Search Results

On with the search for the Baby King: (If you missed the first post click here to see it) Searching for Jesus ~ Day 5 After no luck the first 4 days, Balthazar, Melchior, Caspar, and their camel checked in a baby wipe box. Nope, no baby in the *baby* wipe box, but I’ll give them a “A” for thinking “outside the box”. Hee Hee!!! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 6 Caspar is a daring fellow and after meeting a friendly pommel horse gymnastics athlete, he decided to take a break from searching and give this neat talent a try. He’s got good form! What do you all think? Should we give him an 9.5?? I think we better wait to see his dismount! Not far away, Balthazar and Melchior were checking out another candle and trying an acrobatic feat of their own!!! Wow, I’m not sure how they got into that position, but that’s got'a hurt! The true question is how will they get down! Searching for Jesus ~ Day 7 Oh boy, now Caspar did it!! He managed to get himself trapped inside the medal basket which he was using  as a pommel horse the night before!! But with quick thinking Melchior grabbed the nail clippers and tried to break him free! Good thinking Melchior!! The search will continue tomorrow!! Blessings, ~Jen-Marie

Wisemen Adventures ~ The Search for Jesus is over! The moment you have all been waiting for this week!! Our Wisemen have finally found Baby Jesus!! I know you were all beginning to wonder if the wisemen were actually going to find the newborn king – it was a lot of nail biting – edge of your seat moments, but they finally found him! Hooray!! I have to tell you, our house is kinda sad to see them succeed, only because we will miss seeing them each day! Oh well, we have next Christmas to look forward to! I hope your family can join us in the fun!  We have been posting all the adventures our little wisemen have had as they searched for the infant Jesus. It’s our Elf on the Shelf Alternative, and our kids have LOVED IT!! If you missed our other “Wisemen Adventure” posts this week   Click here  to read all about it and see the entire story!

In 2011, I posted a shell ornament for the Baptism of Our Lord. In that post, we used real shells. As much as we loved that craft I thought I’d offer another shell ornament for Our Lord’s Baptism which is made from paper. This one is for anyone who does not have the shells to use. Here is a picture of the completed paper shell craft: Here is the completed real shell ornament from 2011: Click here to see this old post. You will need: Printable scallops (Free Download below) Or you can buy a basket or bag full of shells at a dollar store or craft store -like in last year’s post . Printable image of Jesus Baptism and the Holy Spirit (Free Download below) Silver glitter or silver glitter glue (optional) String and needle – or tape a string it to the back scissors A glue stick Download the Baptism Craft here: Instructions:  Print the pages from the download above that work best for you: ***Print just the first sheet in this set if you are using real shells Or if this works better here is three sets on a single sheet: Cut out the shell, Baptism and Holy Spirit images. Glue the Baptism image to the shell and glue the dove above the baptism picture. Use the thread and needle to create a hanger for the ornament – Or you can tape a looped string to the back.  Now decorate it with silver glitter/glitter glue if you wish. A few of my kids added the silver glitter glue around the image of Jesus and John the Baptist. (Sorry, not pictured) It’s that easy! May God bless you! ~Jen-Marie

Here are a some Wisemen Activities and Ideas Most of these are printable, a few are not. First Palette  has the temples for these Wisemen Here is a crown your kids can make and wear! Go to  DLTK  for the instructions I liked these, they are nice and easy! 😉 DLTK  also has a 3D star project: Click here DLTK  has this cute Three Wise Men Song, too! We always give our kids little gifts on the Epiphany. So I thought these were a cute and easy idea to wrap the gifts.(Sorry the website shut down) This cute craft idea came from:  Mollie’s Mom  I gotta try this!! Here’s a coloring page form Sermons 4 Kids  They have a great selection of coloring pages Be sure to stop by and see them all! The Wisemen page is  here . Making Learning Fun  has these pages: Here is a coloring page: Here is a magnet page: Dibujos Para Pintar  has these coloring pages: Here is a easy  crown craft  from our blog:

Here are some lamb arts, crafts, and activities to use for St. Agnes feast day (Jan. 21) or when teaching about the “Lamb of God” or “The Good Shepherd”. Holly at  Three Sided Wheel has this cute  Lamb Prayer Card holder. (with printable parts) Rust and Sunshine has instructions for this cute lamb art project. Gummy Lump has instructions for this fun little lamb project. A Faithful Attempt has instructions to make this Bubble lamb I’d love to try this!! Here is a paper lamb from Melissa’s Stampin’ For Fun This one was made with paper punches, but similar paper shapes could be cut with scissors. I’m sure my daughter will be trying this! Here is how to draw a lamb instructions from How to draw Funny Cartoons ! Isn’t he a fun little guy! Check out the site for other lamb drawing instructions. Paper Dali has a St. Agnes Coloring page: (She’s holding a lamb) Here is our lamb biscuits: Click here to see this post Here is our Lamb Cupcakes Click here to see this post And last but not least is our “Feed My Sheep” game Hope that helps you! I sure found a lot of fun things for my kids! The Winners are…… Okay,  now for the winners of the Holy Name of Jesus efile Puzzle / Game The winners are….. (drawn randomly by Rafflecopter) Click Here to see the winners! Congratulations! I will be sending the winners an email. Thank you to everyone who entered!  And I have to tell you all: The wonderful answers to the “What made you smile this week”  question made me smile! It sounds like many of you have been blessed with some adorable kids and grandkids!! I hope they keep making you smile! 🙂 Blessings! ~Jen-Marie

