Alan's Rookie of the Year Birthday Party

For Alan's first birthday, I decided to go with a baseball theme. Rob wants Alan to grow up to be a "left-handed hitting, right-handed throwing catcher" because he says that is the best way to get into the majors.

Although we didn't have enough time to play t-ball, I was extremely pleased with the way the party turned out and thought I'd post what I did to plan for it for posterity.

The Venue
I wanted a place where I could rent a pavilion and a ball field together. The idea was to have the party and allow the kids to play t-ball on the field. I thought about Pinkneyville Park because I run past there all the time, but when I called they said the little leaguers would have the fields at the time of year we were looking to rent. We ended up renting the pavilion at Best Friend Park. It was actually perfect for a birthday party, and I may consider it for future parties. It had a grill and bathroom, and it was right next to the playground and the baseball field. The pavilion had a wide open space that we were able to set up the play yard with toys so the babies could play.


The Invitations
The invitations were designed by a fellow August 2010 parent, Jeremi Salveston, who also happens to work for Pixel Perfect Graphic Design. I wanted the invites to look like tickets to a game. We had Alan's 10-month pictures done in Braves attire with a baseball theme. I sent Jeremi a few of the ticket invitations I had found online that I liked. He took Alan's picture and the information for the party, and created the perfect invitation. He was very patient with me as I made little changes here and there. I highly recommend his company for any graphic design needs.




The Decorations
I didn't get too fancy with decorations since I didn't know exactly what the set up was going to look like ahead of time. I had never been to Best Friend Park, so i didn't know if it would be easy to hang streamers or balloons. So I kept it pretty simple. Besides, baseball games don't have a lot of decorations anyway.
There were four decorations that I used: a Simon Field banner, a month-by-month picture banner, a Happy Birthday banner, and some baseballs that were posted around the pavilion.

I had the Simon Field banner made at Vista Print. I tried to make the Simon Field part of it to look as close to the Turner Field sign as possible. I left a space between 'Happy' and 'Birthday' so we could use it in future birthdays if Alan wanted a baseball or sports theme.



I made two month-by-month picture banners that we hung up on the fence next to the pavilion. I first found a picture of a baseball using Google Images and put it into a Word document. I put numbers over the picture to represent the months of Alan's first year. I printed them out, cut them out, and had them laminated so they wouldn't tear. I then bought some fancy paperclip tags from Target and hot-glued them to the bottom of the number balls. I bought some white ribbon and drew the baseball stitches on the ribbon with black and red Sharpie markers. I hot-glued the balls to the ribbon. Finally, I took pictures from each month of Alan's first year and attached them using the paper clips.

I wanted something to decorate his high chair a little without being in the way of the mess I was anticipating with the smash cake. So I bought a simple Happy Birthday banner to put up in front of the chair.



The Food

To go with the baseball theme, the menu consisted of concession stand food: hot dogs, nachos, Cracker Jacks, and peanuts. Rob and Al cooked hot dogs on the grill with a little help from some of the male party guests.






For the smash cake, I made carrot cake in the shape of a baseball. I decorated it to look like the ball was lying in the grass.






The cake for the guests consisted of both a cupcake and a brownie formed into the shape of a hamburger. I had a lot of help from my in-laws (Allison Anderson and Donna Davis) to assemble the cakes. I made vanilla cupcakes and cut them in half to use as the bun. I then took a sheet of brownies and cut the brownies into circles to use as the burger. I made frosting in different colors: red for tomatoes, green for lettuce, and yellow for cheese. I cut the brownies in half so that we could put the cheese in between the burger layers. We added the lettuce on top of the brownie and piped the tomato on top of the lettuce before putting the top bun on. I then made sugar cookies cut out in strips for fries. I added some raw sugar to the top of them to act as salt on the fries. Both the mini double cheese burgers and the fries went into styrofoam containers so each person could have individual burgers and fries.

The Favors
I made different favor bags for babies and for kids who had reached the age where choking was no longer a problem. In the baby favor bag, I put a snack container with Cheerios, a baby Mum-Mum, stickers, a notepad, a pencil, and a squishy baseball. In the kid favor bag I put candy, stickers, a notepad, a pencil, a baseball bouncy ball, a temporary tattoo, and a squishy baseball.

Alan's "favors" (or keepsakes) consisted of a yearbook that I made with the ABC's of his first year and a baseball that everyone at the party signed. For the yearbook, I took each letter of the alphabet and put together some pictures for a topic that started with that letter. For example, A was for aquarium. I put pictures of when Alan went to the Tennessee Aquarium. We asked that all the guests sign the yearbook.

