Lenten Activities

Here is an update on what we plan to do for Lent this year as a family. This post is a bit late, but better late than never! So far the kids are really enjoying our activities. A big thank you to Lacy from Catholic Icing for having an amazing website that served as an inspiration for many of these ideas. She hosts a great link-up where I got more ideas, so although I am not crediting each one, I didn't just come up with these myself!

We made an Alleluia sign, learned an Alleluia song and practiced letters for a week before Lent began. Then on Fat Tuesday, we took down the sign, wrapped it up and put it in a special hiding place. We will look for it and hang it back up on Easter morning!

We made a Jesus, Lamb of God countdown. Each day the boys get to put a cotton ball on the Lamb and when it is full it will be Easter! A funny side note - Sebastian and I drew this and put it together as Matteo napped. Now, I am not a great artist, but I try! So anyhow, Matteo woke up and saw our poster on the wall, points to it and promptly says "cow!!" So now, our Lamb of God is affectionately our Lenten cow.... =)

Our dining room centerpiece - I re-purposed our Valentines Day wreath with some purple fabric, this beautiful image, our family blessing cup and some grapes I picked up on clearance. Overall, I was happy with how it turned out. Maybe next year we will try making our own crown of thorns.

Our Sacrifice Beans. The idea is that each time one of the boys does something nice for us or each other, they get to put some beans in the big, center jar. On Easter all their beans will turn to marshmallows and gummy bears!

Our family Lenten prayer guide. Great simple prayers that we have been using at the dinner table each night.

After, the boys put a sticker on our calendar in the dining room to count down the days. This cute printable is also from Catholic Icing.

Some other things we are doing, but are not pictured include making our own pony bead and pipe cleaner rosaries and starting to explain the mysteries to the boys (mostly Sebastian, Matteo is still a bit young). I hope to take them to adoration a few times, although this still hasn't happened. I wanted to do it weekly, but haven't made it yet. =( And then I plan to do Resurrection Eggs and these Easter Cookies with them! I will certainly let you know how they turn out! Very excited about those two activities.

On Ash Wednesday, we went to Soup Supper at the church before Mass. The boys had fun burning off some energy and playing outside with Daddy in the courtyard before we went in.

After Mass, with our Ashes.

Matteo was pretty concerned about everyone else's ashes, but loved that he got them too.

I don't quite know how this photo turned into a traditional annual picture, but here we are, Lent 2011. Here's last year's picture and 2009 too if you want to compare!