All Saints' Party Games :: Saint Themed Guessing Jars

A few days ago I happened to run across the link to some Saint Themed Guessing Jars at Catholic Inspired.  I loved the idea and and was inspired to create a variation for our annual All Hallows' Eve / All Saints' Party which we will be hosting again this week!

I prefer to keep the games simple for the party we host at our home, focusing on mostly group games like our All Saints Scavenger Hunt, All Saints Bingo, and the All Saints Puzzle Races - leaving plenty of time for standing around the bonfire, roasting marshmallows, lots of great food and visiting with friends and family.  This game will be a perfect addition and something that everyone will be able to participate in, both the children and adults!  

When I was out grocery shopping this past weekend I picked up a few of the original suggestions, adapting and adding some of my own ideas as well.  I then created saint themed labels for each jar.



I decided to use my Wide Mouth Mason Jars with White Storage Lids. (I plan to dump the contents of each jar into a treat bag or ziplock for each of the winners.)

   

St. Thérèse of Lisieux :: I didn't have much luck finding candy roses, but I couldn't leave St. Therese out of the game, so I used my rose candy molds and red and pink candy melts to make my own! ;) 

 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel ::  I opted for individually wrapped Rolo's.  Not only are they filled with caramel, but they are wrapped in gold and look like little crowns, don't you think?  Regular caramels would work great too.



St. Elizabeth Ann Seton :: I thought the Cinnamon Schoolbook Cookies from Trader Joe's would be perfect for this dear saint who laid the foundation for what became the American parochial school system.

  

Holy Souls :: One bag of Jetpuffed Ghostmallows will represent the "Holy Souls" in purgatory, for whom we must always remember to pray.

 

The Holy Trinity :: Miniature "3 Musketeers" candy bars represent our one and the same God in three Divine Persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.



St. Francis of Assisi :: I also picked up the box of Animal Crackers at Trader Joe's, though any brand would work just as well for St. Francis of Assisi, Patron of Animals.



St. Isidore :: Any sort of fruit or vegetable shaped candies would work for St. Isidore, the patron of farmers.  I choose candy pumpkins.  If we do this again next year I might go with candy corn!

 

St. Anthony :: Colored Goldfish will represent the legend of St. Anthony and the multitudes of fish that rose out of the water to listen to him preach.

 

St. Andrew :: Rainbow Fish were our pick for St. Andrew, the patron of fisherman.  

I also created labels for Mary's Starry Mantle (Anything star shaped would work - Yogurt Stars from TJ's, Star Shaped Pretzels, or handmade Star Candies) and St. Nicholas (Costco has a large bag of Chocolate Coins that a friend is picking up - the extras can be saved for St. Nicholas Day which is coming up in just over a month!).



To keep each person's guesses secret I also created little sheets of paper for each contestant to write their name and guess, before folding it in half and dropping it into an empty jar with a matching label.

  Our children are so excited and can hardly wait to start guessing!  

Printable Guessing Jar Labels
Printable Guess Slips

You can find more All Saints Party Printables here.

On the Traditional Feast of the Little Flower

Dear St. Thérèse, 

thou wert always good and obedient 

and always did the Will of God. 

Now thou art a great saint in heaven with God.

Thy loving and tender heart rejoices 

to send down roses upon earth. 

O give me the sweet flower of a great love of Jesus!

Pray for me that I may have all the graces I need. 

Prayer from Jesus, Make Me Worthy - a reprint of the original can be found here. 

Today I spent some precious moments with my little "Rose" teaching her about "Our Patron Saint" using one of my treasured childhood books.   Unfortunately my copy is tattered and missing the cover... I've searched for another copy, but have only found the (awful) revised edition from the 70's with new illustrations and text.... I plan to keep searching!

It's been an challenging week in our home, with the government shutdown, and I wasn't able to bake any more special treats for today, but the older girls still celebrated by illustrating (using the same Catholic How to Draw book from yesterday)  a couple more pictures!  I thought they turned out beautifully!

St. Therese by Twinkle Toes (age 10) 

St. Therese by Chiquita (age 8)

Today I have two more giveaways for my dear visitors here at

Shower of Roses!

The first giveaway is for a newly released book titled The Greatest of These is Love.  This book is generously offered by author Megan Therese Schuelke, a young Catholic from Minnesota!   

"Megan Schuelke is a woman beyond her years. Her seemingly perfect world was rocked when she learned at age 17 that her mother had been diagnosed with cancer. In the midst of her desperation and frustration, Megan had a choice to make: She could run away from God, or she could run to Him. Megan chose to take God's hand through the struggles, discovering along the way the beauty in the life He had planned for her. This book is more than just one young woman's journey through life. It is a testament of God's power to turn tears into dancing, to turn darkness into light. Megan's story is one that inspires and gives hope to all young people searching for truth and love in a world filled with sadness."

