Friday Free For All

Happy weekend everyone! Hope you all have had a great (short) week. The tough thing about the 4 day weeks is everything is crammed into the 4 days and I always feel like I'm trying to play catch up! Anyone else? 

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Labor Day

Labor Day was super low key for us..spent some quiet time with the boys and got some things done around the house like organizing my desk area and attic storage. I had a bit of coaching on sunday so that took up most of my morning. The weather here was a little bit of a buzz kill but we try to spend as much time outside with the boys unless it is pouring rain while we can before the weather turns!

                                           Participants at the Hurricane Harvey Soccer Pick up Fundraiser!

                                           Participants at the Hurricane Harvey Soccer Pick up Fundraiser!

Hurricane Harvey Fundraiser

Seeing all of the people affected by Hurricane Harvey has just absolutely broken my heart. Seeing lives lost, families lose everything and not have a home is so hard to see. Having a family myself, its devastating thinking of other moms out there struggling to keep it all together for their families and in need of simple things like food, water, shelter, diapers, etc.

I kept thinking to myself..there has to be something that we can do to help to show our support and had an idea about bringing together the community for a night of soccer where the proceeds of the "games" would go directly to Houston. I enlisted our Director of Coaching, Rob Ferguson, who set up an incredible "pick up soccer" event where youth players came and donated some money to play pick up. Any player, any club, come one, come all. We put this event together in basically 5-6 days. (Bravo, Rob)

The support was overwhelming with so many young players coming to participate, as well as volunteers coming to help in every way possible. Canisius and Buff State sent players from their collegiate programs to support and hang out with the kids. Sahlen's (obviously) donated hot dogs available for purchase and proceeds also went to the cause. The event was incredible- I can't tell you how amazing the vibe and atmosphere was. THANK YOU to everyone that attended and donated! As of now, we have raised over $4,000 for the Hurricane Relief efforts. The WNY Soccer community sure did rise up to the occasion and a big pat on the back to all of the WNY Flash Academy and Sahlen Sports Park staff that helped us make the event a reality. Our thoughts are with everyone in Irma's path and we are praying for all of you down south! 

My go-to night snack

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I don't know about you guys, but whenever the cooler temperatures roll around, I CRAVE COMFORT FOOD (and sugar). 11 months postpartum and I'm still trying to lose those last dang 5 lbs :P #thestruggle

Its been about 2 weeks since I've had the self control to stop having my bowl (or two lol) of nightly granola. I love granola and although there are certainly WORSE things I could be eating, the portion size that I have been eating is basically for two people, lol, and the sugar content in that is just....yeah. not ideal. My replacement? some Quest Peanut Butter Protein Powder mixed with Chobani plain greek yogurt.

I find that its sweet enough (the peanut butter flavor), and filling enough with the protein content of the yogurt as well as a 1/2 scoop of the powder. Its low sugar, and lower carb. If you like peanut butter, I definitely recommend trying it! I also have done this with different flavors of protein powder (vanilla) and it was pretty good. This gives you FLAVOR without the added sugar content of the flavored greek yogurts! 

Have a great weekend everyone! 

xo

Alex

 

Friday Free For All

Hey everyone! Wow..its friday and its SEPTEMBER. Bring on the cardigans, booties, chunky sweaters, and thick socks. I swear that every month I'm like "omg, I can't believe it's already ___" And this month is no exception. How is it almost FALL already? It's somehow shocking to me (still lol) how fast time can go.
 

                                                            Hellooooo September!!!

                                                            Hellooooo September!!!

Last year at this time I was just flat out scared. totally. absolutely. scared. I had no idea what was coming my way with adding little Seb into our family. I'm really looking forward to this fall. The hardest days are in the past (well at least in terms of sheer exhaustion and lack of sleep), and I'm looking forward to embracing the routine of school starting the week of the 11th for Max. He'll start going 3 mornings a week and while I love my time with him, I know how important it is for him to feel comfortable away from his "safe place" at home. He's definitely a shy boy and is super attached so getting out in a school and socialization environment is great for him. Also, I'm going to embrace having mornings on my own to spend some time with my almost one year old ...(tear). 

Easy Breakfast

With the 1st day of school quickly approaching next week after labor day for kids in our area, I thought I would share one of my go-to quick but healthy breakfasts. This is an awesome one for hectic mornings especially the first few weeks of school when everyone is still adjusting to a routine. All you need is any kind of bread that you (or your child likes), a cup, and an egg! To make the "gas-house egg," grab your bread and a small cup (Your kids cups are perfect- you don't want the hole too large). Press down into the bread making a circular indent enough to take the indent out of the bread. Next, place the bread on the pan. Crack the egg in the open, circular area and cook to desired liking and flip. I also place the small circular piece in the pan so it gets a little toasted. My boys like it when I add jam to the toast when its finished cooking, but you can add whatever you want (peanut butter, butter) or nothing at all if you like a nice runny egg to dip your toasted egg in! There's something about the way this tastes cooked inside the bread that is just super tasty! Protein & carbs to keep you and your little ones going all morning, all in one shot! 

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                                                                  The final product!…

                                                                  The final product!!!

Bobs Double Stroller

If you follow me on instagram, you probably have seen my post on the Bobs double stroller. I have had the Bob single running stroller ever since Max was 9 or 10 months old and have loved it. Ever since Seb was "of age" to take a run, I've been eyeing the double stroller but the price always stopped me in my tracks. I thought that someone, SOMEWHERE would be wanting to offload theirs and I could get a used one? Please? Someone? .....Anyway weeks turned into months and I honestly could not find a used one for under $300 or $350 which I thought was completely outrageous. Fast forward to last week. I'm just done. Done having to rely on other people to get my cardio in and at this point in time, a lot of the time I'm still up once a night, so waking up at 5 am to run just isn't going to happen. The Double runner was my answer. 
 

SO.  I went to buy buy baby over the weekend to "test" the double out. I was honestly worried that maybe it would be too tough to push with the two boys in it? Anyway, I went to the store with the mindset that I would just have a look at it and keep waiting for A. a huge sale or B. a used one, if I liked how it moved.
 

                                Testing the BOB Double stroller out in store. They look thrilled! Ha!

                                Testing the BOB Double stroller out in store. They look thrilled! Ha!

I LOVED HOW IT MOVED, guys. So I'm sure you can finish the story for me. I BOUGHT IT. But- the catch is I got it for 15% off PLUS another 20% off.. #WINNING. Best thing I ever did. I am such a big proponent of online shopping but sometimes it sure does pay to go to actual stores. 

I would definitely recommend the stroller to anyone who runs consistently during the week and has two little ones. It glides and is super easy to run with. I was pleasantly suprised that my splits weren't much different than with the single! And yeah, when anyone asks me about my stroller I'll definitely be bragging not only about my mileage, but how cheap I got it for :) 

Hope you all have an amazing labor day weekend :) 

xo

Alex