Good Shepherd's Garden Party :: Week Six {and May Crowning!}

Yesterday afternoon (before watching the solar eclipse!) we had our sixth Good Shepherd's Garden Party.  Since we hadn't had an opportunity to have a May Crowning yet this year, I thought we'd try to tie it in to our Garden Party this week, especially since all the symbols for Week Six can easily remind us of Mary.   I suggested the idea to Charlotte and she took off with it coming up with the perfect titles and menu items.   Here are a few pictures from this week's Garden Party/May Crowning:

~ The City Gates ~

Gate of Heaven Angel Food Cake

~ The Bride and The Groom ~

(Bride and Groom) Spouse of the Holy Spirit Strawberries

~ The Temple ~

(Shirley) Temple of Virtue

~ The Thrones and Alleluia ~

We also listened to Alleluia music and enthroned Mary as Queen of our hearts and home.

~ The Crown ~ 

Queen of Peace Crown Shaped Tea Sandwiches 

Hubby and I skipped the treats and opted for a yummy salad!  I spent this past Saturday running errands and finally stocking up on fruits, veggies, and lean meats.   We are trying hard to eat better, but I really need to find a better routine for grocery shopping on a more frequent basis!

For this final week, I've decided to give my children a special treat each day (rather than having a Garden Party next weekend) to both build up their excitement and also simplify this coming weekend for me, since we will want to have our traditional Pentecost Celebration.  Today I'm serving ReinDEER sandwiches and trail mix!

Please head over to Catholic Cuisine to see the pictures from everyone else's Good Shepherd's Garden Parties, or to share pictures from you own Garden Party and/or May Crowning!

The Good Shepherd's Garden Party :: Week 5

"The tree of life my soul has seen, laden with fruit and always green.

The tree of natures fruitless be compared to Christ the apple tree. 

I'm weary with my former toil.  Here I will sit and rest awhile. 

Under the shadow I will be of Jesus Christ the apple tree."

~ The Garden of the Good Shepherd: A Sticker Calendar to Count the Fifty Days of Easter

Originally I had planned to have this week's Good Shepherd's Garden Party on Saturday, so I wouldn't need to spend any extra time in the kitchen on Mother's Day, but we ended up spending Saturday morning shopping for garden plants and then the afternoon and evening at a sweet little girl's birthday party.  So, since it ended up being our main meal on Sunday, I made a few modifications to the plans, eliminating some of the extra treats - which the amazing New York Cheesecake the girls made me more than made up for!   Here are some pictures I took to share:

~ The Tree of Life's Leaves ~

Mix Baby Green Leaves 

I thought about making the Almond Butter Leaves we made last year with my Nordic Ware Maple Leaf Pan, but opted to tie in Mixed Baby Greens for our Leaves.   Charlotte had suggested making Kale chips, which I thought was a fabulous idea, but I wasn't able to get back to the store for Kale.

~ The Tree of Life's Flowers ~

Strawberry Flower Tea Sandwiches

In addition to the Rose and Lily Garden Tea Sandwiches below, I also made some Strawberry Flower Sandwiches with Strawberry Cream Cheese.   My children also painted some sweet little flower pots, which I placed on our table for the party, as a Mother's Day gift!  (They had been so excited when we got to the Garden Supply Store on Saturday and there was a pot painting booth for children from 10-2!  Perfect timing!!)

~ The Tree of Life's Fruit and Palm Tree ~

Fruit Sunset and Palm Tree Platter

I decided to combine the symbols for Fruit and Palm Tree, making a Palm Tree Fruit Platter.  I've seen some cute palm tree fruit plates using banana and oranges with either kiwi or apples (or this awesome one with a night sky), but we opted to create a sunset on the horizon as well using Red Grapes, Honeydew, Pineapple, Cantaloupe, and Strawberries.    

~ The Owl ~

Owl S'mores

There were so many ideas to choose from for Owls, but we ended up opting for these quick and easy Owl S'mores.  

I had everything I needed to make them and they literally took about 30 seconds each! 

Snuggles wasn't sure what to think of those yellow eyes... "What could that be made out of?"  But as soon as he figured out it was candy he popped it right into his little picky mouth!    

~ The Olive Tree ~

Olive Tree
I wanted to try and make an actual "olive tree" this year, but didn't have a chance to pick up a cone shaped piece of styrofoam...  I decided to try and modify it using a round styrofoam ball, but it was pretty much a flop... Turned out looking more like an ugly olive bush on a stick but my kids still thought it was great.  lol

~ Roses and Lilies ~

For the Roses and Lilies we made more Tea Sandwiches. 

Heavenly Rose Garden Tea Sandwiches

(I posted the recipe/instructions for these at Catholic Cuisine last October. I used a slightly bigger circle cutter for the bread this year.)

Lily Sandwiches

Here is the original recipe over at Catholic Cuisine.  It looks like it is time to update that post with a few tips and a couple new pictures... Every time I make these I do something a little different.  This year I used some Garden Vegetable Cream Cheese and green onions for the stems!   

Everything came together so nicely, and it really ended up being a special Mother's Day Luncheon with all my children.  

Be sure to visit this week's link-up over at Catholic Cuisine! 

The Good Shepherd's Garden Party :: Week Four

Your works, O Lord, are manifold and wisely made, and well!

You fill the world with forms of life more than our tongues can tell. 

Oh, yonder lies the rolling sea with life of ev'ry sort,

and in it lives Leviathan, whom you have made for sport.

These look to you and you provide, they gather what you give. 

You open wide your hand with good to feel all things that live.

~ The Garden of the Good Shepherd: A Sticker Calendar to Count the Fifty Days of Easter

We are still celebrating the season of Easter with the Garden of the The Good Shepherd and weekly "Good Shepherd Garden Parties.   For those that have been asking, The Garden of the Good Shepherd is a sticker calendar illustrated by Tomie dePaola with a sticker to add for each of the 50 days of Easter, plus one for Pentecost Sunday.  It also comes with a booklet, by Peter Mazar, containing prayers, songs for each week, and scripture passages to look up, read, and discuss with the children. 

Charlotte and I have been using this calendar during the Easter season for years now.  At first we tied in daily activities for our children, based on each symbol, then consolidated the activities to weekly "Good Shepherd's Garden Parties" creating menus based on the symbols/stickers studied during each week.   You can find links to all of my past posts here and Charlotte's here.  

This past week, the fourth week of Easter, was based on the theme "The Wind and Sea Obey Him." 

I had everything I needed to make the menu items from the suggestions for our 4th Good Shepherd's Garden Party.  However, after spending some extra time in the kitchen with the girls this morning (making a special Sunday brunch, featuring the State of Vermont!) and then walking 4 miles on the treadmill, I really wanted to head outside and enjoy a little of the sunshine, instead of heading back to the kitchen.  

I decided that I would bake a cake, set the kids up with some supplies, and then let them come up with our extra treat for this week for the symbols Boat, Mast, Sail, Net, Fishes, and Leviathan, while Hubby fired up the Barbecue!

~ The Boat, Mast, Sail, Net, Fish and Leviathan ~

I supplied the kids with a cookie, fruit roll up, pretzels, candy fish, octopuses, and my stash of sprinkles and decorating icings, along with a frosted cake, and let them come up with something for this week!  

They were a little nervous at first, but I told them it was just like a giant cookie - reminding them of the St. George Story Quilt and Friendship Quilt cookies they recently made!  I got them started by outlining the area they wanted for the water blue, and then they took over.  

They added green coconut for the grass/land, a sandy beach made with gold sprinkles, and some rocks made with a crunchy ice cream topping.  

Captain decided that he wanted to try and create a sunset on the horizon...

... while everyone watched.

Rascal created the Boat, Mast and Sail... 

... and Snuggles and the girls added the Net, Fishes, and Leviathan.   

I thought they did a beautiful job! 

~ The Barbecue ~

Hubby barbecued hotdogs for the kids and a couple Turkey Burgers for the two of us, while I made up a pasta salad.  The weather was nice (and it looks like it will stay nice all week!) so we ate dinner outside! 

