Tree Lighting

The girls and I are usually in New Hampshire the weekend after Thanksgiving but we decided not to go this year.  Elizabeth flat out refused to make the trip twice in one month and I didn't push it because my friend Sheila, who often visits from Arizona over the Thanksgiving holiday, did not make the trip out this year.  Because we were all actually here, we decided to take in the tree lighting on the downtown green, and meet up with the Dudleys and the Belins.  Santa was there, as well as the mayor, and the high school band and cheerleaders.  It was a cute little ceremony and I'm glad that we took the girls to it.

Waiting for the tree to be lit. 

 

And there it is....Elizabeth was disappointed that there was no star on top.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2010 wasn't all that we had hoped that it would be as Grammy and Grampy were unexpectedly unable to make the trip to Connecticut.  The girls were very upset to not have family to celebrate the holiday with, but we did our best to make the most of the day.  In addition to going to the Manchester Road Race, we skyped with our family in New Mexico and with Grammy and Grampy.  After our turkey feast (and boy, can our girls eat!), we settled down to watch a movie - and then were surprised with a visit from the Dudleys, which made the girls' day!  All in all, we had a great day.

Elizabeth dressed her in Indian (note: in our city, first graders have not yet made the switch to the politically correct term Native American) garb - she was full of all sorts of facts about Indians when she got home from school on Wednesday. 

Our Thanksgiving table. 

Carving the turkey (a 17 pounder that we did some serious to, despite there being only four of us).

Emily says grace.

Manchester Road Race

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran the 74th annual Manchester Road Race, along with 15,000 other people.  Manchester is the fourth oldest road race in New England and one of the top 25 races in the country.  The course is just shy of five miles and it is easy to see why the race is so popular - every square inch is lined with spectators, cheering like mad.  It was freezing cold, but I still had a great time (Lee and the girls, not so much).  I ended up finishing 2,505 out of 12,479 finishing runners (top 20%), 508 out of 5,768 females (top 8%), with a time of 39:21, which was faster than my goal of 40 minutes flat.  All in all, it was a great experience and I would love to run it again!  It was also neat to know that while I was only running with 15,000 people, thousands of other people all over the country were also running - apparently, there are more road races in this country on Thanksgiving Day than on any other day of the year (thanks JD - see, I read your tweets!).

I had a seed card for the race, which means that I ran a qualifying time in another race this year.  I had no idea how helpful this would be - it only took me about 80 seconds to get to the start line after the gun went off, rather than as long as 4-5 minutes. 

This is where I lined up.

  

Before the race. 

It was freezing so the girls spent some time hanging out in an ATM vestibule.

Pre-K Thanksgiving

Emily's preschool class celebrated Thanksgiving with their families a few days before the holiday.  As always, the students all sang and recited a poem.  Emily loved celebrating with us and all of her friends and she did a great job with all of the songs.

  

Reciting a poem with her classmates. 

"I am Special"

The Tooth Fairy

While Lee and I were at a Bruin's game on Saturday night we received the following text message from our babysitter: "the tooth fairy has to come to your house tonight!"  Yep - Elizabeth basically had her biggest milestone since she started walking and we were 150 miles away - talk about parental guilt!  Now, the tooth has been loose since August; but then again, her new tooth is coming in behind (rather than in back of) her baby tooth, so it wasn't pushing it out.  Lee and I were convinced that the dentist was going to extract it at her next visit (read: hysteria), but apparently, all Emily needed to do was smack her head into Elizabeth's mouth while they were dancing around the living room.  When we got home, Taylor re-enacted the entire, dramatic episode, so we felt like we didn't miss a thing; and when she got up on Sunday morning, Elizabeth did the same.  She is sooooo excited to have finally lost a tooth!

You can barely tell that she lost a tooth, as the new tooth has already partially grown in (behind the baby tooth).

The tooth fairy brought $5 for the first tooth but the rumor is that she cuts back to 50 cents after that....

