Cupcakes and a Craft for Pentecost

Well, it was just too hot for tea today! Almost 90 degrees, with barely a breeze or a cloud in the sky. It was almost too hot to bake and craft, too - but we found a little energy late in the afternoon to prepare ourselves for this weekend's great feast ~ Pentecost Sunday!

I had seen an idea to make a Pentecost kite in The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions, but I altered the plan a bit to make a windsock with the boys. We've been studying atmosphere and wind in our science studies, so this was timed very well.

Here are the few materials we needed:

• Red, orange and white construction paper
• A dove-shaped template (this is a cookie cutter)
• Ribbon (or you could use streamers)
• (Not shown: glue stick, crayons and stapler)

This is a very simple craft! We cut a dove shape out of the white paper and pasted it onto the red. It's hard to see in the pictures but we adorned the dove with golden rays all around. Next we stapled the short ends of the red paper together to form a cylinder shape. Then we cut seven flame shapes out of the orange paper and on each one we wrote a Gift of the Holy Spirit. We attached these to the dove topper with orange ribbons, and voila - a Pentecost windsock!

We hung it off our deck where we will have our cookout this weekend.

While the older boys played, and EB crashed for his nap, I set to work on our teatime snack. Since this feast is known as the birthday of our Church, I had it in mind to make cupcakes. (When do I not have it in mind to make cupcakes, lol?) And in reminiscense of the Pentecost story, I displayed thirteen cupcakes on our stand, one for each Apostle and one for Our Lady (hers is the blue one at top). I maneuvered the table a bit so the display would sit directly below our descending dove.

I also set out our reading for teatime - our children's Bible, the weekly Magnifikid and our new religion read-aloud, The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children. We actually ended up reading from the chapter book as it described most fully and delightfully the Pentecost story. We liked this explanation of Our Lady's presence at this great moment in time:

"I am sure the whole baby Church was as much in our Lady's care as her own Baby had been and that for the twelve years or so she continued to live in Jerusalem, she spent nearly all her time between praying at home and praying in the Temple, and that only when the Apostles got to Heaven did they realize how much her prayers had had to do with their wonderful success."

So, next on the list was to set the candles aflame ...

think of our wish for the Church ...

and, like a mighty wind, blow them all out. :)

Well, friends, as always, thanks for stopping by and sharing in our day. I hope you all enjoy a most blessed, safe and beautiful holiday weekend!