Windblown II

Emily loved the fast moving boat and the breeze - as long as she had someone to hold onto....

Windblown....

Elizabeth wanted to go fast - "really fast" - but at about 30 miles per hour, she almost lost her ponytail!!! No worries, she recovered just fine!

Labor Day Cookout

On Monday, we had a Labor Day cookout at our house with Nicole, Dave, Anders and Nicole's parents and grandmother. The adults enjoyed a little down time and chatting while the kids had a great time playing together - and as you can see below, our kids really enjoyed the food!!

Anders enjoys the view while Elliot waits for Emily to drop some crumbs....
Emily really enjoyed the cupcakes that Mrs. Martel made!

Alliance Against Cancer

David and Cheryl's former running club, the New Hampshire Athletic Alliance Running Club, held its first ever 5K to honor David and his current health battle. It pulled the race together in less than six weeks - here is a quote from the registration materials that gives a good indication why:
"As a team we have been directly affected by the toll that [cancer] has on its victims. Our teammate and coach, Dave Leblanc, has been fighting his battle with cancer for the past 6 years. Dave has been a member of Athletic Alliance since 1981. Since that time he has given many hours to our training. He has been a source of support for us as we have become better runners. He has the ability to make strangers comfortable and most would now consider him a friend. We now give him our support in his hardest fight yet."
The Alliance Against Cancer was held this past Saturday and the extended LeBlanc family was out in force! My sister Kathleen ran with me (after running 10 miles earlier that morning!) and Lee's cousin Alison and her boyfriend Seth also ran. There cheering us on were Lee and the girls, David and Cheryl, Mom and Dad, Peter, Aunt Denise and Uncle Andy and Aunt Melissa. My goal was to finish (I haven't done a 5K in more than eight years) but I ended up running my fastest 5K ever (all the credit goes to Kathleen for that!) - under 27 1/2 minutes!! More importantly, the race raised a ton of money for the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Manchester in David's name. Click here for the link to our race album. Many of the pictures, below, were taken by my brother-in-law Peter. Thanks!

Kathleen and Maureen The LeBlanc cheering section
Alison heads for the finish Alliance members chatting with David and Cheryl and Lee (below). Cheryl and Lee

David and Cheryl during the post-race festivities.

David with Christine, one of the primary race organizers, and the fundraising money.

Emily, Lee and David

Feed Your Face 2008

On Saturday, we drove up to New Hampshire to attend the annual family cook at Grammy and Grandpa's house. The entire family was present for what I believe was the tenth annual cookout and everyone had a blast. We jammed six months worth of visiting, eating and playing (oh, and picture-taking!) into less than five hours of time. The day ended too soon, but everyone had a great time.

This was the first year we didn't have corn (too much rain in New Hampshire this summer), but we were able to devour cucumbers, tomatoes, boxes of rice, zucchini, yellow beans, 16 pounds of ribs, gallons of milk, bottles of wine, beers, ice cream, and a couple of blueberry pies....
Before and after the meal, we spent a lot of time hanging off of Grammy and Grandpa's clothes line (40+ years of fun!), playing whiffle ball, and just talking.
Meghan and Uncle Lee, monkeying around...
The cousins
The first family photo since Lee and I were married - and the first that includes Jillian, Elizabeth and Emily.

New Camera in Action

And the Party Just Goes On and On....

This weekend, Sarah and Rohan kept the party going (apparently, the wedding of the century wasn't enough for them!) with a gathering for Sarah's 29th birthday. We were only there for a few hours, but it was enough time to consume some excellent food and for Lee to relieve his college glory days....more pics here.

I know this is supposed to be a "family" site, but when your husband does TWO keg stands...
The birthday girl, in action.
The boys partake in some good, clean fun.

Acting Silly...

Is one of Elizabeth's favorite things to do!

Silly face (as in, "I'm makin' a silly face!")
Fish face

P.S. For those of you that might have noticed that recent picture quality is a bit better, I finally took the plunge....thanks to some interest-free financing, the SLR is mine! This just makes me even more obnoxious with the picture taking (if you can believe it). To spare CSC readers, I'm posting un-related pictures at my photo blog, which I've added to the side bar.

Tea Party

We have been thinking about getting the girls a tea set for a while, and after Elizabeth had such a great time playing with Julia and Charlotte's, we bought them one. It was a smart purchase, as they have "tea" together almost every morning before breakfast, buying Mommy and Daddy a few precious extra moments of shut-eye.

Notice the princesses scattered among the plates, cups and utensils...

"I Look Like Daddy"

Well, not quite....but we know what you're getting at....

Dinosaur State Park

On Sunday afternoon, Elizabeth and I went to Dinosaur State Park. It's not as exciting as the name sounds, but we did see real dinosaur footprints in the ground where they were originally found. We hiked through the park and saw all sorts of bugs, flowers, trees, you name it. Elizabeth loved it, although she was a disappointed to not see a real, live dinosaur. More pictures from our day here.

Dinosaur footprints
A thirst for knowledge

EGG-alicious

Our family breakfast on Sunday mornings always consists of eggs. For two years, Emily has scorned the eggs and happily eaten just wheat toast. The last two Sundays, she's been dipping her toast in yolk so this week, Lee made one just for her. And yes, she liked it!