Photo a Day May

The weekly photo a day post was really infringing on my other posts, and I am sure boring to you :), so I decided to just do a monthly post! Here is May!

Tuesday, May 1 - Peace

Sam Adams Octoberfest 2010

Wednesday, May 2 - Skyline

Boston

Thursday, May 3 - Something you wore today

A pair of pre-pregnancy jeans that finally fit

Friday, May 4 - Fun

Someone LOVED taking all the tissues out of the box

Saturday, May 5 - Bird

Thought this little guy was funny

Sunday, May 6 - You

This will always be one of my favorite photos of me

Monday, May 7 - Someone that inspires you

my daddy — went back to med school when I was in middle school, graduated when I was graduating from high school

Tuesday, May 8 - A smell you adore

Wednesday, May 9 - Something you do everyday

Take care of this amazing guy

Thursday, May 10 - a favorite word

Friday, May 11 - Kitchen

Note: I hate my tiny kitchen

Saturday, May 12 - Something that makes you happy

The hand holding, I melt every time.

Sunday, May 13 - Mum

Monday, May 14 - Grass

Oh Canada - Canada Day 2010

Tuesday, May 15 - Love

my little family

Wednesday, May 16 - What you're reading

I have approximately 10 books waiting

Thursday, May 17 - Snack

guac <3

Friday, May 18 - Something you made

Koulouria — from my MILs recipe

Saturday, May 19 - A favorite place

New Orleans with my sister.

Sunday, May 20 - Something you can't live without

Being silly with my favorite people

Monday, May 21 - Where you stand

On my own two feet

Tuesday, May 22 - Pink

love pink workout clothes

Wednesday, May 23 - Technology

Draw Something

Thursday, May 24 - Something new

TRX — my new workout love/hate. I wish I owned one.

Friday, May 25 - Unusual

The way my baby sleeps

Saturday, May 26 - 12 pm

Color Me Rad aftermath

Sunday, May 27 - Something sweet

Fruity Cocktails

Monday, May 28 - The weather today

Sweaty? Totally dropped the ball, whoops.

Tuesday, May 29 - A number

How many months old my baby is

Wednesday, May 30 - Your personality

Goofy

Thursday, May 31 - Something beautiful

San Francisco

Link up for June! Follow me on instragram @cupcakekellys

May Foodie Penpals

Its time for another penpal reveal. For May, I received a wonderful box of goodies from Alissa.

I got the box towards the end of the month, and since we have been traveling so much I haven't had the chance to try everything yet.

First, she sent me this amazing card, and the photograph is HER OWN from Kauai, HI, gorgeous.

We first tried the Biscotti, I actually brought it to my in-laws because my mother-in-law loves biscotti. It was tasty, I usually find biscotti too dry. This was perfect, I loved the chocolate chip flavor, this is one of the many local favorites Alissa sent me.

This is the one I cannot wait to try. Asparagus soup, simple ingredients and it is easy to make. The next gross rainy day we are home, this will be on the stove. This item is a big local item where Alissa is from!

Next up is the fig dip. I am saving this for a summer get together because I am afraid I will eat the whole thing if I have at home. Trust me I will report back, most likely it will make an appearance at B's birthday party. (Another local hit)

The Toffee Waffle was the last of the local favorite items. The idea is to put the cookie over a hot beverage and melt the center. It has been pretty hot out so I haven't had a hot beverage recently. I tried the cookie not over a hot beverage, they were chewy and a little too buttery. I will keep you updated on how they taste when they are eaten the correct way.

Trader Joes 70% dark chocolate with caramel and black sea salt. YUM YUM YUM. 70% dark chocolate is my favorite. These three together were perfection, so good. Do yourself a favor and get one of these right now.

Sunshine lemon chamomile bar, Alissa sent this because the taste is similar to Cliff bars. This bar was great, it seriously tasted like a cup of tea, not too sweet with the right amount of lemon, plus it did not have an artificial taste.

Check out what I hand delivered to Elizabeth this month!

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And now its time for some details about Foodie Penpals. In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.

-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!

-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

-Foodie Penpals is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

If you’re interested in participating for June, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by June 4th as pairings will be emailed on June 5th!

*If you're from somewhere besides the US, Canada or Europe and want to participate, send me an email and I'll see if we get enough interest this month!

