Posts Tagged ‘holiday traditions’

Out With A Bang

As I’m sure you have heard by now – it’s November. We have only two months left in the year. Hard to believe, huh? At least October went out with a bang! Are you ready to read about a stellar new workout and get an overload of cuteness?

I kicked off my last day of October with a frightfully good workout. Since I knew we had plans for the afternoon ahead, I hauled my booty to the gym to spend some quality time with the treadmill again. But first – a new workout!

The compound moves in a continuous fashion really had me sweating. I loved the use of the resistance band in this workout too. Always fun to mix things up!

Since I had such a sweat going from the circuit (and a little ole thing called a half marathon this weekend), I kept things light when I hit the treadmill. I didn’t mess around with speed work to entertain myself on the treadmill. I just set the speed at 6.2 and kept on running until I hit four miles.

I’m happy to report that my foot finally feels completely normal again. You may recall the top of my foot feeling sore after a long run a little over a week ago. It would still feel a little tender at times, which had me worried. I looked into it and found numerous suggestions to tie my shoes differently.

I followed this guide on Runner’s World and laced my shoes up in a parallel fashion.

No more pain! Who knew such a simple change could work such wonders? I guess trading in my old shoes for the new pair I had waiting for me helped too. Winking smile

Most of the rest of the day proceeded normally – laundry, play time with the kids, getting work done during nap times, and so on. Then came the night and the excitement picked up considerably.

You thought I was going to dive right into the cuteness, didn’t you? Well, sorry to burst your bubble but excitement for me meant starting the night with a heaping bowl of chili.

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I made Kelly’s recipe for chili (because I know she does a good one) and loved every Frito and cheese topped bite. Some things just need the old-school toppings.

Now that you have waited ever so patiently, time for trick-or-treating…

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…and the corresponding explosion of adorable.

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This season is easily my favorite time of year because I simply cannot get enough of the many family activities.

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You can’t help but have some of the kid excitement rub off on you.

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Makenzie had an absolute blast trick-or-treating since this was the first year she fully understood the process. Which also meant Peter and I had to be a little sneakier about nabbing a few pieces from her stash. You know you would do it, too!

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Butterfinger, Reeses, and Twix make good race fuel, right? Winking smile

She obviously has plenty. Today I will be sorting through it all, pulling out a small stockpile of her favorites (Dum Dums) and our favorites (above) for special treats, then donating the rest to Makenzie’s preschool. They are taking donations to send to the troops to have for treats and also to pass out to kids where they are stationed. Isn’t that cool? And friendly to the whole holiday maintenance balance thing. Win win situation for all!

  • Favorite: Halloween candy? Costume? Holiday?
  • What’s a surprisingly simple fitness tip that has made a big difference before for you?

Posted by on November 1st, 2011 65 Comments

Moral Of The Story

Hey hey, my friends! Long time, no talk. Guess we all had some busy and fun weekends. Sounds good to me! Looking for some good reads from the weekend?

Let me fill you in on the rest now. After I left you on Saturday morning, Peter and I had a lot planned for the day. I showered up and packed up the kids for a long, fun day ahead. We had plans for one of our fall traditions!

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We hit the road a little before lunch time and got about halfway to our destination before Makenzie had to potty. We stopped at a grocery store for a bathroom break and both felt the hunger strike. The store had a huge salad bar, so we made that work for lunch.

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We made our pit stop as quick as possible to get back on our way to the North Georgia region. I love going there this time of year. Look how pretty!

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After about an hour of driving, we made it to our first stop – the North Georgia Corn Maze! We normally visit a corn maze and pumpkin patch closer to home (the one we visited for Makenzie’s field trip), but discovered a Groupon deal and decided to check out this site instead.

There was hay bale jumping…

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…and some silly fun…

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…before finally settling in for the two main events. First up? A hay ride through the amazing scenery.

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I loved this place’s hay ride. They really took you on a longer ride and you got to see a LOT more than at other ones we have visited. Family photo op!

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Gotta love photos with kids! Ha!

Once the hay ride finished, we made our way through the corn maze

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I much preferred other corn mazes. This one was small and not very well organized. I nearly killed myself tripping over the mass amounts of rogue corn all over the paths. That could just be me and my clumsy ways, though. No matter. We still had a GREAT time there.

Moral of the Story: A deal ALWAYS wins with us! And nothing compares to the free beauty of seeing this…

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From there, we weren’t far off from another one of my favorite fall traditions.

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Oktoberfest in Helen! Helen is a small “Alpine town” in North Georgia with a ton of cute shops, biergartens, tubing down the river (not in this cold!), horse drawn carriages, and other such fun.

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After walking around the town and perusing a few shops – glassblowing is my favorite! – we stopped for an “afternoon snack”. In other words – a reason to get some beer in Helen.

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We picked both the lighter and darker Oktoberfest seasonal brews to share. I’m an amber girl all the way. The light one didn’t do it for me in the least. But the darker Oktoberfest? Yes, please!

I also say “Yes, please!” to the following part of our Helen tradition.

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A hunk of Peanut Butter Swirl fudge from Hansel & Gretel’s Candy Kitchen. I long for their fudge and we get some every year. It’s gone by now. Duh.

Moral of the Story: A salad bar lunch leaves plenty of room for beer and fudge later. Good thing. Very good thing.

And I can’t end the weekend without brining up a certain special part. Open-mouthed smile

The night ended on a very high note. Since we were out gallivanting around town all day, we had to record the Georgia-Florida game. We watched it later on Saturday night (while eating our fudge, no less) and were quite pleased with the outcome…

which I found out thanks to Twitter (I’m looking at you Brittany! haha!) before even starting to watch. It didn’t make Georgia’s victory any less sweeter, though!

Moral of the Story: Stay away from social media if you want to be surprised of the outcome of something. And Go Dawgs!

But perhaps the biggest moral story of them all – nothing beats a weekend unplugged and spending time with my family. Hope you had a good one too!

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  • What would be the “moral of the story” for your weekend?
  • What is one of your favorite fall traditions?

Posted by on October 31st, 2011 61 Comments

 

 
Catch Up With Recent Posts

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Posted: November 23, 2011 at 7:47 am

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Self-Love Reflection: The Road Not Taken

Posted: November 20, 2011 at 11:47 am

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Healthier Eating For Kids

Posted: November 19, 2011 at 10:56 am

Thanks to Plum Organics for sponsoring my post about tips for baby feeding magic. What if you let baby choose what’s for dinner? Check out their cute "Quest for Yum!" video and see what happens! As parents, we want the best for our children. We help them to feel loved. We strive to teach them […]

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Announcement

Posted: November 17, 2011 at 3:36 pm

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Where The Change Happens

Posted: November 16, 2011 at 7:54 am

It’s kind of funny. I become a certified personal trainer and the first workouts I turn to this week come from someone else. The book came in for me at the library last week and, after flipping through it, I couldn’t wait to give the circuits a go. Making The Cut includes a lot of […]

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From Beginning To End

Posted: November 15, 2011 at 11:53 am

Good morning! First off, thanks for the many congrats yesterday. Love you all bunches for the tons of support you have given me in so many things this year. I hope I can return a little bit of that love through this here blog as well. So yesterday I had my first parent-teacher “conference” for […]

55 CommentsRead more →