Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Ideas for July Feast Days and Celebrations

Posted by The Cotter Family
Here are some of our favorite traditions for the month of July. This is by no means an exhaustive list, rather it's my way of creating a resource that I plan to revisit each year for myself! I hope you can find it beneficial as well!

Month of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

Other Ideas:
July 1st: Bl. Junipero Serra

Other Ideas:
July 4th: Independence Day


Craft: Declaration of Independence: DLTK-kids

Other Ideas:
  • Decorations:
July 11th: St. Benedict

Other Ideas:
July 14th: St. Kateri Tekakwitha

Other Ideas:

July 26th: Joachim and Anne


(Red and green are St. Anne's colors.)

Other Ideas:
Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa
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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

The Good Shepherd's Garden Party: Week 7

Posted by The Cotter Family
Inspired by Jessica and Charlotte we have an Easter tradition in our home of celebrating the entire Easter season with the Garden of the Good Shepherd. The program consists of a daily prayer time in which you add a scripture inspired sticker to your garden. By the end of Easter season your scene is filled with reminders of Jesus, the good shepherd, and heaven.

This is our 3rd year having a weekly garden party at the end of each themed week. For dinner on Saturday we incorporate each sticker into our meal and talk about what we've learned from our nightly prayer time. It's a favorite tradition in our home and one that keeps the season of Easter alive.

Week 7: The Heavenly Zoo

This is it! Our final garden party for 2014. It's probably the most random of the parties, but hey, what can you expect when the theme includes four inedible birds?


Day 43: The Water


Perhaps the easiest symbol of all. There is water in there. We drank it. Check.

Day 44: The Deer


As a side dish, if you'll let me call pretzels a side dish, we had deer antler pretzels. 

Day 45: The Lion


For our main dish I made a lion pizza with pepperonis.

You can also buy lion bars! I picked some up at World Market to go with our other chocolate dessert.

Day 46: The Beehive


My beehive drink dispenser made a perfect holder for the water and served as the symbol for the beehive.

Day 47: The Peacock


I can't remember where I found these peacock feathers, but we used them to decorate the table. You could also make a cute peacock fruit platter!

Day 48: The Pelican


Our pelican was represented by a picture of a pelican, because I couldn't think of any food that could be used for the pelican. We placed him next to the phoenix tail shrimp so he could snack on them.

Day 49: The Phoenix


And here's the phoenix tail shrimp... sort of. Really I should have deep fat fried raw shrimp in a batter, but I didn't, because I want to see my children's children.

Day 50: The Dove


And to finish it all off, Dove dark chocolate. Look at how the wrappers are the liturgically correct color of red for Pentecost! I think Nestle had that in mind when they chose red for dark chocolate.

50 days, 50 prayer services, 50 symbols. It's sad to see Easter season pass, but what a memorable one we had!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa
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Saturday, June 7, 2014

Journey Across America: Louisiana

Posted by The Cotter Family
This post is part of a 50 state Journey Across America. For information on the basics of this project check out this post.

The Books:
We began by reading P is for Pelican and then Bean used the information she learned to make a notebook page for her United States scrapbook.


I found some Cajun versions of several children's classics for us to read during Louisiana week. Check out Jacques and the Beanstalk, Petite Rouge, Three Little Cajuns, and Little Pierre (not based on a classic... it was just okay, definitely not our favorite) for a fun twist on some known tales. And to be boring and educational like, you can be like me and make your kids read Louisiana Purchase.

We also taught the kids about Louisiana using the Our United States of America: Catholic Social Studies textbook.

The Food:


Options for Louisiana food are nearly endless, but we aren't a family who loves cajun food, so we went with beignets, because we are a family who loves donuts. You can make them from scratch, buy boxed mixes, or make them from frozen dinner rolls. We did the frozen dinner rolls, because it's the easiest of the three options :). Check out Shower of Roses' recipe!

The Craft:

For our craft we made Mardi Gras masks. I found the supplies at The Dollar Tree, but if it's not Mardi Gras season, you can find them at Michael's.

