All Saints Party 2011

Each year beginning when John was 10 months old, we have attended a fantastic All Saints' party at church on the eve of the feast (October 31). This year we could not because the children are sick. They had scary-high fevers in the middle of the night Saturday and we spent Sunday morning at Urgent Care instead of at Mass. They are fine, but the doctor we saw said that this nonspecific virus is going around and tends to cause fever for about five days (during which we are contagious), then coughing for up to two weeks (during which we are not contagious). So, we had to skip out on the great party this year.

John's costume of St. Tekla of Ethiopia

St. Tekla's turban: I wanted it to look like a turban with the cloth wrapped around it, but I wanted it to have the convenience of being an actual hat that I could easily put on a four-year-old child's head and never have to re-wrap again. So, I sewed an interior hat of felt, wrapped the turban fabric around it, then sewed it into place.

Mary's costume of St. Tekla's lion

St. Tekla and his lion . . .

. . . and one of the ladybugs who flew into Noah's ark!

Thank you Carter's for Margaret's costume!

Since the kids were going to miss out on the party which they know and enjoy each year, and we had to stay indoors because of being contagious, I quickly whipped up our very own All Saints' party. The kids learned of it when they woke up from their afternoon nap and were very excited. At each "game station," the kids got candy for participating in the activity.

They wanted to decorate their pumpkins as lions. This was a simplified version of what I thought was an excellent idea John worked up: He wanted to carve a pumpkin with various lions, then get a statue of the prophet Daniel to place inside! I want to do that some year--it would be really cool!

John's lion (with Daddy's help)

Mary's lion (with no help)

I made a game of building a castle out of my stash of paper towels and toilet paper rolls. Above is the castle Mary built.

And this is the castle John built. About 10 seconds into working on his castle, he announced, "I have an idea! Why don't we play cannonball and throw these paper towels at each other!" Now, imagine the great enthusiasm and boyish energy in his voice and then the nervous cluck-cluck in my voice as I tried to find excuses for why that was a bad idea. Ultimately I decided to let him be a boy and have fun since he was stuck at home, missing a party, because of some icky fever, and I should just stop being so square. Daddy and John played a very energetic game of cannonball with my paper towels and I think my paper products are no worse for wear and can still be used.

The kids played Guess How Many Candies in the Jar . . .

. . . as well as Toss the Ball into the Basket.

The children played Guess the Saint, at which John was good and Mary got candies just for trying.

Margaret wanted in on the action too and here grabbed hold of John's bag of candy. (Several times now I've come into her bedroom and found her standing in her crib, hanging on to the bars for dear life because she doesn't know how to sit down again.)

All in all, a good night!