All Hallow's Eve 2010 - Part 2

So, this year we went to the All Hallow's Eve Family Fun Night in Corpus Christi, Texas.

It was held at St. Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church.

All I can say is WOW! These parishioners all work together to put on a fantastic and fun evening not only for the children, but for the entire family, and they learn about and celebrate the lives of the Saints while doing so. It's actually not all that different from what we have been doing in Ganado for the past 4 years, and yet, it's very different.

Here are a few pictures from our fun at the All Hallow's Eve Family Fun Night:

Sydney dressed up as Blessed Imelda

Sydney waiting in line for the costume contest.

Sydney reading about the life of Blessed Imelda to the judges.


Riding a donkey...I mean pony!


It's too bad they didn't have a side saddle!

For LOTS more pictures of the actual event and all the games, go to the link at the very top of this post. I was too busy having fun to take pictures!

All Hallow's Eve 2010 - Part 1

This year's Trunk or Treat was moved to Saturday, October 30th, due to the Sunday evening Mass schedule and a potential conflict with the parking lot. It worked out, though, because we were able to attend an All Hallow's Eve Family Fun Night in Corpus Christi on Sunday evening. Below are pictures from our Trunk or Treat.

Gianna was dressed as an angel, though she couldn't keep her halo on. Probably because she wasn't being an angel that night! In the 2nd picture, she is standing next to her cousin Gwen, also an angel.

Sydney dressed up as Blessed Imelda Lambertini, the patroness of First Communicants. Since she is preparing for the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we thought it would be a great way for all of us to learn about the life of Blessed Imelda and her passion for Jesus in the Eucharist. Thank you, Mimi, for doing such a great job sewing her costume!

*Notice how in all of the pictures the Communion host appears to be suspended over Sydney's head! That actually wasn't planned, though it is completely in line with the story of Blessed Imelda.

Here's a pic of the whole family! Rebecca & Jon on the left and Mark & I on the right. Ty was St. Michael, Luke represented St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, and Mary, Gwen & the newest addition, Anna, were 3 little angels all dressed in white. Our angel theme wasn't planned either... Another thing that I noticed in this picture is the irradescent "host" to the left of the one we made. What a Godincidence!

Below, are pictures of our trunk.
The 2nd one is taken with the black light on.
Isn't it cool how the stuff in white glowed?

Sorry, I didn't get around to taking any pictures of the other saints and trunks this year. Chasing Gianna around kept us quite busy this time around. I will post a link and some pictures of our trip to Corpus Christi for All Hallow's Eve Family Fun Night very soon! Hope you enjoyed the pictures so far...it was not easy! I thought Blogger would have fixed the many problems they have with editing posts and previewing them by now...

Trunk or Treat '09 - Part 2

Rebecca, Melissa, & Me!

Here are some pictures of some of the other Saints and their trunks.

Anne Moore as "St. Anne - Grandmother of Jesus."

Lou Ann Tupa handing out homemade cookies.

Analee Tegeler doing free face painting with a beach toss.


Regina Chovanec as St. Genevive


Curt Gabrysch as St. Andrew


Dwayne Taylor as St. John Bosco


Matthew Sulak as St. Francis (with sunglasses!)
with the "trunk" of St. Bernadine of Siena


Loren Genzer as Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
Had to post this one - just look at that sunset!


The Reid family did St. Nicholas!
(My sister never ceases to amaze me...)


Melissa Fowler as St. Maria Faustina Kowalska


Joey Sablatura as St. Francis of Assisi


Karen Klaus as St. Joan of Arc


The Catholic Daughters as Our Lady of Snows
(and they served "Snow" Cones!)

Trunk or Treat '09 - Part 1

If you are reading this right now, you might be in shock because it's been over 7 months since I have posted anything on this blog and over a year since I have been posting on a more regular basis. I have no excuses and no explanations, but I do have pictures! I have lots of pictures. But I will start out slowly...

I actually had a special request a few days ago for our pictures from this years All Hallow's Eve. And I am happy to report that I actually have 2 evenings of pictures to post. But, before I do that, it's only fair to let you see our pictures from last year first. So, here are our pictures from All Hallow's Eve 2009 at ABVM Trunk or Treat!

Me with my little Saint and my grouchy ladybug.

