Costume Time!

The kids showed off their costumes for the first time on Thursday night as we attended our first Halloween-themed event of the weekend. Leah debuted as a ladybug for her first Halloween, and there is nothing sweeter than looking at those precious chubby cheeks and bright blue eyes peek out from her hooded, plush costume. Winnie wore her annual devil horns and cape, and this costume always makes me laugh. Dear Winnie truly has matured into the best dog in the entire world and is no longer the impish, mischievous puppy that she was when I first dressed her up as a devil 7 years ago. Maybe I need to look for an angel costume for her next year. Luke enthusiastically called himself a "Super Golfer" the first time he donned his golfer costume. I think it sounds much more exciting and fun to him than a plain, ole' golfer, so we're rolling with it. He looks too cute for words in his little knickers, argyle vest, tasseled shoe covers, cap on head, and golf bag & clubs in hand. He insisted on posing with every mascot that we encountered, and we happily indulged him as he smiled with each character for a picture:







Our first weekend Halloween event was called "Enchanted Tracks", and was held at one of our local parks & recreation complexes. This adorable family festival allowed you to meet classic fairy tale characters while trick or treating through an "Enchanted Forest":







As we approached the Beauty and the Beast area, Luke announced, "Look, it's a buffalo!" Everyone, including the Beast, thought this was hilarious. Poor Luke- he'll learn all about Disney princesses soon enough as Leah grows into that stage. I'm sure our little Super Golfer must have been relieved to spot familiar boy-friendly characters like Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, and he gave them high fives (like the old pals that they are) before introducing them to Leah:





There was also a Mythical Magical Maze, Gray Friar Tavern with yummy treats, and Enchanted Village complete with bounce houses and slides, games, face painting, and balloons. Grandpa is in town visiting us, and our entire family had lots of fun at Enchanted Tracks. It was a fantastic kick-off this evening to our Halloween weekend:






The fun continued as Winnie was invited to her very own Halloween party yesterday with her doggie friends from the neighborhood. It was a riot to see all the pets in their costumes, and our little devil had a blast! The newest canine additions to our street are two 10-week-old puppies. Luke was enamored with these sweet furballs:









This afternoon, we attended the annual Boo in the Zoo event at the Greenville Zoo. It was a beautiful fall day, and our zoo does a wonderful job of setting up cute decorations and Trick or Treat stations for the kids. We had a great time, and Luke already has collected quite a stash of Halloween goodies:









Finally, here are the "snack o' lanterns" that I made tonight in preparation for Luke's Halloween party at preschool tomorrow. I was determined to bring a healthy treat, and I thought that these navel oranges filled with grapes were very cute:

(Thanks to my friend, Carey, for the inspiration for this idea.)

Tomorrow is going to be a very busy, fun-filled day of Halloween festivites at Luke's school, our neighborhood children's party tomorrow afternoon, and trick or treating in the evening. We can't wait!

Pre-Halloween Checklist (according to Luke)

In order to prepare for a successful and fun Halloween, Luke would like to share his following list of must-dos.

-Wear adorable "Trick or Treat" shirt as many times as possible during the month of October:



-Smile at every available photo opportunity. Your mommy may reward you with extra treats for being so cooperative:





-Drive every tractor that you find during fall outings. This may be the last year that your little sister is too small to drive and willingly lets you to take the wheel:






-Take your sister as your date to your preschool's Fall Festival. You will look like the perfect gentleman escorting her in her stroller:



-When you arrive at the festival, try your hand at fun games. You'll win lots of prizes and have a ball cavorting with your school buddies:









-During Fall Festival, show off your classroom to your parents at the preschool's open house. They will love to see your artwork, favorite toys, and the place that you adore:





-Serve as the judge for Daddy and Grandpa's annual pumpkin carving contest:



-Supervise the scooping of pumpkin seeds:



-If your baby sister is too little to help carve pumpkins, dress her up as a jack o' lantern instead:


...and don't forget the coordinating socks!



-Create your own Daddy, Mommy, Luke, and Leah pumpkins:



-Remember to pay careful attention to artistic detail:



-Include your furry sister in your completed "family" photo:


-Begin the countdown to your costume debut and all of the fun that Halloween weekend is sure to contain... and most importantly, BRING ON THE CANDY!!

Doozy of a Day

Today was quite a doozy of a day:

-Leah woke up at 2 a.m. and was awake for a couple of hours last night, screaming her head off, mad at the world. (This in and of itself is pretty typical, but sets the scene for the rest of the day, including Mommy’s level of patience).

-Both children were up shortly after 6 a.m. Now that it’s cooler and still dark at that hour, I’m having a harder time waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and jumping out of my warm, cozy bed so early in the morning.

