Hannah's class party

Hannah had her class Halloween party today at school.  They began with a "parade of costumes" in the gym.  She was adorable as Dorothy!  She was the only Dorothy in attendance at school, so she felt very special.  They went on to their room, where they read Pumpkin Soup, iced pumpkin cookies, played Boo Bingo, and had a little party.  I had a great time with her.  This was my first chance to observe her in her classroom, and I was quite impressed with all that she can do!  She has some really sweet friends in her room as well (which made me VERY happy!).  Needless to say, after all of this partying, both of my banshees are keyed up and ready to take the neighborhood by storm in a few short hours!  Trick or Treat!

The Annual Pumpkin Carving

We try every year to carve a pumpkin with the kids before Halloween.  This is such a fun thing to do as a family!  The kids really enjoy it.  Ken usually does most of the hard work (but I have to take responsibility for the lopped-sided grin).  In a recent newsletter, a friend of ours mentioned that medieval Irish Christians celebrated Halloween as a way of rejoicing in their salvation.  They were able to laugh at the devil and mock his dwindling power because of the work of Christ on their behalf.  I thought of this as I looked at our pathetic little grinning pumpkin tonight.  I will be forever thankful that Jesus faced sin and death and conquered it for me.  What joy, that we can now celebrate the fact that evil has lost and that Christ is building a Kingdom that will never be destroyed!  I pray that thought brings you hope as well.  Happy Halloween!

A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

The kids had a weekend full of festivals!  We went to our town's little fall festival (with our cousin Luke) on Friday night.  They dressed up and played little carnival games and ate a lot of good food.  Then on Saturday, we went to a pumpkin festival (with our friends JJ, Jessica, Jonathan and Baby Georgia Mae) in a nearby town.  We had so much fun!  The pumpkin festival was very cool and pretty big--last year around 400,000 people attended.  Along with all of the pumpkin food you would expect, there were also some weird pumpkin foods like pumpkin hamburgers and pumpkin stew.  We filled up on pumpkin pies, pumpkin cream puffs, pumpkin donuts, and pumpkin hamburgers (with a few corn-dogs thrown in there too).  Ken stood in line for over an hour to get our "famous" pumpkin pie and donuts!  We saw a pumpkin that weighed over 1300 lbs., and a "tree" made out of pumpkins.  The kids got to ride the ferris wheel and a twirling dragon (with Jessica and me).  It was a full day of pumpkin fun for our little pumpkin-heads!   

Pumpkinheads

Here are my three pumpkinheads picking out pumpkins for our front stoop.  This has to be one of my favorite things to do!  I love fall!