Sydney as Saint Agnes of Rome

292-304

Feast Day ~ January 21

Name meaning: Pure one, chaste, lamb

Patron Saint of:

Girls and Girl Scouts, Chastity and bodily purity,

Engaged couples, virgins, and Children of Mary
Love this description of St. Agnes,
plus the image we used to create her costume!

A picture taken to show off our cool poster!

The trunk...


Mamaw with 6 of her grandchildren.
(My, how fast our pictures become outdated!)


Ty - scarecrow
Mary - Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz


Luke - the cutest nerd ever!
Gwen was a pink ballerina.

Trunk or Treat '07

These pictures are way outdated. Even though they were taken before Gianna was born, she was actually already here, we just didn't know it yet... ;-)

We chose Saint Isidore, patron saint of farmers
and against the death of children.

My mom chose Saint Anthony of Padua,
patron saint of lost articles (and fishermen, I believe).

My sister chose Saint Dorothy of Caesarea, patron saint of
gardeners, brewers, brides, florists, midwives, newlyweds.
HINT: They already had all these plants!
That's how they decided on Saint Dorothy of Caesarea!

To see Trunk or Treat '08, click here...

Now, if anyone has any suggestions for what we should do this year, please let me know ASAP! The only thing I have to go on is a Bride costume for Sydney that I bought at Wal-Mart after Halloween last year for about $3 or $4. Know of any saints that are depicted as wearing all white? Before they died?

Trunk or Treat '08

Well, this year's Trunk or Treat had a smaller number of participants, due to All Hallow's Eve falling on a Friday (high school football game) night, but we had a bigger turnout of trunk-or-treaters than last year. We ran out of candy! In case you don't know what Trunk or Treat is, it is a way for trick-or-treaters to learn what Halloween is really about. It is held in the church parking lot, with each participant's car parked in a semi-circle with the trunks facing inwards. Each car is decorated in the theme of a saint. We each have a poster beside our car with our saint's name, the years they lived (to know what century it was), their feast day, and what they are the patron saint of. We also try to dress up either as the saint or in the theme of what the saint's patronage is. It is not only a cool and fun way to evangelize, but also very educational for us, too, because when you choose a saint, you end up learning a whole lot about their life and how they became a saint in the first place. For example, since our family chose St. Gertrude of Nevilles, the patron saint of cats, my oldest daughter was a cat and my baby girl a kitten. I, of course, was dressed up as St. Gertrude, who happened to be a nun. We still give away candy, but we try to add a Saintly twist to it. For the "treats", we handed out Kit Kats and I made labels to go on the back side of each package that said, "KIT KAT...Keep It True…Keep All Traditions...
All Hallow’s Eve – the night before All Saints Day...Saint Gertrude…Pray for us."

Sydney was a cat. She wore a black shirt, black tights, black socks & black shoes that we already had. The headband (ears), bow (collar) & tail were $4 at Wal-Mart!

Gianna was a kitten (this was Sydney's costume when she was a baby...5 years ago)

One of my really close friends is Baptist, and they actually started having Trunk or Treat at their church a few years ago, where they passed out Christian tracts, along with their candy. A fellow Catholic friend of mine and I attended their Trunk or Treat - that's where we got the idea from. I did a little research online and found that a lot of churches are starting to do this. While it can be a fun "social" event for everyone, we both agreed that it was still missing something. We loved the idea of incorporating the Saints into the celebration. We also wanted a place for our own children to go that didn't give them nightmares at night, after seeing so many scary and gory costumes and decorations. Now, I should mention here that many saints were martyred and died horrible and very gruesome deaths. For example, Saint Lawrence, the patron saint of cooks, was placed on a gridiron to be roasted over a slow fire. At some point, he said, "You may turn my body over; it is roasted enough on that side." See what I mean about learning something?! We have actually had a Saint Lawrence at our Trunk or Treat for the past two years who cooked/grilled hot dogs, nachos, etc. for everyone to eat. Here are a few pictures I took of some of the other saints and their trunks.

Saint Veronica & Saint Gertrude (me)


Saint Longinus (the soldier who pierced the side of Jesus)

Saint Godric (a greedy pirate until he learned about Jesus)

This was too cute not to share...ever seen a nun nursing a baby?!?!