Greek Festival in CT

This weekend is the annual Greek Festival at our church in Hartford, CT.

Check out the details here.

My husband and father-in-law will be playing in the band.

This was at our wedding, but you get the idea

There will be tons of delicious food, drinks and dancing.

Again at our wedding

If you need any tips on what to get let me know!

Here is a girls shot from a few years ago at thee St. George Greek Festival!

I will be there every night, if you plan on going let me know. Cait will be there Friday as well. Hope to see you there!

Have you ever been to a Greek Festival?

Race Recap: Color Me Rad 5K: Hartford, CT

Let me preface this by saying, I love a good fun run, but I think because there are so many out there, the run has to be organized really well in order for it to be REALLY fun.

Nick, our friend Tom, one of Nick's cousins and I were all signed up to run the Hartford Color Me Rad 5k on Saturday.

I'll be honest the whole thing started out rough. B decided that he didn't want to go to bed until really late, like 11 pm, on Friday night. Then he was up off and on from 3:30 until 6:30 and was up for good at 6:30. We were leaving the house at 7:30, so we were not exactly rested.

We had received pack information the week before, and packet pick up was Thursday and Friday before the race, unfortunately we couldn't get there before late Friday evening, but the race said any team or individual that lived more than 60 miles away could pick up on Saturday morning.

Our wave started at 9 so we left the house at 7:30, Nick's parent live about 15 minutes away, and hit a small amount of traffic as we got off the highway. We parked and got to packet pickup, here's the first area that I think could use some improvement.

The first tent had 4 people looking up names/teams and they gave you your bib number then, then they had to put your number into the system, and wrote the shirt size you registered for on the back of your bib. It wasn't organized by last name or anything. It was just two giant lines.

After you got your bib you went to the second tent to get your shirt & sunglasses, you were supposed to get a color packet, but we never got ours. The girls (4 of them) at the shirt booth were literally sitting around until we got there. I think it would have gone a lot faster if they prepped in advance. If they had put bibs, shirts and glasses in a bag and had you pick up by last name or by team leaders last name.

We ran our stuff to our car and waited for Nick's cousin, by this time the line for the packet pick up was insane, and the line to get into the parking was backed up onto the highway, which is where Nick's cousin was.

We got to the field 90 minutes before our start time and we still weren't able to start with the 9 am wave. This is the second area of improvement. Most races have staggered starts but you are in corrals or they have signs where it says 8 min pace, 12 min pace, walkers, etc… This race had neither, everyone was in a giant clump and they let a group of people go every 15 or so minutes. We ended up going with either the second or third wave. Because of this people would walk 5 or 6 across and block the entire path. Even after being nice and saying excuse me some people refused to move. I ended up just pushing my way through.

At the first color station it was a narrow path so it ended up being bottlenecked and you had to wait to get through. There wasn't an issue like this at any of the other color stations, but because those throwing the color were volunteers, a lot of them were younger kids, and they had the tendency to peg people in the face. There were 2 stations with liquid paint instead of powder paint, and they were worse they were aiming their jet pack at people's faces and it had a hose. The girl holding one of these aimed at my face and got me right in the eye, and another one got our friend Tom in the mouth, at the second wet paint station I ended up covering my faces and running through saying spray me anywhere but my face. I think in the future they should make sure the kids aren't purposefully getting people in the face, especially since this was a family race, and I saw more than one kid being pushed in a stroller.

The last general area that was really lacking was the water station. We were only the second or third wave and not terribly slow. But there was a line. We ran past it and they were pouring the waters to order it seemed. I don't think they had any pre-set or they just didn't have enough people manning the water station to keep up. I can only imagine what the water station looked like later in the day.

For the Hartford specific race, they said in the race packet that you could only park through one entrance, and there are multiple entrances to the football field. This caused a HUGE backup. Nick's cousin was supposed to run with us at 9. She didn't even get in to race until we were already mostly through the course. The second part is that race packet said it was partially on gravel and if you needed to you could run on the grass. It was all gravel, save form maybe a half mile, and not small pebbles, it was golf ball sized gravel. I tried running on the grass, but it was long and was almost harder to run through.

