Pumpkin Carving Party

We had our pumpkin carving party again tonight, and it was really nice today.  Friends started showing up around 3pm or so, and with them came all kinds of snacks and drinks and supplies and laughs and fun!

Here's my pumpkin later on tonight, the one we got from Bradley's Pumpkin farm a few weeks ago.  I went outside of my norm by making an actual face on it, and it turned out pretty well.  Throughout this entry, we'll see pictures of the final lineup, plus everyone together on the back deck leading up to the event.

Bonnie's first pumpkin carving party!  Everyone was super supportive of Mom.  Camille and her mother where here to help with Mom so she didn't work too hard.  The food was plentiful, and the weather outside was ideal beneath our canopy.  We had a few first-time carvers out there too, working away at their designs.

Here's Emma's design.  She actually bedazzled her pumpkin as well, making a simple face on it for fun.  Emma had a great time this afternoon.

Here she is with younger Camille, who also did a nice little pumpkin design too.  The event is BYOP, which means "bring your own pumpkin."  Earlier, Maddie set out all the carving tools on a table, so things were ready to go.

Ah, here's Josh and Pastor Lance working on a pumpkin for Lance's daughters, one with a Barbie face, or at least something close to that.

No, this isn't the Barbie face.  But it'd be pretty interesting to see this on a Barbie face!  This is Josh's usual creative face on a pumpkin, and I just love the size of the chin.

Josh continued to draw the face of the Barbie, and Pastor Lance would then carve out that face later on.  I think you can spot the girl's face on one of these pumpkins below in the final group shot.

This is one photo that highlights the villain Bill Cipher over at the right.  Foster, one of Dawn's children, carved that pyramid creation.  And here below is a pumpkin apartment complex, carved by the Keiffer family, complete with smaller pumpkin residents.

Ah, and here's a seasonal pumpkin of a different sort.  This is Diane, a good friend of ours who got us the entrance to the Pastor's summit and the rally on Wednesday.  She's been busy following around the campaign these past few weeks, and is actually on her way to Arizona.

And here's her sister, Elizabeth, carving away her Hershey's kiss pumpkin. Being that she's from Pennsylvania, she usually has a PA somewhere on her pumpkin.  You can see the Hershey's kiss in the photo above, at the top.

And you can see that large landscape too, carved by Camille and her husband Chris.  They brought in a huge pumpkin and got to work on it immediately.  This is Camille's first year carving without gloves, as once she had her daughter Bonnie, suddenly the pumpkin allergy is gone.  She's pretty psyched about that, and about enjoying pumpkin spice flavoring on things!  Here they are, working on their pumpkin below.

Ah, here's my pumpkin again, in the dark, and ready for mischief!  Below, it's the Keiffer family with their new family member Eleanor.  Beautiful day outside!  Here are few more pictures of everyone carving outside, and more pictures of the final products in different lighting.

Here's Ansley, our new intern working on her pumpkin.  It's taking a good while to do, but it came out really well!

This one is based on a meme, a character sitting amongst a fire saying, "This is fine."  Ironically, Maddie chose a meme as well, one you'll see in a bit.

There it is, top left.  Maddie's pumpkin is based on a meme of Elmo, the Sesame Street character... on fire. Or at least surrounded by fire.  Not sure why this is a meme, but lots of people caught it immediately.

She got a lot of laughs for this choice.  

You can see Mom is here amidst all the girls, just enjoying her day.  We woke up in the hospital yesterday, so this is quite a change of environment.  I was so glad to see her beautiful smile so much today.

It was such a great time.  It's always nice to line up all those pumpkins on the fireplace and put candles in them, just enjoying the sight of all the art on display.  Everyone does such a great job with this.  And we had a lot of people show up today.

One by one we said our goodbyes, and everyone was super helpful with the clean-up.  It was getting cooler outside, and we all have church in the morning.  Maddie and I watched "Coraline" tonight, with Mom joining us a little later after her bath.  Maddie and I placed our pumpkins on the fireplace, keeping them lit during the movie.  But we were tired at the end of the day - we had a big day! 

We read tonight, and then we said our prayers.  We've got church tonight, so off to sleep we went - and easy sleep.  It's been a wonderful day.