- I planned a fun stay-at-home-with-Mommy day of free play at the train table at Barnes and Noble, followed by story time. It should have been an easy, fun-filled morning.

-When we arrived, Luke decided that he didn’t want to share any trains with the other children at the train table. Setting clear boundaries, I gave him a choice to either share or we’d have to leave the train table. Luke tested me, and off we went, kicking and screaming.

-We made it through less than 10 minutes of story time. Leah was fussy due to no nap yet and her party animal behavior in the middle of the night. Luke was the only child who would not sit still, listen to the teacher, or pay attention to the story. There were at least 10-15 other kids there, ages ranging from 18 months to 5 years, and I had the only children who were the least bit disruptive/misbehaved/ill-mannered. I scooped up Luke (who had a full-blown tantrum), braced him against my hip like a potato sack, and pushed Leah in the stroller with my free hand, calmly stating how disappointed I was that we couldn’t have a fun time today. Exiting the store and buckling everyone into their car seats for the third time this morning was as fun as you can imagine.

-I pressed my luck and made a “quick” stop at Walmart to pick up a few things. Leah sat in the smaller, seated section of the shopping cart, while Luke rode in the back, surrounded by the ever-growing pile of groceries that we collected.

-Suddenly, Luke stood up in the back of cart, shouting, “Mommy, I have to go potty, NOW!” I was really not thrilled with the idea of him using the public bathroom at Walmart, but nonetheless raced in that general direction. Less than 5 seconds later, Luke said, “Mommy, I had an accident.” I looked down to see that his pants were soaked and that most of my groceries were now randomly “sprinkled” with wet drops.
(Footnote: I can count on one hand the number of accidents that Luke has had since he has been potty-trained. This is the kid who refuses to go to the bathroom before bedtime out of sheer strong will, but can hold it for 12 hours until the morning. It makes me wonder if today’s shenanigans were intentional).

-In disbelief, I proceeded to the cashier, wiped each item down with baby wipes from my diaper bag, and strictly told my son not to move or speak. I prayed that the cashier wouldn’t notice his wet pants/think we were absolutely vile/shrink away in disgust.

-I stripped Luke out of his wet clothes in the parking lot (yes, we lived up to every Walmart stereotype that you may have), very carefully buckled my naked child into his carseat, and placed my cart in the cart return that was right beside our parked car.

-Unfortunately, an elderly woman took this exact moment to return her cart, too, and looked into the backseat of my car (the car door was still open). The look on the lady’s face changed from one of polite, sweet admiration of my darling children to one of horror as she saw Luke, all of Luke, in his birthday suit. She quickly averted her gaze, squared her shoulders and raised her nose high up in the air, in righteous indignation.

-I sighed, got in the car, completely exhausted and defeated, and looked at the clock. It was only 11:25 a.m. I called Mark, relayed our morning to him, and he chuckled. I retorted that it was only funny because he was sitting in an office surrounded by fully-clothed, continent grown-ups.

-We came home, hosed down Luke in the tub, fed him lunch, and counted the seconds until Quiet Time. In the 5 minutes that I was putting Leah down, this is what Luke did to his room:



How a three year-old can so quickly and effortlessly overturn his mattress, remove every book from its basket, and destroy an entire bedroom is beyond me. What you can’t see is that the rest of Luke's bedding, his pillows, and every single stuffed animal that we own was hastily stuffed into the window seat/toy box. I officially gave up at this point and realized that it was just a dud of a day.

And then the miraculous happened. My son, who no longer naps, completely redeemed himself by sleeping for 4 hours this afternoon. It was beautiful, necessary, and gave me that ability to regroup and be thankful. The best part is how and where I found him:



And in that one, adorable instant, all was forgiven.

Leah's 9 Month Pictures

Here are some of my favorite poses of Leah's 9-month photo shoot. Enjoy!

Confessions of a Preschool Mom

I forgot about Show and Tell yesterday. I didn’t even realize it until I glanced at Luke’s monthly preschool calendar on our fridge this morning. There it was, in cheerfully bold printed letters, in the block for Friday, October 21: “Show and Tell!”

I had a brief moment of denial- Surely I must be looking at the wrong month. My former self (the Carrie who was organized, orderly, and who was a stickler for schedules, appointments, and list-writing) NEVER would have let her son go to preschool empty-handed for his monthly Show and Tell day. I felt absolutely awful. I quickly fired off an apology e-mail to Luke’s teacher (yes, it was before 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning), stating how sorry I was that I forgot about Show and Tell, that hopefully it didn’t cause a problem that Luke had nothing to share/show his classmates…

Next I sent an e-mail to my friend who also has a child in Luke’s class, which said something like, “What an incompetent preschool Mom I am! I didn’t realize yesterday was Show and Tell… What did you send in with Emma?”

