Stand Firm in Faith

Our first meeting of the 2011-2012 was so much fun!  It was wonderful to see all the beautiful faces back for another year with Christ, and we were so pleased to welcome eight new beauties! 

This meeting focused on St. Catherine of Siena and the virtue of faith.  We colored a picture of St. Catherine from Charlotte's blog.  We also began what will be a holy card collection to add to our binders (along with all our new coloring pages this year).  The holy card had our original image of St. Catherine on the front...

and her simple prayer on the back:

Lord,

take me from myself

and

give me to

Yourself.

Then we really had some fun!

The girls each brought a pair of flip flops to the meeting (or Crocs, as the case was with one of our little ladies who does not like the feel of flip flops between her toes!).  We decorated the flip flops with all the glitz and glam that we could get to stick to them, adding the special touch of a cross to the sole, so we can...

"Stand Firm in Faith"

One of the girls even pointed out the connection between having the cross on our sole and our soul.  Wow!

The girls had a blast with the decorating...

although the tying was a challenge!

The finished products were delightful.

And comfortable, too!

But the best part was that we have been blessed again with the kitchen creations of Mrs. A!  She wowed us with flip flop cookies and the girls were thrilled. 

Which color goes best with my outfit?

Do we get two since we have two feet?

What a great way to end the first meeting of the year.

It gives new meaning to "putting your foot in your mouth"!

Keep planting seeds...

The Holy Name of Mary

Our first meeting was a huge success and it was fabulous to see all our Buds again!  Our group this year will consist of about 24 girls from the age of five to ten.  And although we lost some of our oldest girls from last year, we have gained some new faces and can't wait to get started with our year...

Many moms and dads were on hand at this first meeting to enjoy High Tea in honor of the feast day: The Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin.

Thanks again to my favorite blogger, Jessica, we had a fantastic spread with all the foods representing one of the names that we so affectionately give to our Mother. 

Cheese Tower

"Tower of Ivory"
(terrible picture!)

Goldfish Crackers

"House of Gold"



Fruits and Veggies

"Health of the Sick"

Strawberries with a Crown of Cream

"Queen of Martyrs"

Centerpiece

Roses with Soft Candles and a Mirror

"Mystical Rose"

"Mirror of Justice"

"Quiet Light"

Star Shaped Sandwiches

"Morning Star"

Angel Food Cake

"Queen of Angels"

Dove Chocolates

"Peaceful Dove"

Blue Hawaiian Punch (or rather, the pitcher)

"Vessel of Honor"

To make things a bit more fun, the girls and invited guests had to guess the name of Mary that each food represented.  Everyone was quite insightful!

And then...we ate!

As with all our "teas" of the past, the food was gone in no time and the girls went away full, happy and ready for a fun year!

Keep planting seeds...

Most Holy Name of Mary Tea

JOIN US!

When:  September 12, 2011

4:00 -5:00 PM

Where:  St. Mary's School Cafeteria

  

Who:  All girls from Kindergarten to 5th Grade
(school families, parish families, homeschoolers and friends)

All are welcome!

Why:  To kick off our 2011-2012 year of Girls' Club

and

To honor our Blessed Mother on this feast of her Holy Name

We hope to see you all there!

Keep planting seeds...

Our Motherhouse Field Trip

This month of September, our Rose Buds have been focusing on Faith. The girls have been hard at work praying for vocations and an increase in faith in ourselves, our parish and our community. To help us live out this virtue, we decided to end the month of September with a field trip to the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis Motherhouse and examine the call to faith in the religious life. We are blessed to have the Motherhouse only minutes from our own parish. I hope you will all visit the Motherhouse website and/or their blog. I'm sure the girls would love to see photos of the Sisters now that they have met them! I know I had fun looking through it all!

Our event started after school on Friday. The girls did a fantastic job of completing the task of creating a Spiritual Bouquet for one of the Sisters. We piled them all into our basket and then we all piled into the car! (Thanks to all you Moms and Dads that helped drive and chaperone!)

Sister Judith Ann greeted the girls as we arrived and she ushered us into the House, where all the other Sisters were waiting.

It was our pleasure to meet the Sisters and sing for them. The girls offered two songs about Mary, and then recited a poem about Mary as well. Sister Judith then led the girls in a decade of the Rosary.

It was so hard to get good shots of all the beautiful Buds. I know there are a few sweeties that can't be seen in the crowd of hair, but aren't they all just beautiful?!

After our Rosary, Sister Judith Ann gave all the girls prayer cards of St. Theresa. Don't miss her feast day coming up on October 1st (October 3rd on the traditional calandar). Visit my favorite site here for lots of fun ways to celebrate this special saint!

The girls then had a fantastic time letting the Sisters choose a Spiritual Bouquet from the basket. I didn't do a very good job of making sure all the Buds got a turn to help out, so I apologize for that, but all the Sisters were accounted for and we saw many smiles (and even some tears.) What a blessing for all.

Our last stop was a nice visit to the chapel, where Sister Judith Ann led us in one last prayer before we departed.

We had a wonderful trip and a beautiful visit and I just have to wonder...how many seeds were planted this day? What might grow within the hearts of these lovely girls because of the witness of the Sisters they met today?

Keep planting seeds...