Wild Rumpus Party!

Let me start by saying a big, fat SORRY {to myself!}!! I had planned to write this post about a month ago...then again I promised myself I was going to keep up with my blog in January.... Well either way here is my birthday party post!

Theme: "Where The Wild Things Are" - This year I figured it would probably be the last birthday party I could solely decide on Eli's 'theme' and with WTWTA being one of my favorite childhood books and now one of his; there was no contest. I love books and I am so blessed that my son does too. Before his third birthday he already memorized all the words to WTWTA and would walk around the house roaring like Max. Heart melted. I also love how the whole book theme ties back into my baby shower where instead of cards guests brought me books to start his collection and today he has over 120 different bedtime stories to chose from!

Place: River Legacy Park has an awesome playground that looks like it's actually a forest. We rented the pavilion closest and let the kids start a wild rumpus! I also packed kites, balls, chalk, and bubbles for the littles but it ended up being a big hit with some of the older ones as well.

Food: One of Eli's favorite foods is hot dogs so we did a hot dog bar or "Wild Dogs!" Buns & hot dogs were purchased in bulk so that saved some and instead of standard plates I found 1000 concession stand "boats" for only $5!!!

My grand total is a little more than I had planned, but everything came out perfect to me and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Invites - I opted for postcards which saved on envelopes and stamps! The front design was from GoodHue Designs!

 

Decorations - It was super windy so my table clothes, streamers, balloons, and signs didn't get to make a big impression! {Turns out most 3 year old don't really care though}

The Wild Dogs banner was made by two of my very talented cousins!! & in the background is the cutest paper banner [used in his Birthday Photos too!] made out of pages from Where the Wild Things are!

On the table I printed out different ways to make hot dogs and had gold crowns instead of party hats.

 

Here's a view of the playground from our pavilion

 

Loved these trays!! Super cheap and cute.

 

Cake - Seriously, fell in love with it.
Bottom layer: Chocolate with chocolate mousse, Middle: Strawberry with strawberry filling, Top: Vanilla with vanilla mousse! I cheated this day and ate a piece of the chocolate, it was worth it.

I wanted a "simple" cake and loved the idea of symbols instead of the actually characters from the book. The crown is actually made out of clay!

Details make my heart happy.

He also had his own personal chocolate cake with chocolate mousse! The Max figurine on top is made out of clay as well and I'm so happy she mentioned this because I love keepsakes. [I have the topper to my baby shower cake too!]

 

I ordered these Mommy&Me shirts from Little Treetops

Favors - I am so lucky to have so many talented friends. One of my friends made Eli's Max costume he wore in his birthday pictures and another one hand painted all 100 of his party favors!! They were sugar cookies with the Wild Things faces; I wish I had more pictures of these but just know they were delicious AND beautiful.

Another thing I didn't get a picture of was his signed copy of Where The Wild Things Are! All his guests signed and wrote notes to him; something I will cherish forever.

 

All in all his third birthday was kept pretty simple, but he had a blast! It was a perfect day at the park and it was awesome to be able to see all of our friends. After hours and hours of planning I am so happy with the way our little party turned out and from all the pictures it looks like Eli was too!

 

 

 

 

.Cake: A Slice of Life

.Cookie Favors and Packaging: Sweet Ginger

.Paper Pendent Banner: One Crafty Foxx

.Crowns: Amazon-Small Toys

.Location: River Legacy Parks

 

Inspiration: Hours on Pinterest +

http://nikkiikkin.com/2012/04/23/where-the-wild-things-are-party/

&

http://blog.hwtm.com/2011/03/bright-modern-wild-rumpus-birthday-party/





 



Where The Wild Things Are;;

Thursday, March 14th my little baby became a little three year old boy. Earlier Thursday morning we set off to take pictures by my talented friend Lauren to mark this momentous occasion.
 
This year I decided to have a "Where The Wild Things Are" party for Eli; mostly because this is probably my last year to be able to decide what kind of party I'm throwing and also because this is our favorite bedtime story and he knows all the words. So I chose the location & his outfits around his birthday theme and I still can't believe how magical everything came out. Perfect.

Lauren took a few of us together, some in his 'fancy' outfit with his WTWTA bowtie, & of course he had to have some in his Max Wolf Suit costume!!

 

 

 



Photography: Lauren Marie Photography
Location: River Legacy Parks
WTWTA Pendent Banner: one crafty foxx
Eli's outfits:
Yellow jeans, Giraffe shirt, Plaid button down, glasses, & stripped boat shorts: Baby Gap
Pink button down: The Children's Place
Max costume: Our talented friend Chelsea.
Where The Wild Things Are Bowtie: Unique Chic Bowtique
TOMS & Sperrys: Journey Kidz

cfp obsession explained.

Why do you talk about CrossFit Pantego so much!?

 

I started off writing this post yesterday, but much to my more clear headed self this morning, it just seemed to be a bunch of words thrown up to ultimately say how much I love CrossFit Pantego without telling you WHY.

While I’m not one to harp on that person jumping up and down with over excitement about something they love {probably because that person is usually me,} I do want to make sure what I say is true, readable, & far from sugar coated! Take about 50 more “awesomes,” “exciteds,” “amazings,” add them into this blog with a few sprinkles of fairy dust and you’ll get back to the mess I wrote yesterday!

If you’re completely over my obsession with CrossFit Pantego, working out, my box, or Cross anything; fair warning: TURN BACK NOW.

Hopefully though, this will open the eyes to those of you who are still on the fence {yes, I will push you off and not feel bad about!} And sorry, this is still a big, sappy dedication to CrossFit Pantego, you should know me better than that.

Being friends with me {& even if you’re not I’m sure from my previous spiel you can get the gist} you know I talk a little bit about CrossFit Pantego. Okay, fine I’m basically a CFp spokesperson who took up the job without being asked, luckily my trainers are too kind to tell me to stop inviting the multitudes; so I’m going to continue too!

If you’ve never heard of CrossFit we have something in common and I’ll go ahead and leave the definition of that to the professionals, you can read more about it here. CrossFit was defiantly not part of my vocabulary that 5am morning I first walked into CFp, for that I am so thankful. Having no preconceived notions I had no idea what I was getting myself into!

4 1/2 calloused- bruised- tear- inside joke- new friend making-addiction starting- filled months later I am here to tell you; stop underestimating yourself!!

Let me start by telling you what you can expect at CFp from my experience and because I am in no way even halfway decent at most of CrossFit only take it as what it is, MY opinion.

At CrossFit Pantego you can expect to cry.
I had tears in my eyes the first day I was able to deadlift 200lbs, two months before I needed help with the THIRTY-FIVE pound barbell. I have also cried when I was too scared to box jump, couldn’t up my weight like I wanted too, and when I had a breakdown during one of our WODs. {You can read that story here} But I also cried the first time I put on a size 12 from a 22, in 3 months!!! And when my brother found out he was 4lbs under the weight to get into the Marines, trying for a year before, & finally making it after only 4 months of CFp.

Expect to sweat.
You will make beautiful sweat angels, butt prints, hand prints, etc. etc. Those should be your pride & glory, post pictures of them on Instagram, Facebook, & twitter.  Hard work = puddles of sweat, get used to it!

Expect to feel like the “weak” or out of shape one.
But trust me you might feel like that before you come, or on your first day, but you are way stronger than you can imagine. Strength takes time. My first two weeks I had to stop halfway through running jogging 200 meters, 2 months later I ran in a mud run, 3 months later I finished a 5k in 30 minutes. {I really hate running by the way, don’t know if those feelings will ever change!} My legs still hurt, my muscles still ache, I still get plenty of bruises but I love it. {Hopefully I'm not suffering from a masochistic personality disorder.}

Expect to hear words you’re too scared to know the meaning of.
If you ever heard the words burpee, Turkish get-up, Clean, Jerk, Push Press, Snatch, Kettlebell Swing, Romanian deadlift, ‘WOD’, Met-Con, or any other foreign word that sounds like a 10 year old having a dirty conversation & you didn't understand, don't worry. You will learn them! Some are as bad as they sound, others will become your new best friends.

