Happy Halloween!

We had a great day today! Madeleine inherited this great raccoon costume from our friends and she fell in love with it. In fact, yesterday the child didn't want to take it off all day. Our local Catholic bookstore was having a party today and they got a special treat if they dressed as a saint, so I thought maybe I could throw together a St. Francis costume for John Paul to go with the raccoon.

She was a little nervous at first to say "Trick or Treat" but she got that down right away!

Father Joshua was on hand to bless all the kiddos. John Paul won't go to just anyone but he does love Fr. Josh! (And Fr. Josh is already praying for a vocation for him!)

I love this picture! The costume is a little big for her so she couldn't see very well, but she was fine with it!

Me and my sweet St. Francis.

I took over 100 pictures today and couldn't get a decent one of the two of them! I did get some funny ones though, so I will have to do an Outtake Post this week for sure!

Her tail wagged back and forth as she walked around. She did not want to take off the costume, even when she was playing in the leaves!

For throwing this costume together yesterday, I am pretty proud of it! I altered a dress pattern to make the robe (shhh! Don't tell him!) I cut the ends of the arms and the hem and put it through the wash so it would fray. The rope belt I tried to dye with tea, it didn't work very well. The rosary I got at a high school youth conference at Steubenville, and it hung in my car window all through high school and college. It is faded and well - used! I'm sure I prayed for my future children on it. And the very best part of all, the sacred heart necklace I bought in Assisi, right outside St. Francis church. It was from a little cart on the street and the man hand-carved it. I wore it a lot in high school and college. AND.... it is blessed by Pope John Paul 2! I am SO happy that I got to go to Rome and Assisi when I was in high school. I saved my babysitting money for a year and a half and paid for most of the trip myself. And I got lots of things blessed by the Pope that I can give to John Paul one day. How many people actually have something blessed by their patron saint??

Hm... can you say Ordination slide show??

This was the last picture I took of them. I loved it because I can just tell Madeleine is thinking, "I've had enough of this!"

Madeleine got to go trick or treating for the first time. First we went to Grandma's house, and then 3 or 4 houses on their street. We stopped at 2 more friends houses. Then we went to Taco Bell for supper. We had a great day. Happy Halloween!