All Saints day and All Souls day is upon us. It’s the time of our Liturgical year when we remember the entire Communion of Saints!! But what is the Communion of saints? Well, first I’d like to answer a question I’ve heard many times…. What is the difference between All Saints day and All Souls day?  All Saints day is a day is when we celebrate ALL the saints in Heaven. It’s a day to pray to the saints and ask them to intercede for us. This includes ALL the saints, even the ones that we don’t realize are saints. Not all holy people who have died and gone to heaven are canonized by the Church. There are many holy people who have died and gone to heaven but have never been acknowledged by the Catholic Church. Even though they are not canonized, they are still saints. So we celebrate them all and ask for their intercession. All Souls day is a day we focus on prayer for those who have died and are suffering in Purgatory. These souls need our prayers to help them to get into Heaven. This is a special day dedicated to prayer for these needy souls. I’ve been teaching my kids about the Communion of Saints, which includes both the saints and the souls in Purgatory. Actually, there are three groups in the Communion of Saints: The first group includes all the saints in heaven. This group is the part we almost always think about when someone mentions the Communion of saints. We call this group the Church Triumphant . So what does triumphant mean? Normally, when we say someone is triumphant we mean that they won or succeeded in what they were trying to do. For example, a runner is triumphant when he wins a race. The second group in the Communion of saints is the Church Suffering.  This group is made up of the poor Souls in Purgatory.  These are people who have died in union with God’s teachings, but are not yet holy enough to enter into Heaven. They need our prayers to help them become pure enough to enter Heaven. They cannot enter into Heaven without our prayers, so always be sure to remember the Souls in Purgatory when you pray.  All Souls Day is coming on November 2 and it might be a great time to take the kids to a cemetery and say a few prayers or a Rosary for the souls who are most in need of prayers. This is a great visual reminder to them of who they are praying for. Now the third group is one we all know well, but often times don’t think of as “saints”. The third group is called the Church Militant and it’s made up of living people here on Earth who strive to follow God’s will. This group can include the Pope, bishops, priests, and anyone who is living their lives the way the church teaches. All of us can belong to this group, but we must do as the saints in Heaven have shown us: we must live for God and try to do His will in all things. To help teach my kids about the Communion of Saints I created a few bulletin boards:  I made this first one a few years back. It hung in our church’s entryway. The top is a white cloud with pictures of saints. In the middle was an artist idea of what Purgatory might look. I added the thorns around the picture. On the bottom was a collection of pictures of the parishioners in our parish. It was a big hit with the parishioners as they tried to find those they know. I also added a few pictures of the churches in our area, too. Next was one I made for a talk I created for the kids of our local Catholic homeschool group several years ago. Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” All three groups in the Communion of Saints make up the branches. God is the vine that gives us all our life and grace. This vine is split into three parts. The first part starting at the Holy Trinity, has leaves that contain pictures of the saints. The next group were just images of “souls”, they are just average looking people who appear to be sad. On the last section I added images of the pope, our bishop, and a few different churches. These were a great visual  help when teaching about the Communion of Saints. Printable Activity Page I also created a printable activity page that helps to teach the kids about The Communion of Saints” Here are a few of our finished pages: There are 4 different pages to pick from. To create this page have the children title and decorate each section as follows: The top section should be titled Church Triumphant. Have the children draw or color around the clouds in this section. They could also use glue or a stapler to add some cotton. Now they can paste on a few pictures of their favorite saints.  Older children can draw saints. The middle should be labeled Church Suffering. The children can draw pictures, add photos, or write the names of those they know who have died. Have the children draw or color sharp rocks or thorny branches around the pictures and names. This is to symbolize their suffering.  Remind the children that these souls need prayers. The bottom is for those who are living and striving to do God’s will. Draw or color grass, houses, trees, flowers, then have the children draw or add pictures of the Pope, bishops, as well as, family members. Teachers: All pictures for this project could be brought from home as a homework assignment. Download the Page Here: May all the Saints in Heaven pray for us! And hope you all have a blessed All Saints Day! ~Jen-Marie

Here are some ideas to help you celebrate the feast day of “The Holy Name of Mary” (Sept 12). Waltzing Matilda:  Most Holy Name of Mary Plans 2008 Another Post 2009 Just Another Day In Paradise : Most Holy Name of Marycraft and dessert  Cottage Blessings: Mary’s Holy Name Lantern More ideas from  Waltzing Matilda Family At The Foot Of The Cross:  The Holy Name of Mary A few ideas from: Shower of Roses