Expect to gain.
Family, friends, muscles. Yup, you will defiantly gain SOMETHING. Even if you don’t need it! Jokes are usually said, quotes are added to the bathroom wall, and you gain the understanding that working out eventually becomes “hanging out.” Like a wise young woman once said to me, I have stopped calling going to the gym working out now I'm simply hanging out with friends!

Expect to change your name.
At some point your name will magically become a 4 letter word, no not the bad kind, Cassandra turns to Cass, Chandler turns to Chan, Elizabeth turns to Eliz, and don’t worry if your name is too short, Rafe can always think of something! &  if you’re really lucky you ultimately become just your first letter!

Expect to be safe!
I cannot express in enough words how much I love my trainers Rafe & Jess. Besides the fact that they are just genuinely amazing souls {& I can only hope my marriage is halfway as awesome as theirs,} they make sure that every single person is training SAFELY. My favorite compliments to hear Rafe give to all of us are “good active shoulders,” “nice back,” “great depth,” or some variation of exactly what it is we’re doing right. When your muscles are shaking and you don’t think you can do any more reps hearing Rafe or Jess still shouting, “GREAT JOB!” makes it easier to finish.

 

Married people aren't supposed to be this cute btw.

I know this is a lot to read, I write way too much too prove my points so the fault is mine, but finish this last one before you check out!

>>Expect to be included.<<
I will always remember my first day at CFp, but not just because we did ‘Deck of Cards’ and I had to run 1.5 miles. It will always be because I was waited on. I was cheered on as I finished. These people who never had worked out with me before were telling me I was doing good and waiting for ME to finish before they left. To have that kind of support from day one, to feel like I was a part of something I knew nothing about, there is no other place you’re going to work out that will feel like that. CrossFit Pantego has included me in something that I can now call mine.

If you need more proof of my praises go read ‘My Story’ here and see where I’ve come from and how CFp helped me get to where I am today.

Come try it out and see for yourself. Don’t worry, you can thank me later.

{Check out CrossFit Pantego's site here and their Facebook here!}

resolutions.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” -Psalm 32:8

 

Yes, I know it's 10 days into 2013 and I'm just now writing about resolutions, but hear me out because I do not believe in them.

The word resolution literally means a firm decision to do or not to do something. Being human, how do I have a right to tell my indifferent, growing, learning, mistake-making self to firmly do or not do something FOR A WHOLE YEAR!?

Luckily, I don't. God does.

      This past year I learned a lot about myself as a person.

I realized I enjoyed being a mother more than a party-going friend.

I discovered I am stronger and more motivated than I thought and with that, gained self-awareness and a huge family of CrossFitters.

I uncovered my true love of Jesus, my real friends, and knowledge to know that this {all the aspects of my life} is not my plan.

 
On the first Sunday of 2013 my previous years lessons were put into perspective. My pastor, a great man I am honored to learn from & you can too by reading his blog here, talked about goals and resolutions. Not weight loss or exercising, but our spiritual life goals, the stuff that was going to make us stronger Christians and faith walkers. He asked a simple question:

"What is God's next step for you?"

Sitting there, jotting down notes without really thinking about much, I stopped and repeated the question to myself. What WAS God's plan for me? What IS my next step? 

The only ideas in my head up until this point were about saving more money, getting stronger, and jokingly getting a 3k engagement ring {husband still TBD.}

Probably not along the same lines of what Pastor Heath was talking about or what God actually has in store for me this year.
 
         For the past 4 days I've been praying for discernment over the path I should be taking and my heart has never felt fuller.
I don't know if it's just me or not but when I think about doing works for God I can feel my heart tingle. {By the way, I'm really hoping this is just the Holy Spirit and something isn't wrong with my organs} The love I have in knowing I'm following Him fills me up with so much joy it is hard to explain. It's the same way I feel about Him blessing me with my son.
 
Even though I still don't believe in resolutions, I believe in God's power and I know that He has a plan for everyone, I just hope I am able to truly listen. I pray that you realize this too, your goals should be His goals, not the other way around.

PS, really....let me know if your heart tingles.

 

 

blackouts & breakdowns

This morning was not my morning.

I typically dislike most mornings until I walk into CrossFit Pantego and finish my warm up, then you might catch me a little more upbeat. Unfortunately, today was not one of those days.

I finally rolled out of bed around 4:45am. I could barely keep my eyes open to brush my teeth and characteristically ran out of the house without my shoes even on.

Let me stop here and remind everyone that I have Narcolepsy. If you don't know anything about Narcolepsy and don't care too much about reading medical definitions- it is a chronic neurological disorder with no cure that makes me extremely sleepy to the point of just falling into a deep sleep for a few minutes (blacking out essentially) and among other things causes muscle weakness. 

{If you want to read more about Narcolepsy I highly suggest checking out Julie Flygare's blog she is awesome & just wrote a book on living with Narcolepsy!}

 

I don't know if anyone who isn't narcoleptic can understand how scary it is to get into your car and arrive at the place you wanted to go and not remember anything that happens during the trip. Or suddenly waking up to realize that the 10 second nap you just took you were actually on the highway. Luckily, these things happen to me less and less with my new medicine, but today was an exception. Remember how I talked about emotions the other day? Well those came out to play this morning and narcolepsy and Helen didn't help very much.

I try not to let Narcolepsy ruin my life. I try to make sure that if I am driving someone is with me or if I have to go very far I have someone that can take me & I now know my body's signs and understand that it isn't weird to pull over on the side of the road in order to save mine or another person's life. I especially try not to let it become a huge part of how I workout, how I work, and how I go to school, but sometimes it decides it needs to make itself known.

I can't tell you why God gave me Narcolepsy, but then again I can't tell you why God chose to create me period because He is too big for me to ever comprehend. I do know that today was a big slap in the face that He is completely in control of my life. 

5:05am we get to CrossFit late, mostly my fault a little of my falling asleep while drivings fault. I warm up, still fill disgusting. We have to box jump, I want to box jump, one of my goals is to box jump. I start at the tire. I feel my body getting weak. I feel the burning sensation in my eyes right before I get a sleep attack. I keep screaming at myself to please stay awake, how embarrassing would it be to fall asleep at CrossFit?! Funny, but embarrassing. 

I pretend that I am scared because I am scared. I am scared that people will be able to tell that I am weak because of my disorder. I hate that this is something I can not control. In trying to hide that I know I am at my body and mind's limits I have lied to some of my closest friends. I have lied to myself in thinking I could do this alone and ignore that God chose to give me Narcolepsy, for whatever reason. 

Up next, Helen that little devil. For Time: 400m, 21 kettle bell swings (35lb), 12 pull ups. 3 Times.

Round 1: By the time I ran about 300m I thought about laying down on the street and falling asleep. During KB swings the wonderful feeling of sandpaper in my eyes became worse. At 5 pull ups I felt myself blacking out. Trying to describe this feeling is weird to me, it's not a typical "blackout" but I can feel myself losing vision and not being able to open my eyes for a few seconds. THIS IS NOT SAFE. If anyone feels like this for any reason you should tell your coach. I am a woman and a Mexican one at that- that automatically makes me very stubborn. I need to get over that. By God's doing, not my own, I stopped. I walked into the office, cried for about two minutes while Rafe probably thought I was having a breakdown because he didn't hear that I was blacking out and like the amazing coach and man he is knows not to mess with me when I'm pissed. I came back out and finished. 

