2013 Crown of Thorns activity

 Once again the kids and I have made our traditional Crown of Thorns, used to keep track of our sacrifices and good deeds done during this season of lent.

We began by painting a plastic (cracked) platter purple to serve as the base of our display.

 We then made a braided wreath out of salt dough.  There are many, many recipes for saltdough on the internet.  Laura and Kim placed the toothpicks (thorns)  into the wreath before baking.

The wreath was finished up by being painted brown. In the center of the wreath we have placed our Lenten mite cans.

Now when a sacrifice or good deed is done this lent a "thorn" is removed.  Hopefully by Easter morning, all the thorns with be removed and beautiful flowers will take the place of thorns.

Here you can see our 2010 wreath,

and our 2012 wreath.



"Love is patient".....

"Love is patient,

Love is kind,

Happy feast of Saint Valentine"

It's beginning to look a lot like Valentine's Day

Valentine Pops

Yummy!! Yummy!!

2013 CNY Sportman's Show

 It was another wonderful Holy Cross CNY Sportman's Show.

Once again the kids had a wonderful time...enjoying all the critters that filled the show.

 This African frog is in a 20 gallon fish tank....it was amazing.

 The kids didn't hold the tarantula.

 Luke does not look too please with Kimmy's affection.

 Luke and petting an American alligator.

 It's Groundhog's Day, and Kim got to check out a groundhog up close.

 Kim and Luke both had the chance to tie a fly....

 it takes alot of concentration.

 Luke now can call all the turkeys that hang out in back of our house.

 The puppet master.

I do believe Luke should look a little nervous in this photo.

Groundhog's Day Fun

 We have been getting ready for February 2nd this week...Groundhog's Day.

Kimmy made this simple cut and paste project for our calendar wall.

I love the DLTK craft site for all sorts of fun and easy projects.

 I printed off this shadow matching game...It came from the Hands of a Child goundhog project pack.

 The kids are just loving making lapbooks right now.  In fact, Luke doesn't like to see them completed...he wants to just keep adding things to them.

Most of the elements for this lapbook came for free  from Homeschool Share.

 We enjoyed these books as we completed our lapbook.

Our favorite was: Groundhogs. It was a very readable book full of groundhog facts.

It was very helpful in answering the questions in our lapbook.

 The first section of our lapbook.

The next flap of our lapbook.

We will eagerly be watching the news tomorrow to see if we can look forward to an early spring or have to endure six more weeks of winter.

Valentine's Day Countdown Chain

 We have again made this great Valentine's Day heart countdown chain from Catholic Icing.

Each heart has a Bible verse concerning love printed on it....just perfect for daily handwriting practice.

Thank you, Catholic Icing for providing this great free printable.