BOB

If you know me, you know that I love my BOB (Revolution) stroller. It is really such a great stroller. It has allowed me to keep up my running habit since having Jonah. I used it SO much in NYC for jogging in Central Park and on the East River path. I also used it for 'Strolla Momma's', the exercise class I attended in Central Park for nearly 2 years. Jonah, BOB, and I went about twice a week and had a great time.

I have now been using it some with Annabelle. I got several runs in with her in NYC before we moved, but she is definitely not as content in the stroller as Jonah was. I am sure it has some to do with the fact that she has not been in a stroller as much as Jonah because she is not a city baby, but it also largely has to do with her personality. She is just not laid back like Jonah and is always wanting to be doing something. Anyways, as she has gotten a little older, she is getting better. Now that the weather is headed towards warmer, I am planning on running with her in the BOB at least once/week. After we drop Jonah at preschool, we will head to a local running path and put in a few miles. I am training for the Lexington 1/2 Marathon, so getting some mid week runs in is essential right now.

As I was out running with her in the BOB about a week ago, I started thinking about all the runs BOB had accompanied me on and thought it might be a good blog post. I do a lot of thinking (and praying) while I run :), hence the idea to blog about my BOB. I started wondering what BOB was an acronymn for... assuming that it was an acronymn.... so I came up with Baby On Board... I was thinking that had to be what it stood for... b/c I mean, what else it could be?  So, I looked it up when I got home and BOB does not stand for 'Baby on Board'.... It stands for 'Beast of Burden'.... well, of course, why didn't I think of that?? Anyways, I have no idea why that is what it stands for, the website didn't really explain, but that's what it stands for. I think I will continue to assume it stands for 'Baby on Board'. :)

Here are some pictures of the past few years with BOB... what a faithful 'friend'  and running partner he has been. He carries my water for me, 'encourages' me to push him up hills and pulls me down the other side of the hill. BOB allows me to go places with my baby that a normal stroller would not take me, at least not nearly as comfortably. BOB, definitely tops my list of favorite baby equipment!

My happy-go-lucky baby, Jonah in the BOB on one of our many jogs together

(I know this even more so now that I have a not as happy-go-lucky baby, Annabelle)

chillin' in the BOB -- Jonah often took his morning nap in the BOB

Its hard to tell, but we have the BOB on a subway ride, this was pretty rare b/c of the size of the stroller... I don't remember where we were going, but we must have been planning on doing a fair amount of walking once we got there.

This is on a trail run in Maine on our vacation in Fall 2009

One of my most favorite places ever, Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park, in Bar Harbor, Maine

Walking around Jordan Pond

Snack, please!!

Jonah always wanted a snack while in the stroller for Strolla' Momma's... helped keep him entertained.

Strolla Momma's... Jonah was out of the stroller, but this was the end of class and I often let him run around during this time.

The BOB was great in the big NYC snow storms... really the only way I could get out in our neighborhood in the big snows with Jonah.

look at that snowball!!

What a cutie!!

 

The BOB came with us on our trip out west in Spring 2010, this was at Yosemite National Park

The Golden Gate Bridge!

Nap in Central Park

sharing his snack with Mommy while she was running

view of Manhattan from Randalls Island after a Saturday morning Run

Jonah at the UES/90th St entrance to Central Park

Jonah brought one of his favorite little friends along for this ride in the BOB

Jonah decided he wanted to push instead of ride :)

A nice spring day!

Summer Streets in NYC, looking south on Park Avenue

You can't really tell, but this is Annabelle... in front of the UES/90th St entrance to Central Park. She was about 3 months old here and young enough to sleep through a run for her Mama. This was before I knew we were moving and I am really glad I took this picture.

 

I am hoping to have some more pictures of Annabelle in the BOB soon.

 

title change

So, I decided that it was time to change the name of my blog.... although it was still a bit bitter sweet for me to do so. I started this blog mainly as a way to let family and friends see our day to day life in New York City. Now that we do not live in NYC anymore I felt a name change was in order.

I still plan to blog about our lives, things that go on with us, and my occasional craft, project, or house decorating adventure, and on a rare occasion my thoughts on a random topic. I am going to leave the web address the same, but just change the title, so that my millions of readers will still be able to find me :)

Thanks for reading!
xo,
Melissa

Jonah turns 4!

I am a bit behind on getting Jonah's birthday blogged about. Jonah turned 4 the week before Christmas.... what a busy time of year! We have Jonah's birthday a week after Christmas, then Annabelle's a couple of weeks after... busy busy busy!

Jonah's 4th birthday was celebrated 3 times. He had a birthday party a week or so before his actual birthday, he had cupcakes with his preschool class on his birthday, and we had family over for dinner on his birthday as well.

His first celebration was the 'big' party with all his little friends. We invited several friends, a mixture of people we know from Atlanta, a few friends we know from NYC that now live in ATL, and new friends from Atlanta, mainly being friends from Jonah's preschool class. This party was at a place called 'Catch Air'. It was a big indoor playground, really this place was crazy, but all the kids loved it. It had a couple of inflatable type things to jump on, big slides, ball pits, a dance floor, things to swing on, a kids exercise area... if you need a way to wear your kids out, take them to Catch Air!

