Costumes, Pumpkins and Candy!

We woke up early and got pretty busy right away.  Obviously Madison had school today, so she was off and running early, this time once again dressed up as Wednesday Addams.  Because why not?  She had a great day at school, although everyone was probably a bit more focused on the holiday itself, and the prospect of candy.  But in the meantime, Daddy and Mommy were setting up the house somewhat, still cleaning from the last party we had Sunday, but also taking a few things down outside, and bringing some things in:  wind was in the forecast tonight, as were freezing temperatures.  Some potted plants made it to the garage this afternoon, and can report that they are safe.  Meanwhile, Daddy was working on a few pumpkins - first of all, he painted the "Forky" pumpkin that he made this past weekend.

So this final product came out really well.  The last few years, we've been putting our pumpkin sculptures out on the porch, those that survive long enough after the pumpkin party.  We had a few this year, including Forky here, who was a bit fuzzy on the inside, but still solid enough to use on display outside.  We had some other pumpkins too, including this one that Daddy sculpted - and painted - in the morning.

BIG FOOT PUMPKIN !

It's Mr. Foot!  Big Foot, to be precise.  It was such a recurring theme recently, that it was obvious to make a classic Big Foot pumpkin design.  I found this stencil idea elsewhere, but not on a pumpkin.  So Daddy made a Big Foot Pumpkin, and I think it turned out rather well.  All our pumpkins got good responses from visitors to our porch tonight, according to Mommy.  But Forky got the most, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, it was Thursday, so Daddy was off to visit a school with the others, and we had fun doing Halloween there, using our invention to "read minds" to see what costume would be best for which kid.  And yes, there was all sorts of free candy there.

And afterwards, the guys got together and we played a few games of "Monster Crunch Cereal," which is super fun!  Seriously, this card game was actually really enjoyable, involving strategy, sudden surprises, and a lot of screams or laughter, depending on what card one person or the other would play.  On the surface, it looks complicated, but just read the simple rules and you're pretty set.  We had a great time playing, and of course being that it was our "Game On," series, we'll call it "research."  Fortunately, Mommy made some October cupcakes for everyone there at the office, and she even baked a lot of pumpkin seeds for the fellas there - these pumpkin seeds are extremely popular.  There are three of us in particular that have no self control when it comes to pumpkin seeds that Mommy makes!

Daddy got home, and things were somewhat of a rush from there, as they usually are on Halloween.  He had got the guts out of two pumpkins earlier, so he and Madison could do a few more for the porch decorations tonight.  So the two of us were once again - one last time this year - carving out a few pumpkins.  First, here's Madison's:

It's a simple design, but it's perfect.  I love that she carved in the word "Hi" up there.  It is only noticeable with pictures like these, where we left the camera shutter open a little bit longer.  But yes, it turned out great.  Daddy was in a super hurry on this next one, his second pumpkin of the day.  We'd been eating Monster Crunch cereal all month long, and there were these free stencil ideas available, all of them advertised on the cereal boxes.  Anyway, one of the stencils was for Uncle Fester, so I drew this one free hand, and it came out okay:

With just a few changes, it could have been Squidward!  Anyway, our pumpkins were done, and we were scurrying to get costumes on.  We had guests coming over, as our neighborhood is a great one to go to.  We missed a few others that used our driveway, but here's a group shot of the first wave, including Madison, just before heading out for trick-or-treating.

Notice that there's a Queen of Hearts and a White Rabbit there.  That was not planned, but Madison was going to be Alice all along, and there she is with the Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit.  Don't worry about the clown, the dinosaur riding cowboy and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle there. Here's a closer look at the group from Wonderland:

It was really cold, as you can see by Alice's extra layer there.  It was in the seventies earlier in the day, and now it was dropping to the thirties, with an extra windchill thrown in for good measure.  Daddy was dressed up as a pirate, with extra layers on!  Mommy usually goes out on the porch to sit, but not tonight!  The kids were ringing the doorbell tonight as she sat by the fireplace keeping warm.

Here's some of the pumpkins that greeted our guests tonight, who were plenty, by the way.  Mommy gave away nearly all of our candy tonight, and we're talking about three bags or so.  Despite the cold, there were a lot of visitors, although this year they seemed older than usual.  I think the weather did make it more difficult for our younger kids. 