With that being said we had a fun time, I'll be interested to see how the race improves over time. I think the race would be even more fun once all the kinks are worked out.

Here we are post race:

My clothes aren't that colorful, but I think the color had a hard time sticking to the dry tech material. My arms were purple, green and yellow. The underside of my right arm looked like a nasty bruise and the back of my neck was completely hot pink. Most of the color came out in the first shower. Just my "bruise arm" took two showers.

Have you ever run a fun run that needed some improvement?

Guest Post: SIX reasons to join Team in Training

I am starting a guest posting series all about Team in Training! If you would like to guest post email me at cupcakekelly21 AT gmail DOT com.

My first guest post come from Krissy who completed the Shamrock Marathon with Team in Training on March 18, 2012.

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When I signed up for Team in Training (TNT) last October, it was a decision that had been in the making for several months. As a relatively new runner with about one year of experience, I was nervous — was I fast enough to train with a team? Would I be able to reach my fundraising goals? It was scary!

Despite those nagging fears, once I ‘pulled the trigger’ on the idea, I never regretted a moment. Within that first week of registering on the TNT site, I was contacted by the regional campaign coordinator and supplied with a steady stream of information and encouragement. Through emails and phone calls, I was able to quickly set up my special fundraising website, connect with teammates through social media and jump right into training.

So, if you’re reading this now, and wondering, “is TNT for me?” I am here to share my TOP SIX REASONS to join one of the most well-known and successful fundraising organizations for your next endurance event:

G – Give Back.

The moment I heard about TNT, I knew the premise appealed to me: join a local (or virtual) team to train for an endurance event while simultaneously fundraising for cancer research — what’s not to love about that? Just as we were assigned a coaching staff, we too were introduced to fundraising mentors who were ready to help us achieve our goals.

O – Outreach.

The connections that we made in our local, regional and statewide teams via in-person and virtual events were worth their weight in gold! Special events such as The Silent Mile took each of us beyond our personal fundraising and united us as an organization to learn more about where the sum of our hard-earned fundraising dollars were going.

T – Try Something New!

Whether you’re considering a half or full marathon, a century bike ride or an adventure hike, there are events to fit your ever whim. And remember how I was worried I’d be the slowest runner? Not so! There are individuals participating from many skill levels and all are equally welcomed.

Our TNT coaches were extremely receptive of feedback and always ready to dispense helpful training advice — from discussions about pacing to sports nutrition.

E – Enjoy Awesome Perks!

As a major player in the racing world, TNT’s excellent reputation and name recognition have made it possible for countless athletes to participate in hard-to-get-in events such as the Nike Women’s Marathon, runDisney events (Disneyland Half Marathon, WDW Princess Half, etc) — even if they’re sold out to the general public!

But perhaps you’re more interested in a local event — you’ll see amazing perks by being part of TNT for these, too! By meeting your fundraising minimum, you are guaranteed race registration, accommodations, course support (see more on this in Accountability) and in some occasions, even event transportation and meals.

A – Accountability!

From weekly training to race day, your TNT support staff are there for YOU – it's only a matter of time before you begin to realize how important that means to them, too! Skipping a weekly training run is a lot harder when you think about all the people you’re working toward your TNT goal for — patients, family members, teammates…

Come the big event though, the fruits of your labor will inspire you in ways you never could imagine! From the joyous cheer of the crowd calling your name from your bright purple TNT jersey to the shouts of encouragement via an on-course coach, the only thing that’s impossible on race day is how to put your emotions into words.

M – Make a Difference!

Crossing the finish line to your TNT event, you’ll never be the same person again. From the immense satisfaction of the physical accomplishment to the powerful knowledge that your contribution — no matter how big or small — helped another person — the feeling could not be more profound.

My first TNT experience is one that I will treasure for the rest of my life. From the lasting friendships I made, to the impressive fundraising amount we raised and the race experience itself…just priceless. It wasn’t always easy — waking up for a run in the dark, or sending dozens of letters for family and friends — but in the end, these actions were modest sacrifices toward a cause greater than ourselves.

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Thanks Krissy! If you want to sign up, there is still time, check the events in your area! You can always sign up for the Nike Women's Half or Full and meet me in San Francisco!

Or if you would like to donate, every dollar is one step closer to kicking cancer in the butt, you can donate here!