Eeyore 8th Birthday Party

May 30, 2013

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My younger daughter requested an Eeyore-themed party for her 8th birthday, and we had a great time transforming our backyard into our own version of the 100 acre wood.  As it turns out, Winnie the Pooh themed party items are in low supply these days, with most of them being designed for baby showers or 1st birthdays.  So I scoured Etsy and Pinterest for ideas and forged ahead with the Eeyore theme.

I found a cute birthday banner, chocolate Eeyore-shaped lolipops, ribbon sculpture hair clips, and a custom dress for the birthday girl on Etsy.   I found the map of the 100 Acre Wood and the giant Eeyore for the Pin the Tail on Eeyore online.  They are giant stickers that were intended to hang in a nursery, but worked great for our purposes.   And we picked up some Pooh and friends ears and tails, and made some Eeyore quote boards to make an Eeyore and friends photobooth.

My husband learned wood-burning to make our yard signs, and I made mini versions in pots to label the food.  We added in some balloons and streamers and viola! a party-transformed yard.  The kids had a blast crafting, playing, and posing for pictures in our photobooth.

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Posted 10 years, 10 months ago at 10:38 pm.

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Color Run!

May 29, 2013

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🙂 photo credit: Jeramie Kopp

A week and a half ago I celebrated a month of hard work getting in shape with an incredibly run 5K: the Color Run.  I found a friend who was crazy enough to sign up last minute for the race, dress up in neon tutus, and have a fun race!  In preparation for the race I Googled the Color Run and read a bunch of blog entries that were super helpful in getting ready for the race, so I thought I would add my own experience for others who are prepping for the race.

First, how did we get a last minute registration for the run?  The races, especially in big cities like Washington, DC, fill up within days of when the registration opens.  I was able to get a transfer registration from a runner who couldn’t do the race, and active.com makes it very easy for the racers to transfer the registration to a new runner.  So I was able to find a bib for myself and my friend the week before the race.   If you’re in the market for a last-minute registration, check out the Facebook page for the local Color Run, there are a lot of people looking for transfer their bibs.

We decided to go all out and bought the tutus and tube socks at the packet pick-up.  The packet pick-up was amazingly well organized and fun, with ample volunteers, goodies available for purchase, and fun music.   Our kids were not running but we wanted them to be part of the experience so we bought the Color Run t-shirts to wear to the race as well.

The DC Color Run was held at National Harbor, which is about a 30 minute drive for us, so we got up bright and early to avoid the anticipated lines for parking.  Traffic on a Sunday morning was light and we arrived before there were any substantial lines for parking, so it was very easy to park.  We had been closely watching the weather because there was a 60% chance of rain.  I had done some nervous reading about what happens if it rains on the day of the Color Run, and we had decided to brave it, even if it ended up raining.  We lucked out and with the exception of a little drizzle as we were running, the rain held out for the morning.

We headed for the race start corral, and were in the first wave of runners.  The DC race had about 5,000 runners, so I had read it was good to be in an early wave so there would be fewer strollers and walkers to dodge if you intended to run the race.  There was plenty of entertainment while were were waiting for the race to start with goodies being given out, photo ops with unicorns, and people-watching.  Our kids and husbands explored National Harbor while we waited, and we were pleasantly surprised that they started the race 15 minutes early for the first wave.

As we headed out along the Potomac, we soon approached the first color station where volunteers toss colored powder on you as you run by.  We came to the yellow first, and got covered in yellow.  We had decided to stop along the way to take pictures, since it was an untimed race and we weren’t running for time anyway.  Then as we ran along we ran through the other color stations until we finished up the 5K and then met up with the families and all headed into the fun at the finish.  This is when the kids joined into the color fun and we got covered in even more color.  There was a little area with colored powder in barrels, and the kids enjoyed covering each other in color.  Then we headed over the the stage where there was music and every few minutes there was a “color toss”.  They invited kids to come up on stage for a dance contest and my younger daughter enjoyed dancing on stage.

