Turkey Trot '09

This year, Ella ran the Turkey Trot 1 miler with Weston. Actually, i ran with Ella and Weston totally beat us! She did run the whole thing though! I was so proud of both of them! Chad and i ran the 5k and both improved our times from last year.

Not sure what's up with my arms, but Ella looks really cute:o)

Weston racing to the finish!

Before the big race...

The Pumpkin Patch Pictures-October 25th, 2009

From the pumpkin patch last year...

and this year!

last year...

and this year! girl's a total goofball!:o)

last year...

and this year!

i mean, seriously! what am i going to do with her?! she insisted that this hideous pumpkin was the best one she could find!

ta-da!

Weston's choice for pumpkin...much prettier than ella's!

The boys...

and the girls:o)

Well, we did it! another successful family memory made at the pumpkin patch! this year, however, we had to wait an hour and 15 min. just to ride the hayride and get our pumpkins!! we've never had to wait before! craziness! anyway, we still had a great time and can't wait to go back next year:o)

Halloween 2009 style!

This year ella was a bumble bee and weston was a lacrosse player for halloween. weston was supposed to be a skateboarder, but yesterday was his first day of lacrosse, so...he really loves it:o) it rained most of the night while we were out, but it wasn't too cold (70 degrees). weston was seriously regretting his lacrosse costume decision halfway through the night when his helmet gave him a huge headache! overall, the kids had a great time and got more candy than i've ever seen! in a couple days i'll ship it all to chad's office and they'll never even remember they got it:o)

his toughest lacrosse face!

ella's bumble bee dance.

and this is how she takes most pictures now. she is so silly all the time!!

What we've been doing this fall...

On October 22nd, i went with weston's class on a field trip to the native american museum in washington d.c. the following pictures are from that trip...


We at lunch on the Mall and i took this picture of Weston and his 2 best buds with the Washington Monument in the background. We are so blessed to live this close to D.C.!
This was a whale skeleton made from white plastic chairs!

This piece of "native american art" was my favorite! it was a native american man made from baseball gloves!

We went to a weaving demonstration and weston was chosen to learn how to weave.

Rico showing us how to weave...

Weston and Aiden show me their favorite items of beadwork.

This picture was for Ella. She loves snakes!!

On October 20th, i went with ella's class to snead's farm for some pumpkin picking! it was so freezing cold that day that we skipped the picnic lunch on the grass and headed to daddy's office to eat our packed lunch in the warmth!

Fearless!

Perfect pumpkin! ella wanted one with "no handle." this is the one she chose:o)

She had fun feeding the crazy chickens...

and being silly!

This horse was facinated with her hat and kept trying to eat it! it was soaking wet by the time we got on the hayride!

Ella singing her preschool "goodbye" song

The cupcakes that were the death of me!

Oh, oh, oh...so, i had this fantastic idea to make these cupcakes that i found in a book called hello, cupcake! by karen tack & alan richardson. not sure if i was on crack at the time or not, but i thought, hey weston will love these! how hard can they be? famous last words...wednesday of last week i decided to do a trial run of the sharks which i knew would be the hardest ones to execute. they are made with twinkies and half of a chocolate wafer (for the fin) that you cover in gray frosting and mount on the cupcake. the first ones were a failure after they all completely fell of the cupcakes by wednesday night. no problem, i thought. i'll just make them on jumbo cupcakes for a more stable base! hahahaha! the picture above is of the cupcakes that i made for weston's birthday pool party at the gym. the pictures below are what they looked like after i made them at the house. so, as you can see, only 2 sharks survived the journey to the gym yesterday and the rest, well...i think that i am going to take a break from cupcakes for awhile...after wednesday (weston's birthday) that is! i still have to make 30 for his class!! wish me luck!

sharks, buoys, life preservers, and fish (just in case you were wondering what all those funny looking things were:o).

Time to play catch-up...

Here's a random picture from our official last trip to the beach over labor day weekend. i rarely get any pics of the kids together, so i thought i'd post this one:o)

Here's my big girl on the steps of her preschool on her very first day--September 9, 2009. She was so excited to be there and broke my little heart when she ran in the classroom and never looked back or even said goodbye:o( i guess i should feel proud that i have raised her to be independent and self-assured, but a hug would've been nice! all i got was a little wave from across the room as i watched all the other children cling to their mother's legs.

First day of preschool and ella's proudly displaying her new lunchbox with her name on it. (*notice the dress, danielle?;o)

This picture was from orientation. everyday ella has to find the purple circle on the floor with her name on it during reading time. weston used to have a yellow circle.

Fawn Lake Triathlon Sprint 8/30/09

Yesterday was the 1st annual fawn lake triathlon sprint. Chad, Jeremy, and I were a relay team (Team McWebb) although you could also choose to do the whole thing by yourself (what's the fun in that...i mean, really??). Chad swam 700 meters, Jeremy biked 12 miles, and i ran a 5K (3.1 miles). Our team got 3rd place for the relay teams with an overall time of 1:11:20. Chad-17:55, Jeremy-32:25, Me-20:24 with 1:16 lost on crappy transitions:o( I am very proud of our team and can't wait to beat Team Doherty next year!!
Go Team McWebb!!

Jeremy proudly shows off our team number--96!

Chad anxiously awaits the start of the women's and relay heats.

He gets off to a great start and even leads the pack/is in second place all the way to the first buoy!

Almost to shore...

All pooped out! Great job, honey!!

Jeremy takes off for his 12 mile bike ride after a confusing transition. We lost a lot of time on our transitions but will work to fix that for next year:o) After Jeremy finished his ride (and victory lap around the circle;o) i took off on my 5k run. Of course, there are no pictures of that, because clearly i am the only photographer in the family!

Team McWebb starts training for next year...TODAY!!