Sanctifying Halloween :: Celebrating the Saints!
We ended up having over 50 guests, including two wonderful priests, all six of my siblings that currently live in the area, and even four of our godchildren!
My children were especially excited to see their Aunt Julianna show up dressed as Blessed Kateri, and their little cousin as St. Philomena!
FAITH: The blindfolded participant represents the leading force in defying evil, faith, which must be blind. People gathered near the player and spin him around to confuse his sense of space. Sometimes the turns numbered thirty three in memory of the life of Christ. The voices of others cry out guidance, while others call out false directions to disorient the hitter.
HOPE: With the piñata hanging above their heads, the children watch towards the sky/heaven hoping and waiting for the prize. The stick for breaking the piñata symbolized virtue, as only good can overcome evil. Once broken, the candies and fruits represented the just reward for keeping faith.
CHARITY: Finally the piñata symbolizes Charity. With its eventual breaking, everyone shares in the divine blessings and gifts.
At this point I started wondering if some of the children, including my own, had eaten a little too much sugar… They were literally
All Saints in Heaven, Pray for us!
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
Our Cast of Saints ~ 2011
Links for November :: Month Dedicated to the Holy Souls
Month Dedicated to All Souls:
- Ora Pro Nobis Candy Boxes (2014)
November 1st ~ All Saints Day
Saintly Costumes:
- Saintly Costumes (lots of ideas and suggestions!)
- Getting Ready to Celebrate the Feast of All Saints (2010 – includes costumes from older years)
- Reminiscing (pictures from 2006)
- Any Guesses… (Saint Costumes from my childhood)
- Our Cast of Saints (2007)
- Our Cast of Saints ~ 2008 (Costumes: St. Patrick, St. John Berchmans, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Clare, St. Anthony)
- Our Cast of Saints (2009 – Costumes: St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. John Bosco, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Patrick)
- Almost Wordless Wednesday (2010 – Our Lady of Guadalupe)
- Our Cast of Saints (2010 – Costumes: St. Isaac Jogues, St. John the Evangelist, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Pius X, and Our Lady of Guadalupe)
- Our Cast of Saints ~ 2011 (Costumes: St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Lucy, St. George, St. Cecilia)
- {this moment} (2012)
- Our Parish All Saints’ Party and Costume Contest (2012)
- Our Cast of Saints (2012)
- Celebrating the Saints: Our 2013 Costumes
- Celebrating the Saints :: Our 2014 Costumes
- St. Francis of Assisi Costume
- A Costume for St. Maximilian Kolbe
- A Costume for St. Catherine of Alexandria
- St. Michael the Archangel
- St. Joan of Arc, Maid of Lorraine :: All Saints’ Day Costume
- Saintly Games
- Getting Ready to Celebrate the Feast of All Saints (2010)
- St. Martha’s Cake Walk (2010)
- All Saints Bingo :: A 30 Card Printable Bingo Set (2011)
- All Saints’ Day Party Games :: A Saintly Jigsaw Puzzle Race (2012)
- All Saints Scavenger Hunt {A Printable Party Game} (2012)
- All Saints’ Day Party Games :: Saint Themed Guessing Jars (2013)
- 12 More Saint Themed Guessing Jars (2014)
- All Saints Scavenger Hunt {Another Printable Party Game Featuring 16 Additional Saints & New Clues!} (2014)
Decorations:
- All Saints’ Day Banner Tutorial {including Printable!} (2012)
- An Alphabet of Saints :: B is for Blocks (2012)
- An Alphabet of Saints :: Painted Wooden Peg Dolls
Fasting and Feasting:
- Fasting and Feasting for All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls Day
- Making Cookies (2008) and Holy Ghost Cookies (2009)
- Candy Math (2009)
Past All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints’ Parties:
- All Saints’ Party (2008)
- All Hallows’ Eve (2009)
- A Few More Pictures… (from our 2010 All Saints Party)
- Sanctifying Halloween :: Celebrating the Saints (2011 Party – Hosted at Home!)
- {pretty, happy, funny, real} (2012)
- Celebrating the Saints :: Our Annual All Hallows’ Eve Party (2012)
- Celebrating the Saints :: Our Annual All Hallows’ Eve Party (2013)
November 2nd ~ All Souls Day
- A few Devotions for the Holy Souls
- Decorating Sugar Skulls
- A Mass at the Cemetery (2008)
- Mass on the Feast of All Souls ~ 2009 and A few more Pictures
- Mass on the Feast of All Souls (2010)
- Our 6th Annual Mass at the Cemetery (2011)
- Our 7th Annual Mass at the Cemetery… (2012)
- Our 8th Annual Mass at the Cemetery… (2013)
- Our 9th Annual Mass at the Cemetery… (2014)
November 3rd ~ Feast of St. Martin de Porres
- In Honor of St. Martin de Porres (Books, Craft, Snacks)
- Highlights from “M” Week
- Martin de Porres :: The Rose in the Dessert
November 9th ~ Feast of Dedication of St. John Lateran Basilica
November 11th ~ Feast of St. Martin of Tours
- Isn’t it cool…
- My Daybook ~ Nov 14th (Crescent Rolls and Coloring Pages for Martinmas!)
