A Peek at Our Hallowtide

Happy Hallowtide! I love this time of year and I love celebrating the next three days. Here's a bit of a photo dump along with some of our plans. 

We have been pre-gaming for awhile, eating lots of popcorn mixed with candy corn, building fires in the fireplace, listening to my Halloween playlist, watching The Great Pumpkin, and more. 

Like decorating,

and carving jack o'lanterns

and fluffing the scarecrow after kids sit on its lap. And they always seem to sit on its lap while adults are always the ones who are startled by it.

Over the weekend the whole family went to a local park for a "Not So Scary" event so you get to see the kids in their costumes before the neighborhood. Lucky you. 

L and Ben's costumes go together and if you can figure them out then you're the best. Do you want a clue? Okay: Raggedy Man. 

It's a family tradition to have chili for dinner on Halloween, this year with cute little pumpkin biscuits on the side. After trick-or-treating we'll probably have popcorn and hot chocolate.

On All Saints Day the family will attend the All School Mass, where JF and all the first graders will dress as saints. It's the sweetest thing ever. They process in with Father and once Mass is done they each stand in front and give a little bio on the saint they are representing. Can you guess who JF will be?

Since the day is a Solemnity we'll be having a family favorite (and slightly labor intensive to make) meal for dinner: sweet and sour chicken. It has nothing to do with the theme except that everyone loves it. Dessert will be Halloween candy. :)

Last year I gathered all our saint peg dolls and lined them up on the buffet aka family altar but this year they're being loaned out to my friend Katie. We'll gather holy cards for this spot instead and pray a litany of family saints at bed time. 

In case you're in charge of your child's All Saints' Day snack here's a little something I made up last year. Each baggie had this little rhyme typed up and slipped inside. 

All Saints have symbols to help us connect: 

Animals for Francis, firewood for Bernadette. 

Green for St. Patrick, Yellow for Mary's Heavenly Crown.

Royal Purple for King Wenceslas, Food for St. Isidore who farmed the ground.

Tomorrow we'll pray for all the poor souls. 

Today we'll celebrate Saints who reached Heaven's goals.

animals = Teddy Grahams

firewood = pretzel sticks

green, yellow, and purple = Skittles

food = Motts fruit snacks

poor souls = marshmallows with faces made from edible markers

I have no idea if it helped the kids or not, but I sure thought it was cute. ;)

The Feast of All Souls is a busy day for our family, but an important one. In between parent teacher conferences and all the regular busyness of a school night we will be attending our parish's Mass of Remembrance. I want to take some time to remember and pray for our grandparents who have passed, along with all the souls in Purgatory. We may work through these little booklets my friend Katie made, too.

So that's our upcoming week! Tell me your plans!

October + Costumes + Help Me!

October is here! I hope it's been treating you well. I love this month and all the fun it brings.

This weekend we'll go to a pumpkin patch and - hopefully - carve some jack-o-lanterns. This month will include a trip to Wildlife Scary Park - which has become an annual tradition. My mom and mother-in-law come along with me and the kids and everyone has fun. Then we'll have Halloween! We are huge Halloween fans here. I totally get why some chose not to celebrate it, and if you want you can read my thoughts on it here.

 But if you don't mind, let's talk costumes for a second, can we?

L will be a Native American this Halloween. She will then don the outfit again for the annual 3rd grade Thanksgiving pageant and feast at her school. I'm also excited to have a St. Kateri Tekakwitha costume. Her costume is coming from Annery's Handmade Etsy Shop.  If you are also on the look-out for an American Indian costume Annie said they will be in her shop on Friday but there's also a pre-sale / auction at the Zelie & Co. Instagram account today! So you can go over and get one at a discounted cost. So end's that head's up. :)

Ben will be Batman. He picked out (affiliate link) this costume from Amazon. JF and Resa will both be Darth Vadar, wearing the costumes JF and Jofis got for their birthdays. (affiliate links) JP didn't want to be Darth Vadar but Resa is all about it, and honestly that delights my heart a bit. I bought all the costumes plenty big so the kids can wear warm clothes and coats underneath. October 31st is usually pretttty cold in these parts.

Baby Tee will wear the same lion costume all of his siblings have worn before him, so that's easy. But I'm having trouble with Jofis.

Jofis wants to be a ghost and I'm wondering what's the best way to make a ghost costume for a three year old. Anyone have any ideas? I haven't loved anything I found on Amazon but maybe you know of an Etsy shop? Travis and I have talked about just cutting some holes in a white pillow case and buying him a white hoodie, but I don't know. What do you think.

Also, I need help with Ben's St. Benedict costume for the All Saints Day pageant at school. All I've got is that he wore a black habit. Any ideas?



Speaking of costumes, quick question: do you let your kids wear dress up clothes out in public? Resa, Tee and I went to Target the other day and Resa was wearing her Princess Anna dress. That's totally appropriate in my book and I'm wondering if anyone else is alright with being quirky like that.

All Saints' Day Party ReCap

This was the second year I was able to help plan and host the All Saints' Day party at my former parish. This year we had a slightly different menu, all new games, and some slightly different decorations. 

Here, take a look. 

All the kids in the CCD classes were personally invited and given little flier invites to take home to their parents.

There were several bulletin announcements in the preceding weeks, including this one: 

The party was hosted and sponsored by the parish's moms' group and our local fast food Italian restaurant supplied free sandwiches. (We love you, Michael's Italian Feast!)

The menu included: 

St. Martha’s Sub Sandwiches (3 trays donated by Michael’s)
St. Francis’ Animal Crackers (Teddy Grahms and animal crackers served with purple frosting)
St. Luke’s Relics (white chocolate covered pretzel sticks with mini marshmallows on the end)
St. Isadore the Farmer’s Veggie Tray (with ranch dressing)
St. Damien Molokai’s Hawaiian Fruit Salad
St. Nicholas’ Pickles
St. Juan Diego’s Chips and Salsa

The morning of the party we decorated. I grabbed some Mason jars, candles, and religious art from our house, another mom brought in so many pumpkins from her garden, and we dug into the stash from last year's party. 

The Mary and Eve print is from Our Lady of the Mississippi sisters. The skull has been used in a pirate party, Halloween decorations, and now the All Saints' Day party. It was definitely worth the $2 I paid for it. 

This year, along with pumpkins for centerpieces, we also used some pretty fall flowers in Mason jars. It was a great touch. The tables also had Hershey Kisses, Menus, and Finding Truth in Halloween booklets.

Games:

1 - David and Goliath - throw duct tape stones at Goliath's head = favorite game of the night. I found the inspiration at Shower of Roses.

2 - St. Isadore the Farmer's Produce Toss - like Bozo's bucket game (Do you guys know Bozo the Clown or do I just sound weird?)

3 - St. Thomas Aquinas' Trivia Game - I used the questions from Catholic Culture.

4 - St. Louis' Bouncy Castle - this was owned by one of the women from the moms' group and was a huge hit for the little kids.

More Games:
1 - St. Christopher's Foot Race - the kids jumped over the "river" and then had to run around the potted plant and back to the river, all while carrying a baby doll.
2 - Menu Matching Game - These were on the tables and parents worked on them with their kids as they waited for everyone to file in and the party to begin. On the left is an image of the saint with their feast day and on the right is the food on the menu for the evening. Then the kids had to match them up. While dinner was finishing up I took to the stage and went over all the answers, giving quick explanations on why the saint was connected to the food. Food + fun + families together + catechizing = winning
3 - Heavenly Crown craft station
4 - JPII's Soccer Shoot Out

Obligatory picture of my super cute St. Joan of Arc:

Ben was St. Michael, L was St. Bernadette, JF was Venerable Fulton Sheen, and JP was wearing his Batman jammies.

This year we once again recreated a cemetery on the stage area. All the kids (and some of the parents!) came up, one at a time, and shared what saint they were dressed as, and the older kids included a short bio. As each "saint" left the stage we'd all say, "St. So and So, Pray for us!" The kids were adorable and some of the costumes were really clever!

This year I was able to make some new tombstones out of ceiling tiles we ripped out of our basement. I wanted them to redeem the creepy tombstones that are so prominent at Halloween and to remind us of what we believe as Catholics. Inspired by some great suggestions from my readers, the tombstones ended up with some really beautiful wording. So thanks, you guys!

Lastly, the parish hall has a large tv that hangs on the wall. Last year we covered it up but this year we used it. I made a pretty simple slideshow with different saints that scrolled through the whole evening. Next year I'll add more slides to it since I ran out of time to add all the saints I would have liked. I uploaded it to YouTube so please feel free to use it if you'd like!




And here's some links that I found helpful as I planned:

Fr. Robert Barron's homily on All Souls' Day and the Mystery of Immortality podcast

Catholic Stuff You Should Know podcast "Where Is Your Sting?: Forever Young... blessing or burden?"

Also from Fr. John and now Father Nathan, Catholic Stuff You Should Know podcast "The Apostolic Pardon: The Ultimate Gift!"

You can see what last year's party was like here: All Saints' Halloween Party Recap.


If you're new here, stick around! You can follow A Knotted Life on Bloglovin' or Feedly.
Plus, I'd love to connect with you. You can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. I hope to "meet" you soon!

Happy Halloween

First and foremost, Happy All Hallow's Eve! I hope you have a warm, dry, fun night. 

We've been enjoying our Midwestern Autumn. It's all the things that Pinterest tells you it is: apples, hoodies, boots, pumpkins, football, bonfires, s'mores, falling leaves. 

We've been doing fun fall things too. Like roasting hotdogs and marshmallows at my parents' home and going to Wildlife Scary Park for some trick-or-treating, hayrack rides, and spooky fun with the kids. 

Captain Orangebeard the Pirate, Elsa, Jake the Neverland Pirate, and Rapunzel - acting like trolls.

Jake and Grandma on the train.

Captain Orangebeard and Rapunzel, afraid of the spooky sounds in the woods. 

I loved all the fires throughout the park, many of them with straw bales so families could sit, warm up, and rest. 

Tonight we'll have a hearty potato soup and then head out for some trick-or-treating. We always visit my grandparents and parents, and this year my mother-in-law will be joining us, which will be a lot of fun. 

Then, at the end of the night, when the kids are in bed, I think I'm going to poor myself a drink (maybe a hot chocolate with a taste of something. I'll snuggle down under my blanket and probably watch the second Hunger Games movie on Netflix. Tomorrow will be a big day with our parish's All Saints' Day party and I'll want to relax. What about you? 

Happy Hallowtide, everyone!

If you're new here, stick around! You can follow A Knotted Life on Bloglovin' or Feedly.

Plus, I'd love to connect with you. You can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. I hope to "meet" you soon!

What do you want on your tombstone?

The All Saints' Halloween party is coming up at my old parish and this year the moms' group is giving back, reinvesting in the parish that has built them up, cared for them, and provided for them. The group is doing this by planning and hosting the event on November 1st. Since I'm still an active member of the moms' group there (it's so, so wonderful) I'm helping with the party plans.

The goal of the party is this:
for the ultra sanitized Harvest Party and the horribly secularized and even evil Halloween* to meet in the middle and be Catholic. I want it to look like a Halloween party at first glance but to be filled with opportunities for parents and kids to have fun and learn about their faith - to give parents an opportunity to teach their kids about their faith in a way that's not lame or dorky but fun.

We want things to be a little different this year so the kids who came in the past won't think it's the same old thing. We're not throwing everything out, just rotating some out, some in, and lining up some other things to be rotated out next year. This year I think we may have a bouncy house shaped like a castle for the little kids. Maybe it'll be St. King Wenceslas' castle. One of the women in the group suggested crowns for all the saints, which I think would be a great craft station. We're going to have a soccer game in honor of our athletic JPII and in my dreams we'd have rock climbing wall for Pier Giorgio.

You can see all the games, food, and decorations we had at last year's party if you're looking for some ideas, but I'd also like your help. Do you know of any cute games or craft stations? What about food with saint tie-ins? Like St. Francis' animal crackers and that sort of thing.

Also, tell me what you'd want on your tombstone.

I had the idea of making a cemetery for the guests to walk through as they entered the party. Instead of the evil and scary tombstones I wanted these to be old looking, yes, but also Christian and, more importantly, to have saint names on them. So Teresa of Calcutta, Fulton Sheen, Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, and so on.

Another woman in the group dislikes that idea and thinks it will make the party guests focus on death and not on the eternal life that the saints are enjoying. She would prefer a graveyard with puny names.

And the third option, of course, is that it's just a bad idea and we shouldn't have a cemetery at all.

What do you think? What do you vote for? If you were coming to the party what would you prefer?
Thanks for your help.


*I'm not saying that every Halloween celebration is evil. We do Halloween with decorations, trick-or-treating, kid appropriate but spooky stories and tv specials. Just so you know, I am not anti Halloween. Not at all!


If you're new here, stick around! You can follow A Knotted Life on Bloglovin' or Feedly.
Plus, I'd love to connect with you. You can find me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. I hope to "meet" you soon!

All Saints' Halloween Party

Technically it was All Souls' Day, but my parish celebrated All Saints' Day this past Saturday. I offered to organize it this year with the help of some of my fellow parishioners, my mom, and my friend Katie. I shared a lot of my ideas in this video and blog post and it was really fun to get to see all my ideas play out.

The night was a blast and everyone left with big smiles on their faces so I'd say it was a success. 

Want to see some pictures? Oh good, because I've got lots!

Guests were greeted by this arrangement. 

I borrowed the straw bale from my dad, who also got me the corn stalks from his cousin, a farmer.

The purple tablecloth was just one of the cheap plastic ones from Wal-Mart. I like how it adds a fun pop of color. The pumpkins and gourds were donated by a local pumpkin farm and picked up the day after Halloween. The white board (decked in a "creepy cloth" that cost $1 at the Dollar Store) reads, "All Saints' Halloween Party" and below it is the prayer, "Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace."

My goal in the decorating was to make the church hall not look like a church hall -where we hold CCD and Coffee & Donuts - but a like a Halloween party.

We decorated the tables with more colored plastic tablecloths, more donated pumpkins, and little plates with fall-ish candy. 

There were two focal points in the room: the stage area, which is the black area in the back of the room in the above picture, and the buffet table.

More plastic tablecloths, donated pumpkins, and lots of good food. Each dish was labeled with a tented piece of cardstock that included an image of the saint. I am not very good with graphic-y things and so the labels were a little on the lame side but they got the job done.

St. Agatha 's Sub Sandwiches

(She's the patron of bread bakers.)

Our sub sandwiches were also donated, which really helped with the cost of the party. Michael's Italian Feast and Ackerman Farms were both really generous and helped us throw an awesome party.

St. Joan of Arc's Dortio Flames

(Because she was burned at the stake.)

St. Isadore's Chips and Salsa

(He was a farmer.)

St. Francis' Animal Crackers, served with some purple frosting for a sweet, Halloween-y dip.

(Because, you know, it's St. Francis.)

St. Lawrence's Grill

(Poor San Lorenzo was burned to death on a grill.)

Rice Krispie Treat Holy Ghosts

St. Stephen's Stones

(The first deacon and martyr of the Church was stoned to death.)

St. Elisha's Bears

(From 2 Kings 2:23-25.)

Pumpkin seeds and Jack-o-Lantern clementines

(Just because they're yummy, healthy, and cute.)

St. Luke's Relics

(Our parish is St. Luke, which is why I made them his relics. These are so good and so easy to make - albeit time-consuming. The best part was if they broke or didn't look "perfect" it didn't matter - they're supposed to be old bones!)

"They have no more wine" Water and Lemonade

Several people - mostly men - asked where the wine was and so maybe next year we'll add some spiked cider for the adults. 

Our priest juggles. Kids love it.

My husband helping our little St. Joseph get some food.

My St. George and Holy Mary, Mother of God enjoying their supper.

After we ate I took to the stage and talked about how we're like pumpkins. If you watch the video here that will make a lot more sense. Then the kids were invited to come up to the mic, one at a time, and tell about the saint they were dressed as. It was SO cute!  

Once all the kids who wanted to had taken the stage we all prayed the Litany of the Saints. I had written the basics on the board and then we made sure to invoke every saint who was "present" with us that evening. It was really neat to see everyone pray together that way - the little kids so excited when "their" name was called out and the parents engaged as well.

The stage area is a regular fixture of the room, I just hung black plastic tablecloths to better designate the area.  

The wanted it to look like a cemetery - where all the saints were speaking - and so I made a couple of tombstones, set up some more of the donated pumpkins, and snaked about some white lights wrapped in tulle. The picture doesn't do it justice - it looked like a fog was rolling through the cemetery and was just the right touch of spooky. 

After the Litany we opened up the games.

First up, kids grabbed a brown lunch bag and wrote their names on it and decorated it however they wanted. They also grabbed one of the "Finding Truth in Halloween" books.

They then went around the room, playing games that were being supervised by our confirmation students.

This racing game was thought up by our pastor. Two gutters are filled with water. Two laminated pictures of Jesus are taped to sticks, stuck into pieces of foam. At the other end of the gutters are laminated pictures of Peter stepping out of the boat with the other apostles.

The kids would then use paper plates as fans to  race the floating Jesus down the gutters and the first to get him to Peter won.

This is the St. Therese's Shower of Roses game. Kids got three bunches of roses for three tries to get the flowers in the basket.

This game is always super popular: St. James and St. John's Fishing Hole. The kids fish for little baggies of Goldfish that have pipe cleaner rings on them.

There were even more games but those pictures include other people's kids so I don't want to post them. 

Towards the end of the games I announced the winners of the costume contest and the prize for best presentation. I then invited everyone to take home a pumpkin for their Thanksgiving decorations, and got myself a Holy Ghost. It was so much fun - a fantastic parish event - and I hope next year even more people come to enjoy the celebration.