I lieu of St. Patricks day I thought I would have Kaili do a {non-messy} activity for a change. Ok, well for today at least. We spent the entire day in the sunshine and the last thing I wanted to do was get messy, which really means I didn’t want to have a big mess to clean up.

I dyed some Rigatoni noodles green. {to do this- mix dry noodles with some food coloring and a few drops of rubbing alcohol and shake, shake, shake in a ziploc bag.}Then lay the noodles out to air dry.

Next I took a long piece of green string and tied a noodle to one end of the string and taped the other end tight with masking tape. This will  make stringing a whole lot easier for the child, or the parent or the dog…whomever.

*AWESOME TIP* You can also dip one end of string in melted wax. I actually recommend this method if you have a whole brood of children you are going to do this activity with. But for just one child, taping one piece of string  ain’t NO big thing.

Once you are ready to introduce this activity, grab yourself a green container to put the noodles in. This IS a St. Patrick’s day craft, so yes green is a must.

Once we sat down I showed K how to push the string through the noodle and pull it at the other end and then let her take the lead. The younger the child the more guidance they will need. Kaili started to get the hang of it after a few noodles and decided she was going to do it herself. All the while I was saying “green, green green green, Kaili’s stringing green noodles. What color are the noodles? Green, green green!” Annoying huh? Well that is what you gotta do!

Once the noodles were gone I tied the string together to make a necklace. You may choose to let the child take all the noodles off and start again and again and again, it’s your  prerogative.

Voila! A green necklace for your favorite beer drinking holiday.