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.
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.
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