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When Little Catholic Kids Can’t Wait to Make Their Holy Communion

May 21, 2009 By Laura 7 Comments

We just wanted to share with you today, what can happen when little Catholic kids can’t wait to make their Holy Communion!

6_catholic-kids-pretend-first-holy-communion

Our triplets (6 year old) have just flat out had it. They have been waiting to make their Holy First Communion, fully aware of all it means and how very special it is, for at least a couple of years now.  At every Mass, they have watched us parents and their big sister go up to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. When we get back to the pew, and kneel down in prayer, one or the other often wants to whisper about how much longer it will be, before they can go up too.

First Holy Communion seasons are especially torturous for them.  For every Sunday Mass we have attended throughout the month of May, and sometimes the end of April and beginning of June too, for years now, they have watched child, after child,.. after child… receive Communion for the first time.  And they sigh, exercising all of the patience they can muster.

But this past weekend really did them in.  Two little girls in our extended family, received their First Holy Communion.  And it’ll be a whole year, before it is their turn. <sigh>.

They have had many Mass services here in our living room.  They have alternated being alter servers, readers, and the priest himself.  With tall candle sticks made of legos, toy colored strings tied around their waists as ropes, and their Bible, they’ve got it down.

But lately, Mass has evolved into their own First Holy Communion, and it has only grown more elaborate, as their need ‘for the real deal’ has set in.  I finally took photos of their service.

So we welcome you, to one of their ‘Pretend First Holy Communion’ Masses…….

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The Procession
–

The boys found the only navy blue attire they could come up with – their running suits.  {O} had a fine white dress on hand, and a brand new shoe-lace served as her head piece.

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Before the Liturgy
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Listening to the the Homily
(in this case….silence. Lol)
–

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* NOTE: Holy Communion – *It is important to note, that it was decided among them, that it would be rather disrespectful, to actually refer to their pretend Communion, as the ‘Body and Blood of Christ‘.  When in actuality, it is their toys.  So they have come up with alternative language, as to not be irreverent:

The Body of Christ:  “Chips”

The Blood of Christ:  “Cup of Water”
–

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This is it!
Holy Communion line….

Thankfully, Daddy was on hand, and agreed to distribute Holy Communion, as the priest. 8_catholic-kids-pretend-first-holycommunion

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Some personal prayer, following Communion.
–

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The Recession.

Thank you for joining us.

Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord. 😉

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Filed Under: Faith, Faith/ Catholic, Life In General, The Big Picture Tagged With: Catholic, Catholic-blogs, Catholic-kids, Holy-Communion-pretend, how-Catholic-kids-play, triplets

Photos of Our Easter Day Details – 2009 – Simple Easter Ideas

April 17, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

Just another short post, with lots of photos, from our blessed Easter Sunday. We hope they are simple Easter ideas, to share with you.

The kids woke up to these surprises on Easter morning.  They were thrilled!

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The kids, looking all dapper, just before heading out to a beautiful Easter morning Mass.  {A} altar served, as usual.  The kids were surprised with some gifts from friends at church, too. People can be so kind and thoughtful.

easter-kids-2009

When we got home, we had our simple Easter dinner.

This is my plate, below.  As you can see, I despise carrots, and I love asparagus. : )

I also forgot to put some potato salad on my plate before I took this photo, which  I worked so hard on. lol

simple-easter-dinner

The Easter cookies {A} baked, and us parents helped decorate. It was tooooo FUN!

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Chocolate Coconut Jelly Bean Cake, which was also more fun, to take photos of.

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I took  some individual shots of the kids too.

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Easter is one of my very  favorite holidays to take photos on. The spring-ish atmosphere, all of the colors around, and the sheer joy in the air, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, after a long and soul-searching Lenten season.  But the truth is, I just always have my camera in hand, taking photos, because I love to, and I can. 🙂  I like to think this is a great place to share them, with you all,  as they all are the details of our days, our life, and our joys.  Just so you know…This blog will always have more photos, than wise words spoken. Because I definitely always have more way photos. lol

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Our Giveaway winner, Regan, had received her home-made gifts.  So would anyone like to see photos of what she received?  I took lots of those along the way for that, too.  Of course. It’s coming up!

