Halloween / All Saints Day / All Souls Day -- 2013

Carving Jack-O-Lanterns on the Night Before Halloween

 

 

Yes, that's a gun on the side of Adam's pumpkin.
It's a "Han Solo" pumpkin and HAD to have a gun.

 

Our Traditional Halloween Dinner ---- Breakfast!

 

Jon attempted to get fancy with the pancakes ---
coloring them orange and adding chocolate chip pumpkin faces.

 

Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and very windy on Halloween Night.

Beggar's Night had to be postponed until November 2nd.

 

 

All Saint's Day

 

We started off this great Feast by attending Mass with some of our homeschool friends before our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and Geography classes.

 

In Geography class we learned about Saints from around the world and made these saint banners ----

 

We also used our wooden Saint dolls and placed them on a world map according to where they lived.

 

 

That afternoon, our homeschool group enjoyed a fun "Saints on Skates" roller skating party.

Some of the families participated in a "Saint O'Lantern" contest.

 

Fortunately, after such a busy day I did not have to cook dinner!

We met Jon, MaMaw, and Carter at our parish for a yummy spaghetti dinner.

All Soul's Day

 

We prayed for all of our family and friends who have died, especially my great Aunt Sister Loretta Forquer who passed away this year. We prayed for all the souls in purgatory. As is our tradition, we planted flower bulbs as a reminder of the miraculous transformation from death to life.... Jesus' promise that we will have New Life in Him.

 On the evening of All Souls Day we were FINALLY able to go trick-or-treating. We invited our cousins and friends to join us for pizza and trick-or-treating. It was a fun evening!

What a cast of characters!!!

The "Star Wars" bunch!
We had two Luke Skywalkers (Ray and Ryan)!

Ray's candy haul.... and his tonsils. Ewww. ;)

 

Best buddies.... still.

 These were busy days, especially on the heels of our South Carolina trip. But they were wonderfully fun. It's such a meaningful week liturgically and I love celebrating it every year. Now we're on to observing lots of awesome Saint days this month.... and counting our blessings of course.