The Seven Sacraments for Children Coloring Pages

The Catholic faith is rich with prayers, devotions, traditions, sacramentals and many other elements that can be used to grow your relationship with God. The seven sacraments are pillars of the Catholic faith and mark extraordinary portions of our life. It is essential to treat these life-altering milestones as such, especially if we expect our children to understand the significance of each sacrament and it's meaning. My goal as a parent is to make sure I have immersed my children in as much of their Catholic faith as possible, in hopes that they will love it as much as I do.

"The Sacraments are the salvation of those who use them rightly, and the damnation of those who misuse them."
- St. Augustine 

How do we accomplish such a huge responsibility? First, we must make sure that we ourselves are well versed in the information that we are teaching to the younger generations. Do you know much about the sacraments?

Here are a few quick basics:

• There are seven sacraments; Baptism, Penance, Eucharist, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage and Holy Orders.
• These seven sacraments are broken down into several different types; The Sacraments of Initiation, The Sacraments of Healing and the Sacraments of Service.
• The Sacraments of Initiation are Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation.
• The Sacraments of Healing are Penance and Anointing of the Sick.
• The Sacraments of Service are Marriage and Holy Orders. 

Although I said this was some "basic" information. How basic does this sound to children? Probably not very relatable and not very intriguing to young minds... yet.

Children retain more knowledge if they are able to play and create memories. Most of us were baptized as babies and the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist are given to us early in the elementary years. That is three out of six of the sacraments you are able to receive by the time you are 8/9 years old!

I state three out of six sacraments because you cannot receive Holy Orders and be married as well. There are exceptions, of course, but that is a little much to explain to children in this age group.

Illustrating the importance of these milestones can be difficult and hard to comprehend for young children if you are not able to portray these sacraments in an easy to comprehend state. I was contacted by my friend, Sherry, from Personal Creations about sharing some wonderful and captivating Sacrament Coloring Pages that can assist the teaching of the seven sacraments to children and make them more fun to learn!

Sherry has said...

"I hope these coloring pages give joy to families and teach children the milestones of Christian life. From baptism to marriage, these coloring pages are a delightful way to celebrate the many stages of a spiritual journey with God."

I was thrilled to be able to have a quick lesson with my boys on the Sacraments and share these coloring pages with them. I can honestly say that they both enjoyed it! I have a seven year old and a ten year old. They had requested I join in the coloring fun since we do have nights where we pull out all the art supplies and have "craft nights". 

My youngest son loves games! He had asked me if we could use these pictures to make a game. I told him, "Of course we can!" We created a Matching Sacrament Game by printing two of the coloring pages that summarized all of the sacraments and cutting them out. We now have a Liturgical Game that my son is very proud of because he did all the coloring and cutting and I have a game to play with him that will teach him about the sacraments. Definitely a Win, Win!

My older son is more of a perfectionist and insisted that he make the pages look as life like as possible. He had to use the perfect combination of crayons, markers and colored pencils to get each page looking like a masterpiece.

Having an activity that was intriguing to both my children was such a blessing. They are at those ages where it can be difficult to find something that reaches them at their own levels and yet keeps them on the same task. It turned into a nice family evening.

Advent is just a few short days away. What a great way to anticipate the Christ child's birth by learning more about the seven sacraments with your families. If you are interested in these beautiful Sacrament Coloring pages, please check out the link to Personal Creations here. These wonderful coloring pages will help establish a great love for the sacraments in your children and help explain some of the more difficult aspects of the sacraments in a child's way.

#WorthRevisit: Baptism Anniversary

This month is extra special for me because January 29th is the anniversary of my boys receiving the Sacrament of Baptism together. I wanted to share how we celebrated in the past and I would love to hear about your family traditions and other special ways to make this day amazing for my boys! 

It's also funny to see that in Florida we had two snow days ever and it just so happens to coincide with this anniversary. What makes this even funnier is we are in Colorado now and we are getting hit with a snow storm tonight! Crazy Coincidence? Here's my #WorthRevisit with Reconciled to You and Theology is a Verb:

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Little Man and Squishy's Baptism Anniversary!

January 29th is Little Man and Squishy's Baptism Anniversary!

