A Christmas Gift

Alexa got a new apron for Christmas.  I made it for her.  I guess you could say I cheated.  Okay, I cheated, bigtime.  It was an already sewn, denim apron.  I just "customized" it for her, but she appreciates it like I sewed every stitch myself.

 She couldn't wait to try it out.  So for the Feast of Saint Agnes, she and I made a vanilla cake together. 

Nevermind that it was from a box.  She still cracked the eggs (which was hysterical to watch because she was so grossed out by the "gook" inside), and measured the oil and water.  She mixed it all up with the beater and  helped me pour it into the pan. 

We went a little "fancy" with the bundt cake pan.  It turned out to be a pretty, tasty cake. 

We made a glaze from scratch using vanilla, milk and powdered sugar.  We kinda guessed with the measurements on that.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~Some snowflake sprinkles were added for a finishing touch.

 I thought that was the finishing touch, but apparently Alexa decided it needed some color and pizzazz and glammed it up a bit with green sugar sprinkles when my back was turned.  "Now it's finished!" she declared. 

It was almost gone by the end of our Teatime.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

We managed to save some for Taylor.

I've missed these relaxing Afternoon Teas.  And so have the kids, apparently.  Of course who am I kidding?  They are crazy for cake.  They like hearing an interesting story or two about a Saint, but everything is better with cake.

We didn't do a craft with this Teatime.  I was trying to keep it low key.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much Evan remembered about Saint Agnes.  I have been reading to him every day....one Bible Story and one Saint Story, but I wasn't sure just how much he was retaining (or even paying attention).  The girls each knew a bit about her, too, so we discussed her heroic life during the Caketime.....I mean, Teatime.  ;)

Alexa's handmade (....ahem....) apron held up very well, and she can't wait till we bake again!

Have a pleasant week, everyone!
TTFN
~Tina

Mora na maidine dhuit!

Translation: Top of the morning to you! Yes, I looked that up. ;) Evan has been my jr. baker lately. He enjoys it, although like most people, he loves the special job of taste-tester most of all. Today the baking was a little more interesting though, because we had a secret ingredient to make our muffins more "festive" for Saint Patrick's Day.
We just added a little "green magic" to our favorite muffin mix and voila! These might not be the most appetizing looking things to come from my kitchen. But they were still quite yummy. And they really appealed to Evan. What boy doesn't like green muffins?!

I have this little heart shaped pan that I've had for ages. I'm not even sure where I got it. Perhaps it was my mom's or grandmothers? It is pretty beat up but still works well, and has been getting some use lately.
We set up very simply for this Teatime. Actually it was more of a "milk time" because we were short on time. ;)

I like to keep things simple during Lent, whenever possible.

We have a few St. Patty's Day stories, but I only had time to read this one. I was surprised how well it held Evan's attention. It is a picture book, but it's sort of long.
I really "winged it" with the craft today. Just your basic windsock using green construction paper, stickers, a holy card, a prayer and white streamers (didn't have any green :P )

This Tea/Milk time was kinda rushed, but we still enjoyed it. And I was pleasantly surprised at how well Evan behaved. At first he said, "this craft is boring", but then changed his tune by about half way through and said, "this is the best craft ever!".

We had our celebration a day early because we have plans for tomorrow that will limit our time.

But we do still plan on wearing green tomorrow. If we don't we might get tickled by a leprechaun. ;)

Don't want that to happen, now do we.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone!

TTFN

~Tina

For some odd reason, I'm craving Lucky Charms cereal. Dang...I think we're out.

~~Mardi Gras Party~~

I was going to call this a Mardi Gras Teatime, but that wouldn't be accurate. No one had tea and I didn't stress the "dignified atmosphere" as I do with our regular Teatimes. So we'll just call this what it was...a party. :)

We set up with a little bit of decorations, some were quite spur of the moment.

The kids made some festive placemats out of construction paper and construction paper crayons.

Then we found some party blowers and noisemakers leftover from New Years Eve.

Next step:

Off to the pantry.....we took out all of the goodies and displayed them ever-so-nicely before we devoured them. (heeheehee ~that's my evil laugh). It didn't take too long to finish them off....saving some for Taylor, of course.

After the sugarfest, we got out every sparkly, bright and colorful craft item we could find. The kids made these awesome masks.

We had a good afternoon, but it's a new day now. And the start of a new season in the liturgical year.

Today is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. I, for one, have been looking forward to this. More on that later.

Have a great day, everyone. And try to stay dry. We are due to get some soaking rains, yet again, for the next couple of days. It's kind of fitting, in my opinion, for the first week of Lent.

Still looking so forward to Spring. :)

TTFN

~Tina

It Ends This Way

The Christmas Season is over. It ended yesterday with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. When I made all of those sugar cookies last week, I actually planned ahead for a Teatime to celebrate this last, special day of the Christmas Season. (wow....I actually planned ahead....it's okay to be shocked)

We don't seem to be able to get everyone together on the weekend, to just relax around the table, having tea and cookies and reading and crafting together. Weekdays just work better for us. So today, the day after The Baptism of Jesus, we had our Teatime. It was very simple.....very, very simple.

Here are some pictures to prove it. We used the same, basic, white, simple teacups (or chocolate milk cups, in Evan's case) and plates. The decorations were very simple, too, although I had planned to put seashells around the candle and picture, and just totally forgot. They (the seashells) rudely reminded me of my forgetfulness later, when they stared at me from the top of my dresser, after teatime was over. I set them there so I wouldn't forget to take them downstairs. That worked well (sarcasm).

The cookies were simple and basic "looking", but quite delicious tasting! I read from our Children's Bible as the children ate their cookies. We discussed baptism and what it must have been like for John the Baptist to be the second cousin to the Messiah! We also did a very basic craft using seashell border printouts and an image of The Baptism of Jesus that I printed out. They decorated around the image with sequins.

(Skylar's, then Alexa's, then Evan's)

On days when we have more time, I really enjoy taking our time and making the table look extra special and doing a more elaborate craft. But some days don't go as planned and time does not allow for a long leisurely teatime. So we go with the flow. A shortened, simple teatime is better than none at all, I think. And regardless, the kids are still learning, and memories are still being made.

Do you do Teatimes with your children? How does it work for your family? Hope you have an enjoyable week, whatever your plans may be!

TTFN

~Tina

~~~Celebrating the Epiphany with a Little Teatime~~~

Beautifully simple place settings...
Impromtu table decorations...
Reading from our Children's Bible.....

Pretty and yummy star and cross sugar cookies.....
And some basic craft supplies.....

All these things make for a fun, relaxing teatime to celebrate the Epiphany!

I cut star shapes out of cardstock, then printed out some images of baby Jesus for the kids to glue in the center. Then I let them decorate the rest of the star the way they wanted. They love to be creative.

Evan didn't want to get too "messy" (go figure), so he used mostly star stickers...

Alexa used lots of pretty gold and silver glitter....

Sky made hers quite colorful....Preeetttttty!

All three turned out beautiful, sparkly and unique....

( Sky's on top, Evan on bottom left, and Alexa's is bottom right)

How did you celebrate the Epiphany?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

TTFN

~Tina