shake for dessert.

My heritage is French and Native American so nobody really thought about St. Patrick’s Day. I did wear green to school so that the kids wouldn’t pinch me. We even had a teacher in elementary school (small town outside of Chicago) that would pinch! Ouch! That would never fly now.

Now that I am a mom I try to make St. Patrick’s Day a fun day for my kids. They have learned all about what other families do (from kids at school) so I let them pave the way and come up with a few fun ways to celebrate.

  • The kids set a trap before bed and try to catch a leprechaun but they end up catching a couple of gold chocolate coins instead.
  • Everyone wakes up in the morning to Lucky Charms with green milk.
  • Make Andes Shamrock Shake

The last few years they have asked what they are getting. Um getting? When did St. Patrick’s Day become Easter? Or Christmas? I put the kibosh on that one really quickly.

St. Patrick’s Day Fun

This year I decided to make St. Patrick’s Day festive for the whole family.

Decorations

Our decor is very simple! I just use what I have on hand and set it up when I take the Valentine’s Day decor down. Down goes the pink and up goes the green.

St. Patrick's Day party

The shamrock swag was made out of the paper that I had in my craft drawers. The leaves are hearts folded in half. So simple!

Tablescape

I keep the table just as simple. Between what I bought last year on clearance and the cute paper products that I keep on hand in every color we have a fun table in no time!

This year I went “crazy” and even made some fun after school snacks for the kids to enjoy before our main course.

St. Patricks Day

We enjoyed our corned beef and cabbage (I don’t eat the cabbage) along with some fresh homemade bread before diving into the highlight of the night – dessert!

Andes Shamrock Shake

Andes Shamrock Shake

My kids are ice cream people. They could eat ice cream twice a day every single day. Me – not so much. I like ice cream once a month but I could drink a milkshake once a week. We decided to add a new treat to our March menu and make it festive at the same time.

Andes Shamrock Shakes

Fast and easy after dinner treat. 

  • 2 cups Vanilla Ice Cream
  • 1 cup Milk (You can use any kind – cow, almond, rice, etc.)
  • 2 tbsp Andes Baking Chips

  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender.

  2. Blend on high until the ingredients are smooth. (Use a spoon to push the ice cream down into the blades halfway through if needed – be smart and turn the blender off before sticking the spoon into the blender.)

Pour your Andes Shamrock Shakes into a glass and top with whip cream and more Andes chips. Serve with a straw.

No matter what you do to celebrate it is the little things that the kids will remember. Chocolate coins and Andes Shamrock Shake 🙂