Here are lots of ideas for you to help you celebrate Our Blessed Mother’s Birthday (Sept 8) Family At The Foot Of The Cross:  Blue praying arms pretzels The Careless Catholic:  Nice list of books and more Ten kids and a Dog: Nice cake and coloring activity Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice:  Beautiful cake for Mary Ten kids and a Dog:  Made Cards for Our Blessed  Mother’s Birthday Slightly Crunchy Catholic: Another Beautiful cake for Our Blessed Mother\’s birthday! Training Happy Hearts:  Fun day 2010 Fun day 2011 An Abundance of Rainbows:  Queen Mary’s Children Party fun! Three-Sided Wheel Fun books and ideas Family at the Foot of the Cross Beautiful post and party St. Anne and Baby Mary Felt Doll / Statues Felt Doll / Statues or Mary’s Nativity

Last year my kids and I made a Prayer Chain of People to pray for during Lent. This year I decided to go a little simpler. The days have been very busy and I didn’t feel we would have the time to make all the little people again. (Although, many of my kids were complaining that they really wanted to make all those people again! I told them that we’d try to make them again next year!) This year I made a list of people to pray for and I added that list to a paper chain. We will remove one of the chain’s links each day and pray for the people who are mentioned on that link. The neat thing is it doubles as a count down to Easter! I used the following image at the top of the Prayer Chain. I added a few sheets of decorative purple paper to make it look nice! Download the Lenten Prayer Chain here:

Our Lord said to St. Francis of Assisi, “Rebuild My Church!” My kids thought this craft was so much fun! But before we stated I read about St. Francis from our "Once Upon a Time Saints" book. “But that night, he (the pope) had a dream. He saw the great Church of St. John Lateran falling, crumbling into dust, and only one ragged little man was holding it up. It was Francis. Our Lord said to the pope, “This is the man through whom the church shall be rebuilt.”” St. Francis of Assisi Craft After reading the story about St. Francis of Assisi my kids made this craft. All you need is: the printable - download below (stock paper is best) building material like:-brown or red paper square “bricks”-wooden craft sticks, cut in half-toothpicks-mini rocks scissors (and cutters if you are using sticks) glue (we used Tacky white glue) Download the St. Francis Craft Here:  It is super simple and fun! Just print out the St. Francis and church printable and glue your “building material” around the image of  St. Francis. Feel free to be creative about what “building material” you will use! Choose the 6 small printable templates or the 2 larger templates. Here is a quick view of the craft pages: God bless. ~JenMarie

I thought some of you might like to see the banners that my kids had done for their First Communion. This banner is one that was done by my oldest daughter, Rachel, 6 years ago. The background and all the parts I helped her cut out from various colors of soft felt, but she did most of it herself. At the time she LOVED sewing, so she did a lot of sewing on her banner. She used the string that you would use for cross-stitching. Rachel first sewed the rays of light that are coming from the host. Next, she sewed on the host and wheat. The lines you see on the wheat and the cross on the host are her large stitches. The stems of the wheat we hot glued down. She then sewed on the Chalice. We hot glued on the red string of sequins. She sewed on the grapes, which were just purple circles. The leaves were hot glued on and the leave’s veins she sewed. We also hot glued on some blue strings of sequins to the top and bottom of the banner.  The front may be beautiful, but the back is a mess! Since she used a softer felt on her banner (because she was sewing) we had to hot glue stiff cardboard across the top on the back. We also hot glued the string to the cardboard so she could hang it up. She was very proud of her banner, but she was rather tired of sewing by the time she was done! Want to see more banners? Click here to see banner #2 Click here to see banner #3 Looking for a few templates? You could use the printable from my Eucharist Art project God Bless!~Jen-Marie

On the feasts of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts we made paper hearts. These are made with nothing but paper, markers and glue. They are simplistic but very pretty. You will need: a full sheet of red paper pieces or sheets of yellow, brown, orange, green, and pink markers: red, brown and yellow glue scissors Let’s start with the Sacred Heart of Jesus…  Cut the sheet of red paper in half and fold each half  long ways. Cut out a half heart so that when you open it to will be a whole heart. Cut out a larger yellow “flame” and a smaller orange “flame.” Cut out two strips of brown for the cross. Cut our short pointy brown strips for the crown of thorns. Glue the orange flame on top of the yellow flame and the cross on top of the orange flame. Glue that onto the top of the underside of the heart as pictured. Now make “X” shapes where the crown of thorns should be, all the way across. Now use a brown (or black) marker to make a curved line for the spear wound. Add red around it and a blood drop. That’s it for the Sacred Heart of Jesus! ~*~ Now for the Immaculate Heart of Mary! Do the same as above to make the heart and flames. Glue the flames to the top-underside of the heart. Cut out simple pink flower shapes and add those across the center of the heart. They don’t need to be perfect. When you place them beside each other you won’t see the mistakes on the flower shapes. Use a yellow marker to create the flower’s center. We added small green leaf shapes around the flower, too. This is the “hard” part…making the sword: Cut out a cross shape and round the ends on the handle parts. Use a brown marker to create the look of a handle. Use a red marker to make a curved line for the cut onto the heart and use scissors to put a slit in the red cut. Slip the sword through the cut and glue it on the under side. That’s it!! So paper simple! Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! May God Bless you all! ~Jen-Marie