When Luke woke up an hour later, I gave him a good morning hug, snuggled with him on the couch, and gently asked, “Was it Show and Tell Day at school yesterday?”

“Yes, Mommy,” he nodded solemnly.

“Did all of your friends bring in their things to show the class?” I inquired.

“Yes, everyone brought something,” he replied.

“Did anyone else forget about Show and Tell, honey?” I prodded.

“No Mommy, only I”, he earnestly replied, looking up at me with big brown eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Baby." I replied, heart breaking. "Were you sad?”

Luke paused, pondering this for a minute. “No,” he earnestly answered, and scampered away in search of Daddy, who was making pancakes in the kitchen.

Oh, the Mommy guilt! How could I have let my little guy down! We were so wrapped up in the anticipation of the preschool's Fall Festival last night that Luke didn’t mention Show and Tell at all yesterday (when he endured the usual 20 questions from Mommy about how his school day was). I should have been appeased by the fact that Luke didn’t seem to care today, but I wasn't.

Mark tried to make me feel better, and in vain, I tried to explain to him that it would be similar to him failing at a crucial task at work.

“Being a stay-at-home mom is my JOB,” I wailed. “HOW could I forget one simple task of putting an item in my preschooler’s bag?”

Mark nodded, hugged me, and searched for the right words to validate the apparent life-threatening seriousness that forgetting a Show and Tell item involved.

Then I glanced at my e-mail. The first item in my inbox was a reply from my friend, Kelly.

“Well, that makes two of us,” she wrote. “I had no idea that Show and Tell was yesterday. Emma didn’t take anything either…”

I breathed a little sigh of relief. Ok, I wasn't the only mom who forgot...

The second e-mail was from Luke’s preschool teacher (I guess we’re all up early on Saturdays):

“Please do not think twice about Show and Tell.” she wrote. “We had many that forgot to bring something. I usually send a reminder the day before, and I forgot, so really it’s my fault!”

Next followed a paragraph about how well Luke is doing at school, how happy he seems, and how he is adjusting beautifully to the daily routine and reaching out to the other children.

As if I didn’t adore Luke’s preschool teacher enough before this e-mail, her absolution of my faux pax made me fall completely in love with her. My spirit lifted immensely and my mood changed in an instant.

Completely guilt-free and happy once again, I had one remaining issue to tackle:

“LUKE, did EVERYONE bring things in yesterday for Show and Tell? What about Emma? Conner? Alex? Ava?” I rattled off several other classmates’ names…

Luke, unfazed, responded to each name with an fictional item that I now knew was completely fabricated.

LESSONS TO MOMMY:

1. Don’t believe everything that my 3 year-old tells me. Sometimes, he’s completely full of it… (or is a genius and was hoping to manipulate something from me in my weak moment of guilt).

2. Post the preschool calendar in a visible location and make sure to look at it every school day, to avoid future catastrophes caused by my forgetful "Mommy Brain".

3. Keep a random train/car/toy in the car, just in case the November Show and Tell date sneaks up on us, and we need to scramble in the carpool line and stick something in Luke's bag.

Back to the post-it-notes, checklists, and external memory aids it is. Oh, organization, how I love thee...

Mommy's Pumpkins

One of my favorite fall activities is our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. I love the rows and rows of bright orange pumpkins, all sizes and shapes, the autumnal decorations and harvest-themed festivities. Hayrides, apple cider, bales of straw, farm animals- it all screams October fun! This is the time of year where my family endures my attempts at endless harvest recipes: soups and pasta made from butternut squash, pumpkin-flavored breads and muffins, and sweet apple crisp. I love the warm fall colors, the crisp cool mornings, and bright blue skies. And yesterday, my sweet little pumpkins cooperated and endured a photo shoot to appease their Mommy when we visited a new pumpkin patch. Luke carefully selected his own $1 pumpkin, paid for it with his own money (a ziploc bag full of nickels from Poppy's house), and counted out the change required (20 nickels is a lot when you're 3!). He proudly placed his treasure on the front porch beside our other pumpkins, and checked on it this morning, asking me: "Is it Halloween yet?" (He's been asking me that question every day for 3 weeks- I'm not sure what he thinks is going to happen to those pumpkins on Halloween). Here are some of my favorite pictures of my little pumpkins:


I always adore the "Baby-in-the pumpkin-patch" shots:





Luke must have walked around for at least 20 minutes in search of his perfect pumpkin, while Leah supervised:




Finally, he found it! These pictures make me laugh, of Old Man Winterhoff posing with his pumpkin:





My sweet angels: