Annual Home-school All Saint's Day Party

St. Jude Thaddeus

And St. George was there too!

A Parade

Lots of Saints there!

Don't forget the cute little St. Juan Diego

 

St. Nicholas Day

The big kids had this day off of school!  We ended up celebrating Drew's very belated birthday dinner at a chicken and waffle place, Gold Feather.  You may recall that his birthday was the day Brian and I flew out to get Roman and things have been so busy that we just kept putting it off, but we finally had a spare evening!

Everyone got matching PJ's and various types of gingerbread houses this year.

Bob was so thankful for a squishy ball he had been wanting.

Nobody noticed the Light Up Corn Hole set until Dad pointed it out.

Although I am still working on sewing Roman's incomplete stocking, he did get two little toys for St. Nicholas Day. 

 

St. Nicholas Day 2020

I love when St. Nicholas Day is on a weekend!  We were able to take our time in the morning a bit with the stockings before getting ready for church.

Drew got a Green Ember t-shirt.  He is still obsessed with Green Ember book series and continues to reread his favorite books in the series.  We are reading aloud the first book at bedtime right now.  It is adorable that whenever I read a statement about a character that turns out not to be true later in the book, he can't help but tell us that it's not really true and we'll see later.  His excitement is adorable.  He has now started reading Kathryn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'Hoole series and is now a little bit obsessed with owls too.

I love consumable gifts!  With six kids it can be overwhelming at Christmastime if everyone gets a bunch of gifts you have to find a place for.  So I put in as many consumable gifts as I can.  One thing, that the kids all love and I typically won't buy because it isn't practical, is individually microwaveable Mac-N-Cheese cups.  They are not filling and they are expensive.  As it is we have to make three boxes of regular Macaroni and Cheese to feed the six of them.  So I gave them each one cup of the Mac-N-Cheese to use for a lunch sometime.  They were super excited about it.

Judah was celebrating the Nutella and pretzel pack.  He really loves food.

 

This is Judah's year (when he turned 7 yrs old) to start watching the Star Wars movies and shows with the big kids, so he got a baby Yoda to commemorate the year. 

Isaac got a stack of clothes and books.  Hannah got some LED lights for her bedroom and some clothes.  Genevieve got a battery operated blender because she has been dying for it.  She is the Smoothie Queen around here.  The boys all got a basketball net for the trampoline.

All Saint's Day: 2020 Corona-style

Our All Saint's party was moved to the First Friday to follow Mass and have a picnic, share desserts and dress up like your favorite saint.    We had it outside the church under the pavilion.  It was not the same caliber as our normal party with games and prizes, but it was something during a time when "something" isn't even always possible.

Drew wanted to be St. Andrew AGAIN for at least the third year in a row.  Judah was St. John of the Cross, utilizing St. Helen's cross from years back, a t-shirt as a cowl, a cape from year's past, and an old brown tunic (that may have been way too short).  Bobby was St. Michael the Archangel.  Check out those wings!  Isaac was St. Michael years and years ago, so we had that whole costume ready to go.  

They got very shy when it was time to announce their costumes.

 It was a beautiful day and it was nice for the kids to see their friends and make some new ones.

St Philomena Mass and Party

Our homeschool group has a family in it specifically devoted to St. Philomena and they celebrate her on her birthday each year.  We were able to go this year.   The evening began with Mass, a procession, relic exposition, and then moved to a party upstairs with cake and games.

Genevieve was able to hang out with one of her homeschooled kindred spirits and had a great time...talking nonstop as they usually do when together.

There were active games for the boys!

They had a pin the floral crown on St. Philomena, an over-sized memory game, coloring pages, and a tic-tac-toe game.

It was nice in the midst of a busy basketball season to slow down and have an evening to enjoy a special saint and our family and friends.

St Nicholas and Santa Claus

The biggest challenge having the girls in school (and sports) is trying to squeeze in our family traditions that fall on week nights, like this one.  We had to do our stocking on St. Nicholas Day in between school and the first basketball game of the season.

Judah got this in his stocking and he's been reading me the knock knock jokes.  So cute to see this face behind a joke book over the counter while I cook.

We don't do Santa gifts since we do St. Nicholas Day gifts and it keeps the focus on Christmas Day a little closer on Jesus' birth.  However, we do recognize that the idea and legend of Santa came from St. Nicholas.  In our neighborhood, we have a man that sets up an area to greet children as Santa each year.  He's growing that beard year round.  The girls scoffed at the idea, but all the boys were game for going to take a picture with him.

Another Saint Doll

We bought Yankie candles for the teachers at the German Kindergarten.  The boys helped me make cute tags with wrapping paper cut outs and stickers.

I finally finished Brian's other godson's Christmas gift.  His name is Michael and so you can guess who this is.

St. Michael the Archangel, I drew him as tough as you can draw one with a Precious Moments type head.  :)

I stitched the first half of the prayer and used fabric markers to decorate the rest and add his full name.

St. Nicholas Day and the German Kindergarten Program

Brian always goes to work late if possible on St. Nicholas' Day because that is when we do our stockings and sometimes another gift.  We started this tradition about 9 years ago when we lived in Germany and Brian was deploying before Christmas and he wanted to see the girls get their gifts.  We do wrap a gift for under the tree too, but I try to stick to one gift each and then maybe a shared gift for Christmas Day.  They get a lot from family and the "stuff" is really overwhelming with so many kids.

Right after taking a bite of his chocolate Santa, Drew's tooth got really loose and he let Brian pull it.  It was his first tooth to loose!  Loosing a tooth because of chocolate isn't a bad way to do it, right?  He cried and has been a bit of a weeny about the whole thing.  However, he was happy to accept the dollar in his tooth pillow that I made him when he was born while proudly proclaiming that he knew I was the one who put it there.

A party for families was scheduled for after the school day ends at 2pm.  We were excited to be able to take Nanna with us and watch Drew and Judah do a couple of songs for the families.  I brought some American brownies to share because they were a big hit last year.

Drew was a little embarrassed this time and half performed his song and dance.  Judah was the cutest smiley thing ever!

After that we were supposed to rush over to the big three's Gregorian Chant practice, but we were getting a new window in the kitchen installed and  had to miss it.  I'm embracing the Joy of Missing Out!

Missing Tooth and All!

Judah was so very cute when he did the hand motions and clapped with the songs!

Drew is the oldest in the Kindergarten now and so he was the leader penguin in the second song they did.  He collected more children to follow him each round, when the chorus was sung.

St. Lucy's Feast Day

I've been wanting to celebrate St. Lucy's feast day by making a cinnamon bun wreath with candles.  I read that you could just use pre-made cinnamon rolls and form them into a wreath to simplify and make sure that it actually happens in the midst of busy life.  So I did it that way and it did happen.  However, the candles would not stay in place and I could not trust them to be lit even for a moment.  I'm pretty sure that my husband would kill me if I burned our 100 year old antique table. I was right and they fell over many times.  I suppose it's the thought that counts and the memories we made.  We have a book about St. Lucy that we read as well at breakfast.

Maybe I'll use smaller candles next year.

St. Nicholas Day: Stockings!

We do our stockings on St. Nicholas Day instead of on Christmas Day.  It has worked well for our family this way for many reasons, but it started back when Brian had to leave right before Christmas.  We had St. Nicholas Day stockings and he was able to share that part of Christmas with us since he missed the actual Christmas day and season.  Many put out shoes for some chocolate coins, but we just do the whole stocking early.  Keeps things calmer on Christmas morning without too many gifts distracting from the true meaning of Christmas day.

Stockings all laid out the night before...

Before opening the stockings...