Narcolepsy is funny in that if you just stop for 10 seconds breath close your eyes and "nap" the symptoms of my sleep attacks usually stop for awhile. By the time I got through all three rounds I was last, I had cried a river alone, and I still didn't really tell Rafe what was going on. But everyone still cheered for me.

I realized that if Rafe wasn't my coach I probably would have walked out that door the second I was done with my warm up. It makes me extremely mad when my mind knows I can do something and I want to do something, but my body doesn't. After my breakdown I prayed. Why was I relying on myself to determine when I could or couldn't do something? Life sure doesn't work that way no matter what people try to tell you. God is in charge of your life. If He decides that I need to stop and rest for 2 minutes on a timed WOD well then I need to rest. I hope that one day I won't be ashamed to tell people "I'm tired." I hope that one day someone will find a cure and the only reason I stop my timed WOD is when I'm completely done. 

Rafe's back there running with us!

I'm sorry this was long, I know that this was probably uneventful to many of you, but I learned some awesome lessons today in my struggle. 

I know that God can and will help me with what needs to be done. I know that He shows me when I am in the wrong by giving me opportunities where I have to fully rely on Him, no matter if it's a timed WOD or raising my son as a single mother. I also know that no matter what my coach will be there for me and will help me IF I let him know what's going on. I know that no matter what time I come in the other athletes around me will be cheering me on, because that is what we do. 

So as much as it pains me to say this to you; thank you Helen, for all of this in 14 and a half short minutes.

emotional me.

Let me start off by making it clear. I'm not emotional.

Okay....I wasn't emotional.

 

 

I use to be the person who could watch Sarah Mclachlan animal commercials and not shed one single tear. Now I find myself crying at Bible verses.

 

I tried to remember when this change started in me and "fix" it, but today I think I've finally become perfectly okay with these new found friends emotions.

Crying is no longer a sign of weakness, angry shouts are no longer a sign I'm just mad, and loud bursts of laughing; well those are still because I love laughing.

I now cry when I think about my amazing God & all He's allowed to be accomplished through me and through His works. I cry when I look at how perfect my son is and when I see him learn new things or when he holds my hand and asks me to pray. I cry when I hear encouraging stories, when I hear sad stories, when I hear really really really horrible stories.
        
I also cry when I can't lift something heavy. When my body wants to give up, but I don't. I cry when it takes me longer to get my sets done. {That actually might just be sweat...} That usually leads to my angry shouting.
 

 

So since you now know how emotional I've started becoming, it's noon and already today I've gotten tears in my eyes more times than my whole Senior year of high school.

Reason number 1?

 

 

 

These two pictures picture. {Yup a picture of my backside.}

  

Now lets all take this into consideration....

 

 

Okay, okay, since we're all telling the truth right now I am getting emotional just posting this! When I saw the picture of me planking I didn't think it was me at first. I honestly thought some other girl just had my shoes on. When I saw the Christmas pictures I took with my brothers&sister I asked my mom if that was photoshopped. I know I am no where near my goal, but so far this is one proud moment.

 

Still don't know how to thank Rafe, Jess, and CrossFit Pantego, but hopefully my tears can show my appreciation!!

 

Reason number 2

 

 

See that girl in the middle in the gray shirt?? Yeah her. Alicia.

 

After reading her blog today I am so proud to know that we both workout at CFP. Thanks for pullin my new heartstrings Alicia!! You can read her blog&follow her journey too, just click on her picture!

 

 

& Last [but probably not for long...]

Don't need to explain. My mom is my best friend and this doesn't prove why, it proves that God is perfect and He really does know when, where, and how you need to feel encouraged, motivated, and loved. I love you mama!

 

So there ya have it!

I guess I can be considered a 'real' woman now since I just shared my feelings and admitted that I don't mind them.

 

Don't be afraid to share yours.

 

"If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God."- 2 Corinthians 5:13