Little Flowers “Maypole” Tea Party Favors and Prizes
As always, I created little party favors for the girls. Back in 2009, for our first tea, I gave the girls little St. Therese plaques. The next year I hand-painted little St. Therese dolls for each of the girls. For our 3rd tea I filled white paper “Tea bags” with treats along with Tea Pot Lollipops. And last year I repeated the “Tea Bags” once again along with Pretzel Rods dipped in white chocolate and pink sprinkles.
This year I decided to do create favors similar to the ones I made for the Baby Shower of Roses. I headed to the dollar store to look for favor boxes and after discovering some “marshmallow poles” decided to try and incorporate a “Maypole” theme as well, since we were hoping to have a Maypole activity this year (more on that later).
Originally I planned to make my own chocolates again, but
7 Quick Takes :: A Birthday Party and Pony Rides!
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And the big boys? Well, they had no intention of riding the poor little pony until Aunt Meagan told them that they could either ride the pony, or clean the driveway after the party! They choose to ride the pony. Captain later told me, while laughing, that when he got on the lady said, “I don’t need to buckle you, if you don’t want me to.”
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{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: The Sound of Music
An Easter Coloring Contest
Illuminated Ink is hosting an Easter Coloring Contest! I just downloaded and printed copies of the beautiful coloring page for my children. They are rounding up their favorite art supplies and can’t wait to begin! Here’s the link in case any of you would like to join the fun!
Little Flowers Girls’ Club Tea Party Games
This coming weekend we will be having our annual Little Flowers Girls’ Club Mother-Daughter Tea Party! Having completed all four wreaths last year, I did take this year off from coordinating and hosting Little Flowers for my girls, but we’ve decided that we still wanted to have the tea party. A dear friend of mine, whose daughters were/are in the older Little Flowers group, has generously offered to host our tea this year at her home, using all the decorations from her daughter’s groups annual tea party the day before!!! This simplifies things incredibly for me! I’ve already sent the invitations and assigned the food to the various girls (and Mothers) who will be attending and my girls will be wearing their Easter dresses, hats and gloves. So that just leaves me with the games, prizes, and favors to plan.
I’ve spent some time this afternoon looking though all the games we have played in the past and thought I’d round them all up into one post. At our tea parties we always take a short break to play a game or two in between each course, while the servers refill the trays for the next course. This year we will be having a four-course tea so I need to decide on 3-4 games. If the weather is nice we might be having a maypole this year, which would take care of one of the games. Here’s what we’ve playing in the past:
Would you all help me decide? This year we will have a group of about 13 girls ranging in age from 6-13, along with 6 mothers. It would be great to include a new game or two, so if you have any suggestions or ideas for me I’d love for you to leave them in the comment box!
A Brand New Release from the Benedictines of Mary
Remember the beautiful Advent at Ephesus CD I recommended during Advent? Well, the dear sisters at the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles have created another inspiring collection of music featuring 17 English and Latin pieces sung a cappella on the feasts of the holy Saints and angels throughout the year:
The funds from the sale of this CD will assist the sisters in alleviating their remaining debt, helping them get closer to building their much needed permanent monastery. Plus. if the pre-order number is high, this music will be more widely available upon it’s release showing that there is a commercial need/demand for truth and beauty in art.
*Feed readers may need to click through to watch the video.
On Divine Mercy Sunday
On Easter Morning {Our 2013 Easter Baskets!}
This year they were blessed with baskets full of books, thanks to the incredible generosity of so many! I feel so very blessed! Since we were all are still fighting the cough from that last cold I didn’t include very much candy – there was still plenty with all those filled eggs – but the baskets did include some other religious items, something for their patron saint, a mini puppet (representing new life), and a small toy, along with a few other random items. I always have so much fun filling the baskets!
Since some of you have been asking, in our family the children do know that the baskets are filled by their Dad and I… We’ve never incorporated the “Easter Bunny” into our celebrations. We do have a great out of print book that ties the Easter Bunny into the real reason for Easter though!
Anyways, even though I already shared my plans for the baskets with lots of links I will list them here as well noting the various changes and additions. The five oldest, and my husband as well, all received beautiful handpainted bookmarks of their Patron Saints from The Fig and Thimble. All of the children, except for Bud, received a Rosary Case (purchased with credit from Apron sales at Catholic Cuisine!), and a new beautifully embroidered Scapular.
Captain’s basket included the following six books/DVD: Ablaze, A Soldier Surrenders, Giant of the Western Trail, Crusader King, Outcast, and The War of the Vendee (DVD). He also received a Cardinal mini puppet, the Lego Architecture Space Needle, a few lego minifigures, a bag of jelly bellys, some chewing gum, and a chocolate egg.
She also found the Calico Critters Koala Family, a Sheep mini puppet, and a box with the beginnings of her Alphabet of Saints Blocks… Perhaps we can finish them together! 😉
Bud had fun digging though his Easter basket this year, even though he wasn’t feeling well, and of course he went right to the board books, particularly the touch and feel books!
This year’s Family Easter Symbols Basket was also a hit! It’s always so much fun to have the children figure out which gift item matches each symbol. This year we had a A Cross Shaped Puzzle for “Cross.” In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb – since Easter fell on the last day of March this year – for “Lamb.” The “Lily” was represented by a copy of The Lily Cupboard to be used for history. the Spring Angel Egg completed our collection of these beautiful eggs for the “Egg” symbol. We also had a box of Godiva Butterfly Truffles (from Target) and a Butterfly Cookie Cutter (Walmart Clearance) for “Butterfly.”Super cute peacock stacking blocks for “Peacock.” And a 3-D St. Peter’s Basilica Puzzle, which was the most difficult to guess since I incorporated “the Bells fly to Rome until Easter” for this symbol!
I think this post wraps up all the pictures I had hoped to share from our Easter celebration. Click here to see pictures from this year’s Family Picture, Easter Egg Hunt, Decorating our Easter Cakes, and Seven Quick Easter Takes!
A Couple More Bargain Priced Books
I noticed that many of you seemed interested in my last Bargain Book post, at least according to all the copies of Saint Louis and the Last Crusade purchased through my link – thanks! Our copy already arrived! Originally published in 1958, it looks wonderful! The old re-published books are almost always my favorites… Anyways, I thought I’d share a couple more book deals I ran across this past week. I’m always watching for the extra great sales to stretch my homeschool book budget as far as possible! 😉
Alexander the Great by Demi is currently 75% off and is one of the recommended titles for our Ancient History Study next year!
Joan of Arc (also just $5 for the hardcover with prime!) is also on it’s way to our home and will eventually find a place on the shelf (after Chiquita’s birthday) with all of our other saint themed picture books.
We already own The Legend of St. Nicholas, Mother Teresa, Mary and The Empty Pot by Demi, and we all love the beautiful illustrations in these books, so I think these will make a nice addition to our collection! (Note: These are not currently discounted to 75% off.)
I know it’s Friday, but we are still Celebrating the Octave of Easter after all!
Have a great weekend!
Seven Quick Easter Takes
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Thanks, Jennifer, for hosting… Praying for you!!!
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