This week, I decided to take part in a fun photo challenge!
Flashback of Gwen chillin in her friend's wagon. We're really missing the summer sun!
Check out some more Oh So Silly pics over at I Heart Faces
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Which way to the gym?
How have I managed almost a year of blogging without writing a post on fitness?
It's been in the back of my mind, but I guess I just needed to organize my thoughts. Since I've documented Gwen's first year, I feel like I can now talk about other non-Gwen things on here as well. Well, I guess it's somewhat Gwen-related because I really have been wanting to talk about my prenatal workouts; HOW IMPORTANT they were and how much of a difference I feel that they made. I wish I had blogged during my pregnancy, but oh well, next time right?
Some background info for anyone who doesn't know; in my former [pre-baby] life, fitness was my thang. And by that, I mean my job. My degree is in Exercise Science, I'm a certified Personal Trainer, and I worked in the Corporate Fitness industry for 8 years as a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, and manager. So basically, I got to "work out all day". Not really, but try working in the fitness industry without hearing that comment every day of your life.
Anyway, early on I realized that lifting weights is 10 million times more enjoyable to me than anything cardio-related. I chose my major because when I ran track in college (ironic, I know), my favorite part of our practices was the weight lifting. My workouts have always consisted of mostly strength and interval training.
Post-baby I was fortunate to lose my baby weight rather quickly, however, I know that some of it was muscle loss. I stopped working out just before Christmas, and Gwen was born 1/9/11. Since then, I haven't been as diligent as I could've been about working out, but Gwen and I joined a Yoga class, and we went walking a lot. I finally joined a gym in the fall, but I'm still struggling to find a schedule that works for me.
Because of the inconsistency with my current workouts, I truly believe that I wouldn't have been as successful with my weight loss if I hadn't taken care of myself during my pregnancy.
Stay tuned - I will be dedicating a few upcoming posts to pre and postnatal info and exercises!
Post-baby I was fortunate to lose my baby weight rather quickly, however, I know that some of it was muscle loss. I stopped working out just before Christmas, and Gwen was born 1/9/11. Since then, I haven't been as diligent as I could've been about working out, but Gwen and I joined a Yoga class, and we went walking a lot. I finally joined a gym in the fall, but I'm still struggling to find a schedule that works for me.
Because of the inconsistency with my current workouts, I truly believe that I wouldn't have been as successful with my weight loss if I hadn't taken care of myself during my pregnancy.
Stay tuned - I will be dedicating a few upcoming posts to pre and postnatal info and exercises!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Gwen's Winter 'One'derland Party
Happy Birthday to my snow babe!
Well the weekend was anything but snowy; high 50's on Sat(!) and high 40's on the party day, but we had a Winter Onederland theme with a lot of special touches. I found some great ideas and inspiration on Pinterest and ran with the theme! My parents were nice enough to host the party at their new condo in MA.
First, the details!
Lady Gwen's Attire:
I was eyeing this Gap dress but the website was all out of her size, so I finally made it to the store and found it on waaaay clearance for a whopping $16 - which I paid for with a gift card. Woot!
Of course she couldn't get her party dress messy, so the smash cake required an outfit change! I made leggings out of women's knee high socks from Target and cut out this felt snowflake that mom stitched onto a Carter's onesie with metallic thread. I also had some silver tulle so I made her a fun, sparkly headband that morning.
Decorations:
I found a ton of awesome birthday banners on Etsy but decided to try it out on my own once I found these foam snowflakes at Michaels. The blue squares are just cut up card stock, and the letters are stenciled on.
The rest of the snowflake decorations I used were from Dollar Tree, Target $1 sale area, and Oriental Trading. For a span of about 3 months, any snowflake I spotted made me giddy - I ended up overdoing it a bit and didn't use everything I bought, but if anyone ever needs snowflake decorations, I'm your girl!
By the way, did anyone spot the light up snowflake I hung in the bathroom the night before and completely forgot to take off the cardboard?
OOPS! ummm...maybe no one noticed because the cardboard color was similar to the wall color? And that "Rite Aid Home" logo totally doesn't stand out at all. I had no idea I did this until Kristen sent me this picture a few hours after the party had ended.
My take on the day:
We woke up nice and early, I wanted to tire Gweny out so that she'd take a good morning nap. It worked! She went down for 3 hours, maybe even a little longer, and we were able to decorate and relax before the party.
I have to say that I was a bit nervous leading up to the party, that it would be too overwhelming for Gwen because I knew there would be a lot of commotion and attention placed on her. I ultimately thought she would do ok because we're around enough people and other kids on a regular basis that she's pretty used to it. However, anything you read about first birthday parties (where it's more than just family) tells you to expect a meltdown.
Can I tell you, the girl was a rock star! I swear that she knew everyone was there for her! One of the most adorable moments of the day was when her friends Morgan and Rena Lynn arrived and she spent at least 10 minutes hugging them at the door. It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. As if that wasn't cute enough, they found each other again later in the party and continued their love fest.
