Good Shepherd’s Garden Party :: Plans for Week Six
“Oh! What a Beautiful City!”
This Week’s Good Shepherd’s Garden Party Menu
Shirley Temples
Bride Strawberries
Groom Strawberries
Crown Cake
Decorating Ideas
Play the “Hallelujah Chorus” by Handel
Have children decorate “Thrones” for the “Bride and Groom” (Mom & Dad)
Recipes and Suggestions
36. The City Gates
Let the children build their own city gates!
37. The Temple
Ingredients:
Lemon-Lime Soda
Grenadine
Maraschino Cherries
Ice Cubes
Directions:
Pour lemon-lime soda into a glass containing ice cubes.
Add a dash of grenadine to it and stir.
Garnish with the maraschino cherry
38. Hallelujah!
Play the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s “Messiah
39. The Thrones
Have the Children decorate “Thrones” at each end of the table for the “Bride” and the “Groom” (aka: Mom and Dad)!
40. The Bride
Decorated Stawberries make really cute “Brides and Grooms.”
41. The Groom
Ingredients:
24-30 strawberries, fresh
6 ounces of white chocolate
8 ounces of dark chocolate
Directions:
Wash and dry the strawberries, making sure the berries are fully dry as water will cause chocolate to seize up. Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Follow the melting directions on the package. Dip the strawberry in the white chocolate, holding onto the stem or the “shoulders” of the strawberry. Give it a quick little twist and shake with your fingers to shake off the excess and then point it at the ceiling for a second or two to ensure that the chocolate adheres. Place on a piece of wax paper to let dry. Melt the dark chocolate according to the instructions on the package. Dip the strawberry in at a 45 degree angle from both sides to make the “jacket”. Let the excess drip off. Place on wax paper to dry. Place some melted dark chocolate into a piping bag with a very small tip, or in a ziplock bag with the little corner snipped off and pipe on buttons and bow tie. Allow to dry and cool. (If drying seems to go too slowly, place them in the freezer for about 3-5 minutes.) Best eaten the day they are made.
42. The Crowns
Lots of ideas for Crown Cakes can be found in the archives over at Catholic Cuisine.
Shopping List
Fresh Produce:
24-30 Strawberries
Dairy:
Cheese Cubes
Snacks:
Pretzel Sticks
Beverages:
Lemon Lime Soda
Grenadine
Condiments:
Maraschino Cherries
Baking Supplies:
6 oz White Chocolate
8 oz Dark Chocolate
Ingredients for Crown Cake
Various Supplies for Decorating your Crown Cake
Other:
Straws
Umbrella Picks
Handel’s Messiah
Throne Decorations
Our Fourth Good Shepherd’s Garden Party : The Wind and Sea Obey Him!
Since the fourth week of The Garden of the Good Shepherd: A Sticker Calendar to Count the Fifty Days of Easter is based on the theme “The Wind and Sea Obey Him,” it worked out just perfectly that our week began with a trip to the see the “Sea!”
We finished up the week with our Good Shepherd’s Garden Party on Saturday night and, as usual, it was enjoyed by everyone.

It was also super cute to watch him try to make his pinwheel spin. At least the wind, which was coming through the open windows and screen door, helped him out from time to time!
Instead of “Sea” Water, my children picked out Blue Sky Soda’s at the store on Friday.
~ Our Calendar This Week ~
Our Sticker Calendar is starting to fill up as we continue to add the symbol for each day!
Little Flowers Girls’ Club ~ Perseverance
Today was our very last Little Flowers Girls’ Club Meeting for this school year and Wreath 2! The meeting was based on the virtue of Perseverance, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and the Lotus Flower.
Since we have been meeting every two weeks this Spring, to catch up from our Winter/Baby break, plus all the other things we’ve had going on, I just haven’t been able to keep up with sharing about Little Flowers. I am still planning on going back and posting about our last two meetings, but right now I am just going to share about today. It was a great meeting and we all had so much fun!
I also wanted to print out Paper Dali’s St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Paper Doll for all the girls, but I ran out of time. My girls enjoyed making it during E Week.
For the notebook pages, I used the memory verse for Perseverance, A quote from Robert Louis Stevenson, this beautiful image of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, a quote from the Bible, and some lotus flowers. You can download my document here.
Here is the sample page I created:
Edible Crayons
- Pretzel Rods
- Candy Melts (or white chocolate bark/chocolate chips with a little of your favorite food coloring added)
- Paper Labels (make them yourself from construction paper with black squiggly lines)
- Break or cut pretzel rods in half.
- Melt candy melts or chocoalte chips in microwave on medium heat for 1 minute. Stir and continue cooking at 15 second intervals until melted. Stir well. Add a few drops food coloring if desired.Dip ends of pretzels in melted candy.
