Your works, O Lord, are manifold and wisely made, and well!
You fill the world with forms of life more than our tongues can tell.
Oh, yonder lies the rolling sea with life of ev’ry sort,
and in it lives Leviathan, whom you have made for sport.
These look to you and you provide, they gather what you give.
You open wide your hand with good to feel all things that live.
We are still celebrating the season of Easter with the Garden of the The Good Shepherd and weekly “Good Shepherd Garden Parties. For those that have been asking, The Garden of the Good Shepherd is a sticker calendar illustrated by Tomie dePaola with a sticker to add for each of the 50 days of Easter, plus one for Pentecost Sunday. It also comes with a booklet, by Peter Mazar, containing prayers, songs for each week, and scripture passages to look up, read, and discuss with the children.
Charlotte and I have been using this calendar during the Easter season for years now. At first we tied in daily activities for our children, based on each symbol, then consolidated the activities to weekly “Good Shepherd’s Garden Parties” creating menus based on the symbols/stickers studied during each week. You can find links to all of my past posts here and Charlotte’s here.
This past week, the fourth week of Easter, was based on the theme “The Wind and Sea Obey Him.”
I had everything I needed to make the menu items from the suggestions for our 4th Good Shepherd’s Garden Party. However, after spending some extra time in the kitchen with the girls this morning (making a special Sunday brunch, featuring the State of Vermont!) and then walking 4 miles on the treadmill, I really wanted to head outside and enjoy a little of the sunshine, instead of heading back to the kitchen.
I decided that I would bake a cake, set the kids up with some supplies, and then let them come up with our extra treat for this week for the symbols Boat, Mast, Sail, Net, Fishes, and Leviathan, while Hubby fired up the Barbecue!
~ The Boat, Mast, Sail, Net, Fish and Leviathan ~
I supplied the kids with a cookie, fruit roll up, pretzels, candy fish, octopuses, and my stash of sprinkles and decorating icings, along with a frosted cake, and let them come up with something for this week!
They were a little nervous at first, but I told them it was just like a giant cookie – reminding them of the St. George Story Quilt and Friendship Quilt cookies they recently made! I got them started by outlining the area they wanted for the water blue, and then they took over.
They added green coconut for the grass/land, a sandy beach made with gold sprinkles, and some rocks made with a crunchy ice cream topping.
Captain decided that he wanted to try and create a sunset on the horizon…
… while everyone watched.
Rascal created the Boat, Mast and Sail…
… and Snuggles and the girls added the Net, Fishes, and Leviathan.
I thought they did a beautiful job!
~ The Barbecue ~
Hubby barbecued hotdogs for the kids and a couple Turkey Burgers for the two of us, while I made up a pasta salad. The weather was nice (and it looks like it will stay nice all week!) so we ate dinner outside!
Rose missed all the cake decorating fun since she happened to be napping, but Bud was having a grand time watching everyone, especially each time Snuggles tried to make him laugh! (We just re-watched the video of Snuggles and Rose that I posted with last year’s 4th Garden Party! So cute!! And funny that I had another video to post this year! Our little Snuggles is such a great big brother!)
Be sure to visit Catholic Cuisine to see all of the other Garden Parties from this past week!
(I’ll have the link-up posted sometime tomorrow.)
(I’ll have the link-up posted sometime tomorrow.)
First, awesome cake! The kids did a GREAT job. The video is super cute. I love that baby laugh. And, it looks like your boys are about to grow out of those picnic tables. 🙂
I noticed that yesterday… I kept worrying that the tables were going to collapse! I guess it is time to start looking for a normal sized picnic table for outside! 🙂
Oh, my goodness! I LOVE the baby giggles. So precious!
The cake idea was genius, Jessica. The kids did a fantastic job. It turned out beautifully. Well done kiddos!
It turned out great! The sunset is beautiful. I like the looks of concentration on their faces. 🙂
The video was precious. Thanks for explaining about the garden parties. I have heard of them…really didn't understand where it came from!
I love the cake idea! How easy! I love how babies find their older siblings the best entertainment 🙂 It's the same way here.
I have also been celebrating the garden parties with my boys and they love them! I have been struggling with this month and trying to incorporating the celebration of Mary and her many titles. It seems I usually do the garden parties or Mary but not both. Do you have any ideas of how to incorporate both with a celebration or party? Thank you for always sharing and inspiring us to teach our children about the Catholic faith!
I've been thinking that the week six party might be a good one to incorporate Marian Titles, since it falls during May this year… Week six is based on the Oh! What a Beautiful City!" and includes Crowns, Thrones, etc. I think it could work nicely!