Whitney’s Blog | Mommies With Style

Hanging at the #Phillies Game: No Tailgating Allowed! What’s Up with That?

May 21, 2012 By Whitney Leave a Comment

So yesterday we took a family trip to a Phillies game. My boys hadn’t been before so we thought yesterday was as good of a day as any to head over. My sister-in-law had tickets too so the boys were thrilled to be able to hang out with their cousins.

(A little tip to go last minute with tickets if you can – we waited until the morning of the game to get tickets off StubHub.com – waaaaay cheaper than they were two weeks before when I had been looking at the seats we got were $20 cheaper per ticket according to the face value!)

But here was the shocker of the day – you can no longer tailgate! We had just arrived in the parking lot and were about to set up our fun Eagles/Phillies Cornhole boards (bean bag toss) when a policeman came over to tell us that we had to put both our chairs and our bean bags away. No tailgating. He was nice about it but told us we could only sit on the ground and have the kids sit on the back of the minivan. Apparently there are only two lots you can now tailgate for the Phillies but he informed us that they were NOT family friendly and that we should not head over there. Well that was that.

(According to that very nice uniformed man in blue, there has been no tailgating for four years now. And we at least didn’t feel too badly for not knowing because we were far from the only ones who attempted to tailgate yesterday…)

Here’s what the kids ended up doing while hubby and I sat on the ground drinking a beer or two:

They look a lot more bored then they actually were. It’s all about the photo snap, I guess! But they were eagerly awaiting their cousins arrival and the top of the minivan was apparently the place to be as a prime vantage point.

Clearly they perked up and were very excited for the game once said cousins had arrived:

And I don’t know why but I just love this shot of Cole watching the game:

Here I am with Boy #1!:

And after the game, it just wouldn’t be a sports game experience in Philadelphia without a little bit of traffic heading home:

Going to bed, I asked both boys what they thought of the game. They both said it was fun but that the Eagles games were better. “We get to play games outside in the parking lot before and the game is a lot more fun to watch.” Can’t really argue with that as I’ve always thought football was tons more exciting to watch than baseball but I will say that I thought the experience was still fun despite the tailgating snafu. We’ll definitely be taking the kids back to another game sometime soon.

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Mother’s Day, 5k & Outpacing Myself #Running #Fitness

May 14, 2012 By Whitney 3 Comments

The whole fam on Mother's Day at the Starting Line

Yesterday I ran an awesome event – the Mothers Day 5k here in my hometown of West Chester, PA. The proceeds from the race go to Mommy’s Light, which is a fabulous local organization that helps the children of Mothers who have passed away from cancer. They work to keep traditions alive with these kids after their mother’s passing and it’s really a beautiful organization.

So I thought it was wonderful to be able to support that by running this Mother’s Day 5k for women only. It was incredibly empowering to run in a sea of pink t-shirts, many, many Moms. I have to admit I teared up a few times passing kids holding signs that read things like “I love you Mommy!” and “You can do it Mommy!” It was really inspirational!

The run itself was a bit “eh” for me. I woke up feeling awful Sunday morning. Just generally run down and dehydrated. A couple of my neighbors were doing the walk instead of the run and I’ll say this – I was definitely tempted. But once we got to the race start, I had too much pride to walk since I run pretty regularly lately. I decided I would run and take it easy and not worry about my pace.

So the guy shouted “go” and I started running. I definitely need to run more races because I have a HUGE issue with the start line. I’ve had several seasoned runners tell me I need to learn about the “bubble.” The bubble is the little space and place you put yourself where you run and not worry about any one else.

I am definitely not there. I felt like everyone was passing me and felt stressed in the beginning. When my Nike+ GPS chimed in at 1 mile to tell me I was at an 8:30 pace, I knew I was hosed. Then I hit the halfway mark at 13:20 which is just WAY too fast for me. As predicted, I peetered out during the second half and had to walk a bit. I blame the heat, the hills and overpacing myself. But it definitely gave me food for thought as I’d like to start running some longer races (including Broad Street – 10 miles – next year) so I need to learn to pace myself and not worry about anyone else around me moving forward.

