Autumn Activities

A few weeks ago we went to the apple orchard, so we've been eating apple pie, apple crisp, baked apples, apple cake, and just plain old apples! Here we are eating lunch in the car at the orchard:

The kids are getting into the Halloween spirit this year. We've been to the Children's Museum haunted house (this year it's a haunted TRAIN!), to the Indianapolis Zoo's "Zoo-Boo," and we've been having fun making costumes and decorations. Here are Jacob and Mary in their costumes at the zoo ("Super Jacob" and "Super Mary"):

Even Hannah is getting in on the fun in her witch hat!

The Girls

This is one of Hannah's favorite things to do... sit on the floor with a basket of toys and empty it out all around her. She usually picks them up and throws them over her shoulder, which is why all the toys end up behind her!
Mary loves to get up close with Hannah (usually a little too close!)
Here's Mary in her new Colts shirt... All day last Sunday she kept saying, "I'm going to a Colts game!" (we won't be going to any games any time soon, but she thinks just wearing the shirt IS going to the game)

Hannah showing off a couple of her 6 teeth (and there's one more just coming in) Hannah is TRYING to crawl... she really wants too, anyway. Here she is with one of Jacob's cars...
... and here she is trying to get the car after I put it out of her reach (I'm so mean):
I think she'll be crawling by her birthday!

Another one off to school...

... well, preschool anyway. Mary started today, two mornings a week. It was really no big deal. She just walked right in and joined the kids sitting in a circle, like she's been doing it her whole life. I don't even think she noticed when I left. Here she is all packed up and ready to go this morning (it doesn't get much cuter than this)...

And with Evan, a boy from church that we'll be carpooling with:
And with her teacher, Mrs. B:
In other news, Brian and I got away over Labor Day for a couple of days without the kids (they stayed with grandparents)! We went to Turkey Run State Park and stayed in the inn for two nights. We did a LOT of hiking and also did a guided horseback ride. It was great to not be on anyone's schedule for awhile. Turkey Run is in Parke County, which apparently is the covered bridge capital of the world (there are about 30 covered bridges there), so we did a little driving tour to see some of them. These are the only pictures we took the whole trip...

Photo Session

We went to JCPenney to have some family pictures taken last weekend, so I thought I'd share some... Anyone who's taken several children to have pictures taken knows that it's a stressful task! The kids did pretty well, though, and I think our mission was accomplished!

Hannah can't crawl away yet, but she sure had a hard time sitting still...
Check out Jacob and Mary with their arms around each other... awww!

First Day of School

What a handsome first-grader! Jacob got on the bus with a big smile yesterday morning, and had a great first day of school. He was SO excited when he got up, and he and Mary were both jumping up and down when the bus came down the street. The smile was still on his face when he got off the bus, so I think things went well.
To celebrate, we went to the State Fair for a few hours when Jacob got home (it was only a half-day of school). Here are the kids enjoying ice cream...

And Hannah enjoying the Fair in her own way:

Vacation

We spent a long weekend on Lake Michigan with my parents and had a great time! Though we were only there for a few days, we packed in a lot of fun. The weather was cool and really windy... not ideal beach weather but the kids didn't seem to mind. Thank goodness Brian was willing to get in the water with them, because I wasn't about to brave the cold! There were lots of waves because of the high winds, and the kids loved jumping in them and over them near the shore.


On Saturday morning we took Jacob and Mary to the Little Point Sable lighthouse, just a couple miles South of the cabin. We climbed 130 spiral stairs to the top. Here are Jacob and Mary on the rocks in front of the lighthouse.

After the lighthouse, we decided to go on the Mac Woods dune ride... a well established family business in Silver Lake State Park. Last time we went on this ride Jacob was just 2 years old, and I was pregnant with Mary! They LOVED it, especially riding fast up and down the dune hills and around sharp turns. We had a good driver (who happened to be a woman)... she really made it thrilling. Part of the ride takes you down by the edge of the water at Lake Michigan, and usually you get a little "misted" from the water. But, she accidentally hit a big wave at the wrong time, and we all got SOAKED! Jacob was less than thrilled about this, and we all had to put on a happy face to get him through it.

Back to the beach for the afternoon:


Sunday morning was quite cool, so before the beach Brian, Jacob, Mary and I went for a hike up the dunes behind the cabin. Perfect dune-hiking weather! They especially loved running down the dunes on the way back.

That little triangle in the middle is the cabin:
What a view!


Family picture before hitting the road Sunday afternoon:

On the way home we hit some bad traffic up around Chicago, so we decided to detour South on 421. In the town on Monon we drove past this cute train museum. It was closed for the day, but the parking lot was full of cool train stuff, so we just had to stop for Jacob. When we got back in the car, he said enthusiastically, "this is AWESOME." We'll go back sometime to visit the museum when it's open.

Here are the kids on a couple of the cars on display outside the museum. Does Jacob look thrilled or what?

Home at 9:45, kids in bed at 10 p.m., WAY past their bedtimes (especially Hannah). We'll pay for it today, I'm sure, but it was definitely a good trip! Jacob starts school on Wednesday, so we'll be resting up until then.

Cousins

The last couple of weeks have been busy with visits from cousins... Dave and Christina from Arlington VA, with their daughters Ella and Zoe, and now Lori and Todd from the Boston area, with their kids Ben and Sarah! Here are Grandma Dianne and Grandpa Charlie with Ella, Hannah, Mary, Jacob, and Zoe:

Mary and Ella:
Mary and Sarah at Holliday Park:
Ben, Mary and Jacob:
And a photo of Hannah in the bathtub just for fun!
Tomorrow we are heading to Michigan for the weekend, so Jacob and Mary (and maybe even Hannah) can get some fun time on the beach!