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Yoga Rocks The Park // Giveaway!

July 16, 2013 by Rachel 2 Comments

Guys — if there are two things that I love, it’s yoga and being outside.

So you can imagine my excitement for practicing yoga OUTDOORS!

Seriously, if you’ve never practiced yoga outside, it’s amazing! And Northeast Ohio is lucky enough to be part of a community that’s mission is to bring yoga to communities all over the United States — Yoga Rocks the Park!

“Yoga Rocks the Park is not just a weekly event, it’s a movement to bring a sense of peace and joy to communities throughout the country. We want to celebrate communities that are thriving in a unified sense of family and wellness, and are having fun doing it. We are thrilled to have expanded the YRP Movement into 14 cities across the U.S. with more cities to be announced soon!” says Erik Vienneau, YRP’s Founder.

Yoga Rocks the Park Cleveland happens right in Lincoln Park in Tremont on Saturday & Sunday mornings throughout the summer. The cost is $12 in advance or $15 the day of. Best yet? Classes taught by amazing local teachers are accompanied by live music!

I’m giving away TWO passes to Yoga Rocks the Park, taught by our own Alicia at Poise In Parma on July 27th!

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR SAT 7/27: Events are rain or shine thanks to the YRP CLE sponsor Merrick House:

9:30 am Registration Opens

10-11am Yoga Practice taught by Alicia and assisted by teachers from Nishkama Yoga & Free Kids Yoga (Jennifer from Urban Lotus Youth Yoga will lead the kids session)

11-12pm Musical Performance & More

a Rafflecopter giveaway

While I would love to be in attendance that day, we’ll be on vacation. 🙁 But for whomever is going, I can give you ideas for a post-yoga brunch in the area! 😉

weekend round up //

July 7, 2013 by Rachel 1 Comment

As much as this weekend feels like it lasted forever, I also feel like it flew by — even though I had to work Friday!

I ended up getting out of work early Friday afternoon + I decided to hit the gym. I’ve decided that I wish I worked until 3PM every weekday because I would get SO much more done in those two hours between 3 and 5.

And I still felt like I had the evening to do whatever I wanted!

We ended up going to our neighbors for an impromptu cookout. We ate BBQ pork, apple pie, and drank a couple of beers until the late hours of the night [which, let’s face it, actually means 11PM for us].

Nonetheless, 11PM is way past our bedtime; and way, WAY past Ari’s bedtime! He was a champ, though. And we learned that he absolutely loves sparklers! Ha!

Pretty much Friday night was exactly what we needed — a chill night near home… snuggling with Babycakes and laughing with friends.

Saturday morning we all [kinda] slept in. Ari has been getting used to sleeping in the pack n play so that he’s OK sleeping in it on our upcoming vacation. And the Pack N Play is in our room… so we have no choice but to wake up when he wakes up. And Saturday it was at 5am. He was hungry so I brought him into bed, fed him and then we both fell back asleep until 8 — which is pretty much unheard of around our household.

We spent our morning at swim lessons, as per usual. After swim lessons mama went for a nice 5.5 mile run, followed by a brisk 1.5 mile walk. I could have sworn that my pace was slower than Thursday; but it turns out I did the same distance in just a few seconds faster than the previous. That may not seem like a huge deal, but I’ll tell ya — in humidity and heat — it really is.

The rest of the day was spent at or near home. We have a crazy few weeks coming up so we’re trying to relax as much as humanly possible.

Which turns out means still staying relatively busy.

Sunday morning I practiced yoga with the ever-so-awesome Gretchen — outdoors! Gretchen is hosting a series of yoga classes in a park, outdoors, in Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood. Today’s class was the first — and it was a sweaty, brilliant practice!

Post-yoga, I picked Babycakes up to meet up with Gretchen and her baby for coffee at Nervous Dog. Follow that up with a late lunch with the GrandparAunts and an early bedtime for Babycakes? Perfection!

weekend wrap up // weekly mantra.

June 10, 2013 by Rachel 1 Comment

This weekend was everything a gal could ask for.

