Pumpkin Carving Caregroup Night!

Our caregroup gathered last Saturday night to decorate pumpkins together. We had the kids paint pumpkins and then we cleaned up that MESS and then got to work trying to win the "most creative pumpkin" award!Aubrey was the youngest participant and thought she was really one of the big guys!

Mackenzie took her time on her pumpkin... so precious to see all the kids creations!

Aubrey is obsessed with shoes... just one more thing that makes her like my sister :) She loved my shoes with the sparkles on them and kept coming up to me and saying, "Shoes! Shoes!"

Our fearless caregroup leader, Matt, led by great example with his "carving knife!"

Love the concentration on these faces!

Matt had to carve his pumpkin outside... wait to you see their results!

Jake did an amazing job on our pumpkin.... I helped by taking pictures and keeping the kids out of his way ;)

And of course it can't be a caregoup event without lots of food!

Our rivals!

The kids kept busy downstairs... I thought they were being really good so I went to investigate and found this fun happening!!

Then we called everyone together for voting time... #1 rule: no voting for your own pumpkin!

Sherie's... she was going for originality ;)

Matt and Jess came up with this phenomenon!

Jake's inspired creation!

Joe and Nancy contributed this godly pumpkin! (it would have won, but we didn't have a category for godliness!)

Jen had the winning pumpkin! We all loved the nose!

Jess and Josh had the same sort of idea that we did... but we were impressed with the emotion that they brought to their pumpkins face!

A fun caregroup memory! So grateful for all of these people in our lives!

Random picture... but we found Aubrey asleep sitting up when we came home from a wedding this weekend. We figured she was determined to wait up for us, but she probably succumbed to sleep around 8:30!

Pumpkin Carving Family Night (with a friend!)

Our helpers were... Mackenzie Sam

and Aubrey...

Daddy scooped out the yucky insides

Mackenzie felt very important with her job of being the bag holder

Everyone participated in saying, "Ewww" and "Yucky!"

We tried to use our regular knives to cut out a pumpkin face, but it was making very slow progress and we were losing the troops. Then Daddy said, "Hold on a minute," and disappeared.
We heard loud noises coming from the garage a few minutes later and this is what our investigation found!

He said, "What? I have a tool for this... why can't I use it?"

When it was finished both of the girls were so happy they wanted to kiss it! What a girl thing to do with a pumpkin... Sam didn't feel the need to lay a smackeroo on it!

Mommy said, "Let's go get the candles guys!" (Jake was busy spraying off the debris from the carving with his air compressor... honestly! I asked him to be excited and involved with the carving, but next time I'll be more careful to clarify what I mean!) This is what my little helpers came back with... birthday candles!

We found the right candles and daddy lit it up!

Aubrey was still obsessed with kissing the pumpkin!

Our three little pumpkin heads...

... and the man behind the magic!

p.s. for objections to the fact that we have a Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas carved into our pumpkin, see Jake. I wanted a happy pumpkin with triangle eyes, a square nose, and a happy smile... but asking Jake to get involved meant giving up certain mom-rights even over what actually got carved into our happy little pumpkin.

Apple Picking

Keeping up with the big girls

Kenzie was in a very helpful mood and would have changed this diaper if I let her! I caught it on camera and then finished the diaper myself, but I thought it was so sweet that she wanted to do it and that Aubrey was going to let her!

Baby bumps!