Pumpkin Carving

Another year of Pumpkin Carving for the books. (Honestly, I should make a book of all of our years of pumpkin carving together.) We met at Jenna's house again and the Olivers came down for a fun evening of pumpkins, food, and hanging out.  

David and I both commented about how every year we have to do less and less to help our kids carve pumpkins. They are getting so big and so capable. 









We had a lovely time and I love that even after all these years, the Olivers are such good friends to my family. 

Austin - custom design ; Lucy - Unicorn

Caleb - Bat & Moon ; Lydia - Birds

This is such a great group of people. Happy Halloween! 

Walker Oliver Pumpkin Carving

I know I've posted about this before, but one of my favorite childhood traditions was carving pumpkins with my family and our dear family friends, the Olivers. It was one of the few traditions that we did EVERY single year and I always looked forward to it. My parents met John and Denise Oliver when they were very first married and in a married student ward at BYU. They became fast (and lifelong) friends. We carved pumpkins every October and usually went camping or boating with them at least once a year. At my grandfather's funeral, John and Denise came to show love and support and we decided that we should try to make another "Walker Oliver" pumpkin carving night happen again. Before the event, I went through old scrapbooks and found a bunch of old pictures that I printed off and hung around the house. 

Jessie Oliver was just a year or so older than me and she was a great friend and influence on me. (The picture of us above is from summer when she invited me to a Book of Mormon camping trip. We camped in the mountains and each of us (she invited several other friends as well) worked our way through as much of the Book of Mormon as we could manage. It was a really neat weekend and I still remember the impact that one of the hikes had on me in giving me perspective about putting in the effort to make it to the celestial kingdom. There were three different vistas and at the first two, I remember thinking - "this is it! This is enough" but then reluctantly moving forward and being so grateful I hadn't been satisfied with the lower vistas and not made the effort to get to the top. Jessie and I both went to Utah State at the same time and were even in the same ward my freshman year. Even though we weren't ever roommates or even best friends at USU, just knowing that she was there and that she loved me was really special for me. I adore this girl from my past and admire the lovely lady she is now.  

Jenna was kind enough to host because she lives in the middle between Logan (where the Olivers have relocated) and the rest of us. It was a fabulous night of rehashing old memories and making new ones. We loved gathering together with this very special family and I loved seeing both of our kids having that same pumpkin carving tradition holding strong. 

I particularly loved the pictures of John helping his granddaughter Evie and my dad helping Lucy. It was SO reminiscent of the top picture of this post where John and Dad are working hard to make sure that all of the kids had help carving their pumpkins. 

We had a great time together. 

Pictures of the full group, with four generations: 1- Grandma Knowles and their Grandma Oliver, 2- Scott & Lori, John & Denise 3-Shantel, David, Jenna, Kevin, Melissa, Jacob, Mary, Jessie, Billy, Jeff, Jeremy 4-Lydia, Camille, Austin, Jason, Caleb, Sadie, Lucy, Molly, Evie, Ollie, and Jessie's baby. 

Picture of the OG Walker Oliver Crew: (left to right) Melissa, Jenna, Shantel, Jacob, Scott, Lori, John, Denise, Jeremy, Jessie, Jeff. 

We were sad that Matt & Brooklyn couldn't make it - Juniper got sick right before and couldn't come. We also missed Chris, Ben, and Mckell. 


What a great-looking group of pumpkins! We are already making plans for pumpkin carving 2024. 

October/Halloween Festivities

October tends to be one of the busiest months of our entire year. There is something so festive about the Fall and an almost-desperate urgency to soak up every last sunny day possible before winter arrives. We did a lot of Fall-themed field trips, but here are some of the more Halloween-centered activities.

"The Spooky Cottage"

Lydia decided that she wanted to enter the library's "Haunted House from recycled materials" contest. She planned it and only needed a small amount of help to make it happen. My very very favorite part is the haiku she wrote to go next to her display. 

"Eyes in the window - Moon shining high in the sky - Spooky all around." 

She got a free-movie rental and a bag of popcorn for entering and our family went to the Halloween Party that was held there as a show of support for Lydia. Everyone loved it. 

Walker Pumpkin Carving

Our favorite Halloween Tradition. A bunch of Walkers. Bowls of goopy pumpkin insides. Laughter and funny stories. A mad dash to take pictures on the porch before the sun went down plus plenty of pictures with candles in the dark. 

I love this family. My mom wasn't feeling well most of the day and so she stayed back in her room, but it was just so lovely to spend time with these people. 

Austin and Lydia carved their own this year, while Caleb and Lucy obviously just "helped". But they each picked out what they wanted and we had a great time. 

Austin: Spooky face. Caleb: Dragon. 

Lucy: Cat Lydia: Dog face. 

Our next favorite October Tradition: 

Gardner Village with Melissa and Zachary

We love coming here with them every year. 

Homeschool Witch Tea Party

As part of one of Lydia's homeschool rotations, she is part of a book club. This month they read "The Worst Witch" then had a fun little tea party where they all dressed like witches. 

Homeschool Halloween Party 

We also helped arrange a Halloween Party for our Homeschool Co-op. A few simple activities/games. Memorizing a poem. A snack. All in all some great "socialization". (Things like this are important to me so that even though these kids' experiences won't look the same as public school, they won't miss out on the class parties and such." 

And lastly, Vanellope von Schweetz

 Amy Perkins wanted to do a Wreck it Ralph themed costume with her and Derek and Amelia. She needed help building the car and so I offered to help her a couple evenings leading up to Halloween. The car turned out amazing (Sadie was taking a turn in the car). I was just grateful for the excuse to spend time with Amy. She's a great friend to me. We worked really hard to make it awesome and even though it was more work than Amy probably bargained for, it was worth it! As a thank you Amy brought us an amazing charcuterie board. It had cookies that were all shaped out to be a skeleton and then surrounded by delicious candies.