Late Thursday night my parents came info town from Kentucky. Even though we love, love, LOVE our sitter, Ari skipped for the first time and spent the day with Mimi + Papi!

But Mimi was too excited to make him nap [cough-cough–that’s right Mimi–I know you’re reading this!], so my babe was a cranky mess Friday night.

Saturday Ari slept in! Oh hooray! Once he finally woke up [at 8!!!!!] Ari, Mimi & I went for a 30-minute run followed by an hour long walk.

Then we hit up the Haymaker Farmers’ Market in Kent. Fresh produce, local meats & cheeses & food vendors are what our foodie dreams are made of!

It was Ari’s second visit to the market but his first experience tasting all the food. And that wasn’t our choice! My parents got a local beef burrito & a bean + veggie burrito from one of the vendors. Ari saw it & immediately opened his mouth & started kicking his legs with excitement.

This is where the baby led weaning is really fun. The kid gnawed on the burrito like a champ! Follow it up with three — that’s right; 3!! — samples of sheep feta (he tasted 1 & freaked out until I gave him some more). The kid is going to have the most sophisticated pallet of any baby!

We finally got him to lay down for a nap after the market for a short time. And once he woke up, we headed out on another adventure. This time to a festival in Highland Square, a local neighborhood here in Akron. The community was hosting a food and music festival called Porch Rokr — where families and homes in a ten-block neighborhood host dozens of bands to perform on their front porches! How cool is that!? We walked for a couple of hours and stopped to listen to bands for as long as Ari would let us stop moving. And then we moved on.

After our legs were sore and our baby was getting sleepy, we grabbed some dinner from The Lockview. When my grilled cheese arrived, Ari started to get excited again and jump up and down. I had no choice but to let him ‘take a bite.’ I say that loosely because it was really just sucking on the sandwich. But he loved it.

My parents had to leave Saturday night, so we tucked one sleepy baby boy into bed.

After getting some rest, I woke up and went to an early yoga class at Yoga Bliss Sunday morning. I stretched my way to a completely full heart. After yoga, Ari & I met up with Gretchen and her baby for some coffee at Nervous Dog. And after sipping our lattes and playing with our babies [and chatting up a storm], Ari and I went for another walk. This time to the Riverfront Irish Festival. I was sure all of the walking would make him nap. But it didn’t.

Our weekend was busy but incredible. Filled with everything I needed: family, food, friends, and fun.

And that’s why my mantra for the week is:

To me, showing up means making the most of every day. And this weekend, I’m confident that I accomplished this. And I want to remember to do this every day. <3

weekend wrap up //

May 19, 2013 by Rachel 1 Comment

The last three days have been B-U-S-Y! I had a crazy work day on Friday so at 5PM I was pumped to run like heck outta there! Plus, Chad and I had planned a little date night to celebrate his birthday [it was last Monday, the 13th — but we were kinda busy].

We left Ari with our sitter and went to see Ironman 3 in 3D! I love, love, loved it! In my opinion, it was the best yet. It doesn’t hurt that Robert Downey Jr is gorgeous! The movie let out after 9PM and though we had grand plans for a late dinner, it didn’t happen. We decided to go home and call it a night instead.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early for a power yoga class. Ari and I spent the rest of the day running errands, cleaning and making sure he got his naps in [he did, thank god!]. My aunt visited us in the afternoon and offered to stay and hang out with Ari while I finally took Chad out for his birthday dinner.

We ended up home by 7:30, but it was a date night, nonetheless! 🙂

We were actually able to sleep in a bit on Sunday, which was amazing, but also made it difficult to get out of the house on time for our coffee date with Gretchen. Ari and I met her at Nervous Dog and he was rough and tumbly the whole time! This kid wants to get into everything these days!

After our awesome coffee date, our family of three headed to Downtown Cleveland to see the Indians beat Seattle [again]!

It was ridiculously hot. But we had fun. And Ari made it to the 7th inning before we had to leave [woo hoo!].

