Pumpkin Carving (a.k.a. "Brain Surgery")

On Saturday, October 30th, the girls and I had our second annual 'mommy-daughters' pumpkin carving fun. Yes, we always wish that daddy was here to share in all the fun, but we still enjoyed our leisurely afternoon together.

Emily made progress this year and actually did not get grossed out scooping out the pumpkin brains. Up until this activity, she seemed to be having a tough day, but playing in the slimy pumpkin insides somehow soothed her and she started to smile.

Natalie was definitely more hesitant (you can see that she is not putting her hand very deep).

Here's Emily again, just relishing the mess!

Natalie was very particular about the pumpkin's future face. Here she is actually correcting what I had drawn earlier!

Um... have I already mentioned that Emily was loving the mess?

Here are our creations in the beautiful fall light. Natalie's has a face, I carved a cross inside a heart, and Emily carved a cross and a crown.

We waited until it got dark to light the candles and take a few more photos.

I did take a few photos without the flash and my pumpkin looked nice:

As we worked on our pumpkins, I again told them how God takes us, cleans us off, then scoops the yucky sin out of us and places His light inside of us for the world to see (see Matthew 5:14-16).

I feel very thankful to have spent this weekend seeing and doing beautiful things with my girls.

What a gift they are!