snow, cookies, and a warm fire...

we got our first snowfall of the 2010 winter season on 12/16. school was cancelled the last 2 days before winter break and the kids played in the snow all weekend! they went sledding and had many cups of hot chocolate! henry loves being outside in the snow more than being outside when there is no snow! hopefully, the snow won't be too bad in new england this weekend, so we can make it to newport, ri safely:o)

i love this pic!

henry's snow angel
when the snow first started...

ella and weston decorated gingerbread with their babysitter, emma, while chad and i enjoyed the holly ball. they made a HUGE mess that (thankfully) emma cleaned up:o)

i finally convinced chad to let us use our fireplace! we've lived in our house for 6 years and have 2 working fireplaces, and this is the first year we have ever had a fire in them! i love it!!

because i love to post flattering pictures of my kids...

the OBX marathon- 11/14/10

Veteran's day weekend, we loaded up the kids and head to the outer banks for the obx marathon that we have been training for! chad's parents came down to cheer us all on and to watch the kiddos while we ran. our friends brooke and jason and brooke's mom came down too. susan (brooke's mom) ran the 8k on saturday, jason ran the 1/2 marathon on sunday, and chad and i ran the marathon on sunday. it was a race filled weekend! susan did great and so did jason! chad and i fell short of our lofty goals, but still finished the race without too many injuries. it was much harder than i thought it would be, but i think that i am ready to say that i would like to do it again:o) i have to say though, i think i enjoyed the journey (especially spending time with chad) more than the actual experience itself. training for the race was much more fun than running it!

brooke and susan after susan's race...
ella and brooke's dog, millie that also spent the weekend with us. ella loves that dog!
chad and i before the race. we are so happy and have no clue what we have gotten ourselves into!
jason and i before his first 1/2 marathon! he made his goal time of under 2 hours! good job, jay!
chad and jason all smiles...for now!
how sweet is this? brooke took this pic of the kids while they were watching the race.
jason pushing hard at the finish!
chad finishing his first marathon! i am going to spare myself the embarrassment of posting any of my pics from the race, since my finish shows me hobbling in on my hurt foot and hunched over from leg cramps.
what's the best way to celebrate after a long race and months of training??? dom perignon of course! thanks for sharing with us, dianne!!
congratulations to us!!

Field Trips Galore!!

A couple weeks ago, i went with ella's preschool class to a trip to snead's farm to ride on a hayride, swing from the ropes in the hay barn, feed the animals, and of course, pick a pumpkin! she had such a great time! (scroll down for pics)

Last friday, i went with weston's class to wakefield--george washington's birthplace for a field trip. the weather was perfect and it was so beautiful there! there were so many chaperones, that i only had to watch weston, and i actually learned a few things too! gotta love those kinds of field trips:o)

the blacksmith (a.k.a. a homeschool kid with no desire to be there) was pounding out a salt spoon. i found it to be kind of an odd choice to make for a second grade class!
in the kitchen learning about churning butter...
the view of pope's creek and the potomac from inside the house (not george washington's cause his burned to the ground).
weston's class looking at the pigs.
ella and her friends (ella's in the pink on the right)
she was the only kid brave enough to feed the chickens out of her hand!
feeding the newborn calf...
playing in the hay barn...
ella and the pumpkin she chose

Who are these children??

Weston's 7th birthday party campout! 10/2

*the pictures are in backwards order--again! i will never get the hang of this:o)

kenzie came for the campfire and fishing too.

donovan caught a nice size catfish!
finley's first big mouth bass! he caught one the next morning!
weston caught the first fish!
aiden
jack
weston
our friends, the manns' graciously let us have the campout at their house since they have tons of land and an awesome pond. chad and his brother went ahead to set up the campsite in a creepy location that was also right on the pond and way back in the woods. i probably would not have camped there! it was scary once it got dark! first, we all fished (we bought each of the boys a fishing pole/tackle box set to take home) and everyone caught at least one fish! it was great! after fishing, we chad built the fire and we had hot dogs and made s'mores. i gave the kids some glow necklaces and glowsticks and they play tag and hide-and-seek in the woods. we told some "scary" stories around the campfire and ella fell asleep in my arms. chad took us home, and the next morning i made them all a big breakfast, and we headed to church! the boys all had a great time and weston really enjoyed himself:o)
these are the hobo bags i made the boys. each one had trail mix, beef jerky, a magnet, 2 glowsticks, and bag of camping silly bands.
it's hard to tell, but it had a little tent with a sleeping bag in it, a campfire, and a fishing pole with a fish on it.
these are the camping cupcakes that i made for the party, that no one even ate!! to make things worse, i dumped them over in the cupcake holder only minutes after reaching the campsite and they looked horrible! the kids ate so many s'mores, we never even touched the cupcakes!

First boat trip to National Harbor 9/19

A couple Sunday afternoons ago we decided to take the new boat out on an adventure down the Potomac. We left the marina and a little over an hour later, we were starting to see the city scape of D.C. We docked at National Harbor and ate lunch at Ketchup, which turned out to be a total disappointment. We got some coffee and watched the kids play on the man in the sand and then headed back to Stafford. It was a nice and relaxing day, and i look forward to many more to trips on the boat in the future!

never a normal picture with these 2!
ella posing on the man's hand...
weston winking with the gaylord in the background.
we told them to hold on tight on the way back b/c they wanted to sit up front. they both fell asleep--holding on! it was so cute!