Shipping Up to Boston

After spending the morning at the New England Aquarium, we walked over to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market.  I can't remember the last time I was in Boston to "sight see" but it has to be at least ten years ago - but the memories came rushing back.  We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Quincy Market, watched a street performer for a while (Emily was totally into it) and then walked through the cobblestone streets back toward the water.  It was lovely.

The girls, with Boston Harbor in the background.

Heading toward Faneuil Hall (although I wish that we could have headed to Legal Sea Foods!). 

   

Felix and Elizabeth by one of the many horse-drawn carriages. 

Inside the historical and beautiful Quincy Market. 

Enjoying lunch at Quincy Market. 

The view from above.

New England Aquarium

Last Sunday, we spent the morning at the New England Aquarium in Boston.  Mike and Kelly really wanted to show Felix a "real" aquarium (apparently in Santa Fe, a large fish tank counts as an aquarium!) and he had a great time checking out all of the animals and exhibits.  The New England Aquarium has a really great penguin exhibit (more than 80 birds) that pretty much runs through the entire first floor - at this point, we've been to a lot of zoos and aquariums and it was the best penguin exhibit we've ever seen.  The kids had a really great time checking out all of the fish and other sea creatures and just hanging out together.

Elizabeth and Emily outside the Aquarium with the giant penguin statue. 

Watching the sea lions from Daddy's shoulders. 

The girls. 

One of the many, many penguins. 

Felix and Uncle Mike, checking out some of the smaller sea creatures. 

Auntie Kelly with Emily and Felix at the touch tanks. 

Felix and Elizabeth on the giant turtle statues.

Fall at the Lake

A Family Affair

Last week, Uncle Mike, Auntie Kelly, Felix and baby Theo made the trip back East to visit.  We spent the weekend in New Hampshire, meeting Theo for the first time, getting to know Felix and hanging out with Mike and Kelly.  On Saturday, Grammy and Grampy threw a big family party at their house so that everyone could meet Theo and visit with Mike, Kelly and Felix.  It was a wonderful time filled with delicious food, great laughs and enjoyable company.

LeBlanc men 

It was the gorgeous day, and most of the family enjoyed one of the last beautiful days of the year outside.

Aunt Melissa and Theo. 

Aunt Denise and Theo. 

Aunt Denise, Aunt Sylvia and Memere, enjoying Theo.  He was a big hit, especially with Memere, who could really make him laugh.  Theo is the seventh of Memere's eight great-grandchildren!

Mikey, Lee and Uncle Peter tossing around the football. 

Chip and David

Cha Cha Cha

Cousins

Elizabeth and Emily absolutely adore their cousins but unfortunately, they all live out of state - my brother's girls are a good two hours away and Lee's brother's boys are a plane ride away - so they rarely get to see them.  This weekend, they had the chance to hang out with Felix (who is two and they haven't seen since he was six months old) and Theo (who is only a couple of months old and they met for the first time) and they were in heaven!  Elizabeth and Emily enjoyed leading Felix around by the hand, treating him like he was a living doll.  As for Felix, I think that he really enjoyed being with his Connecticut cousins.

Probably the only good picture of the four of them all weekend - and they are not even all looking at the camera.

Elizabeth and Felix 

Height and age order. 

Another try at a cousins picture - less successful.

Elizabeth and Felix, off to check out the receding lake waters. 

Felix and Emily 

Felix and Elizabeth in the woods. 

Watching the Little Einsteins together.

End of the Season

The soccer season ended the first weekend of November and was followed up a few days later by a small banquet thrown by Elizabeth's coach, who we think is so great.  Elizabeth got a very cool medal for all of her hard work during her first soccer season.

Ready to play! 

Elizabeth played the last half (25 minutes) of the season in net.  This was a great save she made. 

  

Getting her medal from Coach Dave. 

  

Happily showing off her medal!