In this post HERE I blogged about our 2015 plans for Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday.  I wasn't able to do all the "plans" because today was a bit hectic, as most days!

Last night on Fat Tuesday we had a little Mardi Gras celebration with dear friends and for dinner we had pancakes, bacon and fruit.  Then for dessert we had a (fat) homemade King Cake for Fat Tuesday.

Here's some pictures of our little celebration and our feast before the Lenten fast.

The King Cake came out rather large and the purple, yellow and green sprinkles are there, they are just hard to see. But, it still was oh so delicious!  The recipe that I used for the King Cake can be found on my post HERE. 


My oldest Cupcake found the baby in a piece of the King Cake, which supposedly means that she will have to make the King Cake for next Mardi Gras!  This is the same King Cake we made to celebrate the Epiphany in January.

Today we went to Ash Wednesday service at noon (the noon service had scripture readings and songs, but not the Eucharist, hence the name "service").  We decided not to attend the morning Mass (that had the Eucharist) because we wanted to meet my husband at the lunch time service and receive ashes as a family.  My husband was actually asked to be one of the distributors of the ashes since they were short on volunteers.   I loved that my children were able to see their Dad take part in this special Lenten practice.

We made our salt dough crown of thorns that I blogged about HERE with the easy recipe and got our bean jar ready for more opportunities to make sacrifices.  I printed out the Crown of Thorns Printable from Catholic Icing to add to our crown of thorns and bean jar traditions.


One tradition that I would like to start at the beginning of Lent is the burying of the Alleluia and I like Nicole's ideas at Children of the Church of the wooden ALLELUIA letters in the box.  And Catholic Icing has this post about burying the Alleluia.  Maybe I'll start this tradition tomorrow!?!  Better late than never right? :)

Tonight my husband and I sat down to read from The Magnificat Lenten Companion together.  These short devotions are doable and I hope we can read from it each day together.


I have to share this photo that my 10 year old daughter took in the car with my husband's iPhone on Ash Wednesday evening.  This sunset was captured on their way to basketball practice. My husband texted this beauty to me and all I could say was WOW!   

May you have many "WOW!" moments as you embark on your Lenten journey!



Have a blessed Lent!