We had a great All Saints' Day celebration the other day! The boys' final costume selections...
Saint Benedict. I mean, he didn't pick it but he did keep it on for a hot second. The habit was a fake Star Wars cape from the dollar store! I had to tighten up the hood and I cut some armholes.
St. George the Martyr in full pillowcased glory.
Just because he was posing so awesomely.
St. Patrick! Note the snakes :) I love that he made the mitre himself and he used his late grandpa's cane as the base for his crosier.
St. Michael the Archangel
Another year of St. Edward. And St. Edward is much too busy for smiling.
At the beginning of the party we pray the Litany of the Saints and then the kids take turns sharing who they are and a little bit about their saint.
(And now, please excuse the even more horrid flourescent lighting in the following pics!)
It was a smaller group this year but that made it a lot more relaxing and stress free. Some years we've had this and some years we've had close to a hundred!
We added a new activity this year that was a hit, I think!
Courtesy of Jessica and her inspiration and free downloads, we had some saintly guessing jars! And much to the thrilllll of parents, the winner of each jar got to keep everything inside.
We used 10 of hers and came up with a few of our own for fun (but my labels are much less beautiful!):
Lifesavers for St. Maximilian Kolbe (John Paul thought of that!)
Eyeball chocolates for St. Lucy (Just saw that Jessica had the same idea added to her newest jars!)
Bugles for St. Gabriel
Caramel corn (in place of candy corn) for St. Isidore
Three Musketeers for Sts. Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar
We played our usual All Saints' Scavenger Hunt and once that was done (or almost done because I'm a softie) they could pick a treat from the Saint Anthony box.
My Saint Nicholas Coin Toss has seen better days but it was there for kids to play if they wanted!
Halo relays using glow necklaces.
And the annual St. Michael pinata where the kids get to beat on the devil.
If I was super cool I'd make it myself but it's so very simple and inexpensive to buy it off Amazon...
Even the littlest saints can beat the devil.
Every year I wonder if we should do the work of the party again and every year I'm grateful we did. The boys were so excited and had so much fun planning it and enjoying the party. It was such a confirmation as they pored over books and learned about different saints and brainstormed ways to celebrate that it is time and energy well spent. The two oldest had the honor of serving with the bishop for the All Souls' Mass the next day and he preached about having a 'heavenly trajectory' for our lives and keeping our gaze there. I pray that they (and I!) can keep that heavenly focus their whole lives.
So. Life goals. Wilkerson family roadtrip one fall, on All Saints, to celebrate at your party.
ReplyDeleteBecause it is awesome.
That is all.
Ha, that would be amazing.
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