We of course had to celebrate! The day my kids were baptized was one of the happiest moments of my life.

I was disappointed it took so long to get Little Man this special Sacrament but its so nice that Little Man can remember his special day just like me. It became a blessing in disguise. Father John did an amazing job explaining what was happening during the baptism to Little Man. He asked him questions and told him he was old enough to respond. There is nothing sweeter than hearing your child's sweet little voice say "Yes, I believe God!"

The picture to the left is Father John lighting Little Man and Squishy's baptism candles for the first time. I keep their candles in the boxes until their special day comes around. I take them out and display them all day and we light them for the beginning of our dinner. The boys always want me to keep them lit but I would like the candles to last for a long time.

January 29th was the second snow day that we endured and as I'm sure you guessed, changed our celebration slightly. All the roads were closed because they were iced over and we do not have salt trucks around here to help out so we were all battling cabin fever. I would have loved to have bought some picture frames and pulled out some shells to glue to the outside of the frame to display pictures from the baptism. Instead we looked at pictures on Facebook. Thank God we were blessed with power during our winter storm so we were able to access the Internet and our family.



For dinner I made ricotta stuffed shells covered in a spinach mushroom alfredo sauce and covered with Italian cheese. I loved the symbolism with the shells. Their are small shells carved into the baptism candles too. I also had leftover spinach dip from a get together we had earlier in the week that needed to be eaten as well. It was delicious!! Everyone in our home loves the everything Italian loaf as a side too. For all the super special celebrations we have sparkling juice! Little Man and Squishy love drinking from their wine glasses  plastic flutes. They are so cute tapping their glasses together to "cheers"!



For dessert we made white cupcakes for the cleanness that is restored with the waters our of baptism and blue vanilla frosting to symbolize the water used to baptize us in God's name. We topped the cupcakes with blue sugar crystals because what is a celebration without sprinkles?!

Are there traditions to celebrate baptisms? I would love to hear your traditions or suggestions too!

{SQT}: Hello October

This is the first week of October and man it has been an immeasurable amount of amazing and that's why I am a day late sharing. Here are my Seven Quick Takes of the Week! 

{ONE}

Goalie was Superhero of the Week at school! I am so beyond proud. Goalie really struggles with his ability to stay focused and sit still during class. We even had to add some behavioral goals to his IEP to help him work on these areas so him receiving something like this made me cry happy tears! The principal hand picks the students based on their effort and willingness to do what's right. Goalie had such an amazing week being line leader, getting to share special things about himself to his class and having an extra special treat with his principal. 

{TWO}

Soccer season has finally ended! Monday was our last game. Goalie was really sad because he loves having a team and getting to run, run, and run some more. Cupcakes always make things better and as you can see by the huge smile on his face, the cupcake certainly cut the sting of sadness away. He is also excited that he is almost old enough to start Football though so we will see how things go there. 

{THREE}

October 4th was the Feast of Saint Francis and we did a Blessing of the Animals together. We have three cats and let me tell you: Holy water, kids and cats do not mix! The kids were so excited to "bless" the animals because they knew cats don't like water. Granted my husband only sprinkled the holy water but all three cats flew out of their spots into different rooms. I almost felt bad allowing the blessing to happen but the kitties also received a brand new scratching post, catnip and soft food for dinner. They will forgive us one day... hopefully. 

{FOUR}

October has officially begun and it is a month full of meaning. October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary, Respecting Life, Breast Cancer Awareness, ADHD Awareness, Spina Bifida Awareness and many other things. All of these causes have an impact on me and my life and we are attempting to find ways to acknowledge all this in our family. What do you celebrate this month? Anything that has a special place in your heart? How do you make it special to your family?

{FIVE}

I received my first Little Catholic Box this month!!! I am in love! My dad purchased the subscription for me as a gift and I was blown away by the awesomeness that was packed into this box! I am so excited to see what is to come and to share all the goodies with my family. How many of you have this great subscription? It is definitely worth giving a try!

{SIX}

We are really getting into the Autumn Spirit! To start things off we attended the Apple Day hosted in Penrose, Colorado. It was a great experience! We have two fall festivals this weekend and we have so much more planned before the end of this season. 

