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.