Lenten Crafts for Littles: Candlelit Prayer Card

I'm back for another little craft for your little ones on up to your big ones!

Rosie from A Blog for my Mom came up with the wonderful idea of hosting a Lenten Craft Series and I'm so excited to be a apart of it!

Lent is such a beautiful time to slow down, be more intentional, fast so that you can be emptied and then filled back up again with more of Him, and to pray more. Our liturgical rhythm is such a good one and I know I am forever thankful for the way it draws me in, every. single. year!

For this craft, I was thinking about prayer meanwhile mentally sifting through all the leftover random craft supplies we had at home. When we craft around here it's usually with what we already have. It's just kind of how we do.

While I was doing my mental sift, I remembered these little cards for Priesthood Sunday that the boys had such a fun time making. I got to thinking more about prayer and cards and glue sticks and torn paper and easy and...Voila! I present to you Candlelit Prayer Cards for friends and family.

Continue reading this little piece over at Rosie's and make sure to check out the other fun and wonderful crafts in this series!

Kid-Made Gift Series: Toddler Scribble Art Book

Back when Theresa from Ordinary Lovely mentioned she was looking for bloggers to participate in her Kid-Made Gift Series, I got excited, thinking surely I could conjure up something fun for my 3 and 1 year old to make! ...surely! 

Oh, how I was fooling myself. Throw in some teething mess, along with the attention span of 2-seconds for both my boys in this season of life, and I couldn't think of anything that could be counted as gift-worthy from these two little monkeys.

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Head over to Theresa's at Ordinary Lovely to see what I was able to conjure up! So thankful she had me guest-post for this awesome series during this beautiful season!

Happiness. Lately. October Love.

October has come and gone. Sweet, sweet October, how I love you! 

It was a good month for us. Even though I had some crazy back problems starting late August, I feel like October is the month that I started feeling like I was going to be okay. I've been more agile and able to do more with the boys which has been such a blessing to our day-to-day as well as my sanity! 

October was filled with family and friends. Lots of love, good health, and so much fun. Crafts and feasts that just make my heart swell! October, you were so good. Thank you.

For starters we had the Feast of the Archangels and Guardian Angels.

We had some glorious outdoor time. The weather has been amazing!

Bigfoot and Linus have enjoyed having lots of fun Daddy time.

And this mama has been putting on her crafty-pants a. lot.

Evening softball games were out of this world for the boys! And, I loved watching my hubby play!

Feast, feasting, and more feasting! The kitchen and I have been getting along very well this past month!

Grumpy funny faces.

More crafty pants.

Sweetness.

Mixed in with tidbits of mama-fashion.

We celebrated the Feast of St. Francis of Borgia. It was lovely and delicious and perfect for a meatless Friday meal! Do check out this awesome Spanish saint when you get a chance!

Crafty in the home decor department continued. I tell you what. I didn't mess around this October in this department. Very unusual for me, but I'll take it :)

We went to the ZOO!! I heart all things zoo for so many reasons.

This one below is definitely one of them. Those crazy beautiful animals just love to surprise you!

We had our annual Family Bible Study trip and it was amazing!

Loved every moment!

Seriously.

Every moment.

These boys have just been growing into their brotherhood and it's all sorts of beautiful.

Bigfoot has taken to reading to Linus. There have been so many moments!

 Mass has been a little rough. Most Sundays one of us is out in the narthex with the little munchkin on the right. But, they sure are cute, adorable, and all things God-made.

 We made cards for Priesthood Sunday. So glad we did that!

 Celebrated All Hallow's Eve with chef St. Pascual and his Kitchen Angels.

 And, St. George's dragon may have made an appearance too.

 The boys loved it.

And, we love them. 

October, thank you for being so wonderful! 

What happiness did October bring you? Or, what do you love and miss already about October and it's awesomeness?

Linking-up with Theresa from Ordinary Lovely and Jenna for tl;dr. And special thanks to Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas for helping us celebrate the liturgical year with deliciousness!

Priesthood Sunday Toddler Craft

Because I got close to zero sleep last night, I'm sharing what the boys wore yesterday for Sunday Mass and a sweet little craft they made for our priests.

The 21-month old has to be cutting those two-year molars. I really don't know what else could be going on right now, but what I do know is that. I. want. sleepy. sleep. sleep. and my blanket. and my pillooowwwwsssszzzzzzzzzzzz......

That aside and their behavior aside the boys were pretty cute in their Sunday best.

Gosh, these boys are adorable (haha, I know I'm biased)! Don't you just want to hug them, though? I do! Thankfully I get to! Everyday! Woot! Woot!

Oh, and in case you missed it, I wrote about how these feet are growing way to fast for my mama-heart. Both of them have sized up, giving me both, yearning for them to stay as they are and baby-fever!

Also, yesterday was Priesthood Sunday! Yay! We certainly are grateful for our priests and were able to craft a card for the three of them over the weekend. The boys loved tearing paper and using the glue stick and I loved being able to share a little love with our wonderful priests.

Priesthood Sunday Toddler Craft

What you'll need:

Direcciones:
 Mama's, draw something on the card for your littles to fill.

 Let your toddlers tear an assortment of colored paper and let them have some glue-stick fun.

 And, Voila!

I pray our priests enjoyed their cards from the boys and our whole family.

They were made with lots of love, prayers, and fun.

So, even though Mass behavior was sub-par, they couldn't wait to give their cards to their priests. It was really sweet.