The whole family had a blast at the event, and I hardly noticed running 3 miles with all of the fun.  I’m so glad we did it and wholeheartedly recommend giving it a try!  Next time we hope to come back and have the kids run with us as well.

 

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Posted 10 years, 10 months ago at 9:37 pm.

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Baseball Boys

May 17, 2013

 

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My utterly adorable nephews came for a short visit this afternoon and I got them in the studio for a photoshoot.  Maybe I’m a little biased, but aren’t they the cutest little guys?

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Posted 10 years, 10 months ago at 10:15 pm.

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Mission: Get Mom Back in the Picture… Success!

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It has been a month since I started my personal challenge to make better choices about getting in shape.  I spent the month of attending bootcamp 3x per week, taking more opportunities to run, bike and walk, and tracking my eating and activity on myfitnesspal.com, runkeeper.com, and my handy Fitbit pedometer.   The change was prompted by the good fortune of winning a contest from CFC Fitness for a free month of their bootcamp and a subscription to diet4rewards food.

While I wasn’t able to keep 100% to the diet4rewards food plan, I did learn a lot from the plan, and was able to incorporate it into my monthly diet.  I learned that it is possible to have real food meals in reasonable portions, and real, easy, healthy snacks not be hungry while losing weight.  The plan basically cuts out excess carbs from the diet and keeps you eating real, unprocessed foods.   I ate the D4R meals when I was eating at home, and then when I went out to eat with my family I tried to make good menu choices, like keeping to reasonable portions, cutting out unnecessary sauces and extras that add calories, and cutting down on my white grains.

Between adding exercise and changes in eating, I was able to eat three meals a day plus snacks (I didn’t even give up my occasional Oreos, and made it through an entire box of fudgecicles) and I lost 8 pounds.   And not only did I lose some weight, I also am feeling much more fit, and happier in my clothes.   I opted to sign up for another month of the bootcamp and have recruited some friends to join me.  It’s hard work, but the group is great, and it is so worth it!  The photo above was a quick self-portrait I took yesterday.  I joined the local “Moms Run the Town” chapter at the encouragement of some of the girls in bootcamp.

I’m happy I was able to keep with my plan this month despite some challenges and obstacles, and meet my personal weight loss goal.  Beyond that, I have made an impression on my girls about how mom can make time to take care of herself as well.  The photo on the right shows part of my Mother’s Day gift from my daughter–a poem where she says mom is “outstanding at running.”

I have an exciting celebration planned in honor of meeting my goals–I have signed up to run in the Color Run this weekend at National Harbor.  It looks like a blast, and I’m looking forward to showing my girls how much fun we all can have in the name of fitness.

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Posted 10 years, 10 months ago at 4:55 pm.

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Back Outside

May 10, 2013

It was so nice to be back outside for the first of my outdoor spring sessions.  This was the third year I have worked with this sweet little girl, and now she is a busy 2-year-old.   We couldn’t have asked for more gorgeous spring weather for the session, and she enjoyed exploring and playing as we worked hard to get some portraits.

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Posted 10 years, 10 months ago at 8:30 pm.

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And Big Sister-to-Be

May 7, 2013

It’s been a busy week for maternity sessions, which is exciting because is means that I have a lot of newborns to look forward to in the next couple of months!  This adorable little girl is looking forward to meeting her little brother, and enjoying using mom’s belly as her canvas this morning.

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Posted 10 years, 10 months ago at 2:08 pm.

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Big Brother-to-be

May 6, 2013

It wasn’t too long ago that I was doing maternity shots for this little guy in his mom’s belly, and now he’s back at big brother to get ready for his new baby brother.  He enjoyed helping me set up the studio this morning and loved exploring the props.   I can’t wait to see him and his growing family again in a few weeks for their newborn session!

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Posted 10 years, 10 months ago at 1:03 pm.

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