All Saint's Day Pumpkin Art

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

Happy All Saint's Day!

Here I am sharing a fun art project...An idea that emerged from my disappointment!  I was feeling really bummed out that we were missing our annual All Saint's Day party with our homeschool group this year, due to a family conflict.  (I think I look forward to it, every year, more than the kids!)  I started wracking my brain trying to think of something fun and meaningful that we could do as a family here at home to celebrate this important feast day.  Always thinking about things that are "do-able"(My main priority for a project), I was inspired by Lacy's Saint puppets.   I figured if we couldn't dress up as our favorite saints this year, we could dress up some pumpkins!  We used many of the awesome Catholic Icing templates as guides for our faces and saintly symbols. 

Setting up "shop" in the garage, we had art class all morning!  All ages could participate...Age 4 an up:)

This would be a great idea for an All Saint's party too...It really only took us about 2 1/2 hours to make about a dozen Saint pumpkins!  (Not including set-up and clean-up) Our only supplies were sharpie pens and paint.  Tip:  Washable Tempera paint definitely works well but we liked the acrylic paints best...More vibrant colors.  Everyone wore aprons since acrylic paint is not washable.

We always discover new gifts and talents when we do art projects!  Princess created an adorable Holy Family:)

We are using it for our kitchen table centerpiece for November...Maybe even December!?  The rest of the pumpkins also made the cutest liturgical decorations:)

Angel baby made St. Therese (mostly) on her own...

+Superboy made St. Michael the Archangel+

Here we have St. Francis of Assisi...

St. Clare...

(Blessed) Mother Teresa of Calcutta...

A few saintly pumpkins made it the fireplace mantle...How's that for a power trio?

Let's see, we also had St. Patrick...He is (teenager) Army Dude's patron saint...

He's just too cute!

And one of my favorite's...Our Lady of Guadalupe:)  We ran out of pumpkins but I wanted to do Juan Diego to go with her!

I really think Princess did a nice job with St. Kateri Tekakwitha...One of her patron saints...Perfect decor for Thanksgiving too!

Here they are all together!  
They really turned out much cuter than I ever expected...Certainly making up for my original disappointment;-)

+...All you holy men and women, pray for us+
I've linked up!

Celebrate the Saints with Equipping Catholic Families:

Pumpkin Night!

~This Saint-O-Lantern is dedicated to the Mother of God: St. Mary, Most Holy~

*Ave Maria~Hail Mary*

Tonight was Pumpkin Night!

~We carved Pumpkins and ate Pumpkin Cake~

Hubby will be gone to the Firehouse for the next several nights so we had to seize the moment and take advantage of his time home with us...  

(We miss him when he is away!)

It was a fun night with only a couple of small glitches...

Oldest son was very tired from playing Water Polo so he didn't want to be photographed and

I was a little sad that 2 yo missed out on the fun as she was already in bed.  We also didn't have much time to print out some of the saintly pumpkin patterns that I wanted to try so we just did our best with "free hand." It's a little early so the pumpkins might rot before the end of the week but the memories will remain...

I just love this little poem that circulates every year about this time.  You have probably seen it but I think it's perfect for pumpkin night:

Being a Christian...Is like being a pumpkin. God picks you

from the patch, brings you in, washes all the dirt off you. Then He

cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff. 

He removes the seeds of doubt, hate and greed. Then He carves you

a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world

to see.

~Here are a few more photos from our evening and the recipe for our Pumpkin Cake below~

Cleaning pumpkins is my favorite part!

Not much of a fancy stencil but I gave it a good, honest, try...

Saint-O-Lantern complete!

 Army Dude (Age 11) did his pumpkin without Dad's help this year.  He's an experienced Boy Scout when it comes to using a knife!

Superboy had some help but he designed the face and gave his pumpkin the "original" name of Jack!

Princess and her handsome and holy pumpkin...

Then we closed out the evening with Pumpkin Cake

YUM!

This is a Fall favorite at our house!

Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients:

6 eggs,  slightly beaten

1 1/2 Cups sugar

1 large can pumpkin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 cans condensed milk

1 box yellow cake mix

1/2 Cup melted margarine or butter

Cool whip topping (optional)

Mix all ingredients together, except for cake mix and butter.  Pour into greased 9X13 pan.

Place yellow cake mix into a separate bowl and melt the butter.  Pour melted butter over the cake mix and use fork or fingers to moisten the cake.  Cake should be moist but lumpy.  Slowly drop cake mixture on top of the pumpkin mixture until the pumpkin surface is covered.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

Enjoy!

I was so mad at myself that we forgot to pray the Pumpkin Carving Prayer!

I printed it out from DLTK and everything.

But hero hubby saved the day, even though it was the "next" day.
He helped 2yo Angel Baby carve her pumpkin before heading off to work.  We had a second chance to do the prayer and carve a pumpkin accordingly! 
(Hint: The Christian face matches the prayer)

We named him "Bible Pumpkin"~

Dear God,
As I carve my pumpkin help me say this prayer:
Open my mind so I can learn about You;
(Cut the top of the pumpkin)
Take away all my sin and forgive me for the wrong things I do.
(Clean out the inside)
Open my eyes so Your love I will see;
(Cut the eyes out in heart shapes)
I'm so sorry for turning up my nose to all you've given me.
(Cut a nose in the shape of a cross)
Open my ears so your word I will hear.
(Cut the ears shaped like the Bible)
Open my mouth so I can tell others You're near
(Cut the mouth in the shape of a fish)
Let your light shine in all I say and do!  Amen.
(Place a candle inside and light it)

Check out the Saint-O-Lantern Links over at Catholic Cuisine too...