A Change of Plans and Pumpkin Carving

The Hendricks family had planned to leave early yesterday morning to fly to Maryland to celebrate two very special family events.  The first was my sister's 21st birthday.  The second was my Grandma's surprise 75th birthday.  On Friday night, however, plans changed.

Our darling girl came down with some sort of stomach bug on.  And being that we had a very early flight, we were going to be staying in a hotel (read: a place without a laundry area), and we all know how terrible we feel when we're sick, we decided to X the trip and stay home to get our baby girl better.

This was an extremely hard decision for us.  With it being such a big birthday weekend, we didn't want to miss in all the festivities and celebrations.  But, at the same time, our baby was sick, and this was really the first time that she had come down with this kind of bug.  We probably made an overprotective decision, but in the end we made the decision that was best for us.  Plus, Kate is feeling 100 times better and that is all that matters.

Since our plans changed so dramatically, we had nothing planned for our weekend at home.  With the craziness of life, we did not have a chance to carve a pumpkin before Halloween, so we used our Saturday free time to do said activity!

Click for our pumpkin carving in photos!

We were sad to miss the weekend activities in Maryland, but are so glad that Kate is feeling better.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY, AMY, and HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY, GRAM!  We love you both!

Jack-o-lanterns

In lieu of the upcoming holiday, Jack's birthday (and Halloween), we decided to get into the holiday spirit and carve a few pumpkins of our own! Yesterday, we picked out three pumpkins and got busy with our designs. (I know you are wondering why we only picked three when, technically, there are four of us. Bun, you see, eats pumpkin seeds for treats. And when we decided to get to carving, we decided that three would be enough for the four of us, especially since Bun celebrates the holiday by munching on the seeds...That's a believable story, right?! To be quite honest, I completely forgot to get a pumpkin for Bun, and now I feel terrible.)

Nevertheless, we had three pumpkins and last night we got to carving! I cleaned the pumpkins out while Brian and I both did our own designs. Jack's pumpkin was so difficult to cut into so instead of losing a few fingers in the carving process we decided to get creative and paint his. That was the much wiser and easier decision for both of us. We created a 'Jack's worst nightmare' pumpkin where his dearly beloved treat is stuck in a spider web with the spider on its way to capture its prey (Jack's bone)... This seriously would be Jack's worst nightmare. Brian's pumpkin is a mixture of goofy and drunk, and mine is a rendition of Jack Skellington, aka, 'The Pumpkin King', from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

We had an awesome time carving, and what satisfaction to add the candles! Our pumpkins looked awesome on our porch, lit with candles, illuminating the holiday for all the passersby! Check out our photos below!