- Highlights from “L” Week – Lanterns for Martinmas
- Martinmas Lanterns
- Celebrating the Saints :: Saint Martin of Tours
November 16th ~ Feast of St. Margaret of Scotland (New)
November 17th (New) and 19th (Trad) ~ Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary
November 25th ~ Feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria
- A Saint Day Celebration! (2007)
- Celebrating the Feast of St. Catherine (2008)
- Crafting a Holy Water Font
- Little Flowers Girls’ Club :: The Gift of Understanding
- Fire Camp, A Greek Orthodox Monastery and a New Book
- On the Feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria (2012)
- My Daybook :: November 25, 2013
- Instagram Recap (2014)
November 28th ~ Feast of St. Catherine Laboure
- Thanksgiving Stories (A few of our Favorite Books)
- Gobble, Gobble… (Oreo Turkeys)
- Our Tree of Thanksgiving (2007)
- Painting Leaves… and So very much to be thankful for… (2008)
- Thanksgiving Day in Pictures (2008)
- Fall Baking :: Pumpkin Thumbprint Cookies
- Veggie Tray Turkey (2011)
- Caramel Apple Turkey (2012)
- Celebrating Thanksgiving (2013)
- Praline Pecan and Mallow-Topped Sweet Potatoes (2013)
- Our Festive Raspberry Cranberry Jello Mold (2013)
- Five Favorites for Thanksgiving (2014)
- Instagram Recap (2014)
OTHER RESOURCES:
Carving our Saint-O-Lanterns ~ 2011
Happy All Hallows’ Eve!
A Few Pictures…
A Costume for St. Catherine of Alexandria
We have been busy preparing saint costumes for our upcoming All Hallows’ Eve party! Last night I decided to try and make Twinkle Toes a “wheel” for her St. Catherine of Alexandria costume.
I pulled out an old hula-hoop from my closet and some brown duct tape (I wasn’t able to find any Wood Print tape locally), while Twinkle Toes went searching for “something round with a hole in the center.” My back-up plan was to cut out the center of a thick paper plate, but I was thrilled when she came back from the garage with a “Smokey the Bear Frisbee Ring” that one of the kids had brought home from the BLM at some point. It was the perfect size!
I wrapped the hula-hoop with the tape, wrapped and placed the frisbee in the center, created spokes with the tape, and then wrapped the spokes to make them a bit thicker. I used the whole roll of tape, and had just enough!
For a gown, Twinkle Toes decided to wear the burgundy one from her St. Margaret of Scotland costume in 2009. (I had ordered it extra big for Christmas in 2008, and it still fits!) We then pulled out an old brown beaded scarf of mine to make into a cloak. I had picked up a clasp, but either it never made it out of the store or it is hiding around here somewhere, so I improvised with the cords off a gift bag and some gold safety pins, to create a tie. We then finished her costume with one of her brother’s swords and a pretty little Gold Tiara Crown, complete with hearts for St. Catherine!
You can find other costume ideas in the archives including Saintly Costumes, A Costume for St. Maximilian Kolbe, and a St. Francis of Assisi Costume. You can also scroll through all of our past costume pictures here.
{this moment} :: “Real” Friends
I had so much fun visiting Charlotte and her wonderful family for Cupcake’s Baptism. Even though I knew it would be, it’s was so much fun to “meet” in person and see that those dear friendships formed online are just as “real” as they seem. I really wish Texas wasn’t so far away!! Oh, and sorry Charlotte! There really should be more pictures of your beautiful smile online… and perhaps a few less of my ridiculously huge smile! 😉
All Saints Bingo :: A 30 Card Printable Bingo Set
In preparation for this year’s All Hallows’ Eve Party, I have been working on a few new games. This year, instead of organizing and/or attending a homeschool party, we will be hosting one at our home and inviting some of our close friends and family. It is going to be so much fun!
We’ve decided not to do any of the carnival style games this year, but rather some fun outdoor group games. I have also been working on a few indoor games, in case the weather isn’t very cooperative, or for after it gets too dark to stay outside.
One of the games I created was this All Saints Bingo Game! I thought about ordering the Saint Search Game from Illuminated Ink, or downloading the 14 Saint Bingo cards from Catholic Mom, but I really wanted at least 30 variations of the cards so I decided to create my own set.
Of course I had to do so in the most difficult way (without the help of an online bingo generator) since I really had a specific idea in mind and wanted to include pictures of all the saints with a free space in the center.
Here is a sample of one of the cards that I came up with:
All of the 67 saint images that I choose to include are from the Picture Book of Saints by Father Lovasik and will be easily recognized by my children. I titled each card with “SAINT,” listed each saint’s name under their picture, and then put “Ora Pro Nobis!” (Pray for us!) in the free space. For markers I decided to use clear and gold glass gems.
I printed the cards on 8.5″x11″ white card stock and, trimmed them (though that wasn’t really necessary, and then started laminating them, along with all the small bingo call cards. Tomorrow I plan to laminate the rest, just as soon as I have some more laminating pouches… I ran out!
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