Fall Party

For Josiah's homeschooling curriculum, it was suggested that we plan a fall or Halloween party as something fun to do. Since we don't celebrate Halloween, the logical choice was to have a fall party instead. We invited one friend over (Josiah's friend Hannah) and had three fun activities. The first activity as you may have guessed was to decorate pumpkin cookies. One thing I found helpful, was that I put the frosting on first without the kid's help and then put the decorations out for them to adorn their sugary pumpkins.

They of course also had to enjoy the lovely sugary goodness as well though none of them finished their cookies. They had just had lunch, so I think their tummies were full.

We then carved pumpkins, but first I read them a story called, "The Pumpkin Patch Parable" by Liz Curtis Higgs. It is really cute and it makes an analogy about pumpkins and pumpkin carving to the Christian message of salvation. The pumpkin seed is the Word sown in the heart, the pumpkin growing is like different people (all pumpkins are different sizes and shapes), taking out the slimy gunk is like working on getting rid of the sin in our lives (see note at the bottom about this point), putting a light in represents Christ's light in us and lastly, the smiley face would be our joy in Christ shown to others. As we did each step, I tried to make the concept stick. We shall see if it does! At the end I had them pose by their pumpkins (that Laura, Linda & I carved), and had them do different faces for each shot. Above here is their silly faces.

Josiah and Caleb were the only ones to really get into the whole scooping out the gunk stuff! Hannah was a little reluctant to get here hands dirty and Daniel hardly tried at all to do so. Note to self: carving pumpkins takes a long time (even a simple design) and is not super kid friendly other than the scooping the gunk part. This picture is showing their super sad faces. Caleb's and Josiah's were the funniest in this shot!

This was their super MAD faces! And here Hannah and Daniel had the funniest faces. Guess I can't get them all at once! You may have noted in the prior two photos also that the BIG pumpkin has a cross and two hearts and the little kid pumpkins with happy faces are looking to the cross.

The last activity planned for the party was to try apple bobbing. It is hard by the way to GET a picture of kids bobbing for apples! This was one of the best of Caleb and Hannah going for it! Hannah was so cute, she was gingerly getting her face near the water, but didn't want to get wet. Caleb and Daniel didn't really try to hard, but decided instead to just reach in and grab and apple, take a bite and then throw it back in a few times. Ummmm.....note to self again....bobbing for apples is not a game for 2 year olds! Oh well, it was fun!

Josiah was the only one to really DIVE IN (literally) to try and get an apple with his teeth. He was unsuccessful, but he got a little wet in the process and did a funny shaking off the water dance at one point as well. Daniel was busily eating an apple as you see here.

Our crazy Josiah boy, having a blast at the fall party. They all crashed (thankfully for me) soon afterward and I had Laura and Linda here to help me clean up a bit! It was a fun time for all and we sent Hannah home with a bunch of cookies to share with her family and her little pumpkin also. This was definitely a fun tradition I hope to be able to repeat each year.

**Note regarding the pumpkin book: Though the pumpkin analogy was cute and had some direct correlations, I wanted to point out that one does NOT have to have ALL sin removed from their lives before they can ask Christ to come in. We can all repent of our sin and ask Christ to enter at any time. It is over TIME that then we are called to holiness and little by little God chips away at various areas of sin in our lives and as we grow in Him and rid ourselves of that SIN, Christ in us can then shine brighter and our JOY in the Lord can be more evident as we show it outwardly by our actions. I found it interesting to note that if we do not remove the sin (or pumpkin gunk) that Christ's light in us would essentially be hidden from the world. "Hide it under a bushel....NO....I'm gonna let it shine!" Blessing to you all! I pray that you know the Lord Jesus Christ!