All Hallows Party 2014

As my children have gotten older, I've noticed them coming back to my blog to look at scenes from the past, so I'm trying to push myself to keep recording our days here for them. I know this is late and All Hallows Eve is probably just a distant memory for most of you, unless you still have candy left over, but I didn't get a chance to blog about our party this year since we left to go out of town just a few days after.

I wasn't going to do much this year but then I think Melody mentioned online (I can't remember where though, sorry) that her big kids still dress up as an example and witness to the littles in the family. Since this is the first year that Miss Cupcake could really get into the party, I asked my bigs if they would consider donning saintly attire to help create the party mood and of course, they were happy to oblige. With us planning to head out of town so soon. we still kept things low key. I pulled out some old games from the attic box and added a few new ones which I will show you down below, but first, a look at our saint costumes again with full props (pipe and bread).

 Bl. Pier Giogio Frassati… pray for us!

St. Elizabeth of Hungary… pray for us!

The Professor donned some Roman garb and called himself St. Longinus (or St. Martin, whichever), Sunshine dressed up as St. Zita and Rain dressed up as a writer calling upon the assistance of St. Francis de Sales, patron of writers and journalists.

For dinner, we open up "St. Lawrence's Grill" and cooked outside. Later, for dessert, we made s'mores.

We set out our offering to the neighborhood kids who were trick or treating and then started playing some games. Our neighborhood doesn't get a ton of trick or treat traffic (dark streets, houses spaced further apart and no sidewalks) and the kids are mostly respectful. We've never had the unattended bowl cleaned out in the first 10 minutes or even in the first hour and in fact, this year, there was some left at the bottom.

St. Therese's Rose Toss

Cupcake was seriously impressed that her biggest brother could do it backwards!

Pin The Candle on St. Lucy's Wreath

I drew this wreath on a piece of cardboard and the candles on card stock. I used some self-laminating sheets to help stiffen up the candles and put tape on the back side so they would stick. 

Look at how delighted that little one is in the background… playing games with her big kids was the highlight of the night!

St. Nicholas Coin Toss

We had some bags of coins for Cupcake to toss but the big kids had fun trying to flip individual coins in. Super simple but a lot of fun. I think we will pull this one back out for St. Nick's feast day.

We used to have All Hallows Eve parties with our cousins which meant lots of little ones running around. Even though we only have one little one right now and the cousins have grown and gone, I need to remember to do those things that my big kids loved so that she doesn't miss out on the family fun…even if it is just our family. I'm so glad we did this!