Pumpkin Patch - 2013

We made our annual pilgrimage to Curtis Orchard this week to pick out our family pumpkin. Traditions like this always remind me of how old the girls are getting. This year, we all picked up Abby after kindergarten and headed over.

Speaking of too old, look at the attitudes on display.

For the first time we decided to forgo the little red wagon, no need to fight over which stuffed animal rode along. We found our pumpkin deep in the back of the patch, well worth the trek.

That's it for now, I'm sure there will be updates once we've carved it and made our costumes.

Lunch Dates and Kite Fyling

We've had a very busy fall for the Champaign VanDuyne clan. Between Abby and Nora's school and Mom's work we're thoroughly done with the lazy days of summer. One of the things I've been enjoying about our fall are 'lunch dates'. Occasionally I'll pick up Nora from pre-school and the two of us will go out to lunch somewhere, and this weekend, never one to be left out, Abby requested a lunch date as well.

Nora usually wants a specific food, this time she wanted french fries, another time I talked her into Buffalo Wild Wings.


And sometimes we go back to my office so Nora can decorate.

Abby tends to request the restaurant specifically, so this time we headed to McDonalds.

While Abby and I were gone, Mom and Nora made raisin-cheese pizza (Nora's choice).

In other family news, Kristin took the girls kite flying in the back yard. They had a great time, Abby keeps referring to it as our 'wind experiment'.

All told it's another great fall.

Kickoff Weekend 2013

We kicked off the 2013 football season this weekend with a Colts win! Had a great lunch and watched too much TV.

As a reward for swapping the afternoon Disney princess movie with football we went to a Joseph show in the driveway after dinner.

All in all a promising start to the fall.

Quick Summer Update

It's been an eventful summer for our family and we haven't kept up quite the chronicle of it we might have liked.  I thought that a brief post was warranted though, and better than nothing, so in short order here are some highlights from our summer:

We started off welcoming Aunt Emily into the family.  I had the dual curse and blessing of seeing my daughters as flower girls, they grow up too fast.

Kristin and I got to go on a few dates, an all too rare event for us.  Here we are at jazz concert in Alerton, and also in front of a few coasters we road at Cedar Point:

Abby and Nora continued their Camp-Grandparents tradition. They had an awesome time visiting both sets.

Somewhere in there we went to a few parties, played in a bounce house, ate ice cream, started learning to swim, and Kristin made some awesome cakes.

And somehow we had time for a few house projects as well: Moving the girls in together, starting on a guest room, and expanding the driveway for a second car.

It was a great summer, I think they'll only be more eventful from here on out.