♥ May is for Mary ♥ (UPDATE)

UPDATE:
Boy, when I say that my head is split in a zillion ways I MEAN it!  

Kimberlee in NOT hosting an ATC swap this May.  When I went to Kimberlee's blog to check if she was hosting the Marian ATC swap; I didn't look closely at the dates.  Sorry folks, my apologies for those who saw my blunder.  

Still, I'll leave this up for the pictures of the girls.  And, have it too provide a good laugh at myself when my head gets too big.  {{insert BLUSH here}}.

I hosted our Little Flowers group last Friday; at the end of a very busy week.

Hasn't this word, busy, become a theme of this blog.  Any who...

So, since it was busy, I was less then ready eagerly prepared for the girls to show up.  Luckily, Jessica's idea for her own girls gave me an added project (and lift) to have for my young flock.

~ Cheerfulness ~

We started with a prayer and a discussion of this month's virtue; we also did a recap of all the virtues we've worked on this year.  On a side note; there is something quite wonderful when little girls tell you how each virtue has effected them.  All of the girls had a least one virtue that has been a little cross for her to bear.  They shared how in these months after our meetings they've tried their hardest to do better and sought out examples among the saints to help them.  How sweet these little girls!

~ Crafts ~

Now, what I had wanted to do with our extended Catholic home school co-op in the past, is join the Marian ATC Swap; hosted by Kimberly of Pondered in my Heart.  

What is an ATC swap?  Art trading cards that can be traded among each artist who joins the swap.  This is a whole family affair that is awesome.  Each card is an individual expression of our love and devotion to Our Blessed Momma!  And the kids get 'down' in their mini masterpieces.

We've joined in her Saints ATC Swap a couple of times (here and here) as a family.  But, the timing with the other families never quite seemed to come together in the past.  May is the (here's that word again) busiest time of the year for the co-op.

So!!! What a cool treat it was for our LF girls to join this time.  I didn't even know if Kimberly was hosting a swap this year, luckily for us... she IS!

This is a little peek into what our little ladies began working on last Friday...

I'm always excited to see what Rose comes up with.  

She is the 'artist' of the family.

 Our Cecilia fretted a bit about how to draw Momma Mary's eyes, 

but she got it together to produce a lovely card.

My niece's creation was equally as charming and she took care in creating her piece.

In addition to the ATC cards the girls completed their little gifts they started last month.  Little painted flower pots for their mommies this Mother's Day.  A gift of patience practiced by each girl.

I also made prayer cards for each girl to have and use this entire month of May.  I used the image of the Most Holy Name of Mary that Charolotte used on this post on her blog.

On the back of each card I printed the following prayer that Jessica mentioned and used from the Mondays With Mary A Celebration of Marian Feasts Throughout the Year:

“My Queen, My Mother, I give myself entirely to Thee, and to show my devotion to Thee, I consecrate to thee this day my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, my entire self, without reserve. Wherefore, good Mother, as I am Thine own, keep me, defend me as Thy property and possession. Amen.”

Our families have been through the preparation prayer using the Total Consecration to Mary by Fr. Louis-Marie De Montfort.  It was a blessed 33 days of devotion and self giving.  But how much of that stays with a young child?  Rose and Cecilia didn't really go through the preparation like Lucy and myself did; the focus was really for Lucy.  

So using this beautiful prayer of consecration, shared by Jessica, was perfect!  The younger girls can totally use this short prayer.  And it's easy enough for them to get the meaning of what they are saying to Our Blessed Mother. 

"I give myself entirely to Thee"

I've asked them to pray this each morning for the entire month of May.  When we gather together again, in June, we hope to talk a bit on what differences they saw in giving themselves to Momma Mary each and every day.

We hope a big difference was noticed by both the girls and their families.  I'm personally hoping to see many fruits from their efforts :-)

You may use the document I made by clicking onto this site

(Download Consecration Prayer Card HERE)

Little Flowers Tea ~ the highlights

 Little Flower's Mother/Daughter Tea

May 2010

The Menu:

cubed cheese

veggie platter

mixed salad

assortment of fruit

ham baguettes

tuna finger sandwiches

cucumber & cream cheese sandwiches

strawberry scones

chocolate chip w/ cinnamon scones

blueberry scones

lacy cookies

mini cupcakes

lemon squares

chocolate truffles

lemon curd

devonshire cream

assorted preserves

I am so proud of our girls and equally humbled by the many ladies that made today so great.  It was teamwork that made everything run so smoothly and the graces of God that made it sweet.

Grandma was able to join us (sitting here with my SIL)

Sorry for the glare in the back. 

Lucy with my two nieces

Me with my Goddaughter

(I am a very proud Nina)

~ Entertainment ~

  My niece adapted a story from a book she read into a short skit that all the older girls performed.  It was really good...there is definitely talent in these young girls.

Little ones singing for God

~ Special Visit ~

We were very honored by the visit and time of the Carmelite Sisters.  They ate, prayed and gave a wonderful talk about their order, the history of the Carmelites, and very funny stories of their calling to their vocation.  It was a wonderful example, testimony, of God's work and their love for God.  Sister spoke so beautifully about the gifts they give to God.  About the love offered to Him as his brides. 

Here Sr. Mary Rachael with my girls and nieces.  The only one missing was my 3 year old Princess.  She was lost in the back of room...probably holding her 4th or 5th cupcake.

Our Littlest Flowers holding their tote bags.  Veronique embroidered Little Flowers above the St. Therese image and their names above the images of each girl's patron saint.

The girls LOVED these!

It was a great day but, I realized I didn't take one picture of the food table.  Not that it really mattered but, the girls and moms worked quite hard in setting up a lovely display.  Oh well...next time.

St. Therese,

Thank you for your prayers, for your examples of little ways to love God.  Continue to pray for us dear sweet friend.  Show us the ways to Heaven and pray for our little ones.  Help us set up good examples of the very way you lived.

Little Flowers ~ last meeting

Friday was our last meeting for this year's Little flowers.  All 3 groups were present to help set up for the next day's Mother/Daughter Tea.  Sarah, our organizer and host, set up the loveliest tea last year and this year is looking to be just as special.  She has the prep work for the tea very well organized.  With each mom given specific tasks to do with all the girls assigned to help in some way or the other.  I am so proud of this group of families.  Everyone has generously donated their time and skills to see this year come to a beautiful end.

Sarah set up the jobs to have each mom handle an area with the assistance of some of the girls

Here my SIL (preggie with her 7th baby) was in charge of proper table setting.  She had several jobs this day and had to finally sit down to rest.  

 

Napkin duty

Kitchen duty

Even the little ones were given duties in the kitchen.  These girls were quite proud of their sandwiches

Even my youngest was on hand to help...and some took mini breaks to chat

The older girls had a big role in setting up the tables.  Many of them have been, or are about to start, the Little Women Hospitality program.  They are putting the lessons learned to good work.  The only thing missing on the tables were the pots that we finished grouting and potted some pretty Verbena flowers in them.

The tables were set up beautifully...

This is the final event...the last Little Flowers function. 

Littlest Flowers Meeting ~ Humility

Our meeting on Friday came at a busy time for me.  Burn out is on is on my mind and probably on everyone else's.  So when meetings like this past one occur they feel like a nice litte break.

Saint:  Venerable Anne de Guigne

Virtue:  Humility

Craft:  Violet Bookmarkers

Tea Craft:  Embroibered Tea Napkins & Invitations

~ Reading & Chat ~ 

  We read from the story of Anne de Guigne, a young girl once a bit spoiled and prideful then after the death of her father decided that she would be kind and obedient.  She would practice humility until her death, offering her suffering as a gift to Jesus to help sinners.

Humility is a funny virtue to "teach" young girls.  Yes, it's the opposite of pride.  But, how do you convey that to 5 & 6 years old?  We did a lot of role playing...it was the easiest way to show them humility.  We don't boast, or compare.  We seek silence rather than to speak for the sake of speaking.  So after a bit of explaination & chatting, one little one asked...

"What is humility?"

  I love this virtue. 

~ Craft ~

Veronique bought violets and used a microwave technique to dry the flowers.  We opted to use them as bookmarkers with a picture of each girl and included a scripture verse about humility from Matthew 18:3-4.  The moms will be recieving these as gifts at our Little Flowers Tea in May.  

~ Tea Craft ~

Our tea craft this month, and last, were the actual invitations.  My SIL printed out the invitations on cardstock cut out as tea pots.  We then had each girl decorate her invitations with ribbons, stickers, lacy paper; as she wanted for a personal touch.  I need to post a completed one here.  They came out really cute!

Our main leader, Sarah, also sent our Evites to all the moms and ladies that are invited to the tea.  I don't think you can read the bottom of the actual invites but, Sarah has arranged for the Carmelites of Alhambra to be our guests of honor.  These lovely and generous sisters will be talking to our girls about their order and each virtue they live out daily.  A huge gift for our girls and all the guests.

Our second tea craft, did I say the invitations were the last one?  Sorry, I meant second to the last one.  Anyhow, our 2nd craft was awesome.  Each group had their girls embroider on their tea napkins.  Since our girls have little to no experience in embroidery, we opted to use these iron transfer fabric crayons from Crayola. 

Veronique had done a project with them before and they worked great.  She pre-drew a flower design on a piece of paper and had each girl color the drawing using the fabric crayons.  She is later going to transfer their coloring onto their napkins and possibly do a quick stitch design on the corner.

~ Snack Time ~

 

I made this earlier in the day.  I tried to find some type of treat/snack for the girls without baking cupcakes.  Since we had the fresh violets, a bundt cake decorated with pretty flowers did the job just fine.  And there were pieces of cake for the moms too!

We ended with prayers and lots of free play time.

Anne de Guigne pray for us

to act humbly througout our day!

Little Flowers Meeting ~ Piety

I am posting a double feature of Little Flowers this month.  I needed to catch up.  Last Friday was our meeting and we went over the following virtue and saint.

~ Reading & Talk ~

Reading:  We moved on to learn about Bl. Jacinta.  Since this is a more recent saint the girls really connected with her story.  A young girl tending to her chores and gets to see our Blessed Mother...pretty cool.  Veronique read them a brief biography of Bl. Jacinta and spoke about the children's devotion to the rosary.

 

~ The Chat ~

The girls were given a simple definition of piety and what it means to be a pious person.  We used Jessica's idea of coloring in a rainbow with Fr. Lasance's "Color of Piety".  As the girls found their bright golds, celestial blues, and scarlet oranges we read from the page.  I proded and encouraged the girls to share their own pious actions and self-denial stories. 

This was one of the best talks...hands down a winner!

~ The Craft ~

We followed a suggested craft project from Little Flowers Craft Campanion guide and made sacred heart pocket necklaces.  We chose to use purple in observance of Lent and to further deepen this special time of prayer.  I used purple felt, a hand stitch around the hearts, gold puffy paint, ribbons and hot glue to attach the ribbons.  Each girl was given a piece of paper to write their prayer or offering and then place it inside their hearts.  They were long enough to wear as necklaces or if she prefered, she could place her heart somewhere in her room or prayer table. 

I don't know if you can see it in the picture but, the paper has an image of Jesus' Sacred Heart and the words "Jesus, Hear Our Prayer" on it.  On a personal note; one of the girls is holding a special prayer for my husband...and for that she has my gratitude.

~ snack time ~

Rainbow inspired cupcakes for the "Colors of Piety"

They enjoyed this little treat in middle of Lent

Almost half way through Lent...

Bl. Jacinta

Pray for each of our girls and us...their mommas

to grow more pious each day...especially now during this season of

Lent!

Little Flowers meeting ~ Love of Neighbor

I noticed...a little late...that I never posted our meeting from January.  A little late and not a whole lot of pictures either.  This was a loaded day with time consuming crafts.

Reading: St. Rose of Lima using parts of Holy Heros CD

Craft:  Church Birdhouses

Tea Craft:  Mosaic Flower Pots to serve as centerpieces for the LF Tea

~ Reading/Talk~

We always begin with prayers and the lighting of our LF candle.  Veronique read a story of St. Rose of Lima and then went into a brief talk on how St. Rose showed "love of neighbor" while she lived.  I then come in to further explain the virtue.  I don't really plan out what to say to the girls.  They are so little that having them sit close on the floor usually leads to some pretty great talks.  The main point is to make the virtue real for them.  I give examples of how they can grow in their virtue at home and with their very own family.

The prayer candle was made by Veronique and is lit prior to our opening prayer

~The Craft~

We move on to crafts right after our "talk".  This month we chose to use the Church Birdhouses we found at Oriental Trading Co.  The girls had an option to paint the completed birdhouses at home.  You can choose to paint or draw on them while at the meeting.  We just didn't have the time for it at ours.

~Tea Craft~

The tea craft was a really cute idea.  Last year Sarah and Kristi had the girls paints some pots to later serve as centerpieces at our tea.  The girls planted snapdragons into their pots...they looked cute.  This year we opted to do a mosaic project with the girls.  Finding the mosaic tiles took some time.  They aren't cheap and we had to be careful with the use of sharp glass pieces.  For 25 pots we used almost two bags of these.

But they turned out really cute!  Now I just need to grout them.

St. Rose of Lima

Pray for Us that we may show our Love of Neighbor

on a daily basis