When the Saints Go Marching In!

Our parish holds a huge All Saints' Day celebration on October 31st.  It's a neat thing. All the children, some teens, and even a few adults dress as a saint and process into Mass to the tune of "When the Saints Go Marching In."  Following Mass, there is a hot dog meal, games and prizes throughout the building and a Magic show to wrap things up.  Todd and I have been in charge the past two years.  We truly enjoy serving the parish in this ministry!

Madeline dressed as Saint Bernadette.

Haley dressed as Saint Dymphna.

Joseph dressed as Saint Joseph.

Lillian dressed as Saint Rose of Lima.

Eleanor dressed as Saint Kateri Tekawitha.

Esther dressed as Saint Helen.

Peter dressed as Saint Juan Diego.

Although not dressed as saints, I figured this glow in the dark skeleton costume wouldn't cause Benj to overheat and had not pieces for him to take off and lose throughout the evening. I had my skeleton shirt on as well, so we matched!

All Saints' Day 2015 - check!  My mom was here to visit and helped keep an eye on "the runners" (that would be Peter and Benjamin) during the party so Todd and I could make sure things were running smoothly.  The other kids all buddied up with siblings and friends and had a fabulous evening.

God Bless!

Heather :-)

Christian Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we gathered around the kitchen table to carve our pumpkins!  Todd found them at Aldi for $3.50 a piece - not a bad deal!  We will be bringing them along to our parish's All Saints' Day celebration tomorrow.  After searching the internet for inspiration and patterns, we set to work.  They turned out pretty cool looking, don't you think?!

Here they are all lined (and lighted) up!

Haley and Eleanor created this pro-life pumpkin.

Joseph and Lillian worked on the Holy Spirit pumpkin.

I almost destroyed the Alpha and Omega - it looks much better in the dark!

Todd carved a monstrance into this pumpkin.

Esther assisted Madeline in cutting Noah's Ark into their pumpkin. 

Not quite the same with the lights on, are they?

We'll  be spending tomorrow morning at the church getting everything set for the party.  Then, in the evening, we'll be joined by tons of children dressed as their favorite saints to celebrate Mass and have a lot of fun at the party.

God Bless!

Heather :-)

7 Quick Takes - Name that Saint!

Last night, all the children got dressed up as a favorite saint, loaded up into the van, attended holy Mass, and partied!  Our church has a well-attended, crazy, chaotic, super fun All Saints' Day party that the children look forward to all year long.  Honestly, they start discussing who they should be for the next year on the way home!  I thought it would be fun to play a little "Name that Saint" with some photos of the children in their finery!

(1)

I was born in present day New York in 1656.

I survived smallpox as a child and was an orphan.

I was baptized as a Roman Catholic and went to live at a Jesuit mission in present day Canada.

I was shunned by my Native American tribe because of my faith in Jesus Christ.
I am known as the Lily of the Mohawks.

I died at the age of 24.

          Who am I?

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

(2)

I lived in the 2nd century in Rome.

My purity and love for God converted my husband to the faith.

My husband and his brother were both martyred.  I died for Christ shortly after they did.

I am the patron saint of musicians and church music.

          Who am I?

Saint Cecilia

(3)

I was a carpenter and descendent of King David.

Angels spoke to me and told me how to best take care of my wife and son.

I am the foster father of Jesus and husband of Mary.

I am usually pictured with carpenter’s tools, the infant Jesus, or a staff with lily blossoms.
I am the patron of the Universal Church.

          Who am I?

Saint Joseph

(4)

I lived in Hungary in 11th century.

I was raised as a Christian.

I gave everything I could to the poor; many people did not like me for this.

While I was delivering bread to a poor family, my husband asked me what I was carrying. I told him roses but he did not believe me, when he looked into my basket, he miraculously saw roses instead of bread!

When my husband died, I used all of our money to build a hospital and care for the sick.

          Who am I?

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

(5)

I was born in 291 and died in 304.

My family was wealthy.

I was raised as a Christian.

I loved God more than anything else and God helped protect my purity.

I gave my life for God when I was only 13 years old.

My name means “chaste and pure”.

I am usually shown holding a lamb.

I am the patron saint of young girls.

          Who am I?

