Holy Week 2011, Holy Saturday

We had a great time today, looking very forward to Easter tomorrow.....we colored our eggs, we baked brownie pops and a lemon supreme cake, we spent a lot of quality family time together. Daddy sat and made our Easter candle for us which we will light at dinner for the next 50 days until Pentecost.

Holy Week 2011, Good Friday

A solemn day as it should have been. We read the death and crucifixtion of Christ as told in our story book. We cried and cried!
We did a little bit of prep for this weekend ( we made candy covered cookies ) but we spent most of the day reflecting Christ's life, coloring pages from The Way of the Cross for Children, and looking forward to the Resurrection.

Anna making dipped cookies.

Maria and her dipped cookie.

The first round!

Holy Week 2011, Holy Thursday

Today the children and I were busy getting things in order to celebrate Easter Sunday. With many thanks from Jessica, we've had a great lenten season. We wouldn't get a lot done without her, I've not a lick of talent! We've made many crafts, read many stories, colored lots of pages, and tonight we had a lenten dinner complete with dish names and bible quotes. She even had the cards posted and all I needed was my accomplice to print them for me:-) I placed the cards with the food on the table and we took turns reading the quotes. Daddy was able to add a lot being he biblical scholar he is....:-) Anyhow, our camera has been dropped one too many times but here's what we had....

Palm on the Road (hearts of plam).

Costly Oil (olive oil.)

Unleavened bread (flat bread).

Mount of Olives (olive medley).

Thirty pieces of silver (round cucumber slices).

The Cock Crows Twice (chicken marbella),
I thought this recipe was fitting because the chicken actually marinates twice!

Gethseemane Figs ( Newtons Fruit Thins).

Cloud of Heaven
(ideally whip cream, but we  used a white pasta dish this time).

Judas's Kiss
(Hershey's Kisses, green is great for Maundy Thrsday but I  used silver calling the silver pieces to mind).

Peter's Tears
(Altoids served from my little rooster pitcher.)

 It was a wonderful storty telling opportunity. Thanks for sharing. From dinner, we moved on to our birthday celebration, but I'll post that later.

Holy Week 2011, Palm Sunday

This past Sunday, April 17 was the begining of Holy Week. As a family on Palm Sunday, we made a  "palm" tree. Super simple, just trace everyone's hands and stack them up! I've seen this idea lots of places and finally remembered to do it! I think it looks cute, Joseph thinks it looks like a Christmas tree:-)

Our family's palms.

Happy 8th Birthday Teung!

Our sweet little boy in Thailand is having a birthday! He's 8 years old this year! Nattapol always brings a smile to our face when we receive his mail. He's been with us for 2 years now and we are so proud of him. He even writes his own letters now. Happy Birthdya Teung, we love you and pray for you every day.

The children making Teung's cake.

Mommy and Joseph.

Happy Birthday Teung!

Matilda

Matilda the Swan

Building the nest.

From the first day we spotted our home, we spotted Matilda, the neighborhood swan. She had built a nest right at the corner of our lot ( and a few others) and has continued to do so every year since. But since Matilda was without a mate, of course, we lacked a fruitful nest! 

Last year Matilda landed herself a new mate and our neighborhood rejoiced for her...as we rubbed our eyes to make sure we were not seeing double! And in our fairy tale swan world we knew this needed to work out for our happy swan ending. And so far, it has.....this year Matilda and her mate tore all my lemon grass out of the garden and went to work building a nest. Right on our basement window! We couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of this miracle of life, especially during the glorious Easter Season! 

They also included some flags, a dog toy, a Miss Piggy toy, and my daughters sun glasses in their nest. Really! We can eye-spy with the contents of her nest!

Two eggs.

The male will sit the nest while Matilda goes to the pond.

Four eggs.

The male consistently chases off visitors.

Six eggs.

Spring has sprung!

This month the weather has been so sporatic with a lot of rain one day, sunny skies the next. We'll pull out our shorts and put away our heavy coats only to wake up to snow! But this weeekend, the weather was great and it gave us a chance to really enjoy the outdoors. Of course, we are limited to how far we can actually go out doors becasue the neighborhood swan has plopped herself right down in our yard, but none-the-less we had great time!

The turtles are laying eggs.

I found this robin nest in my hanging basket.

The calves will show up anytime. We can hear the mommas!

Matilda and her new mate with 2 eggs!

"Boys say picnics.....

girls say tea!"

Easter Triduum 2011

The Easter Tridiuum begins with Mass of the Lords Supper on Holy Thursday (this year April 21). It's also our Mary's birthday so we will have a really super day!

We are still working on our Jesus tree that I found at Leaflet Missal. We area using it in conjuction with a fabulous book recomended to me by my friend and saint-to-be Margaret B. Thank you Margaret, we are having a great time. It thrills me to see how much the children retain and can recite when we take time to do these kinds of crafts.