Overall, completely awesome weekend. Exhausting. And awesome. 🙂

march date day // wrap up

March 15, 2013 by Rachel 3 Comments

Our date day Thursday almost didn’t happen. I’ve been battling a sinus infection since Monday night, and Ari started to come down with some form of it by Wednesday. But after a successful trip to the pediatrician to determine that he just had a cold, we dropped Ari off at the sitter + started our date day extravaganza!

First up, breakfast. Our favorite breakfast spot, The Blue Door Cafe & Bakery, is always jam-packed on the weekend [and it’s seriously no surprise because they are just that good!]. But Thursday just so happens to be their slowest day. Lucky for us!

Chad ordered the Yogurt/Lemon/Poppyseed Quinoa Pancakes:

And even though it was only 9am, I ordered a Grilled Cheese with Nueske Bacon on Brioche with Tomato Soup. AMAZEballs.

We followed breakfast up with a nap. Ahhh, sleep! We miss sleep these days. After an hour and a half nap, we seriously considered spending the rest of our date day napping.

But, alas, we decided to continue on with our grand plans!

We drove to Lakewood to pay a visit to my favorite chocolatier, Sweet Designs! And guys!! I found sponge candy! I thought I was dreaming. So happy to find a local retailer to provide me with my sponge candy fix!! We left with an assortment of sponge candy, truffles, and bars of the cocoa crush nibs signature chocolates.

After walking out of there spending a lot less than I anticipated, we found our way to our next destination — lunch at Noodlecat! Noodlecat is a Japanese-American restaurant specializing in gourmet ramen, udon and soba noodles. They also have a tasty array of steam buns. Pretty much the most delicious food ever. We had tried Noodlecat’s stand at the West Side Market, but had yet to try out their Euclid Avenue location.

I ordered the “Roscoes” Fried Chicken & Ramen:

And I ordered a Japanese Fried Chicken Steam Bun:

I couldn’t tell you what Chad even ordered because I was too excited about my food!

We followed up our lunch with a quick stop by CLE Clothing Co, where I seriously lusted for these stemless wine glasses! They also sell this design as beer glasses, but both can only be purchased in store (unless you buy directly from the Hello Fizz etsy shop 😉 )

Guys, all of this fun made me feel like an adult again — not just a mom! Lately I’ve been so in mama overdrive that I feel like I’ve been losing the pre-baby part of myself — that part that is just an adult. And a wife! So great to reconnect!

Even after all of the excitement of our date day extravaganza, we were excited to pick up Babycakes [early!] from the sitter and get in a few extra minutes of snuggle time before he went to sleep.

Perfect, perfect, Thursday. 🙂

confessions of a {new} chocoholic

February 12, 2013 by Rachel 1 Comment

Last Tuesday was the February OBA meetup at Whole Foods Market at Cedar Center. More notably, last Tuesday is a day I will look back on and say “That was the day I started my love affair with chocolate.”

Truth: I have never been a fan of chocolate.

I know, I know. You’ve never met someone like me before. I hear it often. And about how I’m not a chick because all chicks like chocolate.

But I just haven’t ever really liked it [with the exception of when it’s covering a pretzel].

That all changed a week ago when we were treated to a chocolate and wine pairing at the OBA meetup.

The wine buyer for WFM paired a wine called Sexual Chocolate [which, despite it’s overly cheesy name, was amazing], with chocolates from Sweet Designs in Lakewood, Ohio as it’s owner, Ines Rehner, spoke of her passion for chocolate.

We listened to her tell her story as we nibbled on the chocolate that I had assumed I would dislike.

But I fell in love with the blend of chocolate. Perhaps that was my problem all along — chocolates you normally find at the store or Godiva or something — are either far too bitter or far too sweet for me. But Ines’ chocolates were perfect!

So perfect, in fact, that this past weekend, we made our way to Lakewood to her shop and bought way, way, wayyyy too much chocolate. Including these beauties above. [From left to right: Chocolate covered cherry, chocolate covered fig, and ‘hot chocolate’].

A couple of my new found favorites are the Rocky Ginger Road Bar and the Cocoa Crush Bar.

So I guess what I’m saying is, I finally see what all the fuss is about. 🙂

Oh, and if you’re not local, but would like to purchase some of Ines’ chocolates, you can order online and have it shipped!