Here is most of the crew from the party (+ 1 or 2 random kids that wanted in the picture). Jonah got to choose a character to have a dance party with, he chose Buzz Light Year, thus the theme for his party.

One of the many fun things at Catch Air

Jonah's Buzz Light Year Cookie Cake

 

Banner and Cake

Birthday chair in the party room

 

When it was time to sing to Jonah, he requested that the lights be turned off for the candles

 

Jonah getting ready to eat his cake. I love his cute grin here :)

A few poses with his Buzz Light Year balloon on his actual birthday

 

On his actual birthday, I was able to go to his preschool class and take cupcakes. The teacher also has the Mom bring a book and read to the class and then the birthday child gets to sit beside their Mom. It was cute how big of a deal this was to Jonah. He was so excited about getting to come sit beside me... I'll enjoy that while it lasts. He chose 'Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel'... one of his favorite books.

Jonah's teacher, Ms. Laura lighting the candle on his cupcake.

Aunt Katie came along for the preschool bday party to help out with everything and keep Annabelle from tearing the classroom apart.

Jonah with his teachers, Ms. Laura and Ms. Deborah... they are great!

 

On Jonah's birthday, we had my family over for dinner. The menu included quesadillas and cupcakes... two of Jonah's favorite things. Unfortunately, I was either busy or having the time of my life because the above picture with his Uncle Johnny is the only picture I took all evening. :(

We had a 'make your own' quesadilla bar and sides to go with it. We had cupcakes that I bought from GiGi's cupcakes that were really cute and I guess I didn't get a picture of them b/c I can't find a single one.

 

Celebrating Jonah's 4th birthday was great. He is such a joy and such a fun, smart, curious, life-loving, people-loving boy. Jonah still loves trains, but have taken a recent interest in Toy Story since choosing Buzz Light Year as the dance party character for the birthday party. Jonah loves riding his scooter, reading books, playing games, and doing any kind of 'projects' I can come up with. He is an amazing son and brother. Annabelle adores him and I think the feeling is generally mutal, unless he is trying to build a train track, and then I think she kind of gets on his nerves. :)  I am SO proud to be his Mama! Jonah, you make me so happy each and every day. My love for you keeps growing even when I don't think its possible for me to love you an ounce more!

 

 

 

 

Annabelle's 1st Birthday Party

We were able to celebrate our sweet Annabelle this past weekend. It was a small, family party, but I still had a blast decorating for it. I chose the theme 'Winter Onederland'... this theme seems to be popular now, but I thought it was so cute, so I went with it. 

I got most of the decorations by buying a file from someone on Etsy. Its very fairly priced and then you can print the number of decorations, etc. that you need. I was quite happy with the way they turned out.

First up, the invitation. I loooved her invitation. :)

For the decorations, I printed and cut out the 'Happy Birthday Annabelle' banner.

I made the 'Watch me Grow' timeline of pictures. 1 picture for each month (plus a newborn picture). It just so amazing to see how much a baby changes from newborn to 1! The canvas snowflake prints are courtesy of my SIL, Neely. She made them to decorate at Christmas time and let me borrow them for the party.

 I found glittery snowflakes at walmart for quite cheap around Christmas. We had 60 of them on string and then taped to the ceiling. Mark and his dad helped out with this task. The snowflakes are still up in my dining room because they just look so pretty in there that I can't stand to take them down.

 

 If you look closely at the windows in this picture, you will see that there are window clings on the windows. Those were Jonah's decorations. I found the snowflake clings on clearance after Christmas and just knew Jonah would love to get to help, so I scooped them up.

The white pilars in this picutre are also a clearance find. They were like 0.50 cents each. The glittery snowflakes on top were another borrowed from Neely item.

 

The food.... We had chicken minis... which I named 'fried snowball sandwiches'. I forgot to take a picture of them though. We had chips and Que'sno', and veggies and snow dip (just white ranch dip). to drink we had water (melted snowflakes) and chocolate milk (muddy snowflakes). We had a hot chocolate bar which I called (hot muddy snowflakes), but again, I didn't get a picture of it. The cake was from Publix bakery. It was white cake with fresh strawberry in between the layers. The cake was pretty and delicious! Publix also gave us a free 'smash cake' with our order.

 

 

                                                        Annabelle's smash cake

                                                         The main birthday cake

 

                                      Annabelle in her high chair, getting ready for her cake.
The party hat was something I printed from the stuff I ordered on Etsy.com... I added the ribbon to make it a little fancier. I couldn't believe that Annabelle left it on long enough for us to get a picture of her.

 It was all down hill from here. She was NOT a fan of the cake. She did not like having the icing all over her hands and made that very apparent to everyone at the party. poor thing.

                                                                  Not a happy camper.

For the favors I made peppermint bark with pink candy melts instead of white chocolate. I got the molds and pink candy melts from Michaels. I sprinkled crushed peppermint in the molds before pouring in the melted candy to add some sparkle to the front of the snowflakes. My grandmother used to always make molded candy for parties and occasions, so I was glad I could carry on her tradition at Annabelle's first birthday party.

 

 

My SWEET 1 year old!