Fall/Halloween/All Saints

Because I am the sort to procrastinate (and because the attic ladder was broken until just a few days ago), we did not put up any decorations until Thursday, the day before Halloween. As it turns out, we had good bit of rain, so I am thankful that we had not set up any outside decorations ahead of time. But I do enjoy adding a few touches of fall/Halloween to our shelves.

Inspired by All Saints food tags from Lacy at Catholic Icing, we set a table with snacks to represent several saints. I keep thinking that I want to create a generic saints tag (cause the tags just make everything festive) and have each guest bring a treat to represent their favorite saint. 

We do have the most festive family! These are most of my wonderful children and grandchildren (one family is missing from the photo line up as they came later), some nieces and nephews, and a few dear friends. 

Oh, and Paul was missing above. We caught him with Jack Sparrow and Maleficent (who hand made her entire costume by the way!), and also carrying a tired trick-or-treater on his shoulders. 

Next Friday is our annual homeschool All Saints party, so there is more fun in store! 

I've linked these before, but here are a few articles for the season:

http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/all-hallow-s-eve.html 

This above link was going to the site and not the article- if that happens, just type "Halloween" in the search bar and then click on this article :

 All Hallow's Eve

One of the nicest surprises of living around the year with the Church is to find that Halloween is part of it.

http://www.domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/20000901/ARTICLES/all_souls.htm

Halloween And All Saints Food and Fun

This is really "All Hallow's Eve" as we don't have everyone over again on 

All Saint's Day (maybe we should!). 

We put out our saints themed food using the printable cards from Catholic Icing- 

Aren't these fun?! :) 

http://catholicicing.com/easy-party-food-ideas-for-all-saints/

A young friend of ours contributed some saint themed food with her own cards and drawings.

I love it!!! 

As usual, I procrastinated, but managed to put up a few fun fall/halloween decorations. 

Along with our saints line up (not sure why I only took a picture when half were up...). 

 James created these fun ghosts that we found via Pinterest.

http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/09/todays-project-spirit-jugs.html

We used those bracelet glow sticks to light them- green works best (by far). 

Other Fun: 

My adult kids just crack me up! Frank and I are going to have to get on board and dress up next year. 

Things to note- 

I announced a few years ago that Dorothy married the Scarecrow. Now they have a new addition to the family! I guess in OZ Scarecrow and Dorothy could have a baby lion! :) 

I don't have a picture of my daughter's whole family (top right), as they arrived later in the evening, but I love love love her costume. Notice the two little ones in there? Yup. That's some news! 

And Erin (bottom left), is Princess Peach to her boyfriend Nick's Mario (isn't he a good sport!). 

Last but not least the adorable Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head! Toy story themed all the way with the dinosaur and Woody. And, hiding under that pink nose on Mrs. Potato Head... a little girl!! :) 

Just a few random pics: 

Lord of the rings was a big theme around here this year too! And notice the fire fighter handing out candy- he also let the kids sit in the truck. That was a serious treat. Mark made good use of his Civil War attire for Halloween. 

Erin did some adorable pumpkins- you know those cute ones that are all around Pinterest that have patterns on them using a drill? She did that and then used them to hold flowers. Super duper cute but no pictures! If I can find some, I'll come back in add. 

In the meantime... I can show you these. 

Articles about Halloween and All Saints Day- 

http://catholicism.about.com/od/thecatholicfamily/p/Halloween.htm

http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/all-hallow-s-eve.html

Feast Day Decorating and Planning

Time to say good-bye to our September feast day table: 

 I am showing it again because Mark rearranged it after dusting. 

I thought he did a nice job! 

Just in case you didn't notice this addition to the table- Paul is preparing to make his Confirmation this year!! 

On to October: 

Something I never thought about- a priest I know said this is not an accurate representation  of guardian angels. There would be two. Still, I love this little picture. 

I couldn't get the glare to cooperate for a picture, but you get the idea. I am sad that I can't find all the guardian angel crafts my boys made (linked in my previous post).  I am usually really good about holding on to those types of things. 

Speaking of decorations and such- 

I know that they are the small things. Not the substantial things of our faith. But I always keep in mind that ours is a visual faith (as well as other senses!) and little reminders around the home are nice. The cherry on top, so to speak. 

We have tried several systems to keep our things organized. None seemed to work. Now we just keep it all in boxes. The general idea is standing things plus twine and clothes pins (for hangers) are in one, flat things and decorative items like fake flowers in another, and March gets its own box. Nothing elaborate and it seems to work just fine. As a matter of fact, the boys kind of have fun digging for the needed items to put on our table. 

Places I go to plan feast day celebrations: 

Catholic Culture calendar

Catholic Icing for crafts and inspiration

Paper Dali for great saints to color

Waltzing Matilda blog for more great saints

Domestic Church for great explanations 

More great crafts and ideas at Catholic Inspired (formerly Crafolic)

The Catholic Bloggers network for a monthly round up from the blogosphere

And, for food, Catholic Cuisine 

 Just thought I'd share. 

Linking with Catholic Bloggers Network for the month of October. 

All Saint's Day::My Saint Juan Diego

My darling grandbaby on All Saint's Day!

Fatima

October 13, 1917 marks the day of the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun.

Resources for the Day:

Books and Movies
Our Lady of Fatima by Father Lovasik S.V.D.
The Children of Fatima by Mary Fabyan Windeatt
Even knowing this story, I was a taken aback by the brutal nature of some of this story. My boys were about 8, 6, and 4 years old when I read it to them for the first time- I would probably not have included my youngest two in our read aloud time. Miss Windeatt does a nice job presenting the story for older children.
Our Lady of Fatima Coloring Book by Mary Fabyan Windeatt
The Day the Sun Danced, The Story of Fatima DVD

On the Internet
Lots of fun ideas at Catholic Icing to honor Our Lady
Catholic Culture-Our Lady of Fatima
Slide show/Audio on Apostleship of Pray
10 Words About Mary and the Rosary Copy Work from That Resource Site

James made the "Miracle of the Sun Spinner" shown at Catholic Icing. He enjoyed making and it entertained his 1 year old nephew as well!

 

St. Francis

St. Francis, pray for us.

One of our first posts, on October 1, 2008, was in preparation of Saint Francis' feast day. Shortly after that, we posted our "after" pictures of our St. Francis feast day celebration.


Waltzing Matilda has a magnificent coloring page that we have used.


Apostleship of prayer has a  narrated slide show that can be watched.
It takes just a quick second to load.


And, Saint of the Day has a short audio for this feast day.


For a great craft, Catholic Icing is the place to go. I think we are going to try a St. Francis spoon saint tomorrow.


I am printing some Saint Francis Trading Cards tonight from That Resource Site. There are also plenty of other resources for this feast day there as well.

Start by doing what is necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. ~St. Francis of Assisi

Our Lady of the Rosary- Oct. 7th

Here is a nice explanation for kids of this feast day.
http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/kids/saints/1007_ourlady.asp

Pflaum publishers has this sample page of their book "Pray with Mary" that includes an explanation of the rosary and a simple activity page to go with it.
http://www.pflaum.com/preview/praywithmary.pdf

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI- OCT. 4

Here is a nice simple packet of St. Francis of Assisi printables. (updated info as the coloring page previous linked is broken)


Don't forget the short story and activity page that you can print out mentioned in our previous St. Francis post. (http://www.pflaum.com/preview3/godsheroes.pdf)

I set a few things out on the table before I went to bed the night before. I knew the boys would be up before me and this would remind them that it is St. Francis' feast day.

Paul was very excited to wake up in the morning to the table all set. It is his St. Francis statue on the table. He has a fondness for St. Francis. They have a love of animals in common. Dad read the story of St. Francis and the Wolf to the boys. They loved it. It had plenty of adventure. With the ferocious wolf and all, they were hooked.

And, finally, Mark colored this nice St. Francis picture for us. I thought he did a great job!

GUARDIAN ANGEL FEAST DAY CELEBRATION

We did it! The kids were up bright and early this morning to prep for our feast day celebration. James made the Angel Bread- a task that he is very proud of. The older boys set the table. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures when they were done, but they took great care to arrange all the decorations, cups and plates in a very nice way.

  To start off our celebration, Grandpa read a short article from The Domestic Church. We all prayed the Guardian Angel prayer, and then enjoyed our company and our food!

Grandpa and Grandma were each gifted with their own prayer cards and a little standing angel that the boys had made.

All and all, it was a great morning. The boys really enjoyed our time with their Grandparents and it made a special memory.

A picture of the kids (sorry Mark for cutting you out a bit!) with Grandpa and Grandma. The fire station Lego set at the end of the table in not a decoration, just a recent birthday gift :-).

When we were done, we took the decorations that we had left and set them on the window sill to enjoy!

St. Francis of Assisi - planning ahead

This Saturday, October 4th, is the Feast Day for St. Francis of Assisi. I don't want to get overwhelmed, so we are just going to spend a bit of time taking extra care of our pets in his honor- showing love for God's creatures.

I also came across this offering from Phlaum Publishing.

http://www.pflaum.com/preview3/godsheroes.pdf

Scroll down to the book titled "God's Heroes' and you can print up the first sample story and activity- featuring none other than St. Francis himself!

Visit their home page to see more resources!

http://cart.pflaum.com/home.php

FEAST OF THE GUARDIAN ANGEL- OCT. 2

We're off- plans for our first ever family feast day celebration! In the "keep it super simple" mode, we are having Grandma and Grandpa (who are also our next door neighbors) over to morning tea. On the menu- Angel bread from our cookbook and decaf tea.

The kids have been hard at work on making a few decorations:

This little prayer card is simply a printed picture of a guardian angel glued to a piece of scrap paper. For decorations, my 5yo glued some sequin type things left over from another craft project- glue and glitter would do. And, on the back, he glued the "prayer to my guardian angel' that I had typed and printed for him.


Below, the colored in and glittered angel prayer cards- (also with the guardian angel prayer glued to the back) and standing angels came from the Seton Press art book.

Here are some instructions for a standing angel- a bit Christmasy looking, but with a few design changes, it will be perfect:

http://www.dltk-bible.com/mangel.html

For a great place to go for more information on Guardian Angels to honor this feast day go here:

http://www.domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/19980901/SAINTS/GUARDIAN.HTM

The explanations are presented in three categories- young families, practiced families, and experienced families. I love this site!!

We are making the 'Angel bread' from our cookbook, but angel food cake (bought or made) would work just as well- cut in to bite sized pieces and make a 'fondue dip' by heating up some hot fudge sauce!