Pumpkin Carving Party

Tonight we had ourselves a little pumpkin carving party. It was rather spontaneous, as earlier this week we sort of decided wouldn't it be fun to come over to the new house and carve pumpkins. So a couple of coworkers came over tonight to meet Madison, and see the new house. One by one, we arrived with chairs from the old house - and our pumpkins, of course.

Mommy had a wonderful dinner prepared: lasagna. We all enjoyed our hearty meal, and plugged in "Nightmare Before Christmas" on the big television as we set out the pumpkins on the kitchen table. You can see Daddy's carving above, based on the Mayor of Halloween Town. As the movie played, we cut open the tops - and prepared to remove the guts!

Brock is surprised at the "yuck factor," as he attempts to clean out the guts from within a pumpkin. It was his first pumpkin carving, and he actually did really good with it! His pumpkin was Daddy's favorite, actually. As you can see in some of the photos, Madison was right there with the action, hanging out with her new friends. Mommy was there too, making it a very special evening. It was a fun night, and to make things even greater, Mommy cooked up all the pumpkin seeds so we can snack on them in the morning.

Here Tyler is, trying to eat some seeds raw. Not recommended! Unless you're in one of those Asian countries where they do things like that. Anyway, once an October, there's a special event that just sort of sneaks up on Daddy and surprises him in a unique way. It isn't anything terribly elaborate, but it usually is something fun and spontaneous. Last year, it was taking Madison trick-or-treating to Discover Mills and seeing how much she enjoyed it there. One year before, it was walking a land bridge out to a deserted island in Lake Lanier we couldn't go to before, exploring it in the middle of the night with the entire family. Spooky! Tonight, it was having everyone over to carve pumpkins. It was a great night, and Madison enjoyed it too!

Scooby-doobie-doo! Above is Tyler's final product. Amazingly, he carved that out the quickest out of all of us. Below is Brock's pumpkin:

Boo! Madison watched as we put the candles inside and lit them up in the dark rooms. It was a late night for her, but she really enjoyed the company. Daddy did too. It's late, but he's still smiling remembering the great evening we just had here.

Here's Josh's pumpkins - he actually carved two this weekend!