Fun With the Holy Family

Do you have kids who love to color? Who are constantly clamoring for you to print out a picture for them to color, please!  Kids who will go through a case of printer paper faster than you can turn around? If so, then I have a book for you to put into your budding artists' hands.

Fun With the Holy Family is a coloring and activity book from Pauline Books and Media.  Every other page in this 64 page book is a wonderful picture depicting a scene from the life of the Holy Family.  The other pages are various activities and games to help the child learn more of the Holy Family's story.  These activities include mazes, word games, drawing activities, and craft ideas.

When this book arrived, most of the kids were begging for a chance to use it first.  Today I opened the book to a coloring page showing the Annunciation and gave it to Gabe.  He was very thrilled to have a chance to color someone with "his name" and spent quite a bit of time showing the book to his older sister.  I know, I should have cute pictures to share with you but I am a bit of a slacker mom who is battling morning sickness and just thought to myself "Hey, look.  They are sitting so quietly and seem so happy.  I'm going to enjoy the quiet for a bit and sit down," and only realized that pictures would have been awesome after they were up and running again.

Fun With the Holy Family is a perfect book for kids in the 5-8 age range.  Younger kids will love coloring the pictures but the older kids will love the activity pages.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Fun with the Holy Family. They are also a great source for a baptism gifts or first communion gifts.

Food for Thought

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla-The Gift of Life

I have been interested in the life of St. Gianna Beretta Molla ever since the day a woman I'd never met before placed one of her 3rd class relics-a holy card that had been touched to a pair of St. Gianna's gloves- in my hands after Mass many years ago.  At the time, we either were expecting our 6th child or she was a very new baby. The woman handing the holy card to me said that I reminded her in some way of this saint and she felt called to pass the card onto me. 

After having two more babies, both born prematurely for no apparent reason, I spent most of my 9th pregnancy with that holy card propped up in front of my computer monitor so that I would be reminded to pray to St. Gianna for a healthy pregnancy and baby.  Our 9th child did stay put long enough to make it to term which was a tremendous relief to me.  Shortly after her birth, I passed the holy card on to another mother who was dealing with a less-than-perfect pregnancy.

With that in mind, when I was given the chance to read a children's book about St. Gianna, I was rather excited.  I much prefer to learn about saints from children's books at first.  They often are a tad more interesting than adult oriented books and can help you to easily explain the lives of the saints to your kids.  Saint Gianna Beretta Molla-The Gift of Life is part of the Encounter the Saints series published by Pauline Media.  These relatively short chapter books are perfect for children in the 3rd to 6th grade age bracket.

Saint Gianna's book focuses on her family life, including her life as a child.  It shows the role her parents and siblings played in shaping her personality.  It does also teach in a gentle way about the choice St. Gianna made in preserving the life of her last baby even knowing it would place her own life at risk. The story of her death and it's impact on her community was shown in a caring way which will not leave the gentlest readers afraid.

Even as an adult, I learned quite a bit about the life of St. Gianna from this book.  I learned she and my oldest daughter share a birthday and that she was the 10th child born to a large family.  This book shares the story of a beautiful mother in a way that will touch the hearts of young children.  I plan to share this book with my elementary kids as soon as we finish our current read-aloud book.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Saint Gianna Beretta Molla - The Gift of Life. They are also a great source for a baptism gifts or first communion gifts.

Little Flowers

We had another Little Flowers meeting today.  Fifteen girls joined us today.  It seems we either have a large group or a small one.  I don't mind a smaller group except when I have already prepared craft supplies for the larger group.  Small issues, I know.

This month we focused on the Blessed Mother and the virtue of cheerfulness.  I am just going to come right out and say that it is darn near impossible to find a craft for cheerfulness.  Seriously.  Many thanks to the folks at Crafolic, Shower of Roses, and Waltzing Matilda for the wonderful ideas they came up with that I was able to use for our meeting.  Have I mentioned that I am not terribly creative? 

The girls all had a great time and we spent a little time before the Blessed Sacrament praying for a special Mom that I know who is missing her little girl. 

Morning Offering Craft

I am attempting to get back to doing more hands-on fun stuff with the kids.  The stuff that requires you to buy lots of glue sticks, scissors, paper and the like.  The stuff the kids actually enjoy doing.  Even if it does make a mess that at times they seem to not see when it is time to clean up.

Today we made a Morning Offering craft.  I have always loved the idea of a morning offering prayer and yet I have always forgotten to teach one to my kids (or use one myself, oops).  While browsing the Crafolic website, I stumbled up the craft they already had put together.

I'm hoping to run these projects through our laminator later tonight or tomorrow. Then we can hang one up in each bedroom and one in the kitchen so we will all be reminded to say a morning offering each day.

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby turned 6!  We celebrated her birthday a day early so that her older brothers would not miss out on the fun (they insisted honestly).  Abby treated us all to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings where they made an awesome looking birthday crown just for her.

Then we came home for cake and ice cream.  Abby asked for ice cream in cones but I told her we just can't do that with cake. Instead I offered to make the cake in the ice cream cones and top it with ice cream.  She loved that idea.  Something a bit different and kind of fun.

Abby got a brand new doll and some new kitchen toys.  May I say that I am so glad we don't do birthday parties for the kids every single year (or ever at the moment).  I can't imagine how overwhelming it must be for a kid to have so much stuff to open and find a home for and I've seen many parents who simply sell each years' toys at a garage sale every year so I have to question other families spending the money on the toys anyway.  But I am rambling.

Anyway, Abby was very happy and seemed to have a great day.  Two of her brothers made LEGO creations for her and her sister made her a beautiful card.  She picked out monkey bread for breakfast and spicy pizza for lunch. 

Here's looking forward to another great year with a wonderful little girl.

Easter Pictures

Just a few pictures from dying Easter Eggs and out annual egg hunt in the front yard.