Last week in pictures

Last week was a week of wonderful feasts and an amazing astronomical event. Here is our week in pictures.

~Super Blood Moon~

Last week was also the beginning of BigBoy's foray into altar serving...

He's the one snuffing out the candle that's twice as tall as he is!

This week is one of my favorite weeks in the liturgical season, but it also sneaks up on me just about every year. This year, Miss Cupcake became aware of feast days and quickly picked up on the concept of special feast day treats. After Michaelmas, she pretty much woke up every day asking what special treat we were making that day. A quick recap...

~Feast of St. Michael~

Blackberry Jam for Michaelmas... the Smuckers turned out to be the favorite in the blind taste test.

~Candy Roses for St. Therese~

OK, this is a real rose. Not candy.

 Candy roses made with her big sis, Rain. 

~Angel Kisses for the Feast of the Guardian Angels~

These are just a simple meringue cookie recipe, not the pepperminty ones I made last year. I made some with M&M's inside and some with crushed peppermint sticks sprinkled on top. 

~Wolf's Paw Cookies for St. Francis~

Left over chocolate chip cookies were turned into Wolf's Paw cookies using some melted chocolate and white chocolate chips. Rain made these to celebrate St. Francis, her Confirmation saint. 

Reading a story about St. Francis with Sunshine 

Cupcake's new glasses came in. She tells me she's seeing better and I'm hoping that the convergence we were seeing will go away. Personally, I think she looks just so darn cute in her glasses. Like a teeny, tiny little librarian. 

Our Lady of the Rosary is coming up this week. If you are looking for some coloring pages, you can find them here. 

Feast Day Round Up

It's been a busy week with some major feast days to celebrate. Our celebrations used to be more elaborate, but as my kids have grown older, they've become more subdued.  I think that's only natural, but sometimes I feel guilty about my littler ones. Are they missing out by not celebrating the way we used to? I think I need to try to make a few things a little more festive, but I like this more relaxed pace too. It's such a balance, isn't it?

September 29th (Michaelmas, Feast of the Archangels, The Professor's Confirmation saint)

Blackberry jam spread on homemade bread

This is some Blackberry Cobbler jam that I ordered for Sean a while back from the winery that we visited on our honeymoon. The kids prefer plain blackberry jam.

October 1st (Feast of St. Therese the Little Flower, special friend of Sunshine's and Confirmation anniversary for Sunshine and The Professor)

Pumpkin Cupcakes with super easy Frosting Roses

My babies 6 years ago.

October 2 (Feast of the Guardian Angels, special friends to all of us)

Angel Kisses (peppermint meringue cookies)

October 4th (Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Rain's Confirmation saint)

Pot Pie Soup over at Catholic Cuisine… Rain is going to spoil us with some of her Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread today!

Guardian Angel Coloring Page

October 2

Guardian Angel Coloring Page

~ click here ~

Simple celebrations: Guardian Angels

Sunshine came up with today's table decoration which was a little harder to put together than yesterday. Our best Guardian Angel pictures are over my children's beds and are too big for a table centerpiece. Instead, she came up with one of our angel dolls from our Easter scene, a guardian angel holy card from ModHMary, the Our Lady of the Angels statue reminding us to pray extra hard for our missionary friends and the work they are doing in Costa Rica and one of our books with a little story about the Guardian Angels. Not pictured (because my printer was being stubborn this morning but seems to have had a change of heart this afternoon... a photo of our angelic friend as a reminder to offer some birthday prayers for her today!)

Our simple celebration snack took a little more time to put together but was still simple enough. Inspired by an idea from Jessica, I saved some of the cookies from yesterday...

...cut them in half and dipped them in some white candy melts to make wings.

Then we attached a Gingerman cookie on top with another glob of candy melt on the back.

We popped them in the fridge for a few minutes before transferring the angel cookies to a serving tray and giving them a Gingerman cookie to watch over.

Ta-dah! Simple celebration #3. Simple today because my girl is still running a fever!!! If it doesn't break by tomorrow, we go back to the doctor. Please offer a prayer for her!

P.S. My kids chuckled at some of the Gingermen with broken hands. I told them, "That's what happens when you don't listen to your Guardian Angel!"
 

Guardian Angel Cookies

This idea sprung from necessity. I had, at one point and time, a very large angel cookie cutter that I was saving for this feast day. My idea was to let the children decorate their own guardian angel cookies. Well, that cutter was nowhere to be found this afternoon after my cookie dough was dine chillin' and a suitable replacement could not be found at any of the local craft stores. So, necessity being the mother of invention, I started looking at my cookie cutters in a different light and came up with a way to make an angel from a body and a duck's backside. I can't believe I just admitted that. I have no shame.

See how the backside of the duck looks like wings?

Maybe this picture will help.

How bout now? 

As you can tell by the waning light, we didn't have time to decorate them any more than this right here, so we just ate them as they were. Next time, I'll put the duck's backside to work earlier leaving more time for decorating!

And there is a coloring page for today, if anyone is still awake!