Overall, as usual I was glad I did it and I love the idea of running a 5k as a tradition with my Mom friends so anyone who is up for it next year needs to do it with me!

Hanging with a friend at the Starting Line. Love the sea of pink in the background!

Filed Under: Whitney's Blog Tagged With: Fitness, running

Fit Friday: Yes I Can. #Running #Fitness

April 27, 2012 By Whitney 2 Comments

I’ve got a new mantra when I run. It’s pretty simple, it’s: Yes I can.

I’ve been writing a lot more lately about running. I’m not new to running – I’ve been hitting the pavement since high school but I’ve never really progressed with my running and I’ve always been kind of slow. I’ve been a go out and run a couple of miles at most kind of girl and that’s been okay thus far. But especially lately, I’ve had this burning desire to run a little farther and a little faster than ever before.

I work out pretty regularly and would say I’m average fit so I should be able to do this, right? Running is such a mind game. So much of the time it’s about what your mind will allow.

Today, I ran 4 miles. I went to a hilly park I run at often, knowing that the hill definitely slows me down at times. I finished in 43 minutes, for which I was pretty damn proud of myself because 1) I didn’t stop to walk once and 2) I ran 4 miles! I’ve been running 3 miles most of my life but 4-5? Those runs are few.

I want to go farther, regularly, but so much of it is a mind game for me. When 3 miles chimes in via Nike +, I swear my body just tires. The last few weeks, I listen to the conversation in my head. “Omg, I’m dying.” “Omg, this F-ing hill is going to kill me,” and mostly, “I can’t.” To which I’m now telling myself, “Yes I Can.” This will probably come off as sounding totally bizarre but I really do repeat that to myself pretty often these days. Yes. I can. It’s pretty amazing what a couple of empowering words and a great playlist can get you through.

What gets you through? What pushes you to go a little bit farther, a little bit faster?

Filed Under: Fitness, Mommy Time, Whitney's Blog

Fifty Shades of Grey & How It Makes Me Think of a Naked Emperor

April 19, 2012 By Whitney 7 Comments

When I was in elementary school, I was in the school play. I played the Queen in the Emperor’s New Clothes. I had to sing and ohhh-and-ahhh about the Emperor’s beautiful new suit of clothes when in the reality of the story, he was prancing down the street naked. It was only when a lone boy called out that he was naked that everyone else admitted that they couldn’t see the clothes either.

That’s how I feel about Fifty Shades of Grey. Only I’m the boy this time because God help me people, I see how awful this book is and I’m calling out to the crowd of people who love the book.

Have you guys heard of this book? It’s tough to have missed any of the buzz about it so I imagine you have and if you haven’t, you can read the synopsis here on Amazon.

The fact that this book is the #1 book on the New York Times Best Seller list is appalling to me. The book being poorly written doesn’t offend me. It mildly offends me that the plot and characters are pretty much stolen from Twilight (this story was written as Twilight fanfiction).

What really offends me the most is that so many women are obsessed with this awful book that I feel completely degrades women. The characters are awful. Christian is a douchebag with major problems. I can almost forgive him for his “issues” due to his terrible childhood experiences. And he does care for Ana in his own screwed up way. But Ana is the worst. She just goes ahead and submits to this man who basically abuses her.

I think I’m a pretty open-minded person but the fact that this book has taken the world by storm just boggles my mind. I won’t be reading book two. If I want trash, I’ll continue with my Black Dagger Brotherhood books or go back to reading Judith Krantz like I did when I was in middle school.

What do you think? Did you like this book? I know I’m in the minority with the way I feel about it so I’d love to hear from some people about why you liked it.

Disclaimer. I just wanted to mention that since I was linking to Amazon, I used my affiliate link for this book. But if people actually click through and buy this book based on my review I will donate any proceeds to a local women’s shelter. I’m totally serious.