The Attire
I had shirts made for Alan, Rob, and myself. The shirts said Alan's Birthday on the front and had our names and ages on the back. It was hard to find Alan's shirt. There aren't many people who make infant sized raglan shirts. I finally found a place in Illinois called H. P. Tops that makes infant raglan shirts, so I ordered Alan's shirt from them. The shirt turned out great, and I would definitely recommend them to anyone. I got Rob's and mine from Cafe Press. It took me awhile to find a place that would do just two shirts. Most places made you buy a minimum of six shirts, but Cafe Press allows you to do only one if you want. I was less than impressed with the quality of the shirts.



All of the raglan shirts came with three-quarter length sleeves. Knowing that it was going to be a hot day (middle of August in Georgia is no picnic), I asked Rob's mom to shorten Alan's and my sleeves. She did a great job altering the shirts.




The Photographers
If anyone knows me, they know that I LOVE pictures! I knew I was going to be too busy running around to take pictures. One of my friends just started a photography business, so I asked her and her husband to take pictures at the party. Their company is called True Photography, and they did an amazing job! I was particularly fond of this series of pictures with Alan playing with the baseball.


Here are some more pictures from the party.

Alan standing all by himself.
Smash cake
The Aftermath
Alan walking
Future Atlanta Braves catcher?

Although we didn't have enough time to play t-ball, the party was a huge success! I'm very pleased with the end results. Thank you to everyone who made the day special!

To see more pictures, go to Alan's Birthday Party album on facebook.

Happy First Birthday, Booger!

My son turned one last Wednesday, and we spent most of last week celebrating. I'll post about his party separately. I am so happy to be the mother of a one-year-old almost toddler! He is getting more and more independent every day.

Alan could walk if he had the confidence. His motor skills are developed enough that if he would just let go of the one finger he's still holding onto, he would be able to run across the room. But he is still too scared to let go. It won't be much longer before he takes off. We get two or three steps at a time quite frequently now, but he still looks for a hand or grasps onto the nearest surface once he realizes that he's doing it on his own.

Alan's language skills still need a lot of work. He's been chatting for a long time, but the only real words he can say are "Dada" and "Uh-oh." And he calls almost everything and everyone "Dada." He knows a lot of words if we say them though. He can point to my nose, eyes, mouth, hair, teeth, and necklace. He can show me his foot if I ask. He can point to the light, fan, window, table, and picture if we ask where they are. But he can't form any of those into actual words. He knows the signs for milk, all done, and more, and uses them fairly regularly.

Physically, Alan is a tall, thin kid. He weighs 20lbs 7oz, which is the 35th percentile. He is 30.5 inches tall, which is the 75th percentile. And his head is a huge 19 inches, which is the 95th percentile. He has six teeth so far - two on bottom and four on top. He's got plenty of hair, which we had to cut at eleven months to keep it from looking like a mullet. He has pretty big feet and wears a size 5. He can still fit into some 9 month clothing, but is mostly wearing 12 month or bigger now because of his height.

Personally, I have stopped pumping completely, and am so happy about that!! I am still nursing in the morning and at night with no end in sight. I figure I'll let Alan tell me when he no longer wants those sessions, and he seems to be pretty interested in keeping them as of right now.

I'm in the process of training for the Outer Banks Marathon in November. I'm officially starting my "get rid of the baby fat" diet today and increasing my exercise routine to include more ab work and strength training. I am determined to get my body back!

20 More Days

...until I no longer have to lug my pump to and from work.
...until my hormones can begin to get back to normal.
...until I can stop popping nine pills a day.
...until I can sleep through the night.
...until I can get my life back

Future Marathon Momma?

My marathon training has officially begun. Today was the first day, and I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Sure, I've done five marathons already, but I didn't have a baby at that time. Finding the time and energy to get the training done will be a challenge.

I'm shooting for a 4-hour marathon again, but at this point, just finishing will be a success after my two year hiatus from marathoning.

I ran 10 miles last Saturday in preparation for marathon training. That was the longest I have run since I was eight months pregnant.

My training plan this week consists of:
Two easy 4 mile runs (today and Friday)
One 5 mile marathon pace run (tomorrow - we'll see how that goes trying to run at marathon pace with a baby jogger in front of you)
One 7 mile LSD (long, slow distance) run on Saturday

If I can pull this off, I'll officially rename my blog to Marathon Momma. Wish me luck!

Week Ten

Congratulations! You have made it through the 5k. How did you do? Were you able to run the whole way? Do you feel accomplished? Do you feel like a runner now? You have finished your first race on your journey to a marathon.

The road to a 10k begins this week. From here on out, you will have workouts where you run the whole way. When we get closer to the marathon, we will consider the run/walk program again. But for now, your workouts will be mostly running.