Indiana is our next stop!

 Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa
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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Journey Across America: Ohio

Posted by The Cotter Family
This post is part of a 50 state Journey Across America. For information on the basics of this project check out this post.

The Books:
We began by reading B is for Buckeye and then Bean used the information she learned to make a notebook page for her United States scrapbook.


Picture books for Ohio included Lentil (one of our all time favorites!), One Giant Leap (Neil Armstrong was born in Ohio), and Warm as Wool. American Girl Kit is set in Ohio, so you can read her stories this week as well.

We also taught the kids about Ohio using the Our United States of America: Catholic Social Studies textbook.

The Food:


Tasty buckeyes were an easy pick for our Buckeye state food. They look like buckeye nuts, but aren't poisonous... just addicting. Kids can pull these off with minimal help!

The Craft:


In honor of Neil Armstrong, we made astronauts out of toilet paper tubes with this free printable from DLTK. Such a cinch!

Louisiana, we are coming for you next!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa
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Tuesday, June 3, 2014

The Good Shepherd's Garden Party: Week 6

Posted by The Cotter Family
Inspired by Jessica and Charlotte we have an Easter tradition in our home of celebrating the entire Easter season with the Garden of the Good Shepherd. The program consists of a daily prayer time in which you add a scripture inspired sticker to your garden. By the end of Easter season your scene is filled with reminders of Jesus, the good shepherd, and heaven.

This is our 3rd year having a weekly garden party at the end of each themed week. For dinner on Saturday we incorporate each sticker into our meal and talk about what we've learned from our nightly prayer time. It's a favorite tradition in our home and one that keeps the season of Easter alive.

Week 6: Oh! What a Beautiful City


Day 36: The City's Gates


For the city gates I had Bean put together some grape gates by putting three grapes on several toothpicks and then forming them into arched gates. It would have been cool to make 12 gates, like described in Revelations!

Day 37: The Temple
 

Shirley Temples made for a perfect fun drink to go with our dinner.

The kids asked why the drink is called a Shirley Temple, so I showed them a video of On the Good Ship Lollypop after dinner. They had many questions, such as "Wait, is this a scary movie?", "Is the plane going to crash", "Is it really safe for her to be walking around the plane?" I guess I should have just stuck with "She was a child actress". :)

Day 38: Hallelujah

 
Musical entertainment was provided by Handel Messiah, Hallelujah Chorus. 

Day 39: The Thrones
 

And decorations consisted of embellished thrones for all. (Courtesy of Bean.)

Days 40 and 41: The Bride and The Groom

 
I made bride and groom chocolate covered strawberries for our dessert. They are always a fan favorite.

Day 42: The Crowns
 

Finally, for our main dish I made a chicken pot pie to represent the crowns. I had hopes that the crust would hold it's shape like below, but it fell flat in the oven. Chicken pot pie is Bean's favorite meal, so no one complained and it's still round like a crown.


Only one more week to go!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa
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Sunday, June 1, 2014

Solemnity of the Ascension

Posted by The Cotter Family
For the Solemnity of the Ascension today we had a picnic, which is a long standing tradition in many parts of Europe.


It's also a bonus if you can have that picnic atop a mountain, because Christ ascended from a mountain.


We have a lot of those around here, so that wasn't hard to do.


(He's either pretending to be Lewis Meriwether or looking for Christ in the clouds, you choose.)

For our meal I pulled out some traditional and symbolic fare.


During the middle ages it was traditional for people to eat birds on Ascension Day because Christ flew to heaven. Rather than cook a whole bird, we had chicken sandwiches. In Italy it is traditional to eat grapes because Christ is the first fruit of all men.  So, we ate grapes. And for dessert we had vanilla pudding, which represented the white clouds that Jesus ascended into.

And now we interrupt this blog post for a cute photo of a baby.


After dinner we ventured out for a little "adventure hiking" as Pal calls it.


Everyone was throughly exhausted by the end of the day, and that's how we know we had a successful outing.


Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa
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