Ascenion Day 2011

Ascension Day Balloon Wreath

We celebrated the Feast of the Ascension on Thursday with a few activities only this year.

Yes, I am still trying to keep to the 'not too much theme.' I actually am pondering over why this is (and other interesting topics) and planning on sharing my thoughts on the benefits of this. Surprise.....not really I tend to do this regularly. Too many ideas though and not enough actual typing time!

Obviously the bubble activities based on the Bubble Wands  was a big hit with the younger children.

The bubbles were lovely and thick for them to blow with

Arwen had quite a bit of trouble with the blowing or spinning to get bubbles to come out and gave up fairly early.

Myffwyn loved re-catching her bubbles on her wand again.

Corbyn kept saying  'take a photo of my bubble' to me. He was very keen to get really big bubble

I love the colours of the bubbles

For sweets this year we simply put the blue jelly into a bowl with some ice cream for clouds topped with more fluffy cream

Then we added Jesus as he 'Ascended into Heaven.'

We re created our scene with the Painted Apostles and Jesus on the cake plate and fleece clouds.

This was the start of the Ascension story with the Betty Lukins felt board pieces. I am trying to remember to use these more often, so we have put them back on the bookcase in the kitchen again.

Rogan was keen again to make the official Ascension Day cake with fluffy cream topping again. This was a great morning tea for the next day.

So we really did not achieve even half the activities we have done in the past but we did celebrate the Liturgical feast day and the children will have memories of this day again.


Blessings to you and your homes,

Ascension Day Plans and Scenes......

Today as we are celebrating Ascension Day in our home I am trying not to over extend myself.

So instead of doing another planning post with different things for this year, 2011 I am just going to re post our plans from last year and the pictures of what we actually made to play with and to eat.

Today we are not doing everything we have in the past but will modify it to allow for 'wiggle room' with our precious Trahaearn.

Therefore everything below is from 2010~

Having worked out our plans early for a change I thought I would share them with any one who might be interested.
I hope they are helpful to some of you.

Ascension Day:
"Easter week and the days thereafter are ones of happiness and Christian Joy in the life of the risen Lord. Although the Church includes the Feast of Pentecost int the Liturgical season of Easter, Ascension Day is actually the feast that terminates the events of the Saviours life on earth.
This feast has been celebrated since the earliest Christian times, and by the fourth century had spread to throughout the entire Christian world of that time.
It was an old European custom to eat a bird on that day because Christ had 'flown' to Heaven. In Western Germany, bakers gave their customers pieces of patry made in the shapes o fvarious birds. In England, the day was celebrated with games, dancing and horse races. In Central Europe, families went hiking and on picnics."--Catholic Traditions in the Home and Classroom.♥

Plans for the day ♥♥♥

♥ Books:
Read from the bible about Ascension and to the little ones from The Catholic Picture Bible.

♥ Take down the Large crosses from the hill.

♥ Activities and Crafts:
--Make a kite from various materials- cross frame with paper or plastic cover.
--Make a flying Streamer bag-- All Year round.
--Home made wind mills with coloured paper on stick.
--Make a parachute out of hanky or small piece of fabric , tie to the parachute a small figure, ie a small gnome or other wooden figure and drop over balcony.
--Make a butterfly mobile from tissue paper and pipe cleaners-- The Children's Year.
--Wrap streamers of ribbon around a piece of dowel, glue well, and let children run with them-- The Children's Year
--Dove Mobile Spiral -- The Children's Year.
--Blow bubbles with bubble wands with home made bubble mix and wands.
-- Blow up ballons and have ballon races or just batting them around.

--Colour in Ascension day picture , another one here and a third one and dove colouring picture.
--Or fill in dove shape with scrunched up tissue/crepe paper.
--Felted picture using fleece and either place on as in Magic wool or dry felt a picture.

♥All Seasons Wreath:
--Fluffy clouds and doves floating around using some of the activities crafts.

♥ Enjoying Nature:
--Have a kite flying contest with the kites made and an outdoor picnic/afternoon tea.
--Run around with steamers made from above.
--Lay down and just watch the cloud movement.

♥ Cooking:
--Make a dove cake: cut out dove shape using a picture of a dove from a slab cake or make slab cake and put dove shape on top with white cream on chocolate background.
--Dove cookies from cutouts again. Ice with white icing or trace like gingerbread cookies at Christmas.
-- Cook meringue's as they are really light and could represent air or clouds.
-- Cloudy Sky Sweets (updated 2010)
-- Tiramisu I love this sweets (update 2010 Catholic Icing)

♥ Main meal:
--Chicken probably Apricot with white rice and ice cream for sweets.


♥ Table decorations:
--Green tablecloth with glitter and stars on the cloth.
"The stars on the green cloth show the connection we now have between heaven and earth because of Jesus' ascension. The flowers show that Jesus' words and works are flowering even now on earth."-- The big book of Catholic Customs and traditions. ♥
--Place mats of cloud formations, printed out and laminated.
--Place cards of cotton wool with each persons name on it.
--Laminated book mark of the Ascension.
--Statue of Divine Mercy, Sacred Heart, and Good Shepherd, Circle this with flowers.

♥ Some other Lesson plans- Catholic Mom.com

♥ Yesterday we celebrated The Ascension of our Lord at home.
We used some of the ideas from our plans and then adapted others into the day.
As we were building Igloo's for "I Week" as well our creative talents were divided and we didn't accomplish all we wanted.

♥ For our meal we simply had "Heavenly Pasta" with a tomato based sauce and then had our Cloudy Sky Sweets.

