11 laps!

The Babe did her first jog-a-thon, and thanks to a lot of generous support from her wonderful family and friends (you!), she raised $522.50 for the McKinley PTC.  She completed 11laps, which is more than we were expecting! (Now we know better than to sponsor her per laps! :))

We're so proud of you, Iz!  She will be thanking you herself, but thank you very much to all of you who sponsored her -- it really meant a lot to her.  This was also great practice for the Color Run 5k that she's doing next weekend!

Izzy's First Fundraiser (Jog-a-thon 10/25/12)

***UPDATE***
It sounds like there have been some problems with the Paypal processing on the site I linked to below. If Paypal gives you a hard time, you should be able to sign in as a guest and pay by credit card.  Or you can send a check directly to us and we will make sure Izzy turns it in. I believe she has until next Wednesday 10/31 to submit all of her donations, but I will get confirmation.  Thank you!


Dear Family and Friends,

Izzy has her first school fundraiser as a kindergartener on Oct 25th, and she wrote this letter asking for your support. It is put on by the McKinley Parent Teacher Club, which raises over $60,000 /yr to pay for things like music and art (including pottery class), Spanish class.

The kindergarten class only runs for twenty minutes, but we think Izzy might be able to run ~6-8 laps. You can either make a flat donation or pledge per lap. Any donation will be much appreciated. They do award prizes to the student in each class who raises the most money, so Izzy does want to be the kindergartener who holds that title. :)

For more information or to make an online donation, go here: http://mckinley-ptc-jog-a-thon.weebly.com (Be sure to enter Isobel Villanueva and let us know you donated so that she can thank you!)

Thank you!

SheRox 2012

Mama did the SheRox Women's triathlon for the second year in a row today. It was a very uncharacteristic day in San Diego with, wait for it -- RAIN falling from the sky. Thankfully it wasn't enough rain to stop the swim, and it only rained a little on the bike and run. It kept things cool, and the race was still a lot of fun. Mama bettered her time from last year by 2.5 minutes, so she was very happy about that!

That's olympian Sarah Haskins standing between me and Mendy:

Lift!

video-2012-10-13-12-31-10.mp4 Watch on Posterous

More fun with pumpkins at Bates Nut Farm.

Bates Nut Farm

We headed up to Bates Nut Farm in Valley Center to get some pumpkins, nuts, and to partake in some fun Halloween activities. Apparently we weren't the only ones with the great idea of going early:

First cotton candy ever:


Straw maze:

Hay Ride:


Feeding the animals:

See the full gallery on Posterous

In search of the great pumpkin (or the biggest):

The Making of a Mermaid

The Babe asked to be a mermaid for Halloween this year. We were fortunate to be hanging out with our very creative and crafty friend Eve (and John, Ecco, Gray) on Sunday, and Mama and Eve worked together to create a lovely mermaid costume for Iz.
Eve starts to plan:

The model, for measurements:

The tail comes together:

While we were creating a mermaid, John played music for the kids:


Halfway there:


Voila!

Now we just have to make the rest of the family into sea creatures...

Superfrog

Daddy did his first ever Half Ironman on 9/30 -- Superfrog. He spent months training hard for this event, so it was really nice to see all of his hard work paying off. The kids and I did almost as much hard work by making some super cool capes for the resident Kermits, and by walking an unusually long distance to get to the race course to cheer Daddy on. We did get to see Lance Armstrong in the process though!



We also cheered for Mama's coworker Christopher, and several of Daddy's coworkers (Jeremy, Willy, Dennis).

Lance accepting his 1st place award: