Tricks or Treats

And so here we are once more at another Halloween, and you can see from the picture a great many things.  For starters, Madison is dressed as Jyn Erso, the lead character from "Rogue One."  During trick-or-treating tonight, she told me she liked this movie more than "The Force Awakens" or "The Last Jedi."  She was quite happy walking around as Jyn Erso today, and in fact had worn this to school - the kids were allowed to wear costumes for a certain amount of donation.  This costume was rather comfortable, and in fact warm as well.  

Another thing you'll notice are the pumpkins we have set out.  There were a few survivors from our pumpkin carving party, most notably the Winnie the Pooh one and the decorative skull one that Madison created.  Daddy held over the Hades one, and the Maleficent one is doing just fine, as is the VFD design that Madison made.  We had a lot of commentary about the pumpkins tonight.  A trick-or-treater recognized the VFD logo right away, and there were lots of compliments on our pumpkins. You can see Mommy at her station where she sits each Halloween, ready to distribute candy from her little cauldron there.  The wreath on the door was something we picked up a few years ago, and it adds to the look tonight as well.  It says, "EEK!"

And here's what Daddy wore once more.  The David S. Pumpkins outfit does not get old!  You can see Daddy posing with the pumpkin he most recently carved, waiting around on the front porch.  That's the thing I wanted to point out most:  the weather outside.  It was just perfect for this sort of thing.  It wasn't hot and it wasn't cold - it wasn't' windy, it wasn't rainy, and it wasn't foggy.  It was just the perfect sort of night for trick-or-treating!

You can see Madison was ready to go!  She had a good day at school today, and even though the bus got home a little later, she was able to eat and get ready for a night of collecting candy.  Daddy and Mommy had a good day too.  Daddy was working a little, but all from home.  We were listening to the record of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and already clearing out some areas for a Christmas tree, maybe tomorrow even.  But tonight was all about Halloween!

Here's a picture of Madison, all ready to go.  We went with our neighbors across the street, walking down throughout the neighborhood.  At times we met others from school or in the neighborhood that we knew.  But there weren't as many people in the neighborhood this year.  The reason for this was simple:  there were Fall Festivals at churches all around us.  Our own church had a Fall Festival tonight, although we skipped it in favor of staying home to trick-or-treat.  Madison made that decision, and Daddy wanted to go with her.  Being his birthday, he's able to take off today.

It was daylight a little longer tonight, and the kids were a good ways down the streets before the sun started really sinking over the horizon.  But the parents were out on the porches and there was a whole lot of running up and down lawns to yell "trick-or-treat" and grab some free candy.  Madison took an old bag of hers, one with her own footprints on it from long, long ago.  It's a good, sturdy bag, and it was able to hold a whole lot of candy.  You'll see in a bit.

In the meantime, there were plenty of great costumes out there tonight.  Look at this family of sharks!     Also, there was a pretty amazing Jack Sparrow walking around too.  Madison and our neighbors hit the streets, running up each lawn to yell "Trick or Treat!"  These are the wonderful memories that won't be forgotten, our little girl having a great time on Halloween.

And again, the weather was just right for this sort of thing.  It was lighter out a little longer than last year, which might have something to do with the proximity to Daylight Savings Time.  This was okay though.  It was also okay that Madison is in Middle School this year, and she doesn't have to get up early tomorrow.  But most of all, it was nice just to go for this yearly walk together through the neighborhood.

You can see here it was getting darker eventually, of course, by the time we reached the end of the main road where there's a cul-de-sac, and all the homeowners sat in the middle of the road with a bonfire there to keep warm.  There were plenty of bonfires this night.  You can see them all lined up so that kids could walk by and collect candy as they went.  

And as always, the decorations were insane.  This house above is just loaded with things in the front yard, or should I say, "Yaaaaaaard!"  This pirate ship has been there a few years, and now there were plenty of other skeletons, graves, ghosts, pumpkins and more.  

Here's another house, just one of so many that go so overboard with the decorations, just like Christmas decorations.  We drove through the neighborhood last night and saw these and more, and were really looking forward to touring on foot.  Each year we do that, and play some spooky music as we drive along.  But some of these houses had spooky music of their own to play!

We came back when Madison was ready to, and you can see above that she did really well.  It was a bit more quiet on our street this year, although we did have a lot of visitors.  Daddy was on the porch for a few trick-or-treaters, but for the most part, things were done for the night.  Mommy said there were a lot of people coming by, and that was nice.

It was a beautiful night, just perfect for trick-or-treating.  And it was a very nice birthday too.  Madison gave Daddy a birthday present, a Tusken Raider and a bantha as well.

Isn't it great?  But for his birthday each year, there's not much more to ask for than a remarkable week like this:  a pumpkin carving party and a great night of trick-or-treating.  These were the most wonderful, unforgettable gifts, and it was all just perfect.

Maleficent and Pumpkins

Madison is wearing her Maleficent costume here, and just looks stunning.  She walked down the stairs and said, "Well, well, well..."  As if she were that fairy herself.  Daddy was continuing his work on a pumpkin idea today, one he's been developing.  It's a Maleficent pumpkin.

The stem was just perfect, and looks just like a dragon's head.  Daddy painted it black, and added green eyes, and some wings as well, printed out on card stock and hot-glued in place.  It turned out really well!

This might be my favorite pumpkin I've ever done.  These tools have been fun to use, and suddenly I feel empowered to do a bit more with pumpkin carving now, although it's pretty close to the end of that sort of season.

Nana and Ye-Ye came over to visit, and it was a really enjoyable time.  We were carving a few pumpkins, but we also played a game of "Escape from the Haunted Mansion" together.  Madison loves playing that game, and had fun playing against her grandparents.  She barely won, but in that sort of game, everyone's a winner.  Meanwhile, Daddy was carving away, and we were all talking away too.  Madison did another pumpkin while we were there tonight, this one with a VFD logo on it:

It turned out well, even if it was done rather quickly tonight.  These were smallish pumpkins, but it was more about just hanging out together.  Afterwards, we went for our yearly tour of the neighborhood, checking out all the lights and decorations of the season.  There were so many houses with orange and purple lights, spotlights, webs, cemeteries, and all sorts of spooky sights.  We drove around slowly, taking it all in.  It was a nice drive, a preview of the path we'll be walking soon for a bit of trick-or-treating!

Madison got an A on a test today, and continued the Great Cranberry Battle at school with an early visit to Live to Give.  School was fun, and work was fun too - Daddy got a gift from a friend, a game called "Monster Crunch:  Breakfast Battle."  It's a game you'll see here soon enough when we play it, but I'm so looking forward to having a round or two playing this card game that uses all the licensed monster cereal characters!

Oh, and one more thing.  Not since our chimney sweep have we had such an obscure professional come by:  today we had a piano tuner at the house, and he spent a few hours with Madison's piano.  The end result is something that made her smile.  Nana and Ye-Ye treated us to a piano tuning, as they had to have their own piano tuned as well, and it turned out very well.  We have a piano that's good as new, and in fact the visitor told us that this piano has been rarely used.  How blessed we are to have that in the house, and in fact how blessed we are in all things - it was a very nice day today!

Lots o' Early Voters

We voted today, and it was early voting of course, but it was still pretty crowded.  In fact, it's easily the longest wait we've had for early voting, even including the last Presidential election.  And it was even longer than many of the voting lines that we've had on Election Day itself.  I'm not sure what this says about the outcome, but this is one of those things that people universally agree upon:  it's a good thing to see so many people out there and voting.  That is, they say that only if the election results are agreeable, right?

We were there at the library a bit early, and getting some more Dr. Seuss books as well.  Today we were cleaning up the house a good bit, but also doing a bit of seasonal recreational activities, such as this:

Daddy sculpted this one out today, although it isn't done yet.  I'm going to be carving out the insides, and doing something with the stem as well.  This was found at Burt's Pumpkin Farm, and the stem looked like something to me, and that's where the idea came from.  So far so good.  And yes, this is three pumpkins that I've carved so far this year, plus cleaning out the insides for a few people on Saturday.  I've done quite a bit, and there's still one more pumpkin left for me later, so there's plenty of things to do before Wednesday.

Today was a quiet day - we went to piano, of course.  Daddy wrote another entry for the devotional, and we finished the mystery of the attic with Nancy Drew.  It was agreed upon that this was one of her better adventures, certainly going along with the spooky vibe of this season.  The black widow spiders were creepy enough!

Madison studied for her test in Language Arts tomorrow, working on her vocabulary, and doing a bit of review.  We also worked on the "Goosebumps" game a bit, although we're not quite finished with that one yet.  Things may extend past Wednesday a bit with that one, but by gum, the Christmas trees are coming out soon!  We're excited for the holiday season, and can't wait to start putting things out.  We're celebrating this season now, of course, and it's been fun.  But we started early, and it feels great to not to have to rush things and think about the things we didn't get to do so much.  There's always something you don't get to do, but at least we have more time if we start early, and when you look back on this season, you'll see we did a lot, from pumpkins to apples to fall leaves to cookies and gingerbread houses and movies and carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating and so on.  And there's still a few days left, so hang on - it's going to be fun!

Chun Li on Stage

Madison joined us on the stage in the main sanctuary this morning, and pretty much the online community of the world as well because this was being live-streamed.  We were promoting KidPak, and the upcoming Fall Festival as well, and so we had a little skit written out to have some fun on stage.

Madison and the other characters came out, interrupting Pastor Lance each time he wanted to share something about the upcoming events, and it was all done for comedic effect of course.  It was fun and simple, but then again, anything done upstairs for the main service in front of thousands of people tends to get a bit complicated and convoluted.  But it all worked out well, going well and getting a lot of laughter too.

We raced downstairs, and Madison was a beautiful sight after the second time, racing with a sense of urgency, all so she could get to class and hear the message this morning at KidPak.  That's right - she raced from upstairs straight downstairs and across to the other side of the building, getting changed and getting to the KidPak auditorium just in time to hear the message there.

It was a relaxing day afterwards, and the clock is winding down somewhat on October, but we got in a few more fun things.  For one, we were watching "Hocus Pocus" on our screens.  We had the option of going to the theater down in Discover Mills to see it, but that was a bit too much of a drive, and besides, we could stay at home and do things like carve more pumpkins, which is what Daddy did.

This is Hades, based on an idea I saw online.  It turned out great - I was using my official tools that Mommy got me, feeling like a professional, or at least a member of royalty.  It's a nice little kit I've got, one of my favorite gifts ever for my birthday, because it's just right for carving with.  This is my first carving where I never actually puncture the surface of the pumpkin with the carving portion.  The top is obviously open and the pumpkin hollowed out of course.  Anyway, it turned out pretty good!

Tonight, we played a few rounds of "Escape from the Haunted Mansion," with Mommy winning, and then Madison too.  It's still  fun game, actually.

We had soup for dinner tonight, perfect for this kind of weather.  We read at bedtime, and the mystery of the old attic is still perplexing - whodunnit?  Will Mr. March get his son's music sheets?  Will the culprits be caught?  We'll be finishing this book this week some time, I'm sure.

It was a good day today, with a great service and a nice, relaxing afternoon afterwards.  October is waning, but it's been good!

Ninth Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

This day is always such a blessing.  The weather was a little cool, but it was still perfect for our pumpkin carving party, which is now running nine years in a row!   It's hard to believe we started this nine years ago with just a few people over at the house.

I love seeing Madison all into her pumpkin.  She does it all now, from the pulling out of the guts to the design itself to the actual carving.

She's as much into the artistry of it as some of our other guests, getting all focused in her work, occasionally looking up at others or laughing along with the jokes and the conversations.  Here's her design this year, which she did a great job with!

She went with a "Day of the Dead" theme, and it turned out really well!  We have differing levels of skill, but I do notice that a lot of our friends have gotten better and better as the years go by.  They challenge themselves, and the end results are fantastic and fun.

But it's all about the process, really.  The end results are nice, but as you can see, it's just a lot of fun sitting outside, talking and carving away on a nice fall day.  We had the table all lined up with the carving tools, and a few long tables set up on the back deck there, so everyone was ready to go.

Daddy started his carving a little earlier so he could help play host.  Here's his pumpkin, next to Madison's at the end of the night.  I chose to do a Winnie the Pooh idea I saw earlier, and it turned out pretty good.

I like that the shape was a honeypot, and that there are small bees flying around.  I was going for something simple, something that would be nice, but also done a little more quickly so that I could wander around and talk with everyone else.  And snap some photos.

Here's Mommy and Camille.  Mommy worked so hard on this, making everything just right.  We had the soundtrack playing, the same fall music we usually play, and we had all kinds of snacks out there, plus our haunted gingerbread house and pumpkin cookies too.  Mommy made her famous chili, which was incredible, by the way.  Just typing that last sentence makes me start craving it again!  The entire thing is a birthday gift for Daddy, really, and the greatest gift is having friends over, and having a wonderful time together.

One by one they arrive, and it's bring your own pumpkin to this sort of event.  However, we did pick up a few extra pumpkins from Bradley's Pumpkin Farm, and one or two from Wal-Mart recently - they had some nice ones there.  Yes, there were the pumpkins from Burt's Pumpkin Farm as well, particularly the one that Madison was carving this year.

Look at Camille with those gloves.  She's actually allergic to pumpkins, and yet she gets right in there and really enjoys it as much as the rest of us.  I think she may have had the best design today.  It was a really ambitious idea, but she pulled it off!

Two pumpkins were used in this, and both are lit up from the inside.  The one is more a gourd than anything, but it looks none too happy in its current predicament!  And neither does Isaac's pumpkin, who is essentially the barfing emoji:

Isaac was inspired by the guts inside this pumpkin, which he said were a little bit more slimier than previous pumpkins.  He was grossed out, and his pumpkin apparently was too!

Here's one of our friends, Clint, carving out a pumpkin with a big "A" on it, for the Atlanta Braves.  It's their logo, and he's a big fan.

We're all big fans of the Braves, actually.  Although Pastor Lance and a few others were very much into the Georgia Bulldogs game that was going on during our party.

