6 Fun and Easy Spring Activities for Families to Enjoy

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I love March and April because the weather is getting nicer. Spring Break is a much needed break for the whole family. St. Patrick's Day is a favorite holiday of mine since I was able to travel to Ireland many years ago and the adventures, tastes and memories will last a lifetime. If you'd like to add some fun to your Spring, try out some of these ideas.

Spring Activity 1: Eat like the Irish

Traditional Irish foods are rich, warm dishes that are sure to please your palette. Think traditional Irish stew, Irish soda bread, shepherd's pie, and shortbreads just to name a few. I like to make an annual pot of Irish stew and soda bread. I makes me think of the hearty dishes I had while traveling and I reminisce over the fun time I had there.

My original Soda Bread recipe came from Good Housekeeping, and is as follows:

1/4 C sugar

1 T baking powder

1t salt

1 t baking soda

4C all-purpose flour

1/2 t all-purpose flour

6 T cold butter

1 C raisins

1 1/2 C buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease large cookie sheet.

2. In a large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. With spoon, stir in raisins, then buttermilk just until evenly moistened.

3. With floured hands, gently knead dough in bowl a few times until dough forms a ball ( do not overmix). Place dough on cookie sheet; shape into a 7 inch round loaf.

4. Sprinkle loaf with remaining 1/2 t flour. With sharp knife, cut 4 inch cross 1/4 inch deep on top of loaf. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

   
   

Spring Activity 2: Check out books on Ireland!

My favorite spots were the Cliffs of Moher and Blarney Castle. Can you believe you can just walk to the edge of the cliffs. Absolutely crazy! I am sure there were signs, maybe, but no fences...nothing. The Blarney Castle is where you kiss the Blarney Stone for luck. That's me leaning backward to do it. It's really not that safe either, to be honest. Oh what fun we have when we are young, right?!

You can find out more information on these places as well as thatch roof houses, the stone fences, Irish sayings and jokes, more recipes and more. Speaking of jokes,

Where do leprechauns hang out?

On the paddy-o!

I always love to incorporate books for the kids, too. Here are some of my favorites from PaperPie. These are sure to make them smile and look for that pot of gold. While you're looking, check out some fun titles for Easter baskets, too.

A few more things I learned in Ireland you might want to discover for yourself and family:

Peat bogs

Thatch roofs

Irish dancers and singers

Castles you can tour

Aran Woolen Mills

Waterford Crystal

Connemara marble

You might be surprised with all of the interesting things Ireland has to offer. I know I was.

Spring Activity 3: March Madness

If you're a sports family you already are well familiar with March Madness. If not, basically it is a basketball tournament of epic proportions and can cause quite the upset when a top seeded team gets beat by a lower seeded one. My family enjoys sports, but we don't get into the basketball brackets as much as we could. However, from the time the kids were small we created Spring or Summer bucket lists of activities to do and one year that resulted in a Spring March Madness event for us. We listed all of the different activities we wanted to do and came up with a list of 32 items. I'm a post-it fan so I grabbed my small ones and listed them all on the side of our chart. When we completed 2 we moved our favorite up a level until we had 16 items. Then we let the kids judge our favorites of that round. Some things we did more than once and sometimes we just had to score them from the first time. Eventually we moved up to our favorite 8, then 4 and 2 and finally our favorite activity of Spring. It was a lot of fun and also kept everyone from saying, "I'm bored" and "What are we doing today?" because we started with a list of 32 fun things to do. The items varied from painting or playing basketball to going to our favorite restaurant or going to the movies. You can easily make the stakes higher or more expensive or on a budget by only using items you already have at home and being creative. I do highly recommend trying it with your family.

Spring Activity 4: Enjoying the Weather

Living in the Midwest, the warming of the weather always puts a smile on our faces. It's not warm enough for some things, but getting out and taking advantage of the sunshine and warmer temps is always a top priority.

One way we learned to get outside and have some fun exercise we learned during the pandemic. We make a chalk activity course on the driveway or sidewalk and then take turns completing them. Depending on the ages of your family you can always make them more difficult by timing them or doing them backward or blindfolded and have the other family members shout out the activities. Guaranteed fun for the whole family.

Not every day is going to be bright and sunny so have a plan to enjoy those rainy days, too. As a child I especially remember playing in the yard in the spring rains with my umbrella having a blast. I have made sure my kids have those memories, too. They put on their rainboots, raincoat and grab the umbrella to run around outside in the rain. We see who can make the biggest splash or save the most worms (boy mom haha). They look forward to gentle rains just to play! Grab all of the umbrellas and make a fort with them. Use your imagination for all of the outdoor rain fun you can handle.

Spring Activity 5: Snacks

Toddler moms need all of the quick snacks they can find and when they are fun and cute it is a bonus! These were two hits with our family and preschool.

The cupcakes can be made from any box mix or homemade recipe. Cut them in half when cool and decorate. I used the bendy part of straws for the handle.

The butterflies are snack bags with grapes on one side and cheese crackers on the other with a clothespin to keep them separate and shaped like the wings of a butterfly. I used some pipe cleaners to add antennas. You could use decorated baggies for added decoration.

Spring Activity 6: Craft

You always need a fun activity to keep in your back pocket for bored or grouchy kiddos. This was also a very easy project - Eggshell Geodes.

We broke open several eggshells as close as we could to equal sides. Wash and pat them. Coat the inside of the shell with glue. Mix warm water and Borax in a bowl just until mixed. Separate into several shallow bowls and add food coloring. Then dip the shells into the colored mixtures while water is still warm. Set on paper towels and allow to dry 24-48 hour and you will see the crystals in your shells.

Have a Happy Spring!

~Jen