44/52: Pumpkin Carving, Snow White, and All Saints

Well THAT was an exhausting Hallowtide.

I mean, is it ever NOT exhausting? Doubtful. It occurred to me a few days before Halloween that I had a Snow White dress from high school that still fit (snugly, but still), AND seven children. It was only appropriate for us to dress up as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, right? I suggested it to them the day before and Cecilia was a total naysayer. But when I bribed them with the possibility of lunch out, everyone was up for it! Then of course we found out that our location of the restaurant that offered free kids' meals to kids in costumes wasn't actually participating.  Still, worth it just for these pictures.

I ended up taking them to a nursing home and then to the library later, where they each scored two pieces of candy and a cookie. Peter said, "It's kind of like trick or treating!" Yup. About as close as we'll ever get to actual trick or treating...

I let them all carve pumpkins the day before, and once again proved that those carving kits are worth every penny. I think my younger brother helped some with the trickiest parts, but mostly they did it themselves and didn't do a terrible job! Plus no injuries, and the older kids helped the younger ones. They wanted some of the creepy patterns that came with the carving kit, like "zombie bat" and the like, so I convinced them that maybe we should look up Pokemon patterns instead, which they were totally fine with. Better than zombie bats.

Giant thunderstorms rained out our bonfire, so we moved it to the next day, which meant we hit the 7 AM All Saints' Day Mass, mid-day homeschool party, and then had friends over a couple hours later for chili and a bonfire. Fun, yes! But probably too much for one day...

They were so sweet in their costumes - Peter dressed as St. Peter Damian and said, "I'm going to tell people that I'm St. Peter but they have to guess which one!" Not surprisingly, St. Peter Damian was not a common guess, which pleased Peter because he loves it when people guess wrong! He insisted on a praying hands pose for his picture, and told me he much preferred the picture of him with his eyes closed, so he closed his eyes for the group picture as well and it was adorable.

Mary Claire as St. Elizabeth of Hungary was SO angry when we walked into the homeschool party and she saw two other Sts. Elizabeth of Hungary. Sorry kid, she's a popular saint... But her bread was the fanciest and her roses were real, so she took great consolation in that fact.

John Paul had a lot of trouble getting his pant legs to stay up, but insisted he did NOT need to change into shorts. He was St. Adrian of Nicomedia, which obviously nobody was going to guess.

Elizabeth as St. Bernadette and Cecilia as St. Germaine were the determining factors in my getting Lucy her sheep costume. It was worth every penny!

Edith misplaced her stuffed lamb before the party and didn't find it again until the next day, but was totally okay with just having a stuffed cow instead. After all, Lucy was her REAL lamb!

The real question is: can I squeeze Lucy into that costume again next year so that some of the other kids can be Our Lady of Fatima & Francisco/Lucia/Jacinta?