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The second giveaway is offered by Mama's Notebooks.  Heather Wood has generously offered to send the winner of this giveaway a copy of Mama's Notebook Weekly Planner and Organizer and The Budget Notebook! 


Mama's Notebook Weekly Planner and Organizer:
Mama’s Notebook provides you with an easy, flexible, and efficient way to organize your life. In one glance, you can coordinate your meal plan with the whole day’s events and tasks, and there’s always ample room to take notes on the things that matter to you most! Unlike other planners, you can start up Mama’s Notebook on any week of the year, and you can skip weeks as needed. The back section of the planner provides you with easy reference sheets to help you schedule and shop efficiently.



The Budget Notebook:
The Budget Notebook by Mama's Notebooks is designed to help you keep a household budget that is simple, easy, and accurate. It features charts for everything you’ll need to get your budget under control, as well as a Notes section at the back with ample room for planning, organizing, writing reminder and to-do lists, and tallying up sums.

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Note: I have not seen either the book or planners in person, but I am very much looking forward to checking out my review copies! Thank you Megan and Heather!

If you would like to be entered for either of these giveaways, just leave a comment on this post, and make sure your email address is either linked on your profile or included in the comment so that I am able to contact you if you win.

There is still time to enter the other giveaways for a copy of Catholic Mosaic, a copy of St. Therese the Little Flower Daily Journal, and the two children's picture books. I'll be back with one last giveaway sometime tomorrow! The giveaways will all be open through Sunday, October 6th and I will update each post and contact the winners next Monday, October 7th.

UPDATE:

The winners of all the giveaways have been announced here.  

Thank you all for participating!

In Honor of the Feast of St. Thérèse :: Apple Roses, A Novena & Another Giveaway!

I just finished posting the recipe for these Heavenly Garden Apple Rose Pastries over at Catholic Cuisine! 

You can find A Novena to Saint Thérèse beginning on her Feast Day here! 

I also have a copy of the Saint Thérèse the Little Flower Daily Journal to give away!  If you would like to be entered just leave a comment on this post, and make sure your email address is either linked on your profile or included in the comment so that I am able to contact you if you win.

I will be hosting a few more giveaways throughout the week, so be sure to check back! The giveaway will be open through Sunday, October 6th and I will update this post and contact the winner next Monday, October 7th.

UPDATE:

The winners of all the giveaways have been announced here.  

Thank you all for participating!

"If He permit that all the flowers of your desires and of your good will fall to Earth without fruit, be not troubled.  At the moment of your death He will know well how to bring to perfection [...] beautiful fruits on the tree of your soul."

-St. Thérèse, Counsels and Reminiscences
(This is just one of the many inspiring quotes found in the journal!) 

Little Flowers "Maypole" Tea Party Favors and Prizes

We had such a lovely time at our our annual Mother-Daughter Tea Party yesterday afternoon!  I have so many pictures to share that I hardly know where to begin...  It is going to be a very busy week, so it may take me a little time to get to it all, but I think I will start with the party favors and then move on to the games before I finish with the pictures from the actual tea.

As always, I created little party favors for the girls.  Back in 2009, for our first tea,  I gave the girls little St. Therese plaques.  The next year I hand-painted little St. Therese dolls for each of the girls.  For our 3rd tea I filled white paper "Tea bags" with treats along with Tea Pot Lollipops.  And last year I repeated the "Tea Bags" once again along with Pretzel Rods dipped in white chocolate and pink sprinkles.

This year I decided to do create favors similar to the ones I made for the Baby Shower of Roses.   I headed to the dollar store to look for favor boxes and after discovering some "marshmallow poles" decided to try and incorporate a "Maypole" theme as well, since we were hoping to have a Maypole activity this year (more on that later).

Originally I planned to make my own chocolates again, but my husband said he'd rather pay for chocolates than wash my candy molds, which I have a habit of leaving in the sink! it was easier to just pick up some at the store.  ;)

Favor Supplies:

Pink Favor Boxes with Ribbon (Dollar Store/Baby Shower Section)

Marshmallow Poles (Dollar Store/Candy Section) 

Dove Raspberry Chocolates (Pink)

Hershey Nuggets (Silver)

Bubbles (Wedding Supplies)

The Little Flower Holy Card (free download)

They were very easy to assemble and turned out very cute!  

I also filled a basket with Bingo prizes...

... and picked up a little rose plant and box of cookies as a very small* thank you for our hostess. 

*I feel like I can't thank her enough for sharing her home with us and saving me so much work!

Once again I am fighting a cold/cough and I need to get back to my ever growing "to-do" list, but I'll be back with more pictures from our tea party soon!

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!  

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