Here's Pastor Lance with Mommy, taking a brief moment to stop listening to the football game!  The good news is that the Bulldogs won, beating Florida.

You could hear the distant sound of people screaming in celebration throughout the neighborhood whenever there was a touchdown.  Pastor Lance and a few others here joined in with those war cries.

In fact, and Anderson family above carved a Georgia logo on their pumpkin in celebration.  You'll see that one in the group shot below, along with the Atlanta Braves "A" logo and all the other pumpkins too.

It was great for the Andersons to come.  Emma Brooke and Anna Grace were here as well, so Madison was quite happy to see them come over and join in on the fun.  And it was fun for everyone.

It's difficult to explain why carving a pumpkin is such a fun thing to do.  I think it has to do with the creative process involved, and the craftsmanship that goes into making your own personal statement. It's highly unusual to carve a vegetable, as our friend Mary Shannon would say.

But still, it's a nice, relaxing sort of thing, and made more fun by doing it with a whole lot of other people.  It's something to do that's altogether different, and certainly seasonal.  In the end, everyone makes their own statement, and does their own thing.  For Mary Shannon this year, she wanted to do a carving of Linus, and brought along her own little sign.

Some know what they want to carve right away, and others use our printer to make a pattern to carve. We have a whole lot of other patterns available if anyone wants them, things we've collected over the years and have printed out.  But a lot of people just do their own thing, like Josh and Amy every year.  The two of them have a very artistic family, and everyone is always anxious to see what the two of them come up with.

Josh is one of those guys who has an idea in his head, and just draws it out, and he's done.  Sometimes it can be deceptively simple.  It'll be this easy little idea, but there's always a great reaction to it.

His sister Amy is just as gifted, and their two pumpkins are always a highlight of the day.  Here's her pumpkin carving below, a really fun design!

You can see them together, side by side below at the left, along with a few others.

And here's a group shot while there is daylight still out there.  This is the famous group shot that your pumpkin just has to be a part of if you were here with us this day.

We start about mid-afternoon or so, and the time is really approximate.  But the idea is to finish just before it gets dusk, and then we line  up the pumpkins around the fireplace as best we can.  This is somewhat of a process, because we don't want one pumpkin blocking another, and there's got to be room for all of them, and so on.  As you can see, we made it work this year, and have somewhat of a balance too.  Look at the bottom left pumpkin, by the way:

This is Daniel Carter's pumpkin.  He actually brought a drill with him for this!  It's such a simple idea, and at the same time it's hilarious!

Calvin and our new friend Casen were here, along with the rest of Calvin's family.  Each of them brought a pumpkin, getting pretty creative with their ideas as well.  Calvin did the "Apple" logo at the top right in the picture below, and his dad carved out the words, "Make Halloween Great Again." You can also see at the bottom their daughter Elaina's pumpkin carving of Mickey Mouse.

The group shot at night is always nice - dusk was just starting to set in for this photo.  We had the candles lit in the fireplace, and it was just a nice atmosphere.  

And here's a closer shot of the dad's pumpkin, and a better shot of mom's pumpkin, the tiny one just to the right of the Georgia logo.  The Quick Family had a good time, and it's always good to see them join us.  Here's their daughter Elaina, with her dad just behind.

Oh, and look who else came by to do some carving!  It was the Hunter family as well.  They were a later arrival, but we were glad to see them.  They had a lot going on today - Saturdays in October can get really busy!

Yes, Shobie and her family were here too, and because it was also Shobie's birthday this year, we had a small moment for Josh, Shobie and myself, where everyone gathered around and sang, "Happy Birthday."  It was nice!

And look who else showed up!  The Edges came by to work on a pumpkin together, joining all of us on the back deck there.  It was pretty full at one point, obviously!  But Madison loved seeing them come over as well.  And they also did a pretty awesome pumpkin - take a look!

It's Michelangelo from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."  He's the turtle that wears an orange mask, so they left that part untouched, and painted the rest of their pumpkin turtle green.  It came out great, didn't it?  It's hard to pick a favorite out of this bunch!

Casen did the Pac-Man you see there at the bottom, which was also a really creative idea.  It was an nice afternoon, one that Madison looks forward to each year.

She's just fooling around in this shot. She did a lot of that today.  We all had fun throughout the afternoon, and even in the setting up of the party.  As the evening drew to an end, guests gradually departed one by one, and pictures were shared on social media of the finished pumpkins glowing in the darkness.

It is always a very special day, one filled with such gratitude and good company.  We're thankful for another year to do this again, and how special it is to see Madison right there on her own, carving up something that I think is up there with the best of them.  We'll be carving a few more over the next few days, but this is the best moment right here.  In fact, it's one of the best moments of the year.