Indy Wedding Weekend & 12th Wedding Anniversary

This week in October we ended up celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary by taking the kids to a friend's wedding in Indianapolis.  Not the most romantic of anniversaries, but not too bad either.  We also made a ton of applesauce and an apple pie with all those apples we picked from the Baranko's tree.    

We have been having a hard time with Claire's whining lately.  She is at an all time high for whining, it is almost 100% of the time.  After much discussion between Matt, myself and Isolene - the three people who spend the most time with her - we think that Claire is taking Luke's start of full day Kindergarten pretty hard.  She is left behind by him, and misses him.  When he gets home all she wants to do is play with him, but he is tired from a full day of stimulation and just wants to be left alone.  That makes her whine more, which Luke doesn't want to be around (can you blame him?).  Luke is also getting a lot of attention between school starting, his birthday and losing his teeth.  We talked about giving her some special attention and making her feel just as important.  She also has been napping quite a bit less because Luke's pick up time from school is right in the middle of her former nap time.  Phasing out of the naps doesn't seem to be going well, so we are going to get those back to being a priority to get her some more sleep. On her school days she's going to have to come right home from preschool, eat a quick lunch, and then go right to sleep to get her nap in before Luke's school is over- but we think it is for the best.  Stay tuned!  We can only pray for some improvement from this whining epidemic!

Walking in Open Lands with Spumoni, he's getting so weak that he can't go on long walks any longer.  We have to keep them really short.

Driving down to Indy, we stopped at Fair Oaks Farm off of I-65 and there was a pumpkin festival happening.  Luke climbed up a gigantic milk jug that had been made into a climbing wall.

She loved the pony ride

All spiffed up for the wedding.

Backyard wedding ceremony and reception

Ken and Jen

The kids were not well-behaved so I ended up leaving early with them and we went back to the hotel.

Went hiking at the same place we did last year when we were at Purdue for Homecoming.  Love this place.

Anniversary card from Lukers

Rain, rain go away

This weekend in September was cool and rainy weekend for a change - an opportunity I took to stay inside for a change and organize a ton of stuff around the house on Sunday which felt good.  We also had a few fun activities, including a quick trip to WI and an unexpected birthday party.  The rest of the week was pretty nice weather-wise so we continued to soak up every moment we could.  

Going to visit G&G Mackus to try and take their mind off of the loss of poor Dougal

At our neighbor Jenna's "wedding-turned-birthday party" for her daughter.  Jenna made the brave and difficult decision to call off her wedding a week before the event.  For those who came to the new themed party, the carriage ride was a treat!

Claire wore her Cinderella dress to really feel the experience more genuinely.

Wedding cake turned birthday cake:)

Kid dance extravaganza.  The photo booth was visited by the Baranko's and Ruzila's a ton.  

Picnicking on Sunday at Matt's most recent home venture - a gorgeous single family home in Lake Forest near our house

Tiny dancer

Matt picked Luke up from school with his bike as a surprise.  He biked to the school with Luke's bike in the trailer.  Luke  was ecstatic to be picked up in the car line by Dad on a bike!  

Made the few mile journey home!

On a run one morning with the Claire Bear and saw this lovely sunrise

"Pretties!!"