Pumpkin Party Pictures

What a fun night Friday turned out to be!

Annabelle and her BFF, Allie Claire, hosted the party we’d all been counting down for! We had the invitations designed by the Etsy store, “Chickabug”, and I think they turned out so cute!

 

Our little Pumpkins got to run wild and free (followed closely by Grammy, Granny and Aunt Nen before the party started and while Carrie and I were finishing up last minute things…)

 

When the guests arrived, they were welcomed to the Lodge by two big “pumpkins”… Annabelle’s Pappy painted two hay bales orange for us, and 30 minutes before the party started, I was down at the end of the drive way painting on the faces! Nothing like last minute! Ha… The pumpkins turned out so cute, and I so wanted to move them in front of our house, but they hay plus these cows means only one thing…and it wouldn’t end well for the hay.

 

We had so much fun planning and setting up for the party. I think the orange streamers, lanterns, and candy corn trees gave the party the “kid” feel we were going for… 

 

We made the candy corn trees using old paint cans (thankfully, Carrie just painted a house, so she had plenty to use)…then I cut some branches and spray painted them black. We stuck them in styrofoam and packed newspaper around them to make them stand up straight and topped them off with candy corn. The kids LOVED being able to sneak candy corn! I’m not so sure the mommas appreciated it very much! Ha…

We had pumpkins everywhere… even hanging in the trees!

Carrie even found a pumpkin piñata…

The food table was as a “fall-ish” buffet of chili, hotdogs, and baked potatoes with all the toppings…

  

AB’s Daddy & Pop (my Dad) firing up the grill…

The dessert table was filled to the brim with yummy kid-friendly goodies…

Our guests started to arrive and we were so happy to have them! We had over 50 people…Mommas, Daddies, and even some grandparents were on hand to have some fun! Of course Allie & Annabelle invited theirs! Here’s AB with her Grammy, Pop, Pappy & Granny after the party.

 

We’d planned a few things for the kids, including the corn trough. We did this for our family reunion a couple weeks ago, and the kids loved it. It was a hit at the pumpkin party, too! From the oldest to the youngest, everyone enjoyed playing in it…

 

We’d also planned a hayride. The hayride banner that Carrie did was one of my favorite things at the party! Uncle Adam drove for us, and Pappy called up the buffalo really close to the trailer so the kids could get a good look at them! The cutest was when Ryleigh (aka “Cowgirl Jessie” from Toy Story) wanted to know if we could get a pink “buckalo”…) ha…

We had so many kids that we split the hay ride up into two groups. Here’s the first group heading out…

and the second group loading up…

Thanks, Uncle Adam for driving! You always make everything fun!

(I had to steal this picture from Aunt Nen because it was too sweet!)

When the hay ride was over, it was time to get down to business…pumpkin carving business! 

We had each family (that wanted to) bring a pumpkin and knives for carving…

First they started at the “Guttin’ Table”… we’d covered both the “Guttin’ and Carvin’” tables with newspaper to keep things a little less messy.

Things got serious over at the Carving table…

 

Some of the finished pumpkins lined up waiting for the judging…

The “judges” (my older niece and nephew), chose one family to win for the best carved pumpkin. The McKenzie’s scored a gift card to Dairy Queen. The judges also chose a costume contest winner. They couldn’t chose just ONE, and since we’d only gotten one prize for the costume winner (also a DQ gift card), I had to call for back-up… I hit AB’s Pop and Pappy up for some cash. Everybody knows that Grandaddy’s always have cash on hand, and are more than willing to shell out a little bit when their darling Granddaughter is in need for some! :)  All of the kids were so precious in their costumes, but the judges picked Ella & Audrey (The Dalmatians), Braley (The Scarecrow) and Gus (the mexican) as the winners.

Nobody left the party empty handed though… AB and AC sent all their friends home with goody bags…

We attempted to get a big group photo of all the kids (and some of the mommas keeping them together), but it was pretty much impossible! ha…

We called this the “First Annual” pumpkin party, and even put it on everything from the water to the goody bags in hopes that we have started a tradition.

After the fun we had on Friday night, I’m pretty sure we have!

~amw~