- Place on wax paper or aluminum foil to dry.
- When dry, wrap with labels and secure with tape.
We need to assign a “blog name” to the sweet little girl in the top left!
The rest of the girls are as follows:
Daisy, Hope and Faith, Chiquita
Twinkle Toes, Branch and Blossom
Additional Books About St. Elizabeth Ann Seton:
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
by Father Lovasik
- Kat Finds A Friend
by Joan Stromberg
- Mother Seton and the Sisters of Charity
(Vision Books) by Alma Power-Waters
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Daughter of America
by Jeanne Marie Grunwell
Twenty Questions… Or less!
I don’t have much time this morning, since I am preparing for our last Little Flowers meeting this afternoon, but since I typed this post up last night I thought I would go ahead and post it since I wanted to record one more memory from our trip to the coast.
On the drive over we had so much fun teaching the children how to play Twenty Questions. . . For T Week! 😉
Here is how the first couple games went after explaining how to play:
Since Sunday we have played quite a few times. Last night, on our way home from town the girls and I played another game:
Twinkle Toes: “I’m ready!”
Chiquita: “Is it a person?”
Twinkle Toes (hesitantly): “Yes.”
Me: “Is he living?”
Twinkle Toes: “Ummm. What do you mean?”
Me: “Is he alive, or has died and is in Heaven?”
Twinkle Toes: “Ummmm. Both.”
Chiquita: “Is it JESUS?!”
Twinkle Toes (smiling): “Yes, you guessed it! Jesus rose from the dead and now lives in Heaven!”
It’s been so sweet listening to them play this game!
Alright, I have to get back to work or I am never going to be ready by this afternoon. I hope you all have a great day!
A Trip to the Coast
Although Hubby and I went to the Coast for our 10th anniversary last year, it has been a LONG time since we have taken our children to the Ocean. So long, in fact, that the three oldest (who were only 3, 1 1/2, and 1 month old at the time) only “remember” seeing it in the pictures.
So, when Hubby suggested last Friday that we head over for a day trip, we were all VERY excited. It was also just the motivation I needed to get back on track with our Alphabet Path! (We finished S Week just before Easter and have been trying over and over to start T with little success. It was a perfect opportunity to review and be inspired to move on to learning about Tide Pools and Tall Trees!)
Since the weather was going to be a little better on Sunday, we decided to drive over then and left early enough to attend an 11 a.m. Mass in one of the coastal towns. After Mass we picked up coffees and headed down to the beach.
My camera battery died just after arriving at Stout Grove, so that is it for pictures. When we got back to town we treated the kids to Cheeseburgers and Blizzards (They were on special in honor of the Blizzard’s 25th Birthday!) and then headed home.
Wordless Wednesday ~ T is for Tide Pools
A Prayer Request
It is with great sadness that I am posting tonight to ask you to please pray for my dear friend Charlotte, and her beautiful family, as they grieve the loss of another precious little soul.
Our Third Good Shepherd’s Garden Party : The Heaven’s Tell God’s Glory
I am just now finding a free moment to post pictures from our third Good Shepherd’s Garden Party, while everyone is still sleeping. I really wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull it off this weekend, but we ended up having our party Saturday night for dinner.
Thankfully it was a very easy party to pull together since I didn’t have much energy or motivation after a week filled with so many other activities, not to mention our last minute plans for a day trip on Sunday.
The girls helped me set the table (they insisted on decorating with Chiquita’s new play silks) and then made the fruit kabobs, while I set out the rest of the menu items and made the “Thunder and Lightning” pasta. The boys shared a new guessing game with us, which they had learned from some of the other boys at the park on Friday, and we had so much fun playing it during dinner.
On the Feast of St. George the Dragon Slayer
We are off to meet some friends at the park! Before we go, here are a couple picture of this year’s dragon cake!
He didn’t turn out nearly as cute as I would have liked, but I don’t think the kids will mind.
- Stick with the color green. (This dragon started out
orangepeach and then ended up purple, at the request of my children. I think he looked better green!) - Buy extra “extra” frosting. (I thought that “extra” can would be more than enough, but ended up not being able to frost the
Ding Dongspoor dragons thighs and feet. Oh well!) - Fondant makes MUCH better flames than Gummy Worms! 😉
- Don’t “hide” the Keebler Cookies
. (You will probably not be able to find them when it comes time to actually make the cake. However, hershey kisses make an easy substitute for the spikes.)
























































































































































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