The Good Shepherd’s Garden Party :: Week Three
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
I know I am posting a day late, but the past few days have been so busy!
I was so happy to reconnect with Suzie, the author of A Little Way of Homeschooling, after receiving the sweet note she sent me, after finding this blog. She hadn’t made the connection, but I actually met her at her home in Virginia while attending Christendom (her husband was one of my professors) and her brother purchased (and still currently lives in) my own childhood home (built by my Dad) in California! Isn’t it such a small world?!?
I have never considered myself an “Unschooler” and I wasn’t sure how I would like the book (other than the fact that it was written by Suzie and St. Therese is pictured on the cover!), but I must tell you that it has been so very inspiring and just what I have been needing lately. St. Therese sent this little “rose” to me at the perfect time! Hopefully I will have a chance to share more about the book soon.
Our silly girl with a graham cracker in one hand, a granola bar in the other, and wearing her big sister’s sunglasses… She was being such a stinker and just had to have those sunglasses…
Here is the other picture, taken 10 minutes earlier:
Artist Trading Cards: A Marian Swap and a few pictures from the For all the Saints Swap!
We are all so pleased to hear that Kimberlee is hosting another Marian ATC Swap! We loved participating in the Marian and For All the Saints ATC swaps last year, and look forward to participating again. Head over to Pondered in my Heart for all the Details!
The Cards our Children Received last Fall:
My children were very excited to receive a couple cards from their friends, including one of my Godsons. Captain was also very excited to see a picture that was sent to me by the mother of a boy who received one of his cards, and recognized him from this blog! It was very sweet, and it made me laugh hearing his reaction, saying “Mom, you are NOT going to believe this!” SO cute!! I could picture my boys doing the same thing!
The Good Shepherd’s Garden Party :: Week Two
when all God’s people live in peace, like sheep within one fold.
As perfume, by its scent, spreads fragrance all around,
so life itself will sweeter be where unity is found.
This past week, since we spent Friday attending First Friday Mass and running a few errands, and on Saturday the boys participated in their first Fencing Tournament before coming home to continue building the fence for our new garden, we ended up saving our 2nd Good Shepherd’s Garden Party for yesterday, after Mass on Mother’s Day! It was such a nice way to celebrate the day with my family, and my husband and children helped prepare some of the menu items while I ran out to take a little gift to my own mom.
Overall it was such a nice Mother’s Day, complete with a (decaf) coffee from my husband on the way home from Mass, which I enjoyed while he made breakfast!! The boys surprised me with a thoughtful book (spending a Barnes & Noble gift card they had been saving, with a little extra help from their Daddy) and I enjoyed playing with the early Mother’s Day gift
(which I love, love, LOVE!!!) my husband spoiled me with just before Easter.
{this moment} The Boys’ First Fencing Tournament
{this moment} – A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. To see more visit Soule Mama.
{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}
“My facial features start to form,
and dimples mark my ears.
Tiny buds will be my arms and legs
A beating heart appears.”
~Week 6, The Miracle of Me
The Littlest Matryoshka :: A Nesting Doll Birthday
On April 20th our little “Chiquita” turned six years old! I had originally planned to let her invite a few friends to celebrate this year, but since a couple of her best friends just moved far far away, and since it ended up being during Holy Week this year, I decided to perhaps put her “friends” party off until her 7th birthday. However, after seeing how cute everything was coming together, and not knowing what next year will be like, I decided to just go for it and called up a few of her friends at the last minute. It ended up being such a fun little party!
I looked for some ideas online, but my inspiration ended up coming from the sweet little book The Littlest Matryoshka with its matching set of dolls, and from the Cricut Cartridge, Paisley
(which has four different templates for Nesting Dolls). I had also purchased another book called The Magic Nesting Doll
(which is a Sleeping Beauty in reverse type fairy tale – the girl wakes the prince), but I decided to save that to use as a Christmas gift and perhaps order the dolls
to go along with it as well!
I created this banner using my Cricut with the Paisley
(Shapes and Dolls) and Winter Woodland
(Font) Cartridges. I also created some of my own paper (with the tiny black nesting dolls, using copyright free images online and printing it in grayscale – my document can be found here) and tied it all together with some red and white gingham ribbon.
We started the party with reading The Littlest Matryoshka and then coloring pictures of the six sisters (nesting dolls) from the story: Anna, Olga, Varka, Vanda, Nadia, and Nina. You can check out the website for other fun online activities! (Originally I had planned to give those super cute Babushkups to my daughter as a gift, but after seeing how fragile they are, I opted to just use them as a decoration!)
Other coloring page options include this Nesting Doll Dot-to-Dot, a set of Three Nesting Dolls from Outside the Lines, and these printable Russian Dolls from Activity Village.
These little cookies turned out so cute. I didn’t have time to order a cookie cutter, so I made a couple paper templates along with a small batch of sugar cookie dough. (It was Holy Week after all, and I really didn’t want to have any leftovers!)
I had white frosting, a variety of cookie icings, sparkle gel frosting and sprinkles for the children to use for decorating.
After creating the banner the weekend before her birthday, I stayed up late making this game as well. I used a dinner plate to trace a circle for the head and then drew one side of the body of the nesting doll, cutting it out and then using what I had cut off as a guide for the other side, making sure it was symmetrical. I then painted on a scarf and the hair with acrylic paints, and then cut the rest our of paper.
I posted about her birthday cake on her birthday, but I’ll include the pictures here anyways, for those of you that missed it. . . I made the cake by cutting off one end of a 13″ oval pan (the body) and cutting out part of a 8″ round pan
(the head) so they would fit together nicely. After frosting it with white buttercream, I outlined the face (using the rim of a 6″ round cake pan), cheeks (using a small cup), and the rest freehand with a toothpick, before decorating it with the various color icings.
Using White Candy Melts and this great little Babushka Doll Ice Cube Tray as a mold, I made each girl a Nesting Doll Lollipop as a party favor.
Little Flowers Girls’ Club ~ Responsibility
I have been looking forward to sharing this picture with you all, ever since I made these cupcakes for our our 6th Little Flowers Girls’ Club meeting for Wreath III – which took place on the Friday before Palm Sunday, and Holy Week, and my daughters birthday, and… Yes, it has been a little busy around here the past couple weeks, and I am just now finding making the time to put together this post. Anyhow, didn’t they turn out darling?
My husband kindly offered to give the talk to the girls, on St. Anne and the virtue of Responsibility, and I didn’t take any notes since I was busy preparing the craft, but here are some highlights from the rest of our meeting:
For this month’s Virtue Notebook/Scrapbook Page, I used the memory verse for Responsibility, a prayer to St. Anne, a quote about responsibility that I just love…
… an image of St. Ann, and some red mums (the flower for this virtue). You can download my document here.
1 Paper Mache Book per girl
Acrylic Paints and Paint Brushes
Images of St. Anne
Embossed Frames
(Thank you Charlotte for inspiring this beautiful craft!)
St. Therese, the Little Flower, pray for us!
The Good Shepherd’s Garden Party :: Week One
Once again, we are celebrating the 50 days of Easter with the Garden of the Good Shepherd! Our Garden Party for this first week, based on the theme “The Good Shepherd’s Pasture,” ended up being a late dinner on Saturday night, after spending the day (very appropriately) looking for supplies to build a fence (to keep the deer out) for our very first vegetable garden! With my limited time, I did make a few modifications to the menu this year. Here are a few pictures from our party:






























































































































































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