The feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is on February 11. Last year I saw this grotto made from fruity pebbles on Catholic Cuisine, and I thought it was one of the most adorable Catholic feast day celebration ideas I had ever seen! I knew I had to try my hand at making one this year! 🙂 You can find all of my ideas about how to honor Mary with kids in May here, and today we are going to talk about how to make a rice krispie treat grotto for Our Lady Of Lourdes.
I didn’t actually have a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, so we just used the Mary from our Little People Nativity set
. I get that it’s cute to make a grotto out of fruity pebbles or cocoa pebbles because of the play on words “pebbles”, but I opted for regular rice krispies.
First I made a regular batch of Rice Krispie treats. Some of them were spread flat into a pan like normal, but some of it I molded for the grotto using my bunt pan.
Warm rice krispie treats are surprisingly easy to mold any which way you want to. I read somewhere that if they start to set up too fast, you can use your hair dryer to make them pliable again. (If you wanted to make a big grotto, I think you could totally fill the bunt pan and cut it in half for the grotto piece.) Then I cut the sheet of rice krispie treats into squares and built my grotto as best I could.
I decided it looked boring and unfinished. It needed something more. So I whipped up another batch of Rice Krispie treats (only with cornflakes and green food coloring- like the cornflake wreaths you can make at Christmas time) to add some greenery cascading down our grotto. This was super easy to do while this stuff was warm! Just blob it on there- it looks so natural! 😉
It still seemed to be missing something… so I added a few roses at Mary’s feet. They were also really easy to make. Just take a long skinny piece of a fruit roll up and roll it into a tiny rose. Voila!
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I think the greenery and roses are just what this grotto called for! Now all this grotto needed was Mary! (Honestly, I seriously considered making a little spring filled with blue jello also, but sometimes you just gotta know when to stop. Lol!) If I had a little Fisher Price St. Bernadette, I might have made the jello spring.
it’s on!
I had waaaay too much fun making this with Lydia! Then, we brought the grotto to a super bowl party. Ya, don’t invite the freaky Catholic Icing lady to your super bowl party without expecting a Marian treat- lol!
It might be more fitting to watch this St. Bernadette children’s movie while enjoying this edible grotto treat, but whatever floats your boat. Go check out the fruity pebbles grotto on Catholic Cuisine- Jessica has a completely different way of assembling one of these than I do!
If you’re looking for more ideas, check out my other resources on how to honor Mary with kids.
Beautiful, meaningful, and delicious? Awesome!
Holy cow, Lacy! This has got to be one of the cutest things I've ever seen. And, oh man — it looks delicious too!
It looks great! I think the roses were the perfect touch!
You've really outdone yourself with this one! Man, would my kids love to do this! Thanks for the great photos.
Thank you Lacy! This is adorable! You never cease to amaze me…
The kids will definitely remember this project!
Fun! Kind of made me go into a sugar coma just looking at it.
This is by far the best Catholic craft ever. 🙂 Thanks for sharing it!! Bernadette is my patron -and one of my favorite saints. I think I'll have to dig into the christmas stuff to find Mary and make one myself!! Yum!
This is adorable! I am loving your blog! You are giving me great new ideas to use with my little ones.
WOW!! That is SO adorable! I don't know how you think of these little additions that make the crafts so…perfect! The roses and greenery were the perfect addition! They need a Catholic Family Fun magazine with you as chief editor of crafts! Thanks for the inspiration! God Bless!
What a wonderful adaptation of the original craft idea. I loved the addition of the greenery and roses, and the way you used what you already had (the Mary figure from your Little People Nativity). What a memory this will be for your family!
Love this site and post! We are definitely making this for our celebration. There will be a crowd so we are planning on three different grottos – fruity, cocoa and plain! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your gifts with others!
My kids and I had a blast making the Grotto. Everyone was able to help construct it and demolish it!
Thanks for the great idea!
You really did a great job on this one. I love it. It is so adorable and perfect.
lol…you are so catholic, creative and comical…this is my first time posting to your site…I'll be creative director for my homeschooled catholic grandchildren next year and definitely will be using your site as a resource. God Bless You!
Working on this w/ my girls right now! I happen to have a box of blue jello…..I am trying to have the strength to not make the stream!
Im making the stream….I definitely dont know when to stop! Well have fun sharing at coop tomorrow!
Love it! Thanks for posting a picture on facebook. Now I TOTALLY have to make one with a stream! How did you pull it off?