Digging in :)

I made this notebook cover for Isaac because he had really wanted a notebook at the Globe in London that had a Shakespeare quote on it.  It seemed a bit over priced, and I have a really hard time buying something that I can make.  This took me one evening while watching a movie with Brian after the kids went to bed.  The quote is perfect for him, because he can get lost in anything and waste his time.  He is a day dreamer and a fiddler and every task is a long process.  I have been into lettering lately and it was fun to doodle a bit on it too since I rarely get to draw these days.  It made for a good stocking stuffer.  However, he did not know that I had hand-made it until I told him.  I guess that's a compliment.

All Saint's Party

One thing I always like to do every year is an All Saint's party.  Last year we flew out the day after All Saint's Day and it was the first year we've missed since Hannah started kindergarten.  There was not a party already in place so in the summer I planted the seed in the mind of some of the homeschoolers.  I intended to get the planning done ahead of time so it wouldn't be a last minute deal, but, alas, August and September got away from me with all our visitors and trips.  However, I had already planted the seed and one of the other moms just (you are not going to believe this!)  totally took over and planned the whole thing minus the location which another mom took care of.  How in the world did that happen?  I didn't have to do a thing for the party but throw the idea out there.  That is amazing!  Of course, there were the costumes.  That I had to do myself.

Well, come to think of it, I have older girls that can get creative and resourceful, right?  Plus, I have years of costumes for the little boys to choose from or adapt.  Hannah made her own costume with a few suggestions from me.  She drew the angel at the feet of Our Lady of Guadalupe and pulled out a summer dress and the cape I had made her years ago with little stars all over it.  Ta dah!  I used clear tape to attach t to the dress.

Drew wanted to be St. Maximilian Kolbe.  Daddy was tasked to remove the lenses in an old pair of his glasses.  Then we took Isaac's St. Isaac Jogues costume which consisted of a black turtle neck shirt and a handmade black elastic skirt (made from t-shirts for Hannah's St. Claire costume originally, now that I think about it.)  I got a rope out of his dress up box and

he was cutest thing I've ever seen...

...at least, until this guy.

Judah asked to be St. Padre Pio.  He was adorable showing his "wounds of Christ" off.  I drew him a beard and got anpther one of the monk tunics from the box of costumes past.  He won the costume contest for his age group.  However, I must admit that he was the only one in the 2-4 year old range that stood still during the competition.  The other preschoolers all bolted and were running around the room.  He was left standing there all alone twisting his little wrists back and forth showing his stigmata.  It was so cute I almost cried.

His was not the only beard I drew.  St. Simon Stock is the one that Mary gave the brown scapular to.  Isaac is the only child who wears his scapular very faithfully.  I thought is was appropriate (whispers aside) "and easy."  Good thing we had a lot of these monk tunics made from Brian's old undershirts.  Another rope from the dress up trunk and we were done.

Genevieve always puts a lot of thought into her costume and reads through our books of saints to find the perfect one.  This year she chose   I had to end up helping her with the cardboard church at the last minute when we were supposed to be walking out the door.  That's how my girl rolls.  Funny thing (I say dripping with sarcasm), she forgot to even pick up the card board church when it was time for the costume contest and group picture.

I didn't get any good pictures of Bobby because he really wasn't feeling well.  The last minute plan had been for Brian to come by after work and, instead of joining the party, just take him home so he didn't have to suffer through the whole thing, but Brian got off super late due to some work emergency that there was no point in taking him home 20 minutes early.  Bobby got to wear the costume I made for Drew year ago, ST. Juan Diego.

Group picture

There were games, contests, and prizes.  We all brought our own dinners so the food was easy.  It was a lot of fun, but poor Bobby had me a little distracted.  The kids had an amazing time though!  The mom who planned it sent every child home with bags of candy and a prayer calendar to pray for a specific different soul every day of November and then the child could have a piece of candy after each prayer.  This was a great idea.  Judah memorized the prayer over the course of the month.  See the video at the end of this post.  Swoon warning!  My favorite thing is every night Drew and Judah would ask me, "Who died?"  They didn't totally understand that these people didn't die that day, perhaps.