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#VlogMom: 3 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me

April 19, 2012 By Whitney 10 Comments

Check out what these other awesome Moms had to say:

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Runners: What’s Better? Need Advice.

April 15, 2012 By Whitney 6 Comments

Okay runners, I need some advice. All of my life I’ve been a casual runner. I suppose you can say I’ve increased my speed in a bit in recent years but I’m still pretty slow. And I don’t go too terribly far when I do run – the most I’ve ever run is a 5-mile loop I used to do regularly when I lived in San Francisco and it took me an hour to run it each time.

Since having kids, I run a 10:30 pace and I’m usually around 3 miles most of the time. It’s pretty scary how exact my time is – I use Nike+GPS and I’m always within 10:20-10:30 for my pace. I rarely have a pace that’s different than that 10 second window. But like any aspiring runner, I want to go farther and I want to go faster.

Last weekend I ran a 5k. I really wanted to try and just push it and get it to 30 minutes. The run was hillier than I thought and I finished at 32:13 with a pace of 10:22 per mile.

So yesterday I went out on my own and decided I’d map 5k and I’d try and push myself. At mile one, Nike+ chimed in to say I was running a 9:20 mile. Mile 2 chimed in that I was at 9:40. I was dying – I had a stitch and I needed to walk. I walked a bit – not long – and I finished in 30:40. Faster than my 5k the weekend before yet I totally did not have a sense of accomplishment.

I felt like I had failed. I had walked. I went faster but I walked so the whole thing was not a “run” to me but a walk.

So runners, what do you say? Is that right? What’s more important to you? Running it all but running slowly or going faster even if it means you have to walk?

Filed Under: Fitness, Mommy Time, Whitney's Blog Tagged With: Fitness, running

Weekend #5k – I’m Slow But I Don’t Care

April 10, 2012 By Whitney 3 Comments

So I ran a 5k over Easter Weekend. The Butterfly Run is in honor of a girl my sister went to high school with several years back.

In 1999, a drunk driver got driving on a local highway going in the wrong direction. It’s a horrible tragedy as a girl was killed as a result. The Butterfly Run is in her honor and I’ve always wanted to run it as my sister knew her and we live nearby but had never managed to make it until this year.

I managed to convince hubby to come along even though he doesn’t run much and we had a blast!!!! I really forgot how much fun it is to run with a bunch of other people. It keeps you moving and hearing everyone cheer and clap at the end is so inspirational! (There were 600 other people running too!)

Here’s a shot my Dad took of me as I was getting close to the finish:

And here I am with the fam after. I ran the whole thing in 32 minutes. I’ve always wanted to do 5k in under 30 and that was my goal for the day but there were some hills and it just didn’t happen. Oh well – next time, right? It was just so fun to run and I’ve already signed up for another one next month!

Filed Under: Fitness, Whitney's Blog Tagged With: 5k, Fitness, running

#vlogmom: Deserted Island, Only Three Books – What Would you Choose?

April 5, 2012 By Whitney 1 Comment

I decided to jump back on the #VlogMom bandwagon this week because I saw the topic – from my good bloggy friend Candice at Fashionably Organized – and knew this was one I could turn on a camera for.

So here goes – you’re off to a deserted island and you can only bring 3 books. Which 3 books would they be? (And no, I have no idea why anyone would willingingly be leaving to go to a deserted island but just go with it people!)

Visit these other fun VlogMoms below to see what their 3 books are:

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#NYC: New Creatures of Light Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History

April 2, 2012 By Whitney Leave a Comment

This past weekend, I took the fam up into Manhattan for a quick 2-day trip. One of the highlights was our visit to the American Museum of Natural History. I’ve been dying to take my boys there forever, at ages 8 & 5 they are at a great age to enjoy everything the Museum has to offer.

Specifically, we were going because I was pitched the new exhbit, the Creatures of Light exhibit. This new exhibit opened this weekend and deals with introducing museum visitors to bioluminescent organisms. Walking through we were treated to all sorts of exhibits that dealt with cool things my kids were into like fireflies, jellyfish and bioluminescent mushrooms.

