October 23 An extra JOY

Saturday:  Thursday when I was either picking up or dropping Kaity off over at Diana's, I had the opportunity to say "hi" to Matthew for a little bit. I told him he was very welcome to come over any time. I was SO happy when I received a text from him Friday evening stating he would like to come on Saturday. It was Emma's idea that we carve pumpkins this weekend with Kaity ... so instead of just TWO pumpkins, we got to carve THREE! The happiest part of our day was to have Matthew join us.

I'm mostly going to just run these pictures of our carvings ... I helped Kaity with the actual CUTTING of the design, but she gutted it almost entirely by herself. It's quite a slimy job to gut a pumpkin!

Emma had very definite plans for her pumpkin and I think it turned out marvelously! She worked super hard on it and didn't really have anything happen that was disappointing.

Matthew decided to carve a 3-headed dog on his pumpkin ... I forget where this particular beast comes from--I do remember a 3-headed dog in Harry Potter, but Matthew said that this was NOT that one.

Emma connected her pumpkin's teeth using dental toothpicks. These are the best pumpkin teeth I have ever seen.

I tried to snap as many pictures as I could of Matthew. The last time he was over was WAY BACK in April when we celebrated his birthday. He is such a nice person and he has grown--not only in height (we measured him at 5'11" tonight), but in his kindness and patience. I was a pleasure to have him with us tonight in so many ways.

I absolutely love this pumpkin ...

Here are all three pumpkins lined up. Okay ... let me explain the one I helped Kaity with. It is supposed to be a CAT and we worked off a picture we had taken from the internet. However, I must admit that this did NOT turn out as cute as the picture at all. I couldn't get the ears right and Kaity finally decided to do away with the ears completely! KAITY seemed pleased with her pumpkin--so that's all that really mattered.

A close-up of Matt's handiwork--lots and lots of detailed cuts and scraping!

I dug through my cupboards and found THREE (whew!) appropriate candles for lighting the pumpkins ...

We also enjoyed dinner together and all of us played a game of PACHESI afterward! It went on FOREVER! Kaity actually stuck it out through the whole game--I was very proud of her. Matthew won! It was SO close. What I enjoyed most about playing the game was our laughter ... it did my heart good.

We also played Emma's riddle game! That was fun too! The riddles just about drove us crazy ... but all of us had a good time. 

I had prayed about this time together throughout Friday evening and Saturday morning--a little hesitant about how things would go, so since I was worried about it, I talked to the Lord about those worrisome things. He heard me (isn't that amazing?) and answered each of my worries with His amazing care and presence with us. I am so thankful I can trust in His UNFAILING help and mercy.