Easter Lunch - Continuing to Celebrate Easter

Are you still celebrating Easter?  We are!  There are lots of ways to celebrate the 50 days of Easter, and a new activity for us this year is having a Symbolic Easter Lunch!  We had so much fun with our Lenten Lunch that Lacy from Catholic Icing designed so we knew that we wanted to try to Easter Lunch as well! 

We used the Way of Light for Children from Family Feast and Feria as our guide to pray, read about and reflect upon the events from Easter until Pentecost. It was a real treat to have so many goodies with our lunch and it is a fun way for the children to bring to life the Easter story.  This is a great activity to do with your family any time between Easter and Pentecost!

Find all of the food ideas and what they can represent HERE! 

At the end we talked about what their favorite parts of the story were.  Ryan (6 years) liked the part about Doubting Thomas and how he could stick his finger in the doughnut like Thomas did in Jesus's wounds.  Connor (4 years) loved the story of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit descending upon the disciples and Mary and us using red pepper to symbolize the flames of the Holy Spirit.  Luke (2 years) liked the story of the Sea of Tiberias and the fishermen, probably because Goldfish crackers are his favorite treat!  Peter (now 5 months) just enjoyed hanging out with all of us and smiled away!

This was such a fun activity and one that hopefully will become an Easter tradition for our family!

Ski Vacation

We had such a great family vacation to Colorado!  Here is a quick run down of our trip and lots of pictures.  A big thank you to my in-laws for helping making this trip a possibility and a great success!

 

We also were celebrating Holy Week during our trip, which you can read about at

Our Easter in Review!

 

The Drive

 

 

Family Time

 

The best part about family vacations is the opportunity to spend some quality time together.  We stayed in a rental home with my in laws and had a great opportunity to play games, chat and just have fun!

 

 

 

Skiing

Our boys had never really skied before.  Our oldest two (6 years and 4 years) took ski lessons on the first day and did well with that.  Our 6 year old was skiing on his own by day 3 and loved every minute of it.  Our 4 year old had a blast snow plowing down the mountain between someone's legs and our 2 year old loved the chair lift!

 

Critterland

 

There is a place at Copper Mountain made just for the little ones called Critterland.  It was great to visit and especially our 2 year old had a blast!

 

Traveling with 4 little ones is never easy, but we loved having some extra special time as a family!

Divine Mercy Sunday

 

I had never really heard much about St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy until a few years ago and it was not until I started reading Divine Mercy for Moms that I truly came to understand and love this beautiful gift from Jesus.  We celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy on the Second Sunday of Easter. I feel like it is especially important to celebrate this feast this year now that we are within the Year of Mercy, as instructed from Pope Francis this is such an important time to be learning how to be merciful within our own lives, homes and communities. 

 

 

Sometimes I feel like these things that the Catholic Church asks of us are simply too hard, or I do not see how I can apply them to my own life.  Yet, Divine Mercy for Moms truly helped me see how I can take the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy and use them in my daily living.  God is calling each of us to be a Saint, and I can see in the small ways of acting in merciful love how I am answering God's calling in my own life.  We love to keep the reminder of the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy on display in our home!

 

 

Beyond discussing the spiritual side of special feast days we also love to make things fun and memorable in our home, so for this Divine Mercy Sunday we made Divine Mercy Ice Cream Sundaes!  It was a big hit!

 

Also, one of my favorite prayers is St. Faustina's Prayer for Divine Transformation.  It is a perfect prayer to add to daily life to increase mercy in your life. 

 

What We've Been Reading - March 2016

"What We've Been Reading" is a series here at Children of the Church to both keep track of what we are reading and to share with others what we have been reading in our home.  Reading is such an important part of our daily lives and also our homeschooling journey.  Thank you for following along and please feel free to share what you have been reading as well so we can all learn together!

March 2016

Children's Book List (Our children are 6 years, 4 years, 2 years old, baby):

• Chapter Books
  • The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
• Children's Stories
  • Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
  • This is My Home, This is my School by Jonathan Bean
  • The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
  • Blaze and the Gray Spotted Pony by C.W. Anderson
  • Blaze and the Forest Fire by C.W. Anderson
  • Stellaluna by Janelle Cannon
  • Keep the Lights Burning Abbie by Peter and Connie Roop
  • Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran
  • Cactus Hotel by Brenda Z. Guiberson
  • Hide and Seek Fog by Alvin Tresselt
  • All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Frances Alexander
  • A Tale for Easter by Tasha Tudor
  • What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
  • A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
  • An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni
  • The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman
  • Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse
  • Wonders of Nature by Eloise Wilkins
  • Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure by Bill Peet
  • The Book of Jonah by Peter Spier
  • St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting
  • The Weapons of World War II by Peter Benoit
  • Usborne Illustrated Stories for Boys
  • Usborne Illustrated Adventure Stories 
• Easter Stories
• Hosanna to You, Jesus! by Marisa Mignolli
• The Week that Led to Easter - Arch Books
• My First Pictures of Easter by Maite Roche
• Jesus Washes Peter's Feet - Arch Books
• Tomie DePaola's Book of Bible Stories by Tomie dePaola
• Good Friday - Arch Books
• Happy Easter Mouse! by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond
• The Story of Easter by Patricia A Pingry
• The Story of Jesus by Patricia A Pingry
• He's Risen!  He's Alive - Arch Books
• The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward
• The Easter Day Surprise - Arch Books
• God's Easter Gifts by Brenda Castro
• Family Easter Treasury by Michael Hague
• Rachenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco
• The Lamb and the Butterfly by Arnold Sungaard
• The Easter Story by Gennady Spirin
• The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier
• Catholic Mosaic Books
  • Children's Stations of the Cross by Susan Brindle
  • The Tale of Three Tress by Angela Elwell Hunt
  • Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola
  • Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi
  • Little Rose of Sharon by Time Jonke
  • Easter is for Me!  by Dandi Daley Mackall
  • The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith
• Explore the Continents Booklist + Extras (Asia)
• The Five Chinese Brothers by Bishop
• The Story About Ping by Flack
• Daisy Comes Riding Home by Jan Brett
• We're Riding on a Caravan:  An Adventure on the Silk Road by Krebs and Cann
• Homeschooling Books (that our 6 year old is reading during formal school time)
• My Book House:  Book 2 (Story Time)
• This is Our Family (Seton)
• These are Our Friends (Seton)

My Book List:

• Rediscover Jesus by Matthew Kelly
• Eucharistic Adoration:  Holy Hour Meditations on the Seven Last Words of Christ by Charles Murphy
• A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God
• Hail, Holy Queen; The Mother of God in the World by Scott Hahn
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr