In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti...

I just walked by my girls' closed bedroom door and my heart melted as I heard them independently start praying another (much needed) rosary for our country.   Love them!  ♥

Our Cast of Saints ~ 2012

From Oldest to Youngest : St. Paul (as depicted in the Picture Book of Saints), St. George, St. Brigid, St. Joan of Arc, St. Micael the Archangel, St. Thérèse de Lisieux, and St. Francis of Assisi

Happy Feast of All Saints!  

Our Parish All Saints' Party and Costume Contest

A week ago, after hearing that our parish was encouraging saint or biblical costumes this year (you had to come dressed as one to be entered in the costume contest), and after our pastor told our children that both he and the assistant priest would be dressing up, we decided to take the kids's this year to the All Saints Party which was held this past Friday night.

Some of the kids decided to wear the costumes they will be wearing for our party tomorrow night, and a couple decided to use the opportunity to wear a different saint costume!   Even though we only had about an hour to get ready for the party they all came together so nicely, and I was glad I didn't have to choose a favorite!

.:  St. Francis of Assisi :.

Costume passed down from my brothers, with homemade tonsure, and bird & animal finger puppets pinned to shoulder and hem.  

(Note: if you need a last minute costume, adult size t-shirts make great habits for little ones!) 

.: St. Therese of Lisieux :.

Costume from Our Coats of Many Colors 
(all from our ever growing Saints Costume collection!)

.: St. Nicholas :.

 

Costume/Vestments from Our Father's House 

(no longer sold, but they do carry patterns)

.: Blessed Teresa of Calcutta :. 

Costume from Our Coats of Many Colors with Crucifix

.: St. Catherine of Laboure :. 

Costume Homemade and passed down from my sisters

I kept trying and just could not get that headpiece right... In the meantime I forgot to take a picture of just TT before leaving for the party.   These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago when we were trying out the costume.  She also wore a miraculous medal.  

.: St. Isaac Jogues :. 

Costume from Our Coats of Many Colors with Crucifix and Bible

(Can you believe how well his lip has healed, and how quickly!?!  His teeth are looking good, but still bothering him, some.  Thank you for all the prayers!) 

.: St. Paul the Apostle :. 

 

 Costume from Our Coats of Many Colors, with Yellow Turban, Grey Beard and Sword

I love this picture with four of my boys best friends dressed as Moses, Lazarus, St. Juan Diego, and St, Maximilian Koble, as well as our Pastor and Parochial Vicar dressed as Blessed John Paul II and Venerable Futon Sheen!

The Youth Ministry Coordinator was dressed as St. Teresa of Avila.  I loved her costume!  

(Sorry for the blurry picture...) 

The parish hall was set up with all sorts of games for the children, very similar to our past All Saints' Parties, and I keep thinking how NICE it was to have such a great party without ALL the work!  ;) 

On top of all the treats the kids were given while playing games, Snuggles also won 3 bags of candy for placing 1st in the costume contest!  When I told Father, while juggling the bags, that we were now set for our upcoming party, he handed me another bag, since he had just won 1st place in the 12 & older group! lol  We ended up coming home with over 20 pounds of candy...  Yikes!!

This was our first time attending, but we are so glad we took all our little "saints."  It was so much fun and ended up being their best turnout yet!  I really hope this becomes an annual event.  

{This Moment}

St. Nicholas (aka Snuggles) and Blessed John Paul II (aka our Pastor!)

These two were the first place winners for each category (11 & under and 12 & up) at our Parish's All Saints Costume Contest last night!   I'll be back with more pictures soon.  We had such a great time!

Oktoberfest/Costume Party

This past Saturday Rascal's godparents, who just came back from a trip to Germany, decided to host an Oktoberfest/Costume Party.   They served German wursts, German potato salad and sauerkraut.  Everyone was asked to bring a German food or dessert to share, and dress in fun, modest and not scary costumes!   After our crazy couple days, I had to keep it simple and just picked up Pretzel Slider Rolls and Apple Strudel from Costco, but it was so nice to get out and visit with friends! 

I tried my best to convince the kids dress up as the 7 dwarves, and I could go as a (non-Disney) version of Snow White, with Hubby dressing as Prince Charming The Huntsman.  But they wouldn't go for it! ;)  I had a couple girls, one in particular, that just didn't like the idea of dressing as a boy dwarf!   In the end, I liked their idea better, anyways.

The four oldest decided to dress as Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia. Edmund even had an injured lip from being hit by the White Witch!   They even decided to dress Bud up as a lion to represent Aslan.

Isn't he just the cutest little lion ever? 

As I mentioned in my Daybook, Snuggles insisted on dressing as Peter Pan and came up with most of his costume on his own!  Our little Pixie (as we affectionately call this petite youngest daughter of ours) dressed up as (a modestly dressed) Tinkerbell.   

Now to finish preparing the Saint Costumes for this week's Costume Party at our Parish, and our upcoming All Hallows' Eve Party on the 31st here at our home!

My Daybook :: On the Traditional Feast of St. Thérèse

Outside my window...
The weather has been gorgeous this week, it has been cooling down some at night and the leaves have started to change colors.   I just hung our fall wreath on the front door and picked up a few little pumpkins to use as decorations.   Hopefully we can make a trip to the pumpkin patch soon!

I am thinking...        
about how nice it is to have a new iMac! (It ended up being our anniversary gift to each other, along with dinner out.)  It has made blogging so much easier and way less time consuming.  Blogging had become quite a chore, since it was taking forever to work with photos - the old computer was freezing every time I'd try and use PicMonkey to add the copyright to pictures, and half the time when I was online at all.   It wasn't in the plan to purchase a new computer quite yet, but with the back-to-school specials for educators, and the interest free financing, I decided to just order one.   Hubby had taken the laptop with him on that fire assignment after all! ;)  

I am thankful... 
for my husband!  And that he didn't kill me when he called home from fire camp a couple weeks ago and I said he should "try and find access to wi-fi so we can Skype... Now that I have a computer that works around here!"  He responded, "Yeah! That would be great!  Wait... What did you just say?!?"   Yes, I have been so very blessed with such an awesome (and forgiving!) husband.  :)

Learning all the time... 
The last few weeks have been busy for sure!  In addition to our regular studies and the Alphabet Path, we've also attended two field trips!  Last week we went on a field trip to a "farm" (more on that later, maybe) and yesterday we went to the Planetarium.

Celebrating the liturgical year... 
Like Charlotte, we have had a week of very simple, yet sweet, celebrations for the saints! A Cake for the feast of St. Michael  (though I was able to make our traditional Michaelmas Dinner on Sunday), Rose Cupcakes for St. Therese, Angel Treats for the Holy Guardian Angels, and maybe some Wolf Paw Cookies or Friendly Beasts Crunch for tomorrow's feast of St. Francis.

"Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity."

~ St. Thérèse de Lisieux

From the kitchen... 
tons of snacks... The kids always love it when their Daddy saves some of the snacks from his sack meals from fire camp.   After two weeks, and some of his co-workers adding to his stash, he came home with quite the collection!  On Sunday the boys decided to graph what was left, not counting the bag full of "uncrustables" in the fridge.

I am working on... 
plans for this year's All Hallows' Eve Party!  I wasn't going to do it this year...  For some reason the thought of hosting another huge party at our home was just slightly overwhelming.  But, after talking to my husband and the kids (and finding out that my liver troubles are behind me!) I decided we will host it again after all.   How could I not when one of the little boys told his momma that last year's party was "the best night of his entire life" and another mom (who I was planning on hosting a baby shower for next month) said she'd rather I host the party than her shower!  Sigh... It's going to be fun!

I am creating... 
a few accessories for this year's saint costumes.   They all (7 costumes!!!) surprisingly came together extremely easy a couple weeks ago, after a trip to Costco during which we found a perfect (inexpensive) costume for Snuggles who wants to be St. Michael this year!  We just need to make wings for him, but isn't it cute!   I love it!!

Rascal decided he wants to be St. George this year.  For his costume I used my Gymbucks to order this Brave Knight Costume and Shield from Gymboree. (What a steal at just $10.21 for the costume and $3.80 for the shield!!!)

Captain has decided to dress as St. Paul, with the costume inspired by the picture in Picture Book of Saints.  We already had the perfect Robe and Sash, but ordered a gray beard and yellow turban to complete the costume...  So fun!  Twinkle Toes wants to dress as St. Catherine Labouré  using one of my sisters' old costumes from forever ago.  She is going to make a large Miraculous Medal to complete her costume, or maybe just choose one of hers to wear.  Chiquita is still trying to decide between St. Joan of Arc (with our Fleur-di-lis Shield) or Mother Teresa.  Rose is going to dress as St. Therese!  And Bud is going to be St. Francis of Assisi, complete with lots of sweet little animals pinned to his costume.

I am going... 
to run to town in a little bit to pick up my nursing cover.  I left it at the restaurant last night.  Oops.

I am hoping... 
that I can find time to get my hair cut sometime in the next week or two.  It is definitely time!

I am reading... 
The Telmaj, a newly published science fiction book for children, as our daily read-a-loud!  It was recently published by Erin Manning, a Catholic author, and our copy arrived last week.   We are only on chapter three, but I've already caught my boys reading ahead!  Rascal declared that it really needs to be made into an audio book, so that they don't have to keep waiting for me!

