Howdy!

We enjoyed the sunshine yesterday by taking the kids to my parents’ house for our yearly tradition of getting into costume and trick-or-treating at the businesses around the square in downtown Valparaiso.  This is the first year that Logan voiced his opinion on what he wanted to be for Halloween.  He chose Woody and wanted to wear cowboy boots. 

I ran with the Toy Story theme and got Jessie outfits for both the girls; Audrey, too, was won over by the cowboy boots. 

And, well, one-year-olds look cute in just about anything!

A little walk downtown is a fun reason to dress up the kids.  Afterward, Audrey begged to have her candy for dinner, but nothing beats a bowl of my mom’s homemade chili!

This may be my last year of matching costumes for the kids, but I’ll enjoy it while I can.  Yee haw!  :)

Pumpkin Patch

It’s that time of year for fall festivals, pumpkin patches, and apple cider!  We love taking a trip to the pumpkin patch and managed to go twice this year.  Our favorite pumpkin patch moved (sniff, we miss the old location) so we also tried a new one when Grandpa and Grandma (Luke’s parents) were in town. 

The kids are growing up!  Here are the pictures by the “How Tall This Fall” sign:

Daddy and Emily in the corn maze.  The weather was a-mazing!  I love it when we can go to the pumpkin patch in short-sleeves.

“Hey, guys!  Over here!”

Harvest Tyme Pumpkin Patch was a lot of fun too, although a little cooler that day.

Emily enjoyed playing in the corn sandbox.

And the older two liked the old-fashioned water pump rubber duck races.

I love fall and my three little pumpkins!

Crawling

Whoa!  It’s only been two weeks since I’ve posted, but we’ve filled our camera with plenty of pictures since then!  I’m hoping to add a couple new posts this weekend and will probably backdate some of them to when they happened, so scroll down until you see posts you’ve already read. :)

But first, the headline of the week is that Emily has taken off crawling.  She has army crawled for months, sliding around on her tummy to get from room to room.  This week she decided to pull her body off the ground and crawl on all fours.  It’s a little slower, but it looks so much more lady-like.

Here’s a little video so you can see for yourself.  :)

Bowling

  

Can I just say that I love Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood?  I recently discovered that amazon has several Mr. Rogers episodes available for instant viewing, so the kids and I have started watching some of them this week.  I love how after only a couple episodes, my kids already feel that Mr. Rogers is their friend.  The show is wonderful: the slow pace, the life lessons taught, the cultivation of imagination, the continuity of a story line (adventures in Make Believe build on each other), and the simple truth that “you are special” just because you’re you.  Audrey beams when Mr. Rogers sings to her, and I can clearly recall that same warm fuzzy feeling from my own childhood.  The show is both nostalgic and inspiring to me.  I enjoy watching the episodes with the kids instead of using this “video time” as a chance to get some things done. 

Today we watched an episode in which Mr. Rogers goes bowling, and Logan was so fascinated!  I don’t remember if we’ve ever taken him bowling before or not, but he loved it when Mr. Rogers took his television neighbors (us) behind the scenes of the bowling alley where the pins and balls are set up.  Mr. Rogers also taught him how to bowl, giving gentle tips and clear demonstrations.

All afternoon, Logan begged to go bowling!  We didn’t have any plans, so it seemed like a good night for it. We stopped at Culvers for dinner and then made our way to Stardust Bowling Alley.  The kids were so excited!

Check out Logan’s shoes!

We couldn’t use bumpers for the gutters because a league was starting in a couple hours, but they had this nifty ramp that the kids could use to roll their ball down the lane.  They LOVED it. 

 

Audrey had a minor run-in with the bowling ball (she was trying to carry her ball and tripped with her face landing flat on the ball – thankfully we had a dentist along who could quickly make sure her teeth were still in place), but besides that we had a blast and can’t wait to go back again sometime.

Logan got a spare!  He was so proud!

And Emily wanted in on the fun too!

Hopefully this is only the first of many Darling Family Fun Bowling nights.  :)

School

Here are a few pictures from Logan’s teacher.  It’s fun to have a little sneak peak into his world right now.

Logan (front left) and his classmates on the first day of school.

Logan making his name with play dough.

Logan and friends on Johnny Appleseed Day.  The boy next to him is his good buddy Isaac.

Logan and friends on their field trip to the apple orchard.  They had a lot of fun!

Museum

Written by Luke:

Logan and I spent the day at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago today.  We had a great time with hardly any other patrons or school groups at the museum.

Some highlights included: seeing the U-505 sub, controlling solar powered race cars, turning cranks to power light bulbs, and operating a large model railroad.