Holy Saturday Fun

Holy Saturday morning was the time for Easter egg coloring.

This year I hard-boiled 5 dozen eggs, a dozen for each child!

They spent a long time getting their eggs just right.

Since our eggs are anywhere from white to light brown to a darker brown, we had a wide range of colors of Easter eggs.

The kids were very proud of their work.

Meanwhile I made apple and cherry pies for Easter dinner.

Kittens, Easter Eggs, and Cinnamon Rolls

On the morning of Holy Saturday, the kids went outside to play with the kittens.

Four little kitties.

There were almost enough to go around.

Anthony found they have sharp claws!

Anne with Snow.

Patch walking all over Catherine.

Meanwhile, I had boiled a ton of eggs for coloring.  This was the first year we got to use the eggs from our chickens.  When they were ready, we got to work.

The first eggs were in the dye.

Catherine showed off her first egg.

The boys took their job seriously.

Sweet little Anne.

Anthony's shirt met with some dye.

Most of the dyed eggs.   Using brown eggs works wonderfully!

Playtime after coloring eggs.

Some of my first ever batch of homemade cinnamon rolls, made for Easter morning.

Holy Thursday

On Holy Thursday, we made unleavened bread to eat with our dinner.  The kids really liked doing this, because they all got to help.

What fun!

Yes, ALL got to help.  Although after Anthony dropped his on the floor, I let him just eat the dough.

With Anthony, I either get solemn face or goofy face.

After they shaped and flattened the dough, each piece was poked multiple times with a fork.  As far as I could tell, this was for decoration.

The girls enjoyed tasting leftover dough! 

Then, later that afternoon, the girls worked on a Last Supper scene.  We got the templates and directions from Catholic Icing.  They were able to finish the whole thing in a few hours.

After I printed off the pages from the templates, the girls colored the apostles and cut them out.

Here is the finished product - a nice centerpiece for our Holy Thursday dinner!

Holy Saturday Pizza Party

We may have started a new tradition!  For dinner on Holy Saturday, we decided to make some gourmet-style pizzas.   The homemade dough was rolled out and brushed with olive oil.  Each pizza had some combination of the following ingredients:  freshly-made pesto, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, capers, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, parmesan cheese, pecorino romano cheese, feta cheese, fresh oregano, thyme, rosemary, chives.  It was all delicious!

Dan was in charge of the pizza building and baking.

Looking good!

A little helper.

Yummy!

Pizza party in the garage!

Making Pies

After the egg-coloring extravaganza on Holy Saturday, we turned our attention to making pies for Easter dinner.  We made a cherry pie and a strawberry-rhubarb pie (rhubarb from our garden!).  Then, as I had some leftover pie dough, we decided to use Catherine's little pie pan to make a little apple pie.  So she got to work:

I make an oil crust, so you have to roll it out between sheets of waxed paper.

The girls were busily working while the boys watched for chances to snitch some dough.

At last, the pies were ready for the oven.

Then they all got to practice with the scraps of dough that were left. 

Catherine was very proud of her first pie!  Me too!

Two Funny Videos

I actually found two funny little videos of Anthony from when we colored Easter eggs last Saturday.  The one above shows Anthony making his famous "frowny face."   In the video below, Anthony is checking on his egg in the cup.  Watch Joseph's expression as well, it is funny.  Both videos are very short.

Easter Egg Fun

On Holy Saturday morning, the kids were ready to dye some Easter eggs.

Anne was very excited.

Joseph was very patient and got his eggs to just the right color.

Look at my pretty egg!

After the eggs dried, the kids decorated their eggs with some food-safe markers.

You just knew trouble would break out from this section of the table.  Right?  He made quite a mess. 

I have a funny video of Anthony, but could not get it to load on here.  I'll have to try again later.

Holy Week at Our House

Since we can arrange our school how we like, I decided to have half a week of school during Holy Week and the other half this week.  Somewhat of a spring break for us.  So on Holy Thursday and Good Friday we did not have any formal school, which was nice.  We could focus on the second half of Holy Week!  I thought I would write down what we did so I could be one step ahead next year. 

Holy Thursday:  I read to the kids while they colored in some neat Stations of the Cross coloring books, which I got from The Catholic Company.  They are produced by Pauline Books and Media.  The kids all loved coloring in these books, even the boys.  I read the story of the Passover from the Old Testament, then the story of The Last Supper from the New Testament, both from our children's Bible.  Then I read The Weight of a Mass: A Tale of Faith, by Josephine Nobisso, which is a great book.  I also finished reading  Celebrating Lent (St. Joseph Picture Book), by Jude Winkler.  We also listened to a Gregorian Chant For Kids CD.  Dan took Catherine, Dominic, and Anne to the Holy Thursday Mass in the evening.  They did well, but we were glad we kept Joseph and Anthony at home as Dan and the kids did not get home until just before 9:00. 

Good Friday:  The kids again colored in their Stations of the Cross books, while I read to them from the children's Bible, going from the Agony in the Garden through the Crucifixion.  We listened to "At The Cross Her Station Keeping" from the Catholic Marian Classics Vol. VI CD, which is a nice CD made by Richard Proulx and the Cathedral Singers.  Dan came home early and we all went to the living stations of the cross done by the youth group at our parish.  Nicely done and the kids liked it.  I took the older three kids to the Good Friday service.  They were anxious to kiss the cross and they did well, although Dominic fell asleep during the homily.  :)  After the kids went to bed, Dan and I watched The Passion of the Christ (Widescreen Edition), which is difficult to watch at times, but oh, so good.  It will be more than a few years before the kids can watch that!

Holy Saturday:  This year my birthday fell on Holy Saturday, so we had a birthday party at lunchtime. 

In the afternoon, we colored Easter eggs (pictures still to come) and talked about Jesus in the tomb, and anticipated the Resurrection.  We did not take any of the kids to the Easter Vigil, as it did not even start until 8:00.  Sometime it will be nice to take them to that, but not any time soon!  I also wanted to make Resurrection Cookies, but I'll file that one away for another year. 



Yet to come:  Our celebration of Easter!