I am praying... 
this prayer from The Christian Mother: The Education of Her Children and Her Prayer  in addition to the prayer on our anniversary:

     O holy Guardian Angels, heavenly friends of my children.  I address myself with confidence to you, as the children whom the Lord has confided to me are also looked upon by you with love and care. Implore for me the grace that I may cherish for my children sentiments similar to those which you have for them, and that I may, like you, be anxious above all to educate them for God and for heaven. Oh, that I may be such a mother to my children; that I may never appear unworthy of your love and friendship! Obtain this grace for me.  Amen.  

Pondering these words...
from I Believe in Love:

"A great cross is, very often, the prelude to a great grace, even for an unbeliever.  Suffering ripens the soul, sometimes very quickly.  A great trial can, with one stroke, detach a soul from all that is created; it can be the source of a total conversion."

I am listening...  
to my four oldest read picture books about the saints' who celebrate their feast day's this week to the little ones.  They each choose a day/saint (St. Michael, St. Therese, Guardian Angels, and St. Francis) and corresponding books off of our bookshelves.   Some of the new additions this year include Therese: The Little Flower of Lisieux and Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi, which were both Christmas Gifts from my husband's parents (along with a couple other books from the series).

Around the house... 
lots of sweet little saints - both homemade and from Catholic Folk Toys and St. Luke's Brush!  I also ordered this sweet little St. Therese doll from St. Anne's Pixies to give to our little Rose in honor of her nameday.  She loved it!!

One of my favorite things...  
I love, LOVE, my binder and checklists for this school year, and all the progress we have been making!  It's going to be a great school year!

This week's plans...

• Celebrate the Feast of St. Therese
• Field Trip to the Planetarium
• Park with Friends
• Celebrate the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels and our 13th Anniversary! 
• Lego Robotics Class for the older boys
• Feast of St. Francis
• Tutor on Thursday Afternoon
• First Friday Mass
• Festival of Cultures

A little peek at my day...

Taken by Captain on our 13th Wedding Anniversary ~ Oct 2, 2012

Our Cast of Saints ~ 2011

I had hoped to post these pictures yesterday, but our internet ended up being down, and then all the phone lines in our town and the next town over stopped working as well!   It was so strange to not having a working phone-lines (most cell phones wouldn't even work, including my own) and I wasn't able to check out my library books, had to pay cash for a prescription, and even the banks had limited services available!   Late last night the fiber optic cable at the phone company was repaired, and then sometime this afternoon our internet started working again!  Yay!!  The good thing is that it forced me to rest in my free time yesterday and go to bed early last night, since we were all up very late on Monday night for our party, went to Mass yesterday, and then headed back to a historical cemetery for Mass this morning.  It has been a wonderful week!  

St. Ignatius of Loyola

St. Francis Xavier

St. Catherine of Alexandria

(costume details here)

St. Lucy

St. George

St. Cecilia

St. George had so much fun with his little Baby Dragon Puppet,

 and St. Cecilia loved her little gold Harp.

Father C. didn't even recognize Rose with the long blond hair, and asked "whose little girl is this?"  He couldn't believe it was our Rose!  She was hysterical and just loved the wig... I didn't think she would keep it on her head!  

I hope you all had a blessed 

All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day!  

A Costume for St. Catherine of Alexandria

We have been busy preparing saint costumes for our upcoming All Hallows' Eve party! Last night I decided to try and make Twinkle Toes a "wheel" for her St. Catherine of Alexandria costume.

I pulled out an old hula-hoop from my closet and some brown duct tape (I wasn't able to find any Wood Print tape locally), while Twinkle Toes went searching for "something round with a hole in the center."  My back-up plan was to cut out the center of a thick paper plate, but I was thrilled when she came back from the garage with a "Smokey the Bear Frisbee Ring" that one of the kids had brought home from the BLM at some point.   It was the perfect size!

I wrapped the hula-hoop with the tape, wrapped and placed the frisbee in the center, created spokes with the tape, and then wrapped the spokes to make them a bit thicker.   I used the whole roll of tape, and had just enough!

For a gown, Twinkle Toes decided to wear the burgundy one from her St. Margaret of Scotland costume in 2009.  (I had ordered it extra big for Christmas in 2008, and it still fits!)  We then pulled out an old brown beaded scarf of mine to make into a cloak.   I had picked up a clasp, but either it never made it out of the store or it is hiding around here somewhere, so I improvised with the cords off a gift bag and some gold safety pins, to create a tie.   We then finished her costume with one of her brother's swords and a pretty little Gold Tiara Crown, complete with hearts for St. Catherine!

The tiara arrived much smaller than I had imagined, but it ended up working out nicely and Twinkle Toes is very excited about her costume!   

I still have a few costumes to finish up, but it looks like we are going to have St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Catherine of Alexandria, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, St. George the Dragon Slayer, and St. Cecilia. 

You can find other costume ideas in the archives including Saintly Costumes, A Costume for St. Maximilian Kolbe, and a St. Francis of Assisi Costume.   You can also scroll through all of our past costume pictures here.