Kimmy's Olympic Quote

"Luke, I light you up with the Olympic torch!"

Luke wasn't thrilled.

stART-Tacky and the Winter Games---Olympic torches and Olympic medals

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It has been all about the Olympics around here this week, and I was really happy to discover the book, Tacky and the Winter Games for our little learners. The big kids have been working of a huge Olympic lapbook, and the littles have been feeling slightly left out of the action.

Tacky and his friends are training for the Olympic games, and when the competition finally arrives, the other anmals are worried he will ruin their chances for a medal. But in the end, Tacky saves the day, and his team wins the "BIG WINNER" medal.

This book has very cute illustations and humor, perfect for the preschool set!

In honor of the Olympics and Tacky the Penguin, we made salt dough gold, silver and bronze medals. We used one of the many recipes for salt dough found on the internet, and then baked them at 200 degrees for about 3 hours, until they were totally dry.

Make sure to use something to make a hole in the medal for a ribbon. I simply poked a hole with a pencil.
I love Luke's concentration!

After they finished baking, we painted them with metallic craft paint.

Tie with a ribbon and

then enjoy the many athletic feats the kids will think of to perform to win medals.

Next came our Olympic torch.

I simply taped two pieces of computer paper together and rolled it into a cone shape--taping it together.

Kim and Luke cut our the yellow and orange flames for our torch.

Our first torch, we glued each flame individually into the cone, but I discovered, it was much easier to staple the flames together and then rolled this into a cone shape and glue it into the white torch "handle".

Our torched caused so much excitement, it was very difficult to get a good picture of the littles.

The main problem being, they kept trying to light each other on fire--keep these kids away from matches!!

Check our more stART blog posts at A Mommy's Adventure.

Laura's first handmade rosary

and what an absolutely beautiful job she did!!

Too Much Olympics?

Luke's Olympic speed skating track. I took this picture, and then told him it was naughty to unroll a whole roll of paper towels onto the living room floor.

Something seems a little wrong about this whole incident.....

Our Crown of Thorns and our Lamb of God--for the littles

We made our traditional crown of thorns craft today.

We use salt dough to make this.

You can find many, many recipes online for salt dough.

Laura braided the rolled out salt dough and then we shaped it into a wreath.

Mark and Grace enjoyed adding the toothpicks--which represent thorns. I have found, through experience, that if you break the toothpicks in half before inserting them into the wreath they are much easier to remove later.

Bake the salt dough crown at 200 degrees--for several hours--I think ours baked for about 4 hours before is was completely dry.
We have had a purple plate which we used for years for the crown to sit on. Today, I smashed it to bits, getting it out of the top of the cupboard. So, I found this tray at the thrift store and I had Mark paint it purple.

Once baked, Gracie got busy painting the crown brown.

"Perfect, Mark!"

Our goal is to do enough good works and sacrifices to remove all the thorns before Easter.

Our rule is that you do need to get an okay from mom before taking out thorns---so mom can check out the good works accomplished. For instance, it isn't acceptable to dump out all your toys on purpose, and then remove a thorn for each individual toy picked up. That just doesn't count, kids!!

On Easter morning our crown is tranformed into a beautiful crown of white roses.

The littles are using this very cute "Lamb of God". I first saw it on Karen Edmisten's Lenten post.

Amy made this one for me--THANK YOU VERY MUCH-my sweet artist!!--and the littles will countdown to Easter using cotton balls to fill in our wooly lamb.

And as an aside--

Tonight we went to Ash Wednesday mass, and when the priest said,"This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of world"---4 year old Luke called out, quiet loudy, "Hey, we have one of those at home!!"

We hope everyone has a very holy Lenten season.

Stations of the Cross Votive Candles-Repost

I saw this lovely idea over at Ruth's blog Just Another Day in Paradise. (She also has many other very nice Lent activities-so make sure and go check them out.)

This activity adds a lot to the devotion of the Stations of the Cross.

For this activity you need:

14 votive candles-(I got mine in packs of 12 at the craft store for 4 dollars)

purple tissue paper

white glue-watered down

foam core board (for the stand the candles sit on)

wooden letters (we choose to put the word SACRIFICE on our stations)

dark purple paint

light purple paint

These small printable Stations of the Cross

First we used watered down white glue to put the purple tissue paper onto the candle holders.
Laura helped me with this step.
While Laura put the tissue on the candles, I got the Stations of the Cross printables ready to adhere to the candles. They came out just lovely, and the sun shining on them today made them even more so. I love the purple look the tissue gives the candles.

Daddy cut foam core just wide enough to hold the candles. We glued three on top of each other because I think we needed the strength for the heavy candles. He also cut a strip of board a little taller than the base board is thick. This provided a finished looking edge to the front and a lip at the top to help hold the candles.

Gracie painted the letters for the word SACRIFICE in light purple.

She did a great job.

It came out just lovely.

We will light all the candles at the beginning of our devotion and then blow one out after reading about each station. Years ago I purchased many copies of The Way of the Cross for children so all the kids can follow along with their own book.

The only display area here in "the little house" is on top of the toy kitchen, so I did glue the candles onto the board to try and prevent smashed candles. (If you live in a "little house" you have to use whatever space is available). This is also where our shrine to Our Blessed Mother is. I put the traditional "crown of thorns" in this special place of honor also. When a good deed is accomplished (and approved by mother) the good child can remove a thorn from the crown, to show how our good deed and sacrifices can help relieve some of Jesus' sufferings. Hopefully all the thorns will be gone before Easter Sunday.

We pray that everyone has a holy and prayerful Lent as we journey towards Easter.

Happy Mardi Gras--Thanks to a Zatarains House Party

I took part in a Zatarains House party today, and boy did we have fun!!

Danny is a looing a little creepy in his mask.
We wore our beads, masks, and danced to Zydeco music from the internet.

Looking good!! All we need now is a parade---but up here in the cold, snowy far north, we had to make our own fun.

If you are a ten year old boy, even your mom can't get you to wear a Mardi Gras mask.

Diving for coins---there were plenty for everyone.

I am proud to say that this is my new facebook profile picture.

Lukie, looking good!

Gorgeous Gracie!!

Our king's cake.

I have no idea what a real king's cake is (we are from the far north, remember), but I made it look good with the traditional gold, green and purple colors, and ours was full of babies.

Whoo hoo!!! Kimmy found the first baby!

Luke couldn't believe there was another baby--and he found it!!

Now, isn't that amazing!! Gracie found a baby also!!

This helped prevent any tears of jealousy--and it worked.

"Don't eat the baby, Dan!!"

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone!!

And a blessed Lenten season!!