{SEVEN}

This is our family's first year joining the Boy Scouts of America and becoming a scouting family. Little Man and Goalie have both earned their first badge! The Bobcat Badge. I am in pursuit of some Scouting uniforms and in the process of creating a binder for the boys to keep their badges together so they have something to look back on if they decide to stick with the Boy Scouts. We just signed up for our first outdoor event for next weekend too! This October and Autumn season is turning out to be a very memorable one!

God Bless!

#WorthRevisit: Little Man and Squishy's Baptism Anniversary

Sacraments are gifts from God. Baptism is a Sacrament of Initiation and both of my beautiful boys were able to receive their baptism the same day. Since then, Little Man has received his First Reconciliation and his First Communion. Goalie still has a few years to go before he can receive his next sacrament but he is always asking when it is his time. I felt that this was a great post to share because I have been so nostalgic lately and reminiscing on the milestones I have witnessed in my children's lives and all the things that I continuously pray for ever day. Maybe it's the change in weather? Maybe it's the longing I have for more children? Either way this was heavy on my heart and wanted to share it with you all. Check out what else is #WorthRevisit this week with Theology is a Verb and Reconciled to You.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Little Man and Squishy's Baptism Anniversary!

January 29th is Little Man and Squishy's Baptism Anniversary!

We of course had to celebrate! The day my kids were baptized was one of the happiest moments of my life.

I was disappointed it took so long to get Little Man this special Sacrament but its so nice that Little Man can remember his special day just like me. It became a blessing in disguise. Father John did an amazing job explaining what was happening during the baptism to Little Man. He asked him questions and told him he was old enough to respond. There is nothing sweeter than hearing your child's sweet little voice say "Yes, I believe God!"

The picture to the left is Father John lighting Little Man and Squishy's baptism candles for the first time. I keep their candles in the boxes until their special day comes around. I take them out and display them all day and we light them for the beginning of our dinner. The boys always want me to keep them lit but I would like the candles to last for a long time. 

January 29th was the second snow day that we endured and as I'm sure you guessed, changed our celebration slightly. All the roads were closed because they were iced over and we do not have salt trucks around here to help out so we were all battling cabin fever. I would have loved to have bought some picture frames and pulled out some shells to glue to the outside of the frame to display pictures from the baptism. Instead we looked at pictures on Facebook. Thank God we were blessed with power during our winter storm so we were able to access the Internet and our family. 

For dinner I made ricotta stuffed shells covered in a spinach mushroom alfredo sauce and covered with Italian cheese. I loved the symbolism with the shells. Their are small shells carved into the baptism candles too. I also had leftover spinach dip from a get together we had earlier in the week that needed to be eaten as well. It was delicious!! Everyone in our home loves the everything Italian loaf as a side too. For all the super special celebrations we have sparkling juice! Little Man and Squishy love drinking from their wine glasses  plastic flutes. They are so cute tapping their glasses together to "cheers"!



For dessert we made white cupcakes for the cleanness that is restored with the waters our of baptism and blue vanilla frosting to symbolize the water used to baptize us in God's name. We topped the cupcakes with blue sugar crystals because what is a celebration without sprinkles?!

Are there traditions to celebrate baptisms? I would love to hear your traditions or suggestions too! 

Just Enough Info: Back-to-School Edition

I'd love to introduce you to the other members of The Zelie Group that are participating in the Thursday linkup this week:

Kerry from Fishbowl Fortune

Alicia from Sweeping Up Joy

Kirby from Under Thy Roof

Welcome to another week of Just Enough Info with The Zelie Group. Back-to-School is in full swing. School supplies, memories, traditions and the fresh scent of new composition notebooks floating through the air. This has always been my most favorite time of the year. The start of school, fall sports and all the amazing things autumn brings! If this is your first time hearing about The Zelie Group please check out my previous post from last week (Click on the link here). Here are my answers to this weeks Just Enough Info Questions:

1. What is your best school memory from your childhood?

My best school memory from my childhood was getting to go on a field trip to Sea World! This was no ordinary trip. We were allowed to sleep within the park overnight! I chose to sleep inside the Shark Encounter area and I will never forget going to sleep watching all the sharks swimming back and forth throughout the night. I was only in the 3rd or 4th grade (The same grade as Little Man) and I remember the entire trip. It was my first time traveling without my family and it was an 8 hour trip on a big bus. I hope my children get to have memories like this one. The ones that stay with you throughout the years and bring a smile to your face and make you feel young and vibrant. I wish I had a picture or something to share from this trip but this was prior to smart phones, fancy compact cameras and I think the small one-time use camera I developed from this trip is still at my parents house somewhere. 

