Oh Lord I want to be in that number!

All Saints Day Party!

We took the kiddos to 2 different Saint Day celebrations. 

 

This first one was at a local retreat center.

The second All Saints Day Party was at our parish.

Our Mother's guild - St. Gerard's put it together and it turned out really fun.

My pictures just do not do it justice as I was rushing to snap a few pics before the festivities began.

We had 15 activities/games:

Here are a few that I took a picture of.

 Oh, first though are our Heavenly Gates!

 

I saw a heavenly entrance - so we ran with their creativity...

Our balloons clouds kept popping...and falling I guess too!

 

Games:

 St. John Bosco

The kids kicked a soccer ball in the goal and then received a variety of balls for a prize.

 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

My 8 year old daughter, Lydia, thought of this game and I loved it!  The kids had to study the items on the chalk board and then turn around and something was taken away and they had to guess what was missing.  Super Cute!  They received "smarties" candy for a prize.

St. Mary Magdalene's Perfume shop

Match up the scents!

We had: Mint, Lemon, Cherry, Banana, Root Beer, and Garlic....yum!

Toss the Halo on the Saint

Saintly version of a ring toss game.

We used yellow glow necklaces for the halo....prizes were LED Finger lights.

St. Anthony, St Anthony please come around

 

something is lost and cannot be found!

Kiddos Saints simply pulled a prize out from packaging peanuts...easy enough!

St. Joseph's 

Workshop Shop

 

The idea was to have 2 kids race to build a chair, but I think they just built one and called it good!

Prize was a pencil....since they are made from wood!

St. Isadore's Pumpkin Bowling

St. Helen

 trying it out.

Prize was Mott's Medleys Fruit snacks from Costco.

St. Peter's Fishing Game

We had versions of this game.  I did not get a picture of the other version for the little ones...

There was a little baby pool filled with blow up fish and the little ones could find a statue of St. Peter in it.  They loved bouncy in the little pool!

St. Cecelia's Musical Chairs

Absolute hit with everyone.

  Except Our Lady would not move out of her seat, she just sat there and watch the other children walk around her.  It was cute....Our Lady did not want to wear her veil either.

We decorated a tree in honor of St. Francis....

St. Lucia in front!

Saint George -

There he is!

 Fighting the dragon

Throwing him in the fiery furnace!

 St. Therese

Rose Toss of course.

Parade

The Saints paraded around the parish center...St. Lucia was so sweet to carry Our Lady!

We had 3 more games/activities - I just did not snap a picture of these:

St. Patrick - pin the shamrock on him

St. Martha's Bake Shop - Decorate a cookie

St. Helen - Find the True Cross - simply pick from 3 crosses to guess which one Jesus was on - turn it over to find out! 

Each station had a picture and a bio of each saint.  In the case of the Toss the Halo game I made a picture with Jesus (from Faith Keepers Holy Card Maker as were most of the other pictures) and the sheet read:
Help Jesus Toss the Halo on the Saint
Let their halo shine bright for they are filled with Jesus' light!

Wish I had better pics - this was a few years of seeing all the ideas online and finally implementing them in our parish - it was great fun - thanks to all the moms that helped locally and all the moms that post such fun and creative ideas online for us to draw ideas from!

Valentine Cards - Photo Style!

A few years ago I started making photo Valentine Cards, and now I feel the obligation to keep it rolling....  Despite, how much time I waste in PicMonkey.....I like having their little picture on the "card"!

This is the first year I made one for Aliza.

We attached a chocolate heart and a little lollipop.

Cyrus...what a guy

 

We attached 2 Twizzlers

Here is Lydia's

She chose Blow Pops as her treat to pass out.

I thought it was cute as the lollipop is a bit umbrella like for the picture...you know if your are wanting to tie in the whole Mary Poppins thing with the wind....perhaps a stretch!

And the oldest

Evan is so easy going

I picked out his candy - he does not care so much.

Went with the 'ole Tootsie pops 

with the 'ole Tootsie Roll center!

So we are set...just have to finish up Lydia's cupcake Valentine Box and already sent Lloyd (the green ninja) off to kindergarten.  I will post a picture, cause it is stink'in cute and I am no ninja fan!

Happy Saint Valentine's Day!

Saint Lucia

I love this feast day.....

I am not even sure why.....

I used to not know a thing about it

(A girl with candles on her head....kinda weird...)

  I love the white dresses

 (or big brother's white t-shirt)

 

I love the the red sashes
(and little babes that look like funny elves)

 This little elf was not sticking around for pictures

(I am surprised she kept her crown on as long as she did)

 

I made their crowns-

I was short on greenery, but I will add more next year

why are babies so busy....

They rarely hold plates with food on them, let alone with fire!

and someone is ready to serve

 I could have watched them parade around the house

but the boys were growing impatient

we made it to the dining room

 

and despite my wishes of getting all the children together 

for a picture

I settled for 2 of 3 of my St. Lucias

and a quick one of Star boy

He made his hat at school (public even)

I love how in kindergarten they "travel" around the world and learn about various customs and traditions and God Bless them they get to learn about St. Lucia's Feast Day!

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Feast Day

So random of a post...

But this precious, yet at times challenging young girl,

 had sort of a name sake feast celebration.

Our Aliza...which is a spin of Elizabeth

 

In honor of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

We made castle cake.....

Or you could call it sour cream chocolate bundt cake

I used this chocolate glaze

 some of us had seconds....it was delic!

Shining Light Dolls - Beautiful & Contempory Marian Dolls

I just stumbled upon these precious Marian doll toys available from Shining Light Dolls.

I love Marian Apparitions...so many, many Heavenly Miracles - Glory be to God!

 

And there is a give away going on over at Blossoming Joy! 

(Ends on Friday Sept 13!)

Our Lady of Altagracia

Since our children go to public school, I try to incorporate several feast days at home when we are able to. Our Lady of Altagracia happened to fall on a Saturday this year (Jan 21) so we were able to do a few things. I had never heard of Our Lady of Altagracia before until of course I saw her over at Catholic Cuisine.  So, we read A Gift of Gracias: The legend of Altagracia.  It is a lovely book.

"Everyone"

Evan is being naughty!

Our "craft"

We painted orange trees.

We used big plastic bubble wrap to dip in paint to paint the oranges.

(Once the green was dry)

If you read the book it makes sense why we stuck Mary in the tree!

Lydia added those orange butterflies

and one of the trees never got the Our Lady of Altagracia in it....



Saint Lucia Feast Day - December 13

So, we have been celebrating some more feast days around here.  The kids love it!  There is so much to learn from our Saint Friends in Heaven. Their lives were so incredibly miraculous - it amazes me!  I know there are many "legends", but still many not!

Our Lucy Bride
(We had a hard time coming up with her red sash -
we made do with a cape and some thin ribbon!)

Good Morning!

I think the candles (on her crown) are supposed to be white,

but Lydia wanted them red for Jesus' blood. 

(She is getting ahead of herself for Lent!) So,

she made them red.  She can make anything out of paper -

if we do not have it, she can create a paper version!

She is happy as ever to do it too!

(the red sash was nearly going to be paper!)

our little Liza

crazy morning hair!

So, after school we made candle lights

that you can even eat for a treat!

Still using up that Halloween candy corn...

He is sooo goofy

We read our Lucia book a few days earlier,

it is on the long side for almost all my kids,

so I did not attempt it tonight.

Turns our it was a perfect day to speak of light

as it was a very dark cloudy day around here!