You could literally spend days in the museum. We only had a day and didn’t get nearly through half of it. But I’d have to say my kids favorite was the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. This isn’t shocking as my kids are both totally into sharks and marine life but I have to say that this Hall is totally impressive regardless of my kids’ interests because the crowning feature in here: the 94-foot lifesize blue whale that hangs on the ceiling in the hall. This will probably sound stupid but I had no idea how BIG a whale could really be. I mean I know a blue whale was the biggest, and I knew the size it was supposed to be but to see something that’s actually 94 feet long and know that there are actual beings out there this size was totally astonishing. I don’t care that they are only interested in eating plankton – I think if I saw a blue whale swimming towards me in the ocean, I’d have a heart attack and die right then and there just based on fear of its sheer size.

All in all, the American Museum of Natural History is a must-visit at least one time for your children. Here’s a few photos from our experience:

Filed Under: Family Travel, On The Go, Whitney's Blog Tagged With: American Museum of Natural History, Manhattan, nyc

I had my first facial – EVER! (with Therapon)

March 19, 2012 By Whitney 5 Comments

The weather here in Philly has just been FANTABULOUS the past week or so here in Philadelphia. We’re talking the kind of 70 degree sun-is-shining-perfection that makes me put my windows down, belt out some 90s song and not care how bad the wind makes my hair look when I’m done because I’m too happy to care.

Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day and I was in a great mood. I was headed to a neighborhood party to celebrate the big day but first, a local event with Therapon, a skincare company.

We were getting facials done by Therapon, makeup by Ulta and nails done by a local salon. All of which I was happy to have done as I was off to a party!

Here I am getting my nails done:

I don’t have a picture of the facials as they were done in a separate room and I have to admit, I was a little bit wary about what to expect. I’ve truly never had a facial done before. Any time I’m at a spa, I’m always doing a manicure, a pedicure or some form of waxing but for whatever reason I just didn’t think I’d enjoy getting a facial done. But I was definitely wrong because it was pretty nice to have one done! The Therapon products were really soothing and left my face feeling baby soft!

Here’s a picture of the group of bloggers who were in the session with me in the afternoon:

Many thanks to Jo-Lynne from Musings of a Housewife for the photos and for organizing the event! And of course thanks to Therapon for sponsoring.

If you are in the market for any sort of skin care product, check out Therapon. They have all sorts of product that deal wtih things like stretch marks to puffy eyes to dry skin.

Filed Under: Make-up & Beauty Products, Misc, Whitney's Blog, featured Tagged With: skincare, therapon

Lego Obsession

March 14, 2012 By Whitney 2 Comments

There’s only one toy my 8-year-old plays with any more. See below. This pict is taken in the corner of our family room but there is also a similar pile in my bedroom and in his room (his room is practically filled). Each little pile of Legos is something – a dump, a battle station, a ship of some kind.

Anyone have any sort of display or storage recommendations? Because he gets mad when I try and put them away and the piles keep on growing! I think it’s pretty neat and if it weren’t for his brother, I think I’d consider getting rid of the rest of our toys as they sit untouched! Anyone else have a boy who’s obsessed with Legos?

Filed Under: Kids, Toys, Whitney's Blog Tagged With: Legos

Rude Lady Ruins the Lorax

March 5, 2012 By Whitney 5 Comments

So thanks to the lady who sat next to me with her two kids at the Lorax movie yesterday, I’m feeling a little doom and gloom about the state of our society. The movie was wonderful; the message pretty clear.

The premise of the movie is that the Once-ler, a business man and somewhat unsuspecting guy ends up chopping down all of the trees in the land causing great negative effect on the world around him. Driven by the greed and lure of success, he misses the implications of damaging his environment until it’s too late.

The movie’s based on the Dr. Seuss book, the Lorax and that’s basically where the book itself ends. The movie expands on the story after the damage is done. The future town and how they live, and the boy who basically learns and remembers what trees were for and sets out to change the world. I won’t give anything more away but like I said, the message is evident.

