All Saints' Party 2010

Introducing Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe in homemade costumes! I sewed Mary's tunic out of an old curtain. Her cape is blue fabric, yellow bias tape, and sparkly gold fabric paint. For John's tilma, I used Avery tee-shirt transfer print paper, which is then ironed on.

Each year, our local homeschoolers get together and throw a fabulous two-hour party for the kids (at night when trick-or-treating is going on). The young kids all dress up and the middle-schoolers and teenagers operate most of the games. The older kids are so gentle and understanding with various young ages of children because most of them come from large families. Each game is adaptable to all manner of ages and for participating the kids receive candy and holy cards (which is really as wonderfully "square" as my childhood friend's father who was a dentist and handed out sugar-free candy and toothbrush kits at Halloween).

The event started with a Guess-the-Saint game divided into age groups. The children gave clues as to their costumes and the other children guessed who they are supposed to be.

After that, everyone gathered around and was led in one decade of the rosary by the two priests there. We prayed for all the people who have died in the last year. Do you know how neat it is to see at least 100 kids instantly kneel on the hard gymnasium floor and fold their hands in prayer? And do you know how funny it is when they're all in costumes, some of them plenty gory (think of martyr saints and their gruesome manners of death!)?

All the games have Catholic twists to them, such as the Seven Deadly Sins golf game.

Ring Toss: throwing halos on the saints (each stick had a holy card on it--note the fluffy "clouds")

This was some kind of relay race with baby dolls, so Mary really enjoyed that.

For this building game, the older kids have more specific challenges. The littlest kids were asked simply to makes piles of sticks.

And check out the pumpkin carving contests (again, in age brackets)! Does it get more fabulously, corny Catholic than this?

"Choose Life"

"JESUS"

Saints in heaven

The Eucharist

The organizers of this party do a fabulous job every year--and it's a big job, I'm sure! We so appreciate having this way to celebrate All Saints' Day! On the drive home, John asked why we had dressed in costumes, which we explained. Then he chattered much of the way home about how we are not saints yet, so he wants to do lots of "chores" to "help people" before going to Heaven. Then he came up with all kinds of ideas on his own about how he would help people, such as fixing people's computers or cars or fixing crashed houses or helping poor people. Just like many of us who fail to see who our closest neighbors are, when I suggested that God loves it when John helps his mommy in such ways as emptying the dishwasher, he promptly replied that he needs to help strangers. (And wouldn't most of us rather put in time at a soup kitchen than serve those in our own homes? Which sounds more holy?) And when Daddy suggested that sharing toys was a chore that God loves, John said he was really working hard on teaching Mary to share and stop yanking toys, which led to a humorous debate as I tried to explain that he needs to teach her by example and he retorted that he needs to "have his turn first."

Costumes, plenty of candy, wholesome kids of all ages, games = a very fun night!