Our family hopes your Easter was all kinds of Blessed and joyful, too!

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Filed Under: Baking, Celebrations, Desserts, Faith, Faith/ Catholic, Holidays, Kids, Photography & Lettering, Recipes, The Big Picture, Traditions Tagged With: Catholic, Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, Easter-ideas, jellybean-Easter-cake, non-candy-Easter-gift-ideas-for-kids, simple-Easter-ideas

Creative Coloring Easter Eggs – Photos

April 13, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

Just sharing with you today some photos from our creative coloring of Easter eggs tradition. Our family here LOVES to color and decorate eggs. Do you? We could do it every day.  It’s also one of my favorite things to photograph. We do hope you all had a lovely and blessed Easter!  Our entire Triduum was so focused and beautiful.  We especially enjoyed the services and Masses at our church throughout the Holy days, and our quiet Easter celebration together was  pleasant and relaxing.

We will have more Easter photos to share tomorrow or the next day, but have a heavier than usual work week, so we just may not be so chatty until later on in the week, if we are disciplined.  ; )  But we’ve got a long list of blog posts and plans on hand-so stick around! And Enjoy!

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Hope you enjoyed this fun photo collection of our family memories!
Thanks so much for visiting.

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Faith/ Catholic, Holiday Crafts, Holidays, Kids Arts and Crafts, Kids Arts and Crafts, Photography & Lettering, The Big Picture, Traditions Tagged With: beautiful-colored-Easter-egg-photos, Catholic, Catholic-blogs, Catholic-family, Catholic-kids, creative-Easter-egg-coloring, decorating-easter-eggs, dyeing-Easter-eggs, Easter, Easter-egg-coloring-photos

Stained-Glass (looking) Tissue Paper Easter Cross – Kids Craft

April 7, 2009 By Laura 20 Comments

Today we have an Easter themed craft tutorial for you!  It is beautiful, and so fun to make!  It’s a stained-glass (looking) tissue paper Easter cross, for your home or school windows. Or glass door!

stained-glass-tissue-easter-cross-craft_mini

The kids have been working really hard with their school work, and will actually be done with their formal work in just a couple of weeks.  So in preparing our hearts and minds for this Holy week, we decided to do some more lengthy study of the Stations of the Cross, and then get creative today and make a big Stained Glass (looking) Easter cross decoration for our Easter celebration come this Sunday.  It will be fitting in faith and spring spirit, to leave it up as beautiful cheery decor, for several weeks following Easter.

There were really only 5 things we needed:  a very large sheet of window cling, lots of colored tissue paper, a sponge brush, some Modge Podge and a pair of scissors.

colored-tissue-paper-layers modge-podge-gloss-lustre

I didn’t take photos of this part, but, we first drew out a large cross on the back of the window cling material backing-paper, using a board for the straight edges, and a round container for the rounded decor ends of the cross.  Once that was done, the kids all grabbed sheets of the tissue paper, and starting ripping it into pieces 1-2 inches or so. (Might I add, the colors each of them go for are so predictable.  lol)

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Once we had plenty of pieces ready to go, I started spreading some Modge Podge, with a sponge brush,  in small sections (on the front) of the cross at a time, going outside of the lines somewhat on purpose.  Then the kids got to work, putting down pieces, overlapping each other, and rubbing them down.

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When the entire cross was almost done being covered with pieces of colored tissue, I started on one end, and went over any uplifted corners, or flappy pieces, of tissue, just Modge-Podging them down good with my sponge brush.  I LOVE Modge Podge-that stuff is great for so many projects!

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We made the cross 20″x34″.

Once it was all dry, we cut it out!

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It was a perfect fit for our front door, because we planned it that way. : )

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With the main events of Holy Week still before us, we anticipate the somber and difficult remembrance of the journey Jesus has yet before Him-and we will follow Him all the way to His last breath.