When it came time for the "cake smash", I didn't know what to expect. I was almost positive she wouldn't dive right in, it's just not her nature. Actually, here was my prediction: touch frosting, look at hand, rub frosting covered hand in hair, realize she has frosting in her hair, cry.cake smash over. The reason for my prediction was because that is exactly how her first [only] finger painting experience played out. Here's how it actually went: sit in high chair, smile charmingly at surrounding family and friends, take a sampling of frosting with pincer grasp, taste, enjoy, repeat....for like.20.minutes.straight. Everyone was laughing at how much like her daddy she is - so neat and tidy - until mommy took her hand and smashed it into the cake to get things going! I honestly think that if we didn't take the cake away, she would've finished it (sure it would've taken a few hours, but she would've finished it).
With all of the excitement of the day - our little Gweny learned to clap! I just thought that was the coolest thing, to learn to clap on your first birthday. She was doing it non-stop, even after everyone but family had left - we were all exhausted and she was still smiling and clapping! That night, as I set her down in her crib, she lay there clapping (I'm seriously not making it up). What a perfect ending to a perfect day. My little girl knows how to put a smile on my face, I just love her so much.
Here's the adorableness I was talking about before!:
Some of our lovely party guests:
Well the weekend was anything but snowy; high 50's on Sat(!) and high 40's on the party day, but we had a Winter Onederland theme with a lot of special touches. I found some great ideas and inspiration on Pinterest and ran with the theme! My parents were nice enough to host the party at their new condo in MA.
First, the details!
Lady Gwen's Attire:
Of course she couldn't get her party dress messy, so the smash cake required an outfit change! I made leggings out of women's knee high socks from Target and cut out this felt snowflake that mom stitched onto a Carter's onesie with metallic thread. I also had some silver tulle so I made her a fun, sparkly headband that morning.
Food:
The cake was awesome - pics to come...
The night before the party, mom and I decorated some
sugar cookie snowflakes!
I found a ton of awesome birthday banners on Etsy but decided to try it out on my own once I found these foam snowflakes at Michaels. The blue squares are just cut up card stock, and the letters are stenciled on.
The rest of the snowflake decorations I used were from Dollar Tree, Target $1 sale area, and Oriental Trading. For a span of about 3 months, any snowflake I spotted made me giddy - I ended up overdoing it a bit and didn't use everything I bought, but if anyone ever needs snowflake decorations, I'm your girl!
By the way, did anyone spot the light up snowflake I hung in the bathroom the night before and completely forgot to take off the cardboard?
OOPS! ummm...maybe no one noticed because the cardboard color was similar to the wall color? And that "Rite Aid Home" logo totally doesn't stand out at all. I had no idea I did this until Kristen sent me this picture a few hours after the party had ended.
My take on the day:
We woke up nice and early, I wanted to tire Gweny out so that she'd take a good morning nap. It worked! She went down for 3 hours, maybe even a little longer, and we were able to decorate and relax before the party.
I have to say that I was a bit nervous leading up to the party, that it would be too overwhelming for Gwen because I knew there would be a lot of commotion and attention placed on her. I ultimately thought she would do ok because we're around enough people and other kids on a regular basis that she's pretty used to it. However, anything you read about first birthday parties (where it's more than just family) tells you to expect a meltdown.
Can I tell you, the girl was a rock star! I swear that she knew everyone was there for her! One of the most adorable moments of the day was when her friends Morgan and Rena Lynn arrived and she spent at least 10 minutes hugging them at the door. It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. As if that wasn't cute enough, they found each other again later in the party and continued their love fest.
When it came time for the "cake smash", I didn't know what to expect. I was almost positive she wouldn't dive right in, it's just not her nature. Actually, here was my prediction: touch frosting, look at hand, rub frosting covered hand in hair, realize she has frosting in her hair, cry.cake smash over. The reason for my prediction was because that is exactly how her first [only] finger painting experience played out. Here's how it actually went: sit in high chair, smile charmingly at surrounding family and friends, take a sampling of frosting with pincer grasp, taste, enjoy, repeat....for like.20.minutes.straight. Everyone was laughing at how much like her daddy she is - so neat and tidy - until mommy took her hand and smashed it into the cake to get things going! I honestly think that if we didn't take the cake away, she would've finished it (sure it would've taken a few hours, but she would've finished it).
With all of the excitement of the day - our little Gweny learned to clap! I just thought that was the coolest thing, to learn to clap on your first birthday. She was doing it non-stop, even after everyone but family had left - we were all exhausted and she was still smiling and clapping! That night, as I set her down in her crib, she lay there clapping (I'm seriously not making it up). What a perfect ending to a perfect day. My little girl knows how to put a smile on my face, I just love her so much.
OK, now on to the party pictures!!! A special thanks to Meghan Davis of Davis Creative Services for taking many of these photos. I realized a few days beforehand that there was no way I would be able to document the day sufficiently with everything going on, so both Megs and my sis, Kristen were awesome enough to help me out!
...ahhhhh the cake. It was a bit of a splurge, but totally worth it right? I fell in love when I saw a similar one by Andover Cakes. It's the same place that did my MA baby shower cake. They did an awesome job! We also got a smash cake for the bday girl.
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| Gwen in her party dress and headband that I made for her |
 |
| Mommy & Daddy with the birthday girl! |
 |
| Here she is in her cake smash outfit |
 |
| this pic showcases how everyone had fnished their desserts and moved on, but Gweny was still going and completely content, alone, with her cake |
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| a shot of the favors - toys for the boys and bigger kids and leggings made from women's socks for the little girls |
Here's the adorableness I was talking about before!:
Some of our lovely party guests:
Thank you to everyone who made Gwen's first birthday such a special one!
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