2. Do you have any back-to-school family traditions?

We don't really have any cool back-to-school traditions in my house. Unless you consider the yearly first day back-to-school pictures. I don't even have the boys hold up signs or anything because I don't want to put too much pressure on the kids. I try my hardest to not make school too much of a "big" deal because my Goalie has a really hard transitions so it is easier to transition into the school year if we make it seem like a normal everyday things that isn't anything dwell upon. Even while we are preparing for school we try our best not to purchase everything at one time. We will buy clothes throughout the summer and keep them put away until school starts and the same with school supplies. We try our hardest to enjoy family dinners together every night but I try to make a family favorite so we end the day on a high note. My kids LOVE meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs and taco nights so we usually prepare one of those together. I would love to have some special things to incorporate into my kid's day without making it too stressful so I am looking forward to reading what everyone else does to celebrate back-to-school.

3. Markers or colored pencils?

Coloring pencils! We actually have TONS and TONS of coloring utensils but me and my boys like coloring pencils the most. I think they are our favorites because you blend colors more easily when we are creating the many masterpieces that decorate the bulletin boards and refrigerator. We also use crayons quite often. I am a huge fan of coloring and I think it is a great way for me to spend time with my boys and be still together. In our crazy busy lives these are the moments we get to sit together, admire each others work and share our feeling with one another. This is ironic but we will be having a coloring session later tonight because it will be the first time since last week we have not had soccer or football practice, a school event or a doctors appointment. I am counting down the hours to pull out my arts and crafts boxes and sit with my boys while we color and enjoy a nice cup of tea and a snack!

Please Join us and Link Up with your answers to this week's questions about Back-to-School:

1. What is your best school memory from your childhood?

2. Do you have any back-to-school family traditions?

3. Markers or colored pencils?

Next Week's Just Enough Information questions all about Prayer:

1. What are your favorite devotions?

2. Have any of your prayers been answered? 

Do you have any prayers that you are glad weren't answered the way you hoped?

3. How do you pray with your kids?

Linkup Party Rules:

1. Please follow each of the party hosts in at least one way.

2. The blog that you are linking must be Family Friendly.

3. Link the individual post, not the main page of the blog.

4. The post that you are submitting must be on topic.

5. You are welcome to link up to 3 posts, old or new. Do not link the same post more than once.

6. Please Visit at least two other bloggers and leave a comment on their posts for each link that you share with our link up.

7. Please put a link to the party and/or link up button that you are participating in somewhere in your post so that other people can find the party, too.

8. By submitting a link to the party you acknowledge that the images in your post are either your original work or licensed as free for whatever you want. You give me and the other party hosts permission to use an image from your post on Pinterest and/or to link to your blog.

#WorthRevisit: Saint Apollonia: Tooth Fairy Traditions

My Goalie is starting to get bigger and I realized we still haven't experienced him losing his first tooth yet. It's been over 3 years since Little Man lost his first tooth so I figured it was time to get prepared for Goalie's. Have you heard of Saint Apollonia before? Her Feast day is actually in February and she is the patroness of dentists and people suffering from tooth aches. Saint Apollonia was martyred for her faith by a mob that beat her to death. This included them knocking out all of her teeth. I am preparing for my Goalie's first loose tooth so here you are this is definitely #WorthRevisit with Theology is a Verb and Reconciled to You.