But the radiating colors of this cross, brought to life by the sunlight, reflect the state of our hearts come Sunday, when we will celebrate our risen Jesus Christ, in all of His dazzling and promising glory.

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We appreciate the 100’s of visits our blog has received in the past couple of days.  As we all take part in this holiest week of the year, and end our personal Lenten journeys, may you feel your hearts full of peace, prayer, and the undeniable presence of the Holy Spirit, and find yourself in a deeper, and more meaningful relationship with Christ.

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Faith, Faith/ Catholic, Holiday Crafts, Kids Arts and Crafts, Kids Arts and Crafts, The Big Picture, Tutorial Tagged With: beautiful-Easter-crafts, Catholic-blogs, Catholic-crafts, Catholic-family-activities, easter-crafts, Easter-home-decor-idea, faux-stained-glass-craft, faux-stained-glass-window-craft, kids-easter-crafts, kids-religious-Easter-crafts, paper, tissue, tissue paper crafts, tissue-paper-craft

How to Make a Beautiful Palm Cross – Tutorial with Directions and Photos

April 5, 2009 By Laura 3 Comments

Hi Friends!  Are you ready to make a beautiful Palm Cross, with your Palm Sunday palms? Well we are ready to show you, with this step-by-step tutorial, complete with directions and photos!

how to make a palm cross

Today has begun  Holy week, so as we move through it,  I am sure it’ll slow down around here a bit once again, as we help bring our children, in a mindful, prayerful and heartfelt way, through the most significant events of Jesus’ life, which led to the willing sacrifice of His own life, for us.

Last year on Palm Sunday, Michael took the fistful of palms we brought home from Mass, and created a big cross with them for our home.

Last Year’s Palm Cross

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Our family has enjoyed it so much throughout the year, that the kids and I wanted him to make another new one with the palms we brought home today.  So as he did, I took photos, with the thought that maybe some of you may want to create one this way as well, with your own palms, for your own family home.  It is a difficult thing to explain in words only, so I am hoping the photos will help show you how to do it.

How to Make This Beautiful Palm Cross

 

how to make a palm cross

First, he takes 3 sets of 2 palms each, and at least one good palm whisp.

how to make a palm cross

In the area the intersection of the cross is, he put the ends of one set of palms alternately layered in between 2 of the others, going in the opposite direction of course.

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Then he takes the last set, and layers those for the other side.

how to make a palm cross
Pinching it all together at the intersection, he takes one side of the palms and makes a loop with them to the back.

how to make a palm cross
He secures that with his fingers to the middle as well, and then does the same with the other side.

With the formed cross in hand he takes the wisp and starts wrapping the intersection of the crossed pieces, to secure them tightly.

The below collage, to be viewed left to right in rows top to bottom, is not every single move. It just gives you a general idea of how he wraps it around, crisscrossing, and going up and down as well.

how to make a palm cross

how to make a palm cross
When he only has about 2 inches left, he turns the cross over, and places it on the table, and holding the wrap tightly, he takes the remaining end and feeds it under the wrap a couple of times, and then just pulls it tightly. The front of the middle of the cross then looks like the last square in the above collage.That’s it!

how to make a palm cross

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We’re sure you all have found various ways to make your own beautiful crosses with palms as well, or perhaps you just stick them behind the crucifix of your home, as we have done for many years as well. We would love for you to share how you do display your blessed palms in your home, what you may make with them, or any traditions you may have for Palm Sunday in your family.

We hope you had a happy and peace filled Palm Sunday .
May God bless you all, this Easter season!

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Filed Under: Crafts & Creations, Faith, Faith/ Catholic, Home Decor, Kids Arts and Crafts, Re-Purposing, The Big Picture, The Homestead, Traditions Tagged With: Catholic, Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, Catholic-holy-week, Easter, how-to-make-palm-crosses, palm-cross-tutorial, Palm-Sunday-project, sunday-palms

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