♥ Here are some of the activities we had and the crafts we made~
♥ WE always make these for Ascension as they can be run through the wind and create a wonderful effect.
All they consist of are some crepe paper in strips tied around a stick, as you can see the sticks are just odd ones form the back yard.
♥ Arwen with her Breeze catcher
♥ Last year our Table decorations were as follows~
--Green tablecloth with glitter and stars on the cloth.
"The stars on the green cloth show the connection we now have between heaven and earth because of Jesus' ascension. The flowers show that Jesus' words and works are flowering even now on earth."-- The big book of Catholic Customs and traditions.
♥ This year we had a blue table cloth depicting the sky and had Jesus on a wooden pedestal with fleece on it to symbolise clouds with the Apostles and Mary standing below looking up at Jesus as he Ascended into Heaven.
I used the same figures I had made for the Cenacle Presentation as well as Mary from our Alphabet Saints.
♥ View form Jesus as he Ascends into Heaven.
♥ We also made Parachutes to also capture the air theme of Jesus and Heaven
♥ They work really well form the loft flying down to the Kitchen.
♥ Lots of fun with these in days to come still.
♥ Our Cloudy Sky Sweets
♥ Cloudy Sky Sweets meets Jesus and the Apostles and Mary (and dirty dishes in the background)
♥ Some of the colouring from the day.
♥ Our Cloud cake with Jesus on top ....Ascending.
♥ We also made fluffy clouds and windmills to replace the Easter theme on our All Year Round Wreath.
♥ Paper windmills just cut out and tied up and hung from the wreath.
♥ Fleece balls teased out to be fluffy and hung up as well.
♥ Miniature Paper kites. These were my favourite thing to make. Everyone has one to keep as a reminder of the day.
♥ Simply glue 2 paddle-pop sticks together to form the cross shape.
Cut out newspaper in a square and trim to fit.
Tie wool/sting to one end of the cross shape for the tail and the other at the cross to use for a pull string.
Cut crepe paper and tie it on to the string.
These really were a big hit with the little ones
♥ Arwen scooting across the lawn with hers trying to fly it.
♥ Are we going to run or not?
♥ Corbyn and Rogan with theirs.
♥ Corbyn, running as fast as he can.
♥ " I am just taking a break from running Mummy"
♥ Do you like my kite?
♥ Rogan giving it a great go!
♥ All of them enjoying the running and flying of kites.

I pray your own Ascension Day was a happy and Holy one.

♥ Just a brief word on our crafts etc. It is with a thankful heart that I am able to say "we" when I talk about the things we share. Our children are mostly involved in the making and cooking of our Feast Day activities with me.
I would not want to give the idea that I do it on my own. It is a family affair with the older girls (Autumn, Eden and Vellvin) and Saxon and Rogan helping the most.
So thank you our sweet children for helping to create the memories we have ♥ XXXOOO

 Blessings to you and your homes,

Candlemas in our Home 2011

Candle Cake with Doves for the presentation

Yesterday we celebrated Candlemas in our home and while I had not written our plans for the day like I did last year. We had a general idea of what we wanted to do.

We rolled  bees wax sheets. It was a little tricky for me to keep up with the cutting to size of the sheets.

Vellvin helped Myffwyn.

Moran was very pleased with her ability to do this and she had enjoyed it so much.

Moran and Autumn were a team as well.

Eden and Rogan were very enthusiastic.

Corbyn found it a little too slow passed for him so was a little more interested in breaking up the sheets.

The complete rolled collection.....78 in total.

Instead of dipping candles like we did last year. We wanted to do some puring into moulds. So as we were out of bought wicks we made the cotton string ones. I pre dipped these ones unlike the ones Rogan and I made for Arwen's birthday.

We were wanted to pour wax into our walnut shells that we have collected over the years.

After puring in the wax we put in a little wick and pressed just slightly to the bottom and they stayed there.

I was pretty impressed with Saxon as I needed a puring ladle but didn't want to use one of our cooking ones. So I found the plastic half of an egg and Saxon screwed  on a length of wood for a handle.
It worked perfectly!!!!

The next item to fill were shells. Eden loves collecting these large abalone shells and she was most keen to have a wax candle in her shell

Here are our shells and walnuts all filled with beautiful wax to become lovely candles.

Next we tried a few cookie cutter moulds for shapes we liked, of course hearts and stars are hot favourites.

The three stages of filling the cookie cutters. You really have to push down hard to prevent to much leakage.

Our finished collection of pouring candles. Autumn also wanted to try a toilet roll holder and some egg carton ones as well.

Our candle cakes, this was after a while, unlike the photo at the top, one of our candles fell sideways.

I also tried to make small candles that I was going to use as individual place settings, however they did not turn out as I wanted so I bundled them up and had them as bundles of candles instead.

So as we served them up we each had a slice of candle cake and an individual candle in the top of it.....very clever idea Saxon. I would never have thought of it.

Our other little waitress.

After dinner and desert we were treated to a wonderful display of artistic talent by Autumn.
she made a shadow box theater and then made the figures for the play.

As she moved the figures I read the story of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple: LUKE 2: 22-39

	22 When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
	23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord" ),
	24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons."
	25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
	26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
	27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
	28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
	29 "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
	30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
	31 which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
	32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."
	33 The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him.
	34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against,
	35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."
	36 There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,
	37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
	38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
	39 When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.

Prayer for Candlemas~

Lord God, you are the source of everlasting light.
Your son, our beloved Lord Jesus
was presented in the temple 40 days after his birth.
He was recognised by Simeon and Anna,
and welcomed as the promised Messiah.
May we like them, behold the glory of the Lord Jesus.
Grant that we may stand before you
with hearts cleansed by your forgiving love.
May we serve you all our days
and make your name known
as we worship you as our Lord.
So may we come by your grace
to eternal life .
Amen.

Blessings to you and your homes,