Checkout what's #WorthRevisit this week:

Monday, July 8, 2013

Saint Apollonia: Tooth Fairy Traditions

Saint Apollonia is the Patron Saint of dentistry and tooth problems. I have seen so many cute ideas where parents have made dolls in the likeness of Saint Apollonia to hold their children's babyteeth until the "tooth fairy" comes and replaces it with a dollar or two. I hope one day I will be blessed with a little girl so I can make a Saint Apollonia doll one day but for now I have two boys that were not excited about making a doll. I decided to make our own unique tradition. I, of course, took a picture of Little Man's smile with his missing tooth and wrote a cute prayer that I found at Crafty in Coffeeland. I will place the picture next to his Guardian Angel Candle and we will recite the prayer and put his tooth on the picture. Maybe I will be a little more creative with the next tooth... until then...

Saint Apollonia, pray for us!

Transformers Party!

I finally finished this post about Little Man's 5th Birthday and Going Away Party! Little Man's Birthday Celebration was actually spread out into 2 days so he was excited to extend the Birthday Boy spoiling for an extra day :o) He even wore his Transformer Birthday Ribbon both days. We started the excitement last Friday on his actual Birthday. The Birthday boy requested to have strawberry-blueberry pancakes with whipped cream... they were delicious!

A quick side note: I mentioned in an earlier post that Squishy broke my camera ( a Nikon Powershot ) Well I was unable to get a new digital camera before the party of the same quality. I bought a $20 camera and the picture quality shows! Its not the best but at least I was able to snap a few pictures of the big day. I also have some pictures on my phone but I still haven't found the USB cord that goes with a Pantech Phone. Does anyone know where I can find one?

Sorry about that...continuing on with the party now...

After breakfast Little Man opened a few gifts that came from family and put together puzzles all afternoon while I worked a short shift. My parents took us all out to see Disney's new movie Brave. Little Man has wanted to see this movie since he saw the first preview on Cars 2 so it was a great way to end the first day of his Birthday Celebration!

The following day, Saturday, we had a party with about 16 kids in honor of Little Man's big day. I am so glad that his friends from school, soccer and church were able to make it out to see him. We set the location at a local park that has a water park inside the slides and jungle gyms. I was super nervous that Tropical Storm Debbie was going to rain it out. God blessed us with an amazing sunny morning with a light breeze for the party and a few rain clouds came in later in the afternoon, when the party was finished. The party was Transformer themed with  red and blue as the colors and a gorgeous Transformers cake that Publix was able to make in less than 24 hours notice (Another blessing). The pictures of the cake are among the pictures I need to download off my camera... sorry for the suspense until I get a USB cord. 

The kids were very helpful getting Little Man to open his presents. Some kids get upset with help unwrapping gifts but Little Man welcomes it knowing he can see what's inside sooner. 

Little Man received Transformers... Transformers and some more Transformers!

I'm glad my husband was excited about trying to figure out how to "transform" the toys because it looks pretty complicated to me. I think he feels like he's reliving his childhood. 

Little Man was proudly showing off his new movie How to Train Your Dragon to everyone. We actually owned a copy about a year ago but it was broken when Little Man was trying to take it out of the case. 

God showered us with so many blessings on this day it was amazing! No rain although there was a Tropical Storm. We were able to get a cake with less than 24 hour notice.

If you were starting to wonder why there are hardly any pictures with Squishy in them that is because he was having a blast running around, trying to eat dirt and chasing the stray cats around the picnic area. At one point he jumped off the picnic table into the dirt and rolled around in it. He was a muddy mess because he had run through the water park several times before he decided to roll around in the dirt. Little Man thought this behavior was hilarious and was continuously laughing at Squishy. I, on the other hand, was exhausted! Chasing Squishy around was a serious workout for me! But my Squishy marches to the beat of his own drum and continued with his craziness until the party ended. He passed out in the car on the way home. We didn't even reverse out of the parking lot and he was already asleep. 

Little Man was sad to tell everyone goodbye. He was especially sad to say goodbye to a sweet little girl he met at Spring Soccer this year. 

Here is the sweetest picture from the Two-day celebration. Little Man telling Squishy goodbye as he was taking his nap after the party. Little Man went to spend some time with his Ga Ga and Pop Pop in Central Florida. He kissed his little brother on the head and said, "Don't be sad Baby, I love you and I will come back in 100 days!" LOL

Children are truly a gift from God and his way of saying that the world should go on. The innocence and pure love that pours from their hearts is enough to make the most calloused heart melt. My Little Man is no different. He is turning into such a little gentleman! I think his party was everything he could have hoped for and imagined. 

