Thursday, November 7, 2013

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.








Monday, November 4, 2013

"Steel" In Love

While we were in South Carolina, Jon and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary.
 
 
 
The traditional gift for year 11 = STEEL
We didn't do real well with actually buying steel gifts, but we made lots of loving comments about how much we "steel" love each other. ;)
 
We had a lovely day touring Charleston and then we got to spend the evening on a very nice dinner cruise on the Charleston Harbor while Dad and Mary watched the boys and put them to bed.
 
October 26, 2002
 
October 26, 2013
 
After we "jumped the broom" at Boone Hall Plantation, we walked down to a beautiful boathouse where a wedding was about to take place. Mary made us pose with all these mushy signs......
 

 
Some pictures from the dinner cruise....



Happy anniversary to my awesome husband!
You're "steel" the one for me!
I love you more today than yesterday....
but not as much as tomorrow.
 


Sunday, November 3, 2013

South Carolina -- Part Two

In addition to our learning adventures in Charleston, we were fortunate to have some time to visit with my Dad and Mary at their home in Little River (just North of Myrtle Beach).
 
 
We had lots of fun watching 3D video clips on their new TV.

The boys camped out on this air mattress in the office.

 
Bedtime stories!

Jon actually flew home a few days before us. (Someone has to work to fund these jaunts, right?) Dad and I drove him to the airport and we stopped for a brief minute at the beach.
 
Jon chasing the birds on the beach. Gotta love that!


The boys LOVED the opportunity to play at the beach for a few days. It was chilly, but nothing was going to stop them from playing in the water! They had a blast.









This was a major construction operation.
Adam was the mastermind.
Ray was the water boy.
Pappy was the supervisor.


I really enjoyed a nice lunch out with my Dad and also a fun shopping day with Mary. But I think the best part for me was getting to sleep in for three days AND waking up to find bunches of schoolwork already completed! I could really get used to that!

I think Pappy really enjoyed being the morning tutor.



Thanks very much Pappy and Mary for your great hospitality! It was really fun spending the week with you. We can't wait to see you at Christmas!