GE Family Day

On Saturday, we attended Family Day at Mark's work. GE's carnival theme was complete with amusement park rides, games, bounce houses, entertainment, and treats. Luke absolutely loved it, and ran gleefully among the activities, eager to try everything. His favorite part was a 2-story tall slide that he and Mark rode at least 5 times. We had so much fun enjoying the festivities, which ended with fireworks and two tuckered-out kiddos! Here are some pictures from our day:

My guys on the slide:





Our little athelete tried his hand at skeeball, batting, and pitching:







Planes, trains, and automobiles (or motorcycles!):







Looking so grown up:



And boys will be boys:

NASCAR pit crew training.



A lesson in how to eat cotton candy.



Big Foot and Little Foot go down the tunnel slide!

Fall Williamsburg Weekend

We traveled to Bean and Poppy's house last weekend for our annual fall weekend in Williamsburg. As usual, the semi-annual Children's Consignment Sale at their church was wonderful, and I got lots of clothes and Christmas presents for L&L. We enjoyed some of our favorite traditions: a visit with Great Grammy and Great Granddad at their assisted living facility, riding the city bus, strolling through Colonial Williamsburg, spending time with aunts, uncles, & cousins, and shopping at the outlets. Luke returned to Busch Gardens this year, where he and Poppy rode the train (and Luke received his own conductor hat), visited Sesame Street characters, interacted with animals, and went on rides. We also did a few new activities, including a ride on the Jamestown Ferry. It's such a great weekend getaway for us every year, right in the middle of our summer beach trips and Christmas holidays, and we look forward to our mini-vacation each fall. Here are some of our favorite pictures from the weekend:


Gabe, Luke, and Lauren adore Poppy's sand table:


Leah had fun playing with Aunt Sara and Uncle Brian during our visit:





Our family on the Jamestown Ferry:





The "Jelly Bean Store" is one of the sweetest parts of Colonial Williamsburg, and is quickly becoming a "must see" for Luke each time we visit:



Walking through the Colonial Village:



Riding the "City Bus" is always one of Luke's favorite activities:



Here is a slideshow of more pictures from our weekend in Williamsburg:

September Snippets

September has been a fantastic month for us. Luke is thriving at preschool, and has begun a soccer program there once a week after class ends. I am really enjoying the increased productive time that I have now to run errands, cook, and spend time with Leah during those 3 mornings each week, and it makes me so happy to see Luke love his teachers, new friends, and preschool happenings. We've done several fun weekend activities with Luke this month, including going to see Sesame Street Live. He absolutely loved it, and we had great seats just a few rows from the stage:




The boys attended another "Touch a Truck" event last weekend, and this time they had a "brown truck", Luke's favorite! Every time the UPS truck drives through our neighborhood, Luke thinks that there is a present in the back for him. Needless to say, driving the "brown truck" was this little boy's dream come true:



There was also a helicopter at the Touch a Truck event, which landed in the field for all of the children to explore, which was really neat:



Our zoo continues to be a fun place to visit. Luke especially likes Baby Bob (an orangutan) and his family, and was thrilled with Bob's mommy came up for a close visit last week:



We had our first Family Movie Night with Luke this month, and watched the Disney movie, Cars. When I pictured watching Disney movies with my children, I had visions of The Little Mermaid and Snow White, so this was a growing experience for me. Thank goodness Leah will indulge my Disney princess fantasy in a few years. I think the highlight of movie night for Luke was having popcorn for the first time, but he and Daddy seemed to be entranced with the race car scenes, too:



This is a typical example of Quiet Time at our house in the afternoons. Luke takes every stuffed "amidal" out of his closet, sits in his cozy green chair, and reads books aloud to them. I find this quite adorable:



Our little man keeps us entertained at home, too. A current favorite activity is "fighting fires" in our yard. The hours of fun with a plastic fireman hat and our garden hose are countless:



Luke also constantly reminds me of the joy and silliness that can be found in being 3 years old. He decided that this would be the outfit that he would wear to our friend's house for dinner recently. It was 80 degrees and sunny, but apparently rain boots, band-aid as accessory on knee, and no pants were the required dress code. Luckily our friends have young children too, and didn't mind the interesting wardrobe choice:


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September has also been a big month for Leah. Her 6th tooth came in, she is starting to be mobile, and she now eats tiny pieces of many solid foods. Leah learned how to wave "Bye Bye", does "SOOOO Big!", and consistently goes to bed at 7 p.m. (although she still doesn't sleep through the night). She is almost crawling, and gets into quadruped position and looks like she is ready to take off! Leah has mastered sitting up from a lying down position, and we've spent many nights this month putting her back down in her crib after she sits up in the middle of the night and gets stuck. She is starting to try to pull up on things, too, and has graduated to her "Big Girl" car seat and is out of the infant carrier now.




This month, our playgroup started getting together with just the little kids, now that all the older siblings are in school. These 4 are EXACTLY the same age as their big brothers/sisters were when we started our original playgroup in January 2009. We have a picture of the big kids on the same step when they were this age. Somehow the second time around, it's just as hard to get everyone to look at the camera & smile:



Nutty has enjoyed cruising around in her big girl stroller this month, and looks so long to me these days:



She also loves "Peek a Boo" and is such a smiley, silly girl:



Here's our sweet angel, all snuggly, soft and pink:




We love that toothy grin!

Sky Top Apple Orchard

Last weekend we spent the morning at Sky Top Apple Orchard on our annual apple picking adventure. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and it was so much fun to bring Leah with us this year on what has become a fall family tradition. Our time was full of treats, as we tasted many yummy apples, indulged in delicious apple doughnuts, and enjoyed hot apple cider. We also went on a hayride through the orchard, which is nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina and has beautiful scenic views. Luke was cooperative and helpful, posed with the tractor, climbed the giant pumpkin and apple structures, and loved playing on the playground. Leah was an easy, sweet angel and happily rode in the Baby Bjorn all morning. What a wonderful family day it was, and we had such a great time together!











Here are more pictures of our apple picking day, also found in our Winterhoff Family Photo Albums:

Little Blue Car

I've been having lots of flashback moments lately as I watch Leah playing with her brother's infant toys. I vividly remember creating Christmas and birthday wishlists for my firstborn, the care, time, and love that went into selecting and buying each toy, the eager anticipation of introducing them to Luke, and the entertainment and joy we experienced as he learned how to play with his first toys. In particular, Luke received a blue ride-on car on his first Christmas as a special present from Grandpa. Luke was just over 8 months old, exactly the age that Leah is now... and when I think about that, it takes my breath away. I never thought I'd be nostalgic about a toy (you know how I feel about all of the giant, brightly colored plastic that has taken over our house/yard)... but there's something about that car that I can't shake. Maybe it's the hours that Luke spent cruising around our neighborhood in it, greeting all of our neighbors, honking his horn, looking like such a big boy. Maybe it's because that silly blue car epitomizes my babies' infant/toddlerhoods- it's a visual, concrete symbol of how fast they change and grow. Or maybe it's because when I realize that Leah is already as old as Luke when he started riding, it makes me panic a little bit. As in, where did the past 8 months go? How did we arrive here already? And before I can blink, is she going to be a 3 year-old preschooler too? I want to stop time... or at least slow it down. It makes me thankful for my babies, for each and every day that I spend with them, and for the blessings that can be found in the most unsuspecting places... like a little blue car.







January 2009- Luke at 8 months old.



September 2011- Leah at 8 months old.



My loves.

Preschooler!

Luke's first day of preschool was a huge success! He was so excited to go to his "Clifford Class", and ran right up to the building without ever looking back. Luke immediately found his classroom, sat down at a table, and started coloring. There was no hug, kiss, or good-bye for Mommy, which may have been a really good thing, because it didn't allow me to have an emotional moment or tears. Our house seemed much too quiet this morning without my big boy, so after a quick grocery trip, Leah and I went on a girls' shopping spree at the mall. When we picked up Luke, he happily relayed all of the highlights of the day, including playing with the lawn mower on the playground and having animal crackers and "orange puffy things" for snack (I'm guessing that these were cheese curls, which Luke has never seen). We got a great report from the teachers, and Luke has been talking about school all afternoon/evening. Hooray for a great first day!




Literally running up the path to the preschool entrance.



Walking right in...



Mommy's peek in the window after dropping off Luke. (Note the red tupperware containers in the foreground of this photo. It's my now-infamous play dough, which I proudly dropped off this morning after a much more successful 2nd attempt at making it last night!)

First-Timer

Nothing says “First Time Preschool Mom” like:

1) Choosing the 11:40 a.m. “Meet the Teacher” slot (one of the last in the day, leaving only the least desirable parent volunteer sign-up options remaining), and therefore signing up to make play dough for the entire class for the first day of school.

2) Losing the play dough recipe in the mountain of essential forms and paperwork that I was given, and humbly e-mailing the teacher to ask her to send it to me again (and there went my dream of making a good first impression as an organized, put-together mom).

3) Asking Daddy to make an emergency run to the store tonight to buy play dough ingredients, including red Kool-Aid packets and Cream of Tartar (because who really has 8 tablespoons of that stuff lying around?).

4) Realizing that the recipe called for 4 cups of salt, not teaspoons, and thus emptying every salt shaker in the house to gather the necessary amount required to make the play dough (since I couldn't ask Mark to go to the store yet again for this project).

5) Making the play dough at the 9:00 tonight, and ending up with a mammoth bowl of red goop, which was full of tiny white powdery specks and practically required a cement mixer to stir.

6) Deciding that Mommy and Daddy kneading the play dough by hand for 15 minutes would surely help dissolve these balls (which it didn’t), and discovering that our hands are now stained bright red from the Kool-aid as it dissolved in the warm mess.

7) Swallowing my pride and accepting that I will have to start all over again tomorrow, where I will remember to mix all of the dry ingredients together before adding the boiling water.

8) Wondering if wearing gloves to hide my red-stained hands when I drop off Luke for his first day on Wednesday will draw more or less attention to what will henceforth be known as "The Play Dough Incident".

9) Hoping that Luke’s preschool teachers will accept that I’m a first-timer, and don’t have high hopes for the Christmas party this year (which surprisingly was also left on that volunteer sheet, and will also be run by yours truly).