2nd Annual BYOP Carving Party

So unbelievable worth it....

- the five day assignment subbing for the most amazing class of 5th graders coinciding with...
- the five house guests (including Julie) that descended into our lives for 24 hours from Thursday afternoon to Friday afternoon coinciding with...
- about 30 "young adults" over for an evening of comfort food and carvin' pumpkins...

Now, granted, I can barely keep my eyes open, I'm ABSOLUTELY exhausted - and so thankful it's Friday - but this is what is meant by the "abundant life" - I'm sure of it....

I will add captions to these pics, detail the experiences of my life in the classroom and expand on our visit with Julie sometime tomorrow...I hope. As for right now, though, I'm going to collapse.

Back again...super great, re-energizing long night of sleep - PTL!!

Okay, on to some descriptions - here's the spread - I used a lot of new Pinterest ideas for some of the food choices (chili was served too - it was just not shown as it was in crockpots in the corner of the kitchen):

Fizzy Orange Punch - tastes just like a melted Dreamsickle with a little fizz....

Homemade Samoa Bars and Pretzel Cookies (with chocolate and peanut butter chips....THANKS SARA!) - I think they both made the "cut" to be repeated for the Christmas Cookie Platters...

This little item seemed to be the hit of the party - also from Pinterest - a cream cheese peanut butter ball with chocolate and peanut butter chips around it - served with "Scooby Snacks" - a treat you can purchase in the kids' snack aisle at stores. Those are graham cracker flavored and the dip tasted like the inside of a Nutter Butter....it worked great on apples too. Yummy!!!!




Early in the party, as John pulled out his power tools.....



This is Alli Mertz, daugther of Dave Mertz - the director at Camp Harlow and close family friend. Alli is now a freshman at the UO and living in the Trinity House - so great to have her now cross our paths so often. She is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. And, Kaela - looking just as gorgeous - freshly tanned from just getting back from her vacation in Hawaii.

(A fun little "P.S." - Dave stopped by with his family to pick up Alli as it was his birthday on that night and they were all going out together. SO fun to have the whole group stop what they were doing and sing "Happy Birthday" to Dave!)

Alli, Megan, and Erika - all three living at Trinity and tremendously positive women of influence there.

Taylor, Alysha, and Joanna. We actually met Alysha at Red Robin last year as she was our server. We got to talking and she kind of recognized us as she'd been at CCF a few times. She was at the retreat as well this year - and I was so thrilled to have her show up at our house.


Julie and the two ladies she brought along from STN in Hawaii. To the left of Julie (with Mikayla laying on her) is Renee, and to the right, Charis. I would elaborate more, but this whole group of five that came to visit were all so amazing....

Amanda, the newest member of our Thursday Night Ladies group - as always looking so classy!

Elaina, Heather, and Julie. If Julie were around in Eugene, I guarantee she'd also be a part of our Thursday Night group - so she might as well have posed with two of them.

Katy - ALWAYS smiling...

That pumpkin is almost as big as she is!

Towards the back of our cleared out living room where many chose to chat and eat.

Family photo - flourished a bit with some Mikayla drama....

Travis and Steph - looking so great....so glad to have them joining us as fellow "older folks"!!!

Julie is carving the outline of the state of Oregon with a heart in it - indicating her love for Oregon....so Jules, if you love it so much, just come home for good for awhile, eh???!!! No, really, I couldn't be more proud of her and all she's accomplishing in Hawaii....but, more on that in another post.


Julie telling stories to new-friends-to-me, Ashley and Kristen - and Darcy.



I love these pics of these gals - the joy they have in being around each other is so infectious!



Classic "bro/sis" expression between Travis and Julie.....






Bless Elaina's heart, she willingly stepped forward to help Mikayla carve her Minnie Mouse pumpkin. She was having fun, they were bonding, and it freed me up to play with the power drill for another Pinterest idea for my pumpkins.....




Not identified yet is the gal to the far right in the picture - Kelsey. She is such a SWEETHEART! Her and I are finally getting together for some one on one this Thursday - looking forward to it. She is the Trinity House Manager, with Erika - to the left of her, as Assistant House Manager. That house is under amazing leadership, that's for sure.


Alicia and Lindsey - so glad they stopped by!!!
Trinity girls! On the bottom left is Brittany, a good friend of Heather's that just moved in to the house - and the upper left is Olivia - who was a hilarious emcee for last weekend's retreat.

Here's my Pinterest-inspired, power-drilled Pumpkin carvings......

I love the way they turned out!

And how about this from Mikayla and Elaina?! They look like they could be sister's in this picture.....

These girls worked on Micky all evening long and then kindly left him behind to be able to hang out with Minnie through Halloween.... =)


Olivia and Danielle - they are such a riot together!!! Danielle LOVES coffee - and coffee houses so it was no surprise that she opted to carve a design with Olivia that was close to her heart.


Brayden's choice on what to carve - the number "24" in honor of Kenjon....who stopped by just as much of the party was stepping out the door to leave. I wish I would have got a pic of him and Brayden behind "their" pumpkin....

...but instead, we have to settle for another pic of them rough-housing together - Brayden trying to somehow unlock the football form Kenjon's grip.....not a chance, Brayden. Michael Chase also stopped by a little later - which made for a perfect post-party group of folks with the Whites, Julie and her crew, and Michael and Kenjon to all just chill and chat. I stayed up for a bit with them, but then had to give in.....I was SO EXHAUSTED!



But, like I said before - OH SO WORTH IT!!! I couldn't have asked for the event to be any better.....