Cute outfits, sub-par Mass behavior, and toddler card gifts for Priesthood Sunday, I'll chalk it up to a winning Sunday. ;) Thanks be to God and His abundant graces!

Pray you're feeling much more rested on this Monday filled with really awesome play weather (or at least in Texas!)! Did y'all do anything fun for Priesthood Sunday? I'd love to know!

Feast of the Guardian Angels: Angel Wings craft for Toddlers

Happy Feast of the Guardian Angels! Pray you are having a great day and have spent some time enjoying and acknowledging the gift of your guardian angel! Our Lord truly knew we would need the help of a perfect Heavenly presence all the days of our lives!

Especially if you have recently been quarantined due to two little ones who caught a nasty virus (have since recovered fully - Thanks be to God!), and then were hit with crippling back pain that has also kept you busy at home desperately trying to heal/attending doctor appointment after another/and throw in a procedure (as the doctors call it - read: shot to your spine.), and you can guarantee there will be some real need for some Heavenly intervention to counter my every bit of stir-cray-cray.

These days have been every bit of good as they have been hard. With lots of Grace and (I know!) the help of my amazing Guardian Angel, have we been doing well enough to crank out some fun, laughter, with a side of Angel wings for Toddlers.

So, here I am, thanking my dear Guardian Angel and sharing a little craft time we enjoyed as well as some beautiful words from St. John Vianney on the gift of these amazing celestial beings!

The first thing about the angels that we ought to imitate, is their consciousness of the Presence of God.-St. John Vianney

Our Guardian Angels are our most faithful friends, because they are with us day and night, always and everywhere. We ought often to invoke them. The Angels take great pleasure in helping us with our enterprises, when they are in accordance with God's will.
-St. John Vianney

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Angel Wings for Toddlers

What you'll need:

• Ribbon
• Scissors
• Glue Dots
• Stapler (plus staples) ;)
• Crayons
• Paper Plates (about 8 per full set o' wings)

First, I got the boys coloring their plate that would be the visible one on the back.

Meanwhile, I went to town cutting the sides of paper plates and stapling them layer by layer onto a different plate which I roughly cut wholes in for ribbon straps.

When I say, I went to town on this, it's because I knew I had to make two set of wings, and if you know my boys, you know that they enjoy coloring for a good 2 minutes.

On and on I went. Tied the ribbon through the wholes to make straps after having carelessly stapled feathers to the sides of a plate.

Once I finished my part, I grabbed the plate that was being colored on and placed it on top of the ribbons and all those careless staples. I used my trusty glue dots (These things are uhmazing for toddler crafts!). Glue dots Forever!!!

And there you have it! Angel Wings for your little toddlers to fly around in.

See that wing action above? He was really flailing around to try and get them off.

The plates we used had fun prints on the front which added a bit of piz-zazz. And, our trusty leftover ribbon from our wedding invitation strikes again for the WIN!

We didn't do this, because my boys most often feel like coloring is punishment, but you could also coax your little ones to additionally color their feathers. Or maybeee, you could use watercolor painting instead of crayons? That may have made the difference for my boys. So, I'll just stow that thought away for next year!

Finished product.

Voila! Little angels under my roof.

Add in some lovely books on the wonderful Angels of old, some sweet prayer time, and everyone taking a second to thank each others Angels and you have yourself a sweet time filled with Angel love.

Any fun plans for the Feast of the Guardian Angels? I really am so grateful for mine. Most especially on my crazy-mama-days, because Lord knows I can't do this all on my own!

Fun Fall Wreath for Toddlers

Yesterday, on the first official day of Fall, the boys and I went for a nature walk. We decided we would go look for fallen leaves and acorns. After collecting our little stash of Fall I figured I could find something simple and fun to do on Pinterest.

Right I was when I typed in fall toddler craft with leaves. A whole long Pinterest list sprung up. I sifted through a bit and found a couple that I thought we could do. Or rather, I saw one I would love to have pulled off and another I knew my 3 and 1 year old were capable of.

On yesterday's post I shared the two crafts I pinned and said I would report back with our end product. I am so pleased with how the boys did and how easy-peasy it was for me to facilitate.

In the end, I attribute our craft success to glue dots. We have a few random crafty goods leftover from making our wedding invitations - glue dots being one of them. We also have the blue ribbon you see below. These two bits that I have in our very small craft drawer have gone a long way these past years and I am so thankful for that!

 What you need:

Fall foliage of your picking

Glue dots

Ribbon

Paper plate

Scissors

Hole punch (This one isn't necessary, but we used it to make a small hole to put the ribbon through.)

For the craft, I cut out the center of the paper plates for the boys. After that, I scattered a number of glue dots onto our newly cut paper plate wreaths. Once I did that, I let the boys have fun placing the leaves and acorns onto the dots. No messy glue. Nor sticky glue. Just little dots that held the leaves and acorns beautifully.

They both enjoyed this little craft and ever since I hung them up over our mantel, my oldest has told me that he really really likes his wreath. And how my idea to hang them over the mantel was a gweat idea!

He literally has been ogling his own end product since we finished. He is so incredibly proud of his contribution to our home decor. And, I am loving them over the mantel too! 

In all, I'm so happy with how they turned out as well as how easy the glue dots made the whole craft. I imagine this being a great little craft for years to come on the first day of Fall. 

What say you? Like our little wreaths? What first day of Fall crafts did y'all do? Or, if you went out to relish in the beautiful weather, share what's your favorite part about the start of the season!

Thanks for stopping by and make sure to head over to Kent Heartstrings for more Fall Fun!