The Good Shepherd's Garden Party - Week One

For the second year, we are using this Easter Season calendar by Tomie dePaola. It includes a Bible passage and corresponding sticker for each day of the Easter Season. It is arranged by weekly themes. We got a slow start this year, but now we're all caught up through week one. (I'll post a picture of what the actual sticker scene looks like soon.)

Last year we put the stickers on at dinner each evening and talked about the symbolism of each one. We tried to read most of the Scripture passages. The boys were very young and much of it went over their heads. This year they are much more into learning all of the symbols and stories.

This year, in addition to the daily stickers and discussions and Scripture readings, we are celebrating each weekly theme with a "Garden Party." The ideas and menus for these weekly parties come from one of my favorite bloggers, Jessica at http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/ (She also has links to printable versions of this entire project.)

Tonight we had our first Garden Party at dinner time and it was so great! We began by talking about all of the symbols and reading the Scripture passages (since we hadn't done this during the week as planned.) Here is what the table looked like (I apologize for the dark picture) -

Here are the boys checking out all of the food and listening to Daddy read some Scripture about the Good Shepherd -

And here's the yummy food we shared. It's not the normal meat/potato/veggie/fruit dinner we normally have, but it was a really fun and festive meal. (I did add peas and carrots to our plates!)

1. Mini-shepherd's pies (The Good Shepherd)

2. Shepherd's staff-shaped breadsticks (The Shepherd's Staff)

3. Popcorn (Sheep... the bowl represented the Sheepfold)

4. Graham Cracker "Gates" with peanut butter and pretzels (The Sheep Gate)

5. Lamb Cupcakes (Ewes and Rams)

6. Mini-Marshmallows (Lamb's Wool)

7. Wolf Paw Cookies (The Wolf)

I'm sure you can guess which foods were the biggest hits! The boys are already looking forward to the next Garden Party.... and so am I! This is such a great way to celebrate the Easter Season in our home and I am so thankful to the ladies who have come up with and shared this idea.