Easter Bliss

Although we were bummed to be away from family for Easter, we did have a nice relaxing weekend here in Louisville.  On Easter morning, the girls woke up bright and early to see what the Easter bunny left them.  Rose thought it was hilarious that the Easter bunny put her basket in the dishwasher.

I think every Christian church across America sings the song 'Jesus Christ is risen today, A....lle...lu....ia!'  on Easter Sunday, but isn't it really the perfect song to sum up the meaning of the day?!  We of course sang this beautiful song at mass on Easter morning at a parish downtown called St. Louis Bertrand.  It has been our Easter tradition ever since we moved to Louisville to go there on Easter Sunday.  It is a beautiful church with wonderful Dominican priests, but is hard with children because there isn't a cry-room and everything echoes!  And mass on Easter morning was one where we definitely could have used a cry room!  Mass seemed more like a wrestling match...4 against 2.  I think they won!

After we got home and got some food in our bellies, we sent the girls on an egg hunt in the front yard.  Instead of adding to their already present sugar high, we filled the eggs with coins...like my grandparents used to do for us when I was a little girl.  They were really lucky if they found a dollar in their egg!

We enjoyed the afternoon in the beautiful sunshine...

...then I brought the girls inside to make Resurrection rolls.  They basically consist of crescent rolls (to represent the cloth they wrapped Jesus' body in), marshmallows (to represent Jesus), butter (to represent the oils of embalming) , and a cinnamon/sugar mixture (to represent the spices used to anoint his body).  After you coat the marshmallow and wrap it in the crescent roll, you bake them and the marshmallow melts, symbolizing the empty tomb after Jesus rose from the dead.  They are super simple, delicious, and help explain the concept of the resurrection.  The girls LOVED them!

We finished the day with a nice family Easter meal of ham, pork tenderloin, cheesy potatoes, green bean casseroles, Resurrection rolls, cantaloupe, golden Easter punch, and peep smores and homemade Reese eggs for dessert!  So much food, but so delicious!

Hope all of you had a blessed Easter!  We miss you all!

Hugs!

Holy Week treats and crafts

Like I said in my last post, this year I found so many good ideas online for Holy Week food and crafts that we had a blast trying new recipes and using food to help explain the meaning of each day.

On Holy Thursday we had a meal similar to what Jesus and his apostles might have had on the night of the Last Supper...ok maybe food that just represented what they had :)  We had meatloaf (to remind us of lamb), bread (to remind us of unleavened bread), spinach salad (to remind us of bitter herbs), applesauce (to remind us of the Charoses, the bricks and mortar the Jews laid in Egypt), red wine & grape juice, and lamb cupcakes (to remind us that Jesus is the Pascal lamb).  You can read more about the explanation of Holy Thursday foods here: http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/04/holy-thursday-in-home.html.

We also learned that it is an old tradition to make soft pretzels during Lent...so old, that there are records of the Lenten pretzel that date all the way back to a 5th century manuscript in the Vatican library!  Pretzels were traditionally only eaten during lent. Early Christians didn't eat dairy products during lent, so pretzels were made because they consisted of three very simple ingredients: flour, salt, and water.  They are made in the shape of 2 arms crossed in prayer.  Who knew pretzels were such a Christian snack!  You can find the recipe that we used at:  http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/04/pretzels.html

So what did we do...we made pretzels!  And I have to say, they were quite delicious!

See Rose's explanation here

In addition to our parish's Holy Week services, I also found a cartoon version of Christ's passion that the girls watched on Good Friday to meditate on the happenings of these important days in our Church history.  Paul and I watched the adult-version (Mel Gibson Passion movie) after the kids went to bed.

On Holy Saturday, our Easter preparations began.  We started off the morning decorating eggs.  We made very girly eggs this year...sorry Paul...but I think they turned out pretty neat.  My favorite were the majestic eggs...they made a beautiful center-piece!

We also made some fun Easter-themed treats such as:

Easter bunny donut pops (idea via Olivia via Pinterest)

Homemade dark chocolate Reese eggs (via Pinterest)

Peep kabobs (idea via Pinterest)

As far as decorations go, the girls did manage to do enough sacrifices during lent to take out all the thorns in our salt-dough crown of thorns, so the night before Easter, I filled each hole with flowers, which made it into a beautiful display for our dining room table.

I also dug up the Alleluia banner that we buried at the beginning of Lent and hung it up that evening so it could be on display for the girls Easter morning.

Lastly, we made our own Paschal candle and had it blessed by our pastor so that we can light it every night between Easter and the Ascension...if we remember to do it!  It was a fun way to explain the meaning of the Church's Easter candle to the girls.

I hope I am not boring you with all our little Easter details.  It helps me to write it all down to remember what we did from year to year.  And then I can show the girls how and when some of our traditions started.

Hugs! 

40 Days for the Lord

Now that Holy Week has arrived, we are finishing up our Lenten sacrifices and preparing for the Church's most important week of the year.

Our Lenten sacrifices this year were composed  of a couple of different things to help the girls understand what it's all about.  Instead of offering up one thing for all of Lent (which is hard for us adults, let alone a 5, 4, and 2 year old!) we made a Lenten calendar with a different sacrifice on it for each day...except special feast days and solemnities.  My favorite one was, only say "yes, mom/dad" (instead of complaining) for the whole day!

We also made a salt-dough crown of thorns like we did last year where the girls take a thorn (toothpick) out each time they do a sacrifice throughout the day to try to lessen Jesus pain.  The goal is to have a 'thornless' crown by Easter so it can be filled with flowers on Easter morning.

Another thing we did this year was 'bury the A-L-L-E-L-U...(not supposed to say the word yet :)'.  I basically printed out the letters to spell the word and then we hid it (or put away) for all of Lent to symbolize Lent as a time of repentance and focusing on the Lord's Passion.  On Easter morning I will get it out and use it as decoration on the mantle.  It was a fun way to teach the girls what the word means and why we aren't rejoicing until Jesus has risen!

You can see the letters peaking out under the paper...not a very clever place, I know.

On Friday nights during Lent we have tried to do the Stations of the Cross as a family.  It is hard to make it to Church on Tuesday nights to do them with our parish, so we made a kid-friendly version to do at home.  I printed off small pictures of each station and put them in their own plastic picture frame.  I also got a small candle to place in front of each picture.  Each time, we start with all the candles lit and after we pray at each station, one of the girls blows the candle out in front of it.  It was a good interactive way to keep the girls' attention and help them to learn something at the same time!

Notice the girls sitting far away from the candles so we didn't have any incidents with the fire :)

I am excited about the next four days (the Easter Triduum) because we have a lot of special foods and activities planned for the girls to help explain the meaning of each day.   I found most of the ideas at catholicicing.com and catholiccuisine.blogspot.com.  They have so many awesome ideas, I wish I could have done everything they suggested, but I had to just pick my favorites so I wasn't in over my head.  I will share how everything went next week.  Until then, enjoy the rest of Holy Week and have a blessed Easter!  Wish we could spend it with all of you!

Hugs!