Mardi Gras

Lenten Activities for Children

February 9, 2013 By Lacy

You can see all of my Lenten Posts by clicking here, or browse the links below. But first, read about why you should observe Lent BEFORE celebrating Easter with your family.

Print my Lenten Countdown Calendar!

See all the Ash Wednesday Posts Here.

Preparing for Lent With Children- are you ready?

Bury the Alleluia

Pretzels for Lent

Sacrifice ideas for kids

The Lent Song for Kids

Counting Down the Days of Lent:

Print this Lenten Countdown calendar- this is by far the most popular Catholic Icing post of all time!

Make a crown of thorns

Easy Crown of thorns craft

Giving Alms- a coin every day!

Check out all the Lenten Printables Here.

See all my posts about the Stations of the Cross Here. You can also see the links to individual Stations of the Cross posts below:

Stations of the Cross Eggs

Stations of the Cross Montessori Activity

Stations of the Cross Eggs- this is one of my favorites!!!

Printable Stations of the Cross for Kids

Stations of the Cross Games

DIY Candle Stations of the Cross

Stations of the Cross Grottos

See my Palm Sunday posts here.

Palm Sunday crafts and ideas

Palm Sunday Handprint Craft

See all posts for Holy Week by clicking Here.

Catholic Resurrection Eggs, or “Holy Week” eggs.

Holy Week Crafts

Holy Week Food Ideas

See all the Holy Thursday posts here.

Last Supper Craft- it’s printable!

See all the Good Friday posts here.

Other Lenten Posts:

Make an offering box

Veil of Veronica Craft

Make Sacrifice Beads

Holy Weeky Linky

Lenten Linky 2011

Meatless Meal for Kids

Almsgiving Box (with download!)

On the Road to Easter Word Search

Lenten Linky 2012

Filed Under: Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Holy Thursday, Holy Week, Lent, Lent Preparation, Lent Printables, Lenten Food, Liturgical Year, Mardi Gras, Navigation Page, Pro Life, Stations of the Cross 13 Comments

Lenten Activities for Kids

February 13, 2012 By Lacy

You can see all of my Lenten Posts by clicking here, or browse the links below.

Print my Lenten Countdown Calendar!

See all the Ash Wednesday Posts Here.

Preparing for Lent With Children- are you ready?

Bury the Alleluia

Pretzels for Lent

Sacrifice ideas for kids

The Lent Song for Kids

Counting Down the Days of Lent:

Print this Lenten Countdown calendar- this is by far the most popular Catholic Icing post of all time!

Make a crown of thorns

Easy Crown of thorns craft

Giving Alms- a coin every day!

Check out all the Lenten Printables Here.

See all my posts about the Stations of the Cross Here. You can also see the links to individual Stations of the Cross posts below:

Stations of the Cross Eggs

Stations of the Cross Montessori Activity

Stations of the Cross Eggs- this is one of my favorites!!!

Printable Stations of the Cross for Kids

Stations of the Cross Games

DIY Candle Stations of the Cross

Stations of the Cross Grottos

See my Palm Sunday posts here.

Palm Sunday crafts and ideas

Palm Sunday Handprint Craft

See all posts for Holy Week by clicking Here.

Catholic Resurrection Eggs, or “Holy Week” eggs.

Holy Week Crafts

Holy Week Food Ideas

See all the Holy Thursday posts here.

Last Supper Craft- it’s printable!

See all the Good Friday posts here.

Other Lenten Posts:

Make an offering box

Veil of Veronica Craft

Make Sacrifice Beads

Holy Weeky Linky

Lenten Linky 2011

Meatless Meal for Kids

Almsgiving Box (with download!)

I’m going to be hosting a Lenten link-up here on February 15 (that’s Wednesday!) so don’t forget to come share your ideas and check out what everyone else is planning for this Lent.

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Make Mardi Gras Pretzels- Easy Party Food!

February 10, 2012 By Lacy

Pretzels are traditionally a Lenten food, but not when they’re covered in chocolate and rolled in sugar!

These are super easy to make, and turned out really cute!

Here’s what you need:

Pretzels
White Candy Melts (I used Wilton White Candy Melts)
Colored Sugar (definitely see my post on how to make your own colored sugar- it’s super easy to do!)

Start by placing your white candy melts in a microwave safe bowl, and melting them by following the directions on the bag. When melted, dip a pretzel into the candy melt, then set it on a piece of aluminum foil or wax paper, and sprinkle it with colored sugar immediately.

I did the dipping (you know, because it’s hot) and I let my kids to the sugar part. They had a blast, and because we made our own colored sugar so cheaply, it was ok that they used way too much. I let each of my kids be “in charge” of a different color pretzel. So I had Lydia on purple, Violet on green, and Julian took care of the yellow.

Allow them to cool completely, shake off the extra sugar (or in our case, excavate the pretzels) and voila- you’re done!

Now, if you’re thinking these are really cute but you have a big family or you’d like to take them to a party, but you wouldn’t like to spend all afternoon dipping pretzels in candy melts, you can make them go farther by mixing them into some Mardi Gras party mix!

We made party mix from Mardi Gras pretzels, pop corn, cereal, sliced almonds, green and yellow candies, and a package of those plastic babies that everyone puts in their Mardi Gras king cakes (just for fun)!

My husband says it would have been more fun if there was only one baby in the mix. In any case, this Mardi Gras trail mix was really yummy, and my kids loved it! We will be making it again for sure.

Related Posts:

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Filed Under: Fun Food, Liturgical Year, Mardi Gras, My Kitchen Creations, Party 1 Comment

Catholic Mardi Gras Ideas

March 6, 2011 By Lacy

For anyone still looking for ideas to celebrate Mardi Gras with their kids and families, you’ve come to the right place!

Did you know that Catholics don’t say “Alleluia” during worship in lent? It’s totally taken out of the mass and everything. I just learned that last year. Something you can do with your kids is to “bury the Alleluia”. You can find my directions for making your own printable Alleluia banner for this here. There’s a song we used to sing at Vacation Bible School with “Alleluia” in it. I’m going to sing it with my kids this year before we hide the Alleluia. Here’s a You Tube video I found on how to sing this song with your kids.

After you make a big deal and sing about “Alleluia”, become quiet, and pack up your Alleluia to bring back out on Easter. You can put it away in a box, or a bag- whatever works for you and your family!

Mardi Gras is also knows as “Pancake Tuesday”. It was originally traditional to eat pancakes on Fat Tuesday because making them used up a lot of ingredients you weren’t allowed to eat during lent, such as fat. Last year, I made some Mardi Gras Pancakes for our family, and they were a big hit! We’ll be enjoying these again this year!

And if colorful pancakes are your thing, maybe you’d like to try your hand at some pancake art with Jenni Price Illustration. Her pancakes are enchanting!

Kings cake is a very traditional food to make on Mardi Gras, and to make your own you’ll need loads of colored sugar! Make your own colored Mardi Gras sugar with my easy tutorial from last year.

Find some great directions on making a Kings Cake with Sweet Pea’s Kitchen. I saw someone mention that at their Catholic Mardi Gras party, whoever gets the “baby” inside the cake gets to lead the rosary. I thought that was a cute idea!

I don’t enjoy baking, so I’m planning on sprinkling store bought doughnuts with our colored sugar this year and calling it good. Lol! But if you’re more of a baker than I am, check out this recipe for Mardi Gras doughnuts from Catholic Mothers Online.

You could also try crafting some Mardi Gras masks. I thought these masks from Twig and Toadstool were especially cute! You can also find some printable Mardi Gras masks here.

You could also try crafting some Mardi Gras beads with you children! Find directions on making Mardi Gras beads with paper on Alpha Mom.

Aren’t these Mardi Gras Crown cookies adorable?
Find the directions to make them from Disney!

DLTK has a free printable Mardi Gras game you could play

and learn about the colors of Mardi Gras.

As always, if you have additional ideas and/or links, please leave them in the comments! We’re being very “chill” about Mardi Gras around here this week- I’m a little overwhelmed right now, and I’ve been focusing heavily on preparing for lent, but it will still be nice to eat some pancakes and bury the Alleluia. God bless!