Vandervaart Family: November 2011

October was "Hotel Vandervaart" and packed with a lot of fun things...

The first weekend of the month, I went up to Put In Bay for a good friend's Bachelorette Party. It was a lot of fun but I certainly missed my kiddos! On the 2nd we watched our good friend's (Mike and Anne) little girl, Ella so they could celebrate their wedding anniversary. Our girls ADORE Ella and they had a lot of fun that evening. I took Jake to the doctor for his 4 month checkup and he weighs 14 lbs 9 oz and measuring 26 3/4 inches. His length is off the charts for being 5 weeks premature and in the 99th percentile for a term newborn. In other words, he is long and lean!

The second weekend in October, my mom came to visit. We went to a pumpkin patch and saw a metal dinosaur that eats cars...it was crazy and we have some pretty funny video of Claire watching the act. My mom was also here (as well as Pete's parents) for when we revealed the kid's swingset to them. (Pete's parents, my mom, and Pete and I bought the kids a swingset for Christmas).

The next weekend we went to Indianapolis for Light the Night (walk to benefit Leukemia & Lymphoma Soceity) and a friend's wedding reception. It was an emotional night at the walk and we were very glad that we could be there. The wedding reception was fun and it was great to see friends from high school. The entire weekend was a wonderful catch up with family and friends!

The next weekend was supposed to be our 6th Annual Carroll Camping trip. This has really just turned into whoever can make it. I was originally going to skip planning it but got inspired in September. It was too late to plan much of anything so we decided to do Carroll Camping at our house! Well, really just had a get together with some of the usuals and my sister came to visit from Indiana. On that Sunday, we went downtown and did a breast cancer walk with Pete's mom and his family. The kids were challenging on the walk but we all had a great time!

The next weekend, Claire's best bud Jude and his parents (Mike and Mallory) came for a visit. Claire and Jude had a blast together and poor little Grace just tagged along behind them! We took Claire and Jude to a gymnastics Halloween bash and they had so much fun. They were able to jump into a pit full of foam chunks, swing from ropes, jump on trampolines, and even do a kid-friendly zip line. Mallory and I went out with some of my close girlfriends here on Friday night and then Saturday we just laid low. We went trick or treating on Sunday and it was very fun!

On Monday, Halloween day I had my own version of scary! I took all three kids around all day for 7 hours. I took Claire and Grace to the dentist at 8 then grocery shopping then Grace to get her 2 year pictures at 1020 (EPIC FAIL! :)) and then I took them to lunch at their new favorite place, Don Pablos (because they LOVE chips and salsa). Finally, I took the kids to Hyundai so I could get the oil changed in the van. They did absolutely wonderful but we all passed out for a 4 person nap when we got home!!

Here are some pictures from our month....

Pictures from Don Pablos

They both did really well at the dentist

(Take note of the dental assistant who decided it was appropriate to dress up with scary tattoos of nails going into her face and a random third eyeball...needless to say, my girls would have appreciated a princess or something a little more kid-friendly)