Saint Agnes

(6)

My story is found in the Old Testament in the bible before the time of Christ.

My husband is a king who chose me for his wife.  He did not know that I was a Jew.

An evil man named Haman wanted to get rid of all of the Jews. He was an aid to the king.

My cousin Mordecai told me of Haman’s plan and I bravely went to the king to save my people.

The king punished Haman and prevented him from killing all of the Jews because we trusted in God.

          Who am I?

Queen Esther

(7)

I was born in Mexico on 1474.

The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to me and told me to ask the Bishop to build her a church.

When I went to the Bishop, he did not believe me and asked for a sign.

I went back to the hill where I saw our Blessed Mother and picked roses that were growing in the winter.

I put the roses in my tilma and went back to the Bishop.

When I opened my tilma to show him the roses that were miraculously growing in the winter, a beautiful image of Mary was on my tilma.

The Bishop ordered the church to be built!

          Who am I?

Here's a picture of the beautiful image of Our Lady that the big girls worked on this weekend.  Peter wanted nothing to do with wearing this.  As soon as we put it on him, he began to scream!

Ahhhh...I'm so much happier without my costume on!

Juan Diego

(BONUS!)

Didn't the kids do a great job pulling their costumes together?  I also decided to dress up a little bit this year.  Take a good look at the picture to meet our new "saint in the making"....hee, hee, hee!

Hmmmm....I don't think that I look that big already.  Must just be the camera adding 10 pounds, huh?

We are so excited about this it's been hard to keep it a secret!  We're 10 weeks and all seems to be going well.  I've been going to an all NFP Catholic clinic and am really happy with the care we are receiving.  Baby is penciled in to arrive at the end of May, but as we all know, baby will come when he/she is good and ready!

I hope that you all had a wonderful All Saints' Day celebration and that you continue on with prayers for All Souls' Day tomorrow.

Head on over to Conversion Diary to see more quick takes.

God Bless!

Heather :-)

All Saints Day Party

This past Sunday, we all loaded up into "Big Blue" to attend an All Saints Day party at the Church of St. Paul in Ham Lake, MN.  This is the church we are hoping to move closer to as we are also part of the home school co-op and Family Formation program there.  This was our first year attending the party, and we didn't know what to expect.  Because we had an hour drive to get there, we had to choose the party or trick or treating because there wouldn't be time for both.  The family chose the party, and as it turned out, we are so happy that we did!

The evening began with a simple hot dog dinner which was a big hit with the kids.

The Guarding Angel and St. Elizabeth of Hungry feasting on a hot dog dinner.

Next there were games set up in the classrooms.  There were about a dozen carnival type games for the children to play and they absolutely loved them!  Each of the games had some sort of a saint theme.   There was also cotton candy (super popular with the kids!) and popcorn being made fresh all evening. 

All of the kids at the Saint Walk (aka cake walk)

Joseph putting on St. Patrick's Green.

Lillian pulling a sucker out of St. Therese's bouquet.

Joseph (St. George) shooting a dragon with a Nerf gun.

There were hay rides/tractor rides throughout the evening which was great.

Hay ride fun!

The evening ended with each child taking home a HUGE bag of candy and treats along with the prizes they had collected from the carnival games. Our children had a fabulous time and can't wait for next year's party!

It was fun to see all of the youth walking around dressed as a favorite saint.  My older girls really put a lot of thought into which saint they wanted to be.  Madeline finally decided upon St. Therese of the Child Jesus and Haley chose St. Elizabeth of Hungry.  Joseph, being a typical 7 year old boy, was one of the many St. Georges walking around with a sword and shield.  Lillian was a guardian angel.  Eleanor was a puppy and Esther a mouse which aren't saints, but two of God's creatures.  Next year, we'll have Todd be St. Francis so that the animals fit in a little better!  This year Todd was St. Maximilian Kolbe with a prisoner's shirt onto which we sewed his prisoner number.  I was St. Elizabeth Ann Seton who is the patroness of our home school.

On the drive home, the kids chatted about the fun evening and talked about how much more fun it was than the traditional trick or treating we typically would have done.  Joseph said it best when he said, "And to think that I almost didn't want to come...it was AWESOME!"

God Bless!

Heather :-)