As many of you know, Hallowtide is the 3 days of All Hallows’ Eve (better known as Halloween), All Saints Day, and All Souls Day, carrying us all from the month of October into November.  These last few days have been full of festivities, fun, and more education for all us!  I’ve mentioned to you all before, just how much our kids love to plan any festivities. I think you’ll truly get the gist of just how much they ‘get into it’, as you visit our blog over the next couple of days.  For any celebration we have coming up, our oldest always loves to plan the menu items (as well as do a lot of the cooking and baking), and the little ones might have a say in that menu, lol, make decorations, plan the games, and stuff like that.  They are all, always, never short on ideas.  They are very enthusiastic party planners, even if it is just for us.  But we sure do have a good time!!  Suffice it to say, I took loads, and loads, of photos. I have been splitting my computer time between processing them all for family history and blogging, and working!  I’ll only be sharing a fraction of them here, but still out of necessity (and sanity), this Hallowtide theme will be split into multiple posts.   I hope you all enjoy our ‘little ways’.

The children woke up on All Hallows’ Eve to Daddy’s artwork on the fridge chalkboard (that still makes me smile,) seen below.   If you can imagine him, he sat on the floor, drawing and coloring like a child, and having as much fun as one.  Just when I thought he was done, he’d pick up another piece of chalk for a little finishing touch here, and then there. Then adding this and that.  Truth was, he didn’t WANT to be done. He’s just so cute about these things, and I’m sure you’ll agree he’s quite the sketch artist.  It didn’t go unappreciated by the kids in the morning either.  No one erased it to do their own thing.

But as excited as the kids were to get to all they had worked so hard on planning, it was still a school day, first.  Devotion was dedicated to another more thorough and deeper study of the meaningful and interesting ties of ‘Halloween’ to our Catholic faith.  As committed Catholics raising our children in our faith, it’s our obligation to teach how our faith relates to everything, and there is very interesting history to be learned here. We learn more every year! In addition to this, as we follow the Liturgical Year, we acknowledge all of these holy days, with ‘Halloween’ meaning “Holy Eve’ in reference to the eve of All Saints Day, which in turn leads to the observance of All Souls Day.  (Just talking, in case anyone doesn’t know these things yet. )

At any rate (as my mother would say), All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints Day was pretty much rolled into one broo-ha-ha for us. We stayed up LATE, carrying on with our antics.  Having spent a good amount of time discussing the important meaning of all of the aspects of this seemingly crazy holiday, and how it ALL came about over the course of history, and why,….we then dove right into the silliness of it all.

So here come just some of the photos for Part I of our All Hallows Eve festivities.  As we sat gathered at our table, schooling as the morning turned to afternoon, we started paying more and more attention to this menu {A} had set on the window sill beside us,…..

as our bellies began to grumble for lunch:

A bit after lunch and awhile of working for me, I had to run out to a client consult.  But when I got home, the kids were all geared up to get the celebration rolling!!  They got out shirts/sweatshirts, as did Michael and I, and we all decided what designs we wanted for them.  Daddy cut our choices out of vinyl and put them on for us. They were ready to ….

…..eat again of course!

{A}’s Salty Bones!  These were so good with jalapeno cheese dip!

Bat Wings!

{S} couldn’t get enough of these things!

And then they made their own ‘Monster Pizzas’.

Here’s {O} just sitting there looking cute, waiting for her pizza to come out of the toaster oven.

Finally, they were cooled down enough to bite into! {J} was happy about that!

It wasn’t long after we ate our ‘main course’ that {A} was in the kitchen again, making us some candy apples.  (Here she’s at the stove, melting chocolate in a double boiler.)

She wanted me to take ‘how-to’ photos for you all.  So go ahead and make some, and enjoy them yourself!

Michael/Daddy started cutting out cookies, too.Take note of the pumpkin on his shirt, which he was all excited about wearing.  (No, I am not being sarcastic. )

That’s FAR from all. The party just got crazier from there, late into the night.

So stay tuned, if you dare……………
Check out the crazy-fun antics in Part II HERE!