Making a Father's Day Craft

 Don't worry! I'm not giving away any spoilers. ;) I'll wait to let this post until after Father's Day!

This was a hilarious craft project for us. I cannot stand feet, Jacob definitely has a foot phobia...particularly his own feet. And James is never a fan of anything he'd consider out of the ordinary. Oh, and let's not forget John David. Yes, he thought painting his feet was rather strange!

Nonetheless, we did make footprints with paint. And, we enjoyed it. It was kinda fun to get messy.

 I can only imagine the spectacle we were!

But, we finished! Jacob did not like how his foot turned out. He was pretty convinced that now everyone will think he has squished up toes. And John David's foot mostly looks like a blob. I'm pretty sure though, that in spite of it's shortcomings, Daddy will love his gift.

 Happy Father's Day, Daddy! We love you!

Love,

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Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today we celebrate the birthday of a wonderful man that we are honored to call Daddy.

Jacob wrote a little book called "Why I Love Daddy" for a birthday present. It's so precious to see him expressing his thoughts in his own way! I know it's a gift that Daddy will always cherish.

We also made Daddy a king's crown to wear during his celebration. He may not be the king of a great nation, but he's the king of our home and those of us under his care are so grateful for his loving leadership.

We made one of Daddy's favorite dishes for supper...chicken and broccoli casserole. We also decorated the dining room with banners and streamers and confetti. It's a little family tradition of ours to make special days all the more special with decorations and such.

I also made his special carrot cake. It's another favorite tradition of ours. I only make it for Daddy's birthday. :)

We are planning a trip to the zoo and a picnic to further celebrate Daddy's birthday and Father's Day.

To God be the Glory!

Love,

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Preparing for Daddy's Birthday

 We decorated the dining room with streamers, banners and confetti!

Daddy's special carrot cake...cooling on the counter.

 Jacob and Joseph worked diligently on making a special birthday king's crown!

 The finished cake!

I hope on his special day, he will feel loved and honored!

Blessings,

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Monstrance Craft Project

  We love celebrating major Feast Days with a craft project, or special recipe. It helps to reinforce the reason we are celebrating, and builds a love of our faith in the youngest of hearts.

For the Feast of Corpus Christi, we made a monstrance. We took paper doilies and painted them with gold paint pens. We cut the base of the monstrance out of gold paper. For the Blessed Sacrament, we took white craft foam and cut a circle, then used the gold paint pen to draw on a cross. We used rhinestone stickers to decorate the monstrance.

Joseph was very careful with his paint pen. He wanted his monstrance to be perfect!

The boys chose James' finished monstrance to be on display in the dining room for our Feast Day supper. He was so pleased!

We also made a "Happy Feast Day!" banner to hang in the dining room. I look forward to using it for many Feast Days to come!

Love in Christ,

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The Feast of Corpus Christi

 The Feast of Corpus Christi is a Solemnity celebrating the Real Presence in the Eucharist, and the body and blood of Jesus Christ. After Mass there is a procession of the Blessed Sacrament. The point of the process is taking Jesus Christ out of the Church and to the people.

I love these ways of a practical, literal showing of our faith...

The Flower Carpets. The boys were amazed with their beauty!

 Thank you God, for the gift of Your Son. And for the gift of holy Communion. May we never take forgranted Your love for us!

In the Love of Christ,

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Making Homemade Pretzels and Cheese Sauce

 Jacob and I thought it would be great fun to make soft pretzels! We always enjoy working together in the kitchen, and soft pretzels are a delicious treat...so it was a win-win!

 Pretzels

 Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. warm water
1 tsp. yeast
1/4 c. brown sugar
3 1/2-4 c. flour

1/2 c. baking soda
3 c. hot water

coarse kosher salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add in the brown sugar and flour and mix well. Let rise till doubled in size.

Roll out dough into ropes. To shape into pretzels, I took the ends and twisted them together.

Add baking soda to hot water. Dip pretzels into this mixture. Then sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 7-8 minutes.

Cheese Sauce


Ingredients:
2 T butter
2 T flour
1 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1 c. shredded cheese (I use colby jack or cheddar)
1 tsp. prepared mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional, but we like a little kick)

Directions:
In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Mix in flour and salt. Stir continuously until simmering. Slowly pour in milk. Continue stirring over medium heat until thickened. Stir in cheese and mustard. Continue stirring until all of the cheese has melted. Serve warm.

We will definitely be making these again soon!

With Love,

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Trinity Sunday

 In honor of Trinity Sunday, we decided to make a Trinity Triangle. The boys love making crafts of treats, or doing other hands on activities that encourage their faith!

We used red for the Holy Spirit, Blue for the Father, and Yellow for the Son. On one side of the craft stick we wrote the Names in English and on the other we wrote in Latin. The boys have been learning the Signum Crucis (Sign of the Cross) in Latin, so they were quite excited to include it in their craft!

To God be the Glory!,

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Parish Carnival

Mass followed by face painting, pony rides, games, and a bounce house! Could we have asked for a more wonderful day?!

 I wasn't sure if my little two would actually ride the ponies, but, much to my surprise, they loved it!

 The boys loved having their faces painted. Jacob was a puppy, Joshua a bear (of course), Joseph a monkey, and James a tiger. And next year John David will join in the fun...I wonder what animal he'll choose?

What a fun time together!

With Love in Christ,

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National Donut Day!

 What's a girl to do on National Donut Day? Why, make donuts, of course! I decided to make baked donuts, since I didn't really want to pull out the deep fryer. Plus, since they're baked, they're healthy, right? Ok, maybe not so much. But, it was worth a try!

We made Baked Blueberry Donuts. My trusted kitchen helper put together the batter for me.

 Baked Blueberry Donuts

Ingredients:
1 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 T milk
2 eggs
3 T oil
2 T water
1/2 c. blueberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients together. Crush berries in a separate bowl with a fork. Mix together milk, eggs, oil, blueberries, and water. Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture and stir till just combined.

Pour into donut pan. I actually didn't have a donut pan (shocking, I know!), so I used my mini bundt cake pan. It worked just fine!

Bake for 16-18 minutes.

 While the donuts are cooling, make the glaze.

Glaze

Ingredients:
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
water

Directions:
Mix together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Add 1 tsp. water at a time until drizzling consistency is reached. Drizzle over cooled donuts.

My crowd of hungry boys thoroughly enjoyed National Donut Day. We will have to do this again next year!

Blessings,

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