Happy 5th Birthday Little Man!

Happy 5th Birthday Little Man!

Five years ago today I was given the amazing gift of Motherhood! My first born little boy weighed 5lbs. 14oz and was 18 inches long. Tomorrow is the party but today was one of the happiest moments in my life! We love you my sweet boy!

Haircuts For All!

Squishy is almost 20 months old and has never had a haircut. I am sure you can tell by the crazy curly long locks that surround his face in all of the pictures I have posted of him. Well today was the day we cut off all those long curls! I was able to snap a few shots of my sweet baby sitting in the hair dresser's chair. I was so nervous Squishy was going to be very angry and cry that we were having him "sit still". He only had a few seconds of unhappiness, then he saw his reflection. I guess he decided sitting still wasn't so bad as long as he could stare at himself. I am so glad he didn't seem to mind the process after that except the fact that his hair would fall into his face ever so often. After a few strands would hit his nose he would try to take off his smock.

After a few minutes Squishy felt confident enough to pose for a picture. Look at my sweet boy giving me a slight smile. I think he was wondering if the promise for a lolly would be fulfilled. Thank goodness the nice hairdresser was patient with the me even though she was dealing with me taking pictures of my squirmy child while she is taming his crazy hair. 

And as promised... a sugary treat as reward for being as well-behaved as possible for the First Haircut experience. He chose a watermelon flavored lolly :o)

This was not Little Man's First Haircut obviously but it is adorable to watch him get his haircut. I feel bad because it has been a long time since his last haircut and he has been asking to get it cut for at least a month. As you can see from the pictures...He is so serious and watches the hairdresser the entire time. He will even ask for his hair to be "just a little shorter please, I look really handsome with short hair. My mommy says so!" 

Squishy has a great example for a Big Brother and I couldn't be more proud of my two handsome young men.

Last Day of K4

Oh my goodness! How time flies.... I feel like the school year just began and Little Man was getting ready for preschool. It was so adorable how super excited he was about his Spider Man backpack and lunch box. Looking back at the pictures I took on the first day of school make me a little teary-eyed. He looks so grown up, its hard to believe it was taken almost 10 months ago.


Now his first school year is officially done and I am a proud mom for sure! It was the most amazing school year and I know that Little Man is very sad that school is out for summer break. I can't say I blame him! He had the most amazing teachers ever! God has truly blessed Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Monica with an incredible ability to touch children's hearts and minds. I am so thankful that my son was able to be taught by these amazing women because I know he is set for success. Little Man wants to practice his letters, counting and asks me tons of intelligent questions all the time now. He is so interested in his surroundings and loves to experiment (thanks to the hands-on-learning techniques of his teachers). I am sad that Little Man will not be attending the same school next year since we will be in another state, but I pray that his kindergarten teacher is half as good as his K4 teachers!

The class pulled together to get the teachers an end of year gift but Little Man wanted to make something special for Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Monica. He made them personalized coffee cups. He told me he wanted them to use them everyday. He made sure to color each cup just a little differently so Mrs. Monica and Mrs. Evans would know which cup was which. I thought it was a sweet gesture and very thoughtful. He even made his Daddy and I some special cups to use on our way to work.

Little Man received 2 new books as an end of year gift from his teachers too: It's Hard to be Five and If You Give A Cat A Cupcake. Both of these books are amazing. Little Man has had me read them several times since he received them. I think what makes these most special for Little Man is that they are signed with a little note of encouragement for the upcoming school year from his teachers.

I am ready for an exciting summer with my family and to start our new chapter in South Carolina!

Summer Vacation has officially commenced!

Prayer for Teachers 

Great is the wisdom of the Lord!
God Almighty, Your Wisdom includes
An understanding of what is fair,
What is logical, what is true,
What is right and what is lasting.
It mirrors Your pure intellect!
I entreat You to grant me such Wisdom,
That my labours may reflect Your insight.
Your Wisdom expands in Your creations,
Displaying complexity and multiplicity.
Your Wisdom is an eternity ahead of man.
May Your wisdom flourish forever!