Lenten Adventure is a free and fun resource for families to teach children and adults about Lent, Lenten traditions, liturgy, the Mass, and the Easter season!

A few years ago I met a Holy Heroes "celebrity" at a Catholic conference called Ignited By Truth.  I met the oldest daughter, Virginia, at the Holy Heroes/Belmont Abbey College vendor table and I just had to snap a picture of her to show my kids.  It was great to chat with her and her father at the conference.   My kids said "Cool!" when I showed them this picture.

We have been on the Holy Heroes Lenten Adventures so many times, my children love to see how the Holy Heroes kids have grown and they remember so much about what they have learned! 

I asked my kids what they liked about Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure and this is what they had to say:

Daughter, age 13: "I like that Lenten Adventure gives our family ideas about Lent.  My favorite video is when their little girl says "Uh, oh!" when the beans spill out of the sacrifice bean jar. "

Son, age 12: "The videos make me laugh and I like seeing another Catholic family celebrate Lent."

Daughter, age 9: "The kids make us laugh sometimes and they have cool videos where they act out Bible stories with costumes and with felt figures."

Daughter, age 6:  Holy Heroes teach me about God.  They tell me the colors of the priests' clothes. 

As a Mom, I love that my children get to see another devout Catholic family loving and living their Catholic faith.  The Holy Heroes family is a beautiful witness for Christ's Church and we are so thankful for all their time and hard work to provide such a great resource!  


Speaking of Lent,  I encourage you to join the "Keep Love in Lent" Blog Link-Up hosted by Catholic Bloggers Network with Monica, Chris, Tina, Lisa, and myself!  The link-up is an opportunity to share your Lenten ideas, posts, and traditions, which may include Holy Heroes.  It's also a way to learn how other families keep love in Lent!  :)  Details HERE! 

Last weekend on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014, my 3 older daughters and my hubby had a blast at their first American Heritage Girls (AHG) Father/Daughter Dance!  I helped set up the dance along with several other dedicated mommas and I stayed at the dance with the baby and took some pictures of the fun night!  Here's some shots I was able to get as my hubby danced the night away with his darling daughters:

Next Friday, Feb. 14, 2014, is Saint Valentine's Day and our Catholic homeschool group will be gathering to celebrate this special and popular Feast Day both in the sacred and secular world.

I was looking back through my blog archives to get some inspiration for a book reading and craft idea for the children attending the party next week. 

Listed below are some past posts of mine that have lots of ideas and links that I will be perusing myself in order to plan next week's fun day!  Enjoy!

We {Heart} Jesus and Valentine Crafts (2010) (This post tells about the greatest Valentine and the devotion to the Sacred Heart.  Also, I'll be reading the book Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda again this year)
Happy Saint Valentine's Day! (2011) (Another post with more information about Saint Valentine and how to make these sweet treats along with a wedding pic and "Love" license plate that I gave my hubby)

Valentine Candy Canes  (Do you happen to have any candy canes leftover from Christmas?  You can make these lovely cards)

Saint Valentine's Day 2013 (Need a sweet (healthy) treat for Valentine's Day?)

This year I hope to print out these great holy Valentine cards for my cupcakes to hand out to their friends vs. investing in the store bought cards:
 

While browsing Facebook, I came across a homemade "Adding Fun" adding machine on the Teaching Ideas Facebook page, which originally was posted on the blog, Mothering with Creativity, on the blog post HERE.  Their "machine" looked like this:
So this morning, my 9 year old daughter and 6 year old daughter helped me make our own version of the addition game.  My 6 year old said she liked the pink "plus" sign I drew and colored in the center of the board. :)
My 6 year old daughter decorated the white foam board with Fall stickers that she pulled out of our art closet and she drew purple hearts on the board.  Hence, the title of our machine..."Falling in Love with Addition."  :-)
We taped another backward "L" shaped white foam board to the back of the front board to allow the front board to stand up on its own.

We cut out the bottom of 2 white plastic cups and taped them with clear packaging tape to 2 empty paper towel rolls.  Then taped these tubes to the board. Above my daughter is placing 2 red glass beads in the left tube.
Then she placed 5 clear glass beads in the right tube and counted the total number of beads in the white "equals" tray at the bottom.  Any counting manipulative will work and any math program.  My daughter filled out a row of addition problems in her Kindergarten Memoria Press Math curriculum. 

Last week, our area got hit with an ice storm.  As a native of where I live, this was the first ice storm I have ever experienced.  Schools were out from Tuesday through Friday due to the icy roads.  But, with our homeschooling we only took last Wednesday off to sled on the ice and did school work on the other days.

I went out in the morning with our cupcakes (I'm the one below looking like I'm flying like Super Man Woman :) ) and then my husband took the kids out to sled after lunch while I napped in a quiet house with the baby. (Sledding wore me out!)   As you can see from some of the pictures, we used body boards, skim boards, and even cookie sheets to go down our neighbor's sloped driveway and down hills at a local park! It was great fun! 

Here is a short video of the sledding at the park (and yes that is a lake at the bottom that we had to avoid :) )



On January 30th, our little sweet Cupcake #5 turned 6 months old!  Wow, how time flies!  She is getting so big and makes our family smile and laugh every day!  She is sitting up, rolling over, teething, drooling, smiling, giggling, and being such a joy and great entertainment for her 4 older siblings and her Mommy and Daddy!  :)

This past Sunday, February 2, we celebrated the Presentation of Our Lord which is often referred to as Candlemas.  It is a tradition to bring candles from your home to have the priest bless them.  As stated in this article HERE,"Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendor of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ."