Good Shepherd Garden Party~Week 4

The Wind and Sea Obey Him

We are officially half way through the Easter season!  Our countdown continues as we wrap up the 4th week of Easter with  The Garden of the Good Shepherd calendar.  It was fun to be able to participate in another Good Shepherd Garden Party over at Catholic Cuisine.

We talked a lot about the Bible stories featuring boats, a good review of scripture for all of us.  Early in the week we incorporated a few of the week's symbols at a simple breakfast meal.  

We had cantaloupe boats and pancake nets!

For our Garden Party we included all of the symbols for the week.  

This was our menu (with symbols in italics):

Hotdog Boats with olive Mast and cheese Sails

(Hot dogs were cooked on the Barbecue)

Fish and Whale crackers

Leviathan banana fruit platter 

Chocolate pudding Net pie

Last week, Jamie Jo used colorful plates for their Garden Party.  I adopted her idea for this week's 

Sea Theme.  We used ocean blue paper plates, complete with waves!

These were the olive sails and cheese masts for our boats!

(Our mast was missing the holy cross...Nevertheless, we pray that the Holy Spirit will help us sail through troubled waters)

These were initially a little too heavy for our hot dog boats!  After lightening the skewer by taking off a few olives and shortening the sticks, they finally stood up a little better.  The idea in my mind didn't quite work out as perfectly in reality!  Can you tell I am not an engineer?

The Barbecue, recalling how Jesus revealed himself to his followers.

Our hotdog boats...steadily sailing after a few improvements.

(Although, they were still a little top heavy and could have used more sail and mast trimming. (Note for next time)

We added our "little fish" and whale crackers since we are all little fishes who follow Jesus, the "big fish." 

These little whale crackers were a big hit and would also be a great snack when talking about the story of Jonah.  I found them at the Dollar Tree.

Our Leviathan sea serpent was the highlight of our Garden Party!  Since some people thought of it looking like a giant squid or octopus, we discovered a fun way to make a Leviathan Octopus Fruit Platter Garnish!

Isn't he the cutest little squid/octopus you have ever seen?

I found this video while googling ideas.  Check it out...So easy to do and the kids got such a kick out of it!

Finally, we were happy to get caught up in our chocolate Net pie, remembering that Jesus uses his loving net to catch all of us, carrying us to new life.

We just followed the easy recipe on the box of Chocolate Pudding to make a pie.  Using Cake Mate white icing, we drew the net pattern on top of the pie.  It was really simple and a trusty "yum!"

~It was nice to have Dad home to join us for this fun lunch~ 

We pray you are all "Smooth Sailing" with the Good Shepherd!