Rose missed all the cake decorating fun since she happened to be napping, but Bud was having a grand time watching everyone, especially each time Snuggles tried to make him laugh!  (We just re-watched the video of Snuggles and Rose that I posted with last year's 4th Garden Party!  So cute!! And funny that I had another video to post this year! Our little Snuggles is such a great big brother!)

Be sure to visit Catholic Cuisine to see all of the other Garden Parties from this past week!
(I'll have the link-up posted sometime tomorrow.)

The Good Shepherd's Garden Party :: Week Three

The Heavens Tell God's Glory!

As spring from winter does succeed, and leaves the naked trees do dress:
The earth, once dead, is clothed in green, in sunshine each their joy express.
My sun's returned with healing wings, my soul and body do rejoice.
My heart exults and praises sings to God who hears my joyous voice.
~ The Garden of the Good Shepherd

There must be something about this third week of Easter... Once again, just like last year, we had crazy weather this past week!  Sunshine, Clouds, Rain, a Rainbow, and an intense storm last Monday that brought strong Winds, Hail, Thunder and Lightning - we had one of those lightning bolts actually strike one of the trees on the mountain behind our home, lighting it on fire!  On Tuesday the kids told me there was a fire helicopter with a bucket flying over our home... I heard it, but didn't look outside, telling them that it wasn't fire season yet, and they are probably just getting ready.  I was wrong!   A neighbor passing by let my husband know about the "big tree on fire" behind our home.  It's too early to be worrying about forest fires!

Speaking of fires, we were very blessed that the fire in our own "backyard" this past Tuesday wasn't serious, but Elizabeth's sister-in-law and her family (another family with seven children) could really use your prayers.   In a matter of minutes, this homeschooling family lost their home and all of their belongings to another fire.   You can read more here.  Please remember them in your prayers!

Today we are back to some nice, mild, sunny, spring weather.  The kids are all playing outside after our yummy meal based on "The Heaven's Tell Gods Glory."  I love finding new ways to change our original menu, and this week we used the rainbow fruit platter from last year, but everything else was new, trying to create a Sunday Brunch.

Twinkle Toes set the table with our "Heavenly" tablecloth, covered with angels and roses, and Chiquita added a few play silks like every year. . . Here are a few pictures from our party:                 

~ The Sun ~

There are lots of ways to tie in the "Sun" to a brunch - Orange Halves, Sunny D, Eggs - sunny side up or down! - and even mini quiches would be great.   I ended up using our favorite Frittata recipe, renaming it Sunshine Frittata!  I layered the veggies - zucchini on the bottom, then the Sweet Potatoes, and topping it with some slices of orange and yellow bell peppers - to create a Sun!   Originally I didn't bake it long enough - trying to do too many things at once - but after I popped it back in the pan for a few more minutes and it was delicious.  

~ The Clouds ~

While I was making the Frittata and Pastries, Hubby made pancakes and turkey bacon, an idea shared by Angie for the Clouds and Lightning. 

~ The Rain ~

For the rain we had some After the Rain Mud Puddles... Hot Cocoa! 

~ The Lightning ~

Since I had an extra sheet of puff pastry from our Pinwheels (see below) I decided to make theseSugar & S pice Pastry Straws, baking some of them as additional Lightning Bolts.

~ The Wind ~

The much-loved Bugles mini Tornadoes from last year really didn't go with the rest of the meal, so I decided to make Windy Day Pinwheels  (aka: Cherry Pinwheel Pastries).   

I used this recipe as a guide, substituting cherry jam for the apricot, and egg wash and icing for the cinnamon and sugar.  These were really fun to make and turned out great.   

~ The Rainbow ~

I love Rainbow Fruit Platters!   I just think they look so pretty.  This year, fresh blueberries were too expensive so I opted for some more grapes.   

~ The Hail ~

Mini Marshmallows worked perfect to represent "Hail" and top the cocoa.  

I was amazed that even with all the Eggs, Veggies, Bacon, Pancakes, Pastries, Fruit and Cocoa, we hardly had any leftovers.   Everyone really enjoyed our Brunch!   

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's Garden Parties over at Catholic Cuisine.