Fall Break

Last week Kyla had a couple of days off of school for Fall Break.  I was so excited to have her home and I think the break came at a perfect time for her.  School can make her tired and it was a good time for her to have extra time to rest. Our break got off to a rocky start when we were walking outside on Friday and Troy noticed something was not right.....the pumpkins we had gotten at the pumpkin patch and that were on our front porch were smashed to pieces all over our driveway.  He called me out and we instantly knew what had happened.......probably kids with some days off of school staying up late at night and roaming the streets to smash people's pumpkins.  

Kyla did not appreciate this.  It honestly did break my heart to see her crying, so confused about our pumpkins.  She buried her head into me, asking who did this? It was a mixture of Troy and I trying to comfort her and trying not to laugh at the same time.....she was so mad.  I kept trying to comfort.  We were on our way to lunch and so I told her once we got into the car we would talk about how the Bible says we should handle things like this to which she said through tears, "I bet the people who did this probably don't read the Bible everyday."  (Again, hiding laughter).

Once in the van we explained to her that sometimes people will do mean things that upset us, but that the Bible says to pray for our enemies and those who hurt us.  We told her we would pray for their hearts to realize what they did was wrong and not do it again.  She was still crying and I knew the wheels in her mind were turning.  She kept saying those were the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch and why would someone do that?

While we were at lunch the wheels were still turning and in between eating she would have another thought on the pumpkin fiasco.  Things like....Why did their Mommy let them do this?  I don't think their Mommy was watching them very good.  Do you think they will do it again?  If we get new pumpkins, I want to leave a note outside so they know not to smash our pumpkins.  And my favorite....she said to me, "Who other than a boy could have done this?" and I said, "Well, other than a boy, it would have been a girl."  Kyla's response....,"I don't think a girl would have done that."  I didn't say it out loud, but inside, I had to agree with her.

Anyway, we actually were planning on carving pumpkins the first day of Fall Break, but with no pumpkins that was hard to do.  So, off to Meijer we went to pick out some new ones for carving.

Our smiles are back and we are ready to move on from the smashed pumpkins.  Time to carve some new ones.

Kyla with her new pumpkin

Her first time pumpkin carving.....mesmerized watching Daddy get it started

Checking out the insides

After Kyla got her pumpkin carving started it was time for Troy to work on his....even designing his own carving design.  You can see on his phone what pattern he is working on....the Cardinals may not have made it to the World Series, but he will still show his loyalty through the art of pumpkin carving.

And, now Ashlyn's turn!  What is in there?

We are ready to carve

Two happy faces

The girls with their finished pumpkins

And Kyla was serious about the note....once our pumpkins were carved and on the front porch, she made sure this message was in place

Our pumpkin carving work

All lit up and so far they are all still safe on our front porch.  I think the note worked.

Other fun things from our Fall Break included.....

Eating some of our favorite fall treats.....like chocolate chip pumpkin cookies

Staying up a little bit later to play games

We even got a little school work in.....Troy helped Kyla make a chart to help her with learning to count to 100.  This is something they are working on in kindergarten and Troy knows she can do it.  He is so great at helping with learning and Kyla is getting really close to 100.

We played in the leaves.....

And stayed up late to have a movie night.....Cinderella!

Ready to watch

Snuggled up

And it was great to have Kyla back with us to do some of the everyday things us three girls are used to all doing together. Like going to the library......

And grocery shopping....loved having Kyla with us

Our family is God's greatest gift to me......no matter what we are doing, us being together is my very favorite thing.  We loved our fall break.