Halloween 2013 has come and gone. We had a great Halloween season this year. I like to call it a season because we celebrate not only Halloween but All Saint’s Day and All Soul’s Day so it feels like a season in and of itself!
We kicked it off on October 24th with trick or treating at our Alma Mater. They started doing this when Brianna was a baby and we’ve gone almost every year since. The college students get an absolute kick out of all the kids coming through the dorms and getting to hand out candy to them. We love it because the kids get another use of their Halloween costumes. The kids love it because it means more candy! It’s a win-win!! It seems to get bigger and bigger every year! I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many people as we saw this year, which is great! But it also meant the halls were a little crowded!
Saint Paul
Saint Barbara
Saint George the Dragon Slayer
Saint Joseph
The kids really enjoyed it and they got to see their cousin, Shane which was a lot of fun!
Silly Shane!
Happy kids!
October 27th when the PSR program sponsored the first ever Saints Alive event at our parish. Since Steven runs the PSR and I teach 6th grade we kind of had to be involved 🙂 It was a good turnout for the first year and I think everyone had a great time! There all kinds of games like Musical Saints
Pin the Halo on the Saint
Fishing with the Saints
And even Canonize the Saints!
We also had a Saints Parade right before the Costume Contest was judged by Father.
We even had some adults who got in on the dressing up fun!
Yes, that is my husband in the skirt!! He was St. Michael, I was St. Cecilia.
We felt like it was a successful first year and really allowed us to iron out all the kinks and prepare better for next year. I think next year’s party will be even more fun!
I don’t have any actual pictures from Halloween. My sister in law brought her camera which takes AMAZING pictures so I left the picture taking up to her. And I don’t have any pictures yet. But our Halloween was really cloudy and windy. It was perfect Halloween weather, until the rain moved in about an hour in to Trick-or-Treating. Did that stop our crew though?? Well, it did stop Jonah and Eli but Brianna and Micah kept right on going and stayed out the entire 2 hours (with Steven and other adults that is!!) We have more candy than they can eat before Easter but that’s what it’s all about right??
We attended Mass on All Saint’s Day (Friday, November 1) although I spent the entire hour in the back of the church. Oh well! At least I was there and got to take Communion. Sometimes that’s all you can ask for!
Saturday, November 2nd we celebrated All Soul’s Day. I had told Steven’s grandma that I would make a new Fall headstone saddle for Steven’s Uncle Keith’s headstone. I had never made one before but the one on his stone was so worn and faded and I enjoy trying to learn how to do new crafty things. So I headed out to the Dollar Tree and to Big Lots where I found some silk fall flowers, cattails, berries and leaves. My mom, who had worked at a florist in high school showed me how to put it all together. I was so happy with how it turned out!
Front
Back
I learned the hardest thing about creating a saddle is getting started. Once you decide where you are going to start you have to make some symmetry around the saddle so that it looks balanced. Once you have it started it goes pretty quickly. I also learned that choosing your flowers and fillers is very important. You need flowers of various sizes and lots of coordinating colors.
After dinner we took the saddle over to show Grandma and Grandpa and then Grandma went with us to the cemetery to put it on Keith’s grave. We also prayer the 23rd Psalm and a Hail Mary. It was a short little ceremony but it was nice.
So that’s what we did for Halloween, er All Saint’s Day, um All Soul’s Day. What a busy week it was, but it was great at the same time!
2 Parents, 4 Kids, 1 Chaotic Wonderful Life 