But it was dry.  And that's the big, big, big thing.  It was forecast all weeklong that it would be a rainy day today.  And it was, but at exactly 4:30pm, the rain moved on.  We'd been watching this forecast all week, and we'd been watching the storm move out just in time for the trick-or-treaters.  It was going to be during trick-or-treating earlier, and then things moved along faster as the week went on.  The point is, by the time tonight rolled around, the storm had cleared out.  The clouds were swirling all around up top, with grays and full of highlighted colors from the sunset, like those clouds you see in the live action "Host the Grinch Stole Christmas." 

Some decorations were blown off course a bit, but for the most part, all the amazing decorations that go up at the houses were there, from large inflatables to all the orange and purple lights strung up along front porches.

And of course, God's decorations were the best, the colors of leaves on trees simply remarkable.  You can see here one tree losing its leaves, but they are so brilliant in their red coloring.

Madison led the troop from house to house, including this little Ninja Turtle. His name was Judah, and Madison took it upon herself to make sure he was okay for the evening, safe and having a good time.

She was very kind.  He had such energy, as did all of them at first.  The motivation was free candy at the next house.  You could see them a little fatigued from time to time, but then the very mention or sight of the next house, and that hope of having more candy suddenly infused them like a bolt of lightning, and just like that they were off and running full steam ahead towards the next house, yelling "Trick or Treat!"  And then of course, "Thank you!"

This year we saw a few more great pumpkin carvings too!  This is a Captain Marvel, who sat alongside a great sculpture of Albert Einstein.  There were a few others too along the way, some folks who really get into pumpkin carving like we do.

There's just no way to visit all the houses in this neighborhood, at least not at a reasonable pace.  We did do quite a bit though, enough to add some serious weight to those candy bags the kids were carrying.  It was getting progressively colder, and everyone was slowing down just a bit.  The battle cry of "Free Candy!" became more like a sort of zombie moan, "Free candy.  Free candy."  We made our way back, stopping at all the houses along the way back, including the ones immediately around our house.  I think we were done about 8:30 tonight, which was over two hours of harvesting candy.  It's such a fun night for the kids.  Here's Madison's harvest below:

Mommy gets the Snickers and the Heath Bars.  Daddy gets the Almond Joys and the Baby Ruth bars. Madison gets the rest, unless we sneak some out after she goes to bed.  Or when she's at school!  Don't worry, Madison.  We won't do that!

It was a good night.  It was a great day, in fact.  We had such favor, and we are so blessed.  It's Daddy's birthday today, of course.  That's why we played a game this afternoon, and there were little things that happened throughout the day that just reminded us all of God's love.  A song played on the radio that I requested in my mind.  Time spent with friends and family.  Kids in a classroom singing "Happy Birthday."  Carving pumpkins.  Faces of joy running from house to house.  Seeing the kind heart of my daughter as she watches over younger children, instead of thinking only of herself.  Oh, and Josh got me the one thing I wanted for my birthday, and I didn't even tell him that.  He got me a copy of that game, "Villainous!"  Anyway, it was a fantastic day, and a great close to the month.  Tomorrow night, we're doing something related to this season, but right after that it'll probably be all Christmas, all the time!

Still, we had a great season this time around.  We were worried about things to begin with, given the trips to Florida, Mommy's stay down there and Ba-Ba's current condition.  But God allowed us some very special times together, and has given us such favor.  We continue to pray for Ba-Ba, of course.  Can you believe he and his wife sent a birthday card to me?  It arrived in the mail today.  Amidst the struggle he's going through, he thought enough to send me a card, and a gift inside too.  It touched my heart deeply, and still does.  Such love.

That's what makes these days so special, the relationships and love.  We are truly blessed!

Costume Party

We had such a full day at school and work, but tonight was super fun so we'll start there.  It was our KidPak Costume Party, which was a chance for kids to dress up in their costumes, play games, and of course get a bag of candy on the way out.  

The plan this year was to cut back on the Fall Festival we'd been doing the past fifteen years or more, not do the inflatables and cut back on the candy a little, so we could invest more in Christmas and Easter.  And of course, you could imagine there would be some resistance to that, as tradition is a pretty strong argument against any changes being made.  But in came the weather, and that just cancelled out any questions about not having a Fall Festival to begin with.  

The weather today was miserable.  We had rain, and not just a little.  Our dry and thirsty land was deluged with water all day long and all night long.  There were warnings of flash floods, and our numbers tonight were a bit lower:  nobody anywhere was going to do a Fall Festival outside.  At least, not a dry one.  It turned out, the decision to not do a Fall Festival - made weeks ago - was a good one.  

And so we had a "Costume Party" instead, and I must note here before moving on that Madison's last year at KidPak - in 2018 - was the last Fall Festival.  So she got to go out with a bang.  

Still, this year was a lot of fun.  We had things planned out, with games and videos and a mad-lib that featured lots of costumes kids having a great time on stage.  One thing that I loved to see was the apple bobbing game.  It is so traditional, and I haven't seen it in a long time.  

You can see Daddy in his David S Pumpkins suit, looking down upon the competitors as they're about to get started.  Each had their own tub, so it made it a bit healthier.  Also, the competition was to see who could get the most apples in a certain time.  On your mark... get set... GO!

Super fun!  I love this, and so did the crowd.  The audience was cheering for their competitor, and throughout the night it was boys versus girls versus volunteers.  In the end, it wound up being a three-way tie!

Daddy raced home to get Madison, who wanted to come in and help - and have fun.  She was dressed up as Wednesday... on Wednesday.  She's seen here with Camille, who dressed up as Barbie, the one featured in "Toy Story 3."

The volunteers and kids had a wonderful night, although it was a bit shorter than others.  It was still a lot of noise and a lot of fun, and yes, everyone got a bag of candy - including Madison.

We got home tonight, and we changed gears on our reading, at least for the next two nights.  We're about to finish the Thrawn Trilogy, but we'll have some seasonal reading the next two nights.  Tonight's reading was "The Nightmare Before Christmas," the original Tim Burton poem with his original artwork.  Daddy read this with his best impersonation of Christopher Lee or something, and it was just a fun thing to do before bedtime.  

We said our prayers before bedtime, praying for Ba-Ba, and soon after that, we were off to sleep, ready to wake up on October 31st!

But this was all the evening stuff.  I didn't get to say much about the day itself.  Madison had a math quiz today, and actually went to school an hour earlier to go to a special help session.  She's done this a lot this year, as math has been more of a challenge for her.  She's doing good in the class, sitting on a 91 average.  But she's really had to work for that, and again, we're very proud of her.  

And along those lines, she did really well on her audition last night.  It was an interesting moment auditioning and being somewhere in the forties of about seventy-two separate people auditioning.  Daddy was coaching a lot of the people in the lobby as they waited to go in for auditions.  But the group that Madison went in with happened to be good friends with each other (with a few extras), and they were all very comfortable with each other.  And it made for such a great audition moment, because they just looked great together.  That added some extra fuel to a decision, as we were had some very solid performances earlier on.  In any event, we did some casting today, and while I can't say anything yet, there was as surprising shift or two that I'll explain later.  Our cast has been decided.  We're moving forward pretty soon, diving straight into this Christmas season!

Callbacks

Tonight we had auditions for the Christmas production, and there were a lot of them.  We had over seventy separate auditions, and as you can imagine, this took some time.  Right there in the middle of it all, Madison was out in the lobby nervously waiting just like everyone else.  At one point, she was called in, just as others would be all night, and that's the moment where she had to say her name, and of course read some lines from the play.

Earlier, Daddy was out there coaching everyone in the lobby, reminding everyone of the three "P's" that we were talking about in our "Acting Up" classes:  Posture, Pronunciation, and Projection.  We were practicing out there before the audition, and Daddy was doing his best to calm people down a bit.

It's such a strange thing auditioning people for a play that you've written.  First of all, we have a director who is not in KidPak, Mrs. Jeneen, who is able to look at things a bit more objectively.  Pastor Lance and she were doing the judging.  But it's Daddy's script, and so as writer, there's a preconceived idea or two I have about certain characters, including what they look like and how they act.  That being said, it's a unique experience to see people trying out for a role that you've written.  Frequently, they take things into a different direction than you expect, and there are many times where that is not a bad thing at all.  One of the most fun things about auditions are the people that step up out of nowhere and surprise you.  There was a girl that auditioned for the part of a villainous character, one who was last and followed up some super charismatic performances.  She just nailed it with a balance of facial expressions, subtlety, hand gestures and this out-of-nowhere performance that was surprising to all of us.  I love that.  I was coaching her earlier, and giving her an idea of the the character and the lines, and she just knocked it out of the park.  Unfortunately, Daddy did well with his lines too - I was merely reading to help others out on stage, and once again, it came down to the fact that I was so good at a particular character that it was decided that I'm in it too.  Yep.  I'm going to be on stage again.  Most people would rejoice at this, but the older I get, the more nervous I seem to get about this, and the more I'd just rather be behind the scenes.  But I'll do it if needed.  I'd just rather let someone else have that spotlight.

So that was surprising, but the even greater surprise is this:  Madison's audition.  Let's just say I had a preconceived idea of what she could be, and my expectations were on one level.  Again, I'm not the judge, and this is a good reason not to be a judge:  imagine deciding if your kid is worthy or not to be in a huge production.  So nervously, I sat the side to watch.  I was more nervous about her audition than I was about me doing anything else.  I had Mommy watching on the computer too, so she could watch also.

What was surprising to me was her reading for another character, a more bitter character, a more mature character.  She did really well with that on Saturday, and tonight as well.  In fact, she was surrounded by others who were reading well also.  They projected, they pronounced, and they had posture.  They were so good, the director and Pastor Lance were immediately challenged by it.  What about all the other good performances beforehand?  Madison did well, but so did her friends.

And of course, Daddy and Mommy are really proud of her.  It takes nerves to get up in front of people, especially with the spotlight on you.  You can't see the director - all you can see is the spotlight, and you hear this voice telling you to read, or introduce yourself, or other unexpected things.  Madison did not read any of Daddy's script beforehand - there was no time for that.  She had no advantage over the others in that regard.  She did really well though, as did many others.  It was a longer night, and we've got some tough choices to make about casting in the coming days.

She had Live to Give earlier today, and of course school before that.  Math is moving along with another quiz coming up.  Madison was studying for that.  She's also preparing to give a presentation in science on biomes.  They're still reading "Refuge," and Madison outside of that is reading "Lost Stars," a Star Wars book that she is really enjoying a lot.  I heard her talking to Calvin tonight, who was also auditioning, and she was explaining the entire story to him.  She loves this book, and is nearly finished.  She wants another Star Wars book next, so we'll have to look into the library and see what else there is she can read.

We got to bed tonight a little later, so we didn't read much.  But we did pray for Ba-Ba and Nana again.  They're having a tougher go of it this week.  It's the fourth week of chemotherapy and radiation, and Mommy knows what all of this is like.  It's difficult, but he's fighting and we know he can win this.  Mommy has a suitcase ready if she needs to get down there in a hurry.

The other grandparents were here today, working in the yard before the rains come.  They planted some new plants, and were clearing things out a lot.  Sadly, we were so busy that we didn't get to talk much.  But they have done so much for us - it's been a lot of effort, over and over again all throughout these last few months, frequently stopping by to spend hours and hours working in our yard, making it look as amazing as it does today.  It's such a blessing that we can't repay or adequately express our thanks enough.

It's been a tough season in some ways, but we've been blessed in many more ways.

Nightmare Before Christmas

We had some time this morning, and with all the activity going in Florida and here, we thought, "Why not?"  Yes, we put up a Christmas tree.

This is the earliest we have ever put up a Christmas tree, by a long shot.  But it just makes sense, given the amount of time it takes to set up these things and the amount of time this season that we may be around to actually enjoy it.  So Daddy set up the Star Wars tree today, along with some other things of course.  But this took a little time to get in place, and it looks nice, the start of something a little earlier this year.  Daddy had a record playing, the soundtrack to "Nightmare Before Christmas," just to help with this odd blend of seasons.  Here are some other ornaments on the Star Wars tree - we have so many - these are just a few.

This Death Star has a small Star Destroyer to compliment it now - the two look great together, and actually light up and talk.  Yes, this one talks too.  When the tree turns on for the first time, you can hear all the talking ornaments speak at the same time.  This one is a little more ominous, as the Emperor is giving the order to fire the Death Star's weapon.

This might be my favorite ornament on this tree, although it probably has to do with it being my favorite of the spaceships.  It's such a graceful looking thing, but on top of that, it brings back memories of a kid seeing it for the first time, and anxiously waiting to see the movie it would be in.  This ship is one of the first things we see in "Return of the Jedi," and one of my favorite large-scale toys as a kid.  I still have it, by the way.

Ah, the Darth Vader tie fighter.  Many of these have small lights inside, and places to plug into existing lights.  Some of these have been in my collection since the mid-nineties, when I was first collecting ornaments for the tree at Ye-Ye and Nana's house.

Here's aggressive Yoda, ready to defend Christmas from morons.  Hopefully there won't be too many this year.  That would be a nice Christmas gift.  In fact, we'll call it a Christmas miracle!  But we'll change the subject here:

This is really the reason I have any pictures of the ornaments at all here:  it's Chewbacca.  And it's not because it is Chewbacca - it's because this is the first gift given to me by Ba-Ba and Nana.  This was back in 1998 or 1999, I'm not sure.  But they gave this to me as a Christmas gift, so it has always had a special place on the tree.  When we divided things up to make a "Star Wars" tree, of course Chewbacca always goes to the top.

This ornament is a submarine from "The Phantom Menace."  It lights up, and I usually put it towards the bottom, but not this year.  One of the great things about Christmas trees is treating each one as a bit of artwork, doing something new and different with the placement of various ornaments.

Ah, this is an Ewok!  This ornament was a gift to Daddy last year, so this is the first year it is hanging on the tree.  It fits right in with the coniferous look there.

And there's Rey from "The Last Jedi," with a stormtrooper in the back.  The stormtrooper is actually from an ornament exchange party we attended in the nineties, and it always brings back great memories of the fun we had over at Greg and Judy's house each year at Christmas time.  We may do that again this year - we'll see!

Anyway, that's "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and that's just one thing we were doing today.  Madison was at school, getting ready with some new things in math, and turning in - finally - her report on Lebanon.  She'll have a few tests and presentations this week, but with Halloween being on Thursday, it'll be a fun and interesting week.  Each day the kids are dressing up in various colors or costumes to celebrate or remember one thing or another.  Today, the kids were wearing red to promote "Drug Awareness Week."  Madison will wear a Hawaiian outfit tomorrow... for some reason.  I don't remember why.  And of course, they can dress up on Halloween to school.

Speaking of Halloween, tonight after piano class, we watched "Ghostbusters II."  Madison has been into the Ghostbusters this season, so we finished up with the third of the movies (we started out with the more recent version earlier this season).  It's not too bad, and in fact has some fun stuff in it.

We got to bed earlier tonight, reading and praying.  Ba-Ba started week four, and he wasn't not looking forward to it in Florida.  We were praying for him and his chemotherapy.  Halfway through though.  Hopefully things will start to improve - at least that's what we are praying for.

Tenth Annual Pumpkin Carving Party

What a Sunday!  The weather - and auditions - shifted our plans to have our pumpkin carving party yesterday, which meant that today after church we were getting set up and ready to have our guests over, which made for quite a full day!  

Our service this morning was part two of our "Game On" series, which focused on the game of Clue today.  Above, you can see the teams of boys and girls battling each other in our weekly game segment, the ongoing Trivial Pursuit contest.  The boys have won every single time, including twice today, and they were pretty stoked about it.  The rest of the service went well, including worship and our message about "the mystery of grace."  It was our name in that little envelope in the middle of the game of Clue.  That's because we're all guilty.  But Jesus took that name out, and replaced it with his own, taking the blame instead.

We got home after church, and starting setting up the house for our guests afterwards.  Today was the big day, the Tenth Annual Pumpkin Carving Party!

As you can see here, the pumpkins turned out great!  These aren't all of them either - we had several guests that left before the later evening shot above.  Out on the back deck, there were plenty of people carving away, and on the inside, friends were chatting and just enjoying this afternoon off.

You can see how Mommy had the chili ready - it is SUPER popular.  We had our cookies out and the gingerbread house too, of course.  But it's all about the friendships, and just spending a nice afternoon together, and my-oh-my, what a beautiful afternoon.  The weather was gorgeous!  It was sunny, and not too warm, and filled with all kinds of favor!

Here's Madison getting started outside on her pumpkin, scooping out the guts.  Josh is getting ready below.

We love Josh's pumpkins.  They're so creative and original, and they always turn out so well.  Sometimes they are so simple, and yet they blow everyone away.

As you can see, we had quite a crowd here, so many showing up this year.  It was right there at the peak, with so many showing up this year, more than I can remember ever showing up!

Our neighbors were here, the whole family sculpting their pumpkins.  Little Camille there loves her pumpkin so much.  Her dad did a great job with it, carefully drawing it out, and then cutting things out just right.

Elaina did great as well, this being her best pumpkin so far.  She did a sunflower, and used the drill tool that we have.  We replaced the batteries, and several guests were using that to poke holes into the pumpkin.

There's sculpting, and then sitting around and talking with each other on a day like today.  Nana and Ye-Ye had been working on the yard, so it all looked so great this afternoon.  

Ah, and Camille and her mom were here.  She has those gloves on again, because she's allergic to pumpkins.  But she's super creative too, her pumpkins always being some of our favorites.

We had young guests and old guests, and people with different talents and some who have never carved a pumpkin before.  This young guy was using the drill a whole lot more by the time this was over with.  His pumpkin looked like it got attacked by a woodpecker!

We took a lot of pictures, of course.  This is just part of the back deck, where you can see a few of our tables are lined up and covered with seasonal table cloth.  It's such a fun time of fellowship and creativity.  

Megan and her husband showed up, carving their first pumpkins as a married couple. They were working on a pretty unique pumpkin today, one with doughnuts drawn on the front.

Ah, and here's Calvin, who's been here with us for years now - along with his family.  Ultimately, he went for a logo on his pumpkin, which I think is what he did last year.  It's just a different logo this time around, one you'll see shortly.

Here's an extra table for some of the kids, who Daddy eventually helped out with their gunk removal. Daddy is pretty good at cleaning out the insides of these things, and did about four of them for others.  I have this green flat tool that looks so simple, and yet it is so perfect for the job!

Here's a more formal picture of the Kieffers, with Megan looking a little surprised by the gunk inside!

Calvin's dad was here as always, also ready to make a quirky pumpkin - which turned out great, of course.  

Another shot of the Hudson family, working on their pumpkin.

And the Smith family was here too.  Skylar, Kala and Draven were here - their dad is away on a business trip at the moment, but these three were here to sculpt away.  Draven did an excellent Totoro pumpkin, which you'll see soon.

This was a nice shot of the girls outside.  Mommy did such a great job hosting this event, working so hard to prepare everything.  It turned out very nice, as always!  Oh, and the cooked pumpkin seeds?  Those were astonishing.  Mommy makes those as they come out of the pumpkins, and these are so popular that she has to keep having them cooking while the sculpting is going on.

Calvin is intently carving now.  There are all different paces for the sculpting.  Some are done fairly quickly, while others are spending more and more time with their pumpkins.  Daddy was working later on his, along with Josh and Draven and Joey, who was making a Buzz Lightyear carving for his son.

Madison was wearing her Star Wars porg pumpkin t-shirt, so she decided to make the logo for Star Wars on a pumpkin.  First, she had to get those gooey guts out!

Daddy's pumpkin was a lot different this year.  It was from the farm down the road from us, and when I opened it up, it smelled fragrant - like a melon.  Josh, Clint and a few others - we were actually tasting this pumpkin, because it just had such a fragrant smell to it.  It tasted like a cucumber, and in fact I bet if we sliced pieces of this one and left them in water overnight, it would make for a delicious infused water!  Additionally, this was the easiest pumpkin to clean out and sculpt.  Daddy was trying to make "Forky" from "Toy Story 4."  You'll see that soon too.

Mr. Clint was here with his family to - he spent most of his time helping his kids with their pumpkins, and didn't get to do one on his own. 

Here's Camille working hard on her pumpkin, which turned out fantastic.  Those gloves!  She can't touch a pumpkin, but she wouldn't stay away from one today!

Craig was here with his daughter as well, also carving her a pumpkin.  He made her a unicorn, which is such a dad thing to do.  I remember making all kinds of princess pumpkins for Madison early on.

The crowd was carving for an hour or so, while others talked inside and outside.  Cars filled up the road outside, and we were making quite a bit of noise, I'm afraid!  But it was fun, and we only do this once a year.

It's a fun time though, which is why everyone comes back every year.  And everyone online can't wait to see the end results, our classic "group shot" on the fireplace.  Most of the folks you severe were able to stay for that big moment.

Madison is working away on her pumpkin while "Little" Camille looks on.

This face!  It looks like he's not a big fan of cleaning out the guts from the inside of a pumpkin!

There's a lot of conversation going on, just happy times.  We're like the Van Tassels, known for the big fall party in October, one that draws a lot of people from all over.  Joey to the right there just got back from Florida, and was grateful for the day change for the party - because he really wanted to come to the party, and now he could.

There are all kinds of levels of skill involved, and lots of experience, and some natural talent.  Just take your time and have fun - don't stress out, and don't make a big deal out of it.  Just enjoy the moment, the season, and the company. 

So here's the group shot to begin with, before it started getting dark.  Some others are still sculpting out there, but we're just starting to line them up and light them up.

Daddy's "Forky" pumpkin came out okay - it probably needs to be painted to be seen better.  But otherwise, it turned out okay.  You'll see it really comes out well in the dark soon.

Starting to get darker outside.  You can see also here that we have a few extra pumpkins available, these bought just in case folks forgot one or a new guest arrives that didn't plan on coming.  Don't worry, we'll carve all of these before Thursday.  Below are some shots of the pumpkins as dusk approaches.

And now... it's starting to get dark outside.  I love this time.  This is the time we shut off the lights, sit on the couch, and just look on at all the lighted pumpkins on display before us.  We admire each other's creations and comment on them, looking through the different looks and creativity.  It's just a nice moment. 

Here's Madison's "Star Wars" pumpkin.

Camille's starry sky pumpkin was fantastic.  I love this idea so much!  I love the star shapes on the cabinet behind the pumpkin.  Beautiful.

Here's Daddy's "Forky" pumpkin.  He turned out well too!

And now you can see it is getting darker and darker, and the pumpkins are just wonderful to gaze at.  We had a movie playing, "The David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special," which was cracking everyone up.  Daddy was taking pictures the whole time.

There's Totoro.  Draven came up with the idea for toothpicks for whiskers, which was perfect.

Not sure who this character is, but it's a great pumpkin too!

Isaac's and Josie's pumpkins, Zelda and a moon and stars.

Buzz Lightyear and a hilarious pumpkin design from Josh.  His pumpkins area always so original!

A closer look at Buzz.  That was done for Joey's son, Ollie, who loved it.  Toy Story had two characters in the line up tonight, with Forky and Buzz Lightyear there.

Here's Elaina's sunflower pumpkin, which was very nice.  The drill tool was very handy this year!

A wider group shot.  The reflections on the floor help set the mood of the picture - these all look so good!

Totoro again.  you can also see Josh's other pumpkin above, looking on with a little grumpy attitude.  hilarious!

Another look at Isaac's and Josie's pumpkins, with the floor reflections again.

These pumpkin photos always turn out so well.  You can see Madison's pumpkin here, with the Rebel logo there as well.  It was such wide design that it was impossible to capture the whole thing on one photo.

Another shot of Totoro up front, and below another closer angle.  Maybe I should have done Noface again this year!

He did a great job with this one.  We have a lot of tools here, and Daddy has his own tools too, a gift from Mommy some time ago.  Everyone has what they need, and there's a lot of sharing, and in the end, everyone has a great looking pumpkin.

Here's the unicorn that Craig was working on, which turned out nice on that white pumpkin.

And here are the ones that Clint's family was working on. Yeet!

And here's the Kieffer pumpkins, the doughnut pumpkin and the wide smile.  Both of them turned out really well also.

In the end, it was time to go of course.  Guests gradually streamed out and said their goodbyes, bringing their prize pumpkins with them.  Madison hopped in the trunk of Cindy and Camille's car, possibly wanting to go home with them - or at least just seeing if she could fit!

It was a perfect day!  It was a little crowded at times, but it was fun for everyone, and it's all about being together through these seasons in life.  Ten years ago we started this with just three of us - and now here we are still doing this little party, and it has been something I never want to miss out on.