The Land of 1,000 Pumpkins

I mentioned earlier on my blog about The Springs Church's goal to break the World Record for the most number of people carving a pumpkin at one time. The current record was 965. After many weeks of planning, preparation and prayer, the weekend of our outreach was finally here. We were prepared for 1,000 enthusiastic pumpkin carvers.

Take a peek at Saturday set-up day. What a fun, hot, hard-working day!

O and Nosy shared water bottles to keep away the thirst.

The guys got into a great rhythm with their assembly line system of laying out the pumpkins. The girls would go behind them to space and straighten all the pumpkins.

Noah watches the action

So many pumpkins all in a row.

After awhile, we all started to feel a little like this:

Except for the big boys,

who had a blast playing in a shady pumpkin box...

...and directing traffic along Murphy Road. Eventually I noticed that cars were actually slowing nearly to a stop before realizing that it was just some kids holding up the stop sign. We had to have a little talk about the dangers of causing traffic.

That's a whole lot of pumpkins!

One of the ladies brought a yummy, bright orange cake to share with us. When my back was turned, guess who dove right into that cake...literally!

He was COVERED in orange gooeyness.

After lining all the pumpkins up in rows, we went back and removed the tops and some of the "guts" to make carving the next day easier. Lorie so patiently demonstrated her technique for the curious boys.

Pumpkin races

We are READY!!!

Early the next morning, we all arrived at Southfork Ranch filled with nervous anticipation.

It was such a beautiful crisp morning. The boys warmed up with chocolate donuts...

...and Stephanie snuggles.

Owen kept an eye out for the cars to begin arriving.

Before we knew it, it was time to start carving!!

I love this picture of Julianne and Mia.

O did a very impressive job carving all by himself!

We didn't quite break the record, but we learned so much as a church and had a lot of fun. There is nothing like working really hard with people to form a lasting bond. The current record holders had better beware. Next year we will blow the old record away!