God is Good!
I start this blog from a point of joyful exhaustion!
Despite my aching feet last night, I have to confess our All Saints Party yesterday (31st October 2010) was a great success - thanks to the participants! 12 families including mine, (over 50 attendees) packed into a classroom of St Teresa's School, for food, drinks, games and prizes - all scheduled around a Rosary, prayed together, for the Holy Souls. We had use of the grounds, where the apple-bobbing was stationed - but though many children played outside, it was cold and drizzly - so the indoor activities took over.
We started the fun none-the-less, with a scavenger hunt entitled 'The Road to Heaven'. I thought this one up the day before, and in hindsight it was quite a good one: Holy Cards were packed, in bunches, in plastic wrappers (nothing sophisticated - wrappers from party favours/magazines etc.) and 'hidden' (not too well) along the sides of a 'thorny path' - in our case, a path which disappears behind a clump of trees and bushes, but at this time of year has a beautiful golden archway-like entrance, thanks to the autumn leaves on the surrounding trees. The point of the activity was for the children to find GRACES (ie the Holy Cards) as they made their way through the thorny path, to help them get to Heaven. In the first place to find Graces for themselves - but also to obtain them for others. So when they found a packet they had to keep one of the Holy Card 'Graces' and distribute the others to the children near them, with the object being that everyone should have at least one card at the finish - and it was up to all of them to make sure no-one was left out. It went very well, and is definitely a game we will use again.
We had a 'Guess the Number of Saints' game (how many jelly beans in the jar), a 'Throw the Halo on the Saint' (hoopla) game, and my daughter Gaëlle supervised a 'Musical Statues' game to the accompaniment of a CD of Children's Praise and Bible Songs.
The mums and dads were great - bringing cakes, biscuits and all kinds of treats, and doing wonders with the clean up afterwards. Special thanks go to Gaëlle Hendrickx, and Maria Byrne who stayed over with us on Saturday night. These two helped pack all the 'goodie bags', get the car loaded and on the road, and generally get things set up in advance - then did various jobs through the course of the event - Maria solicited and listed estimates from everyone for the jellybeans guessing game, and did all the vacuuming afterwards too! Declan Carroll also deserves a special thank you for running the raffle - a 10p per ticket effort so everyone could participate.
And blessings indeed to the McCulloughs for bringing a second kettle and to the Sweeneys for bringing the one and only spoon!!!
The night before we attended The St Raphael Credit Crunch Ball. Another well-attended and most enjoyable event. I hope the funds were flowing in for the Good Counsel Network - long may they continue to save infants from slaughter, through the love they offer mothers.
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