We also start a new pattern of workouts this week. You will still have three workouts, but you will have one shorter workout, one middle distance workout, and a long run. This will prepare you for the marathon training where you will have the same types of workouts: two shorter, one middle distance, and one long run.

Click below to expand the training plan for 5k to 10k.

Tabata Arm Workout

Race Jitters Resources
Tips for Managing Pre-Race Jitters and Performance Anxiety
Pre-Race Jitters
Conquer Your Pre-Race Jitters
Video - Dealing with Pre-race Anxiety and Nerves

Exerise of the Week: Tabata Arm Workout
For the past four weeks we have been learning some basic arm exercises that are helpful for runners: Bicep curls, Rowing, Tricep extensions, and Dumbbell bench press. The Tabata arm workout will put all four of those exercises together in one 20 minute workout. This workout is ideal for those days of "rest" from your runs.

The Tabata workout was invented/designed by Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo. The claims are that Tabata training is "the fastest way to fitness and fat loss" and "the single most effective type of high intensity interval training, [while] also the most intense by far." The way it works is you do as many repetitions of one exercise as you can do in twenty seconds. You then rest for ten seconds and repeat seven times (with the same exercise). After that exercise is over, you will rest for one minute before moving to the next exercise.


In this workout start with the bicep curls. Start the timer and do as many bicep curls you can do in twenty seconds. After the twenty seconds are up, rest for ten seconds (putting the weights down). After that ten seconds of rest, pick the weights back up and do twenty seconds more of bicep curls (as many as you can in that twenty-second time period). Keep that up until you have done eight twenty-second sets of bicep curls. Rest for one minute. Then pick up your weights and start your rowing for twenty seconds. Rest for ten seconds. Row for twenty seconds, etc, until you have gotten eight twenty-second sets of rows. Then rest for one minute and start your tricep extensions. Do eight twenty-second sets of tricep extensions (with the ten seconds of rest in between). Rest for one minute and start your bench press. Do eight twenty-second sets of bench presses (with the ten seconds of rest in between). The whole workout should be approximately twenty minutes.

The key is to push yourself HARD for those 20 seconds of work each and every time. If done properly, this workout will continue to burn fat throughout the day.

Race Jitters

This is it! You've made it to the week of your first race, a 5k. Do you feel nervous?

Many people who run races, no matter how long they've been doing it, get performance anxiety, or what is commonly called "pre-race jitters." It's very normal. But there are some things you can do to reduce those pre-race jitters.

The most important thing to tame those jitters is to be prepared. There are several things you need to be prepared for: training properly, eating properly, having the necessary equipment ready, and knowing where to go and when.

If you've trained well, following the training plan fairly closely, you should have no problems completing the race. If you can run 3 miles, you can certainly run 3.1 miles. Even if you have missed a few workouts, you should still be okay. You're not going to the race to win it. You're going to complete it. One of the best things about running your first race is that there are no expectations. You could set some goals if you like, such as running the entire time. But for the most part, if it is your first race, your only goal should be to finish.

Eating properly before the race is important. Most races are run in the morning. Don't go to the race on an empty stomach. Try to eat something that will give you energy. A bagel is a good option (whole wheat if you can find it). Do not drink acidic juices, as it may make your stomach hurt as you run. Drink plenty of fluids before, during, and after the race. You should drink at least 8 oz of water before the race. If you need a break during the race, the best place to stop is at the water stop where you can rehydrate as you take your break. Most 5ks have at least one water stop. Many have two or three (one at each mile). Check the race website to find out how many water stops there are along the course.

Set out your equipment the night before. Shirt, shorts, race number and pins, shoes, socks, hat or visor, watch or other timing device, etc. Have it all out and ready to go. There often is a place to check your belongings at a 10k or larger (especially if it is a point-to-point course). If so, do you have the proper bag and tag to put your items in? Having everything ready ahead of time will help you sleep better at night knowing you won't forget anything.

Make sure you know where to go and how to get there. Often times the roads around the race will be closed off to prepare for the runners. Be sure to know where you need to park and how to get there to avoid the closed roads. Find out where the starting line is and where the finish line is. If possible, drive the course a day ahead of time to see where the more difficult spots are (hills, turns, etc). If you know what to expect, you will be less worried about the unknown.

Set your alarm and try to arrive to the start line at least 30 minutes before the start of the race. That gives you extra time in case there are long lines or a lot of traffic. It will also give you time to make that last minute pit stop at the porta potty before the race if you need it. It will also give you time to do your warm-up walk or jog.

Knowing what to expect and being prepared is the biggest way to calm those jitters. Good luck!!