This isn’t just some fluffy movie that’s full of nonsense – there’s a message about respecting our environment and how one person’s small change can make a difference.

I loved it. My kids loved it and they got it. We talked about the deeper message of the movie after it was over, something they are both very familiar with as recycling and reusing is very important in our house and my husband often preaches to them about respecting the earth.

But the lady next to me. My God. I was so miffed about it I even made this my Facebook status after the movie was over:

Back from the Lorax. Great movie but not happy with the lady next to me. It was bad enough that her kids talked & crinkled candy thru-out the movie but the icing on the cake? When her cell rang and she actually answered it. So rude. Almost asked her then if she was going to later leave the theater and go chop down a tree.

The irony of having someone sitting next to me who clearly had no respect whatsoever for her surroundings was not lost on me. I wonder if her rudeness even crossed her mind? If she was aware of being rude and didn’t care, or just totally unaware? I don’t know which is worse.

Filed Under: Misc, Whitney's Blog Tagged With: the lorax

Fashion Friday: The Little Black Dress & the Clothes that Matter

March 2, 2012 By Whitney 8 Comments

This week’s Fashion Friday is going to be a little different than I usually do. I want to tell you about an event I attended and how it got me really thinking about clothes and the impact they have in my life. I know – I sound like a wannabe/trite fashionista but let me explain.

Last week, I headed up to New York City with Julie for a Bounce event to attend the show Love, Loss and What I Wore. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we headed to this off-Broadway show. How much could a bunch of actresses (stellar list of actresses, by the way) really talk about clothing, and keep it entertaining in the form of an entire play? The reality surprised me. The “stories,” based on a series of stories by Nora Eprhon and Delia Eprhon were completely compelling – sometimes funny, sometimes sad and pretty much all relate-able for any modern day woman.

The premise is basically talking about what these women wore during significant moments in their life. Dawn Wells (aka Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island) read stories about the life of a woman named Ginger (the irony of her name Ginger being kind of funny, right?) talking about dresses she wore as a little girl to the dress she wore when she left her husband of five kids.

Wedding dresses, first date dresses, funeral dresses… the entire performance really did get me thinking about the significance of the clothing in our life. I love fashion and I love nice clothes and really, if you think about it, there are items of clothing that DO matter in your life. The prom dress that made me feel like an early ’90s rock star. The frumpy maternity pants I wore for four months after the birth of my first son. The Ocean City Maryland sweatshirt that my Mom wore for like 20 years. The pink coat with the gold buttons that my grandmother Dore used to wear.

And of course the staple little black dress which works with anything and is always with the modern day woman and always a reliable staple in my closet for all kinds of moments in my life. (I wore a little black dress to the event as that was the theme of the evening sponsored by Bounce.)

Many thanks to Bounce for paying to get me to this event, hosting me for the evening and for making a great product that helps to take care of my clothes and make these memorable moments by keeping my clothes nice and clean!

With Zuzanna

Lastly, total side note – I was so thrilled to get to meet Zuzanna Szadkowski after the show was over! One of the cast members, she also plays Dorota on the CW’s Gossip Girl, which has become my latest addiction on Netflix. She was really nice & down to earth!

Tell me. What significant piece of clothing comes to mind that was around for some special or important moment in your life?

Filed Under: Whitney's Blog, Women’s Fashion Tagged With: bounce, nyc, Zuzanna Szadkowski

#VlogMoms – What Makes You Laugh?

March 1, 2012 By Whitney 7 Comments

So I’ve joined a group of bloggers calling themselves Vlog Moms. Basically the gist is that every Thursday, one of us will pose a question to everyone to answer via blog. As I say in the video – I don’t LOVE vlogging. It can be a bit awkward for me, so I thought I’d try and join in as often as I can so I can practice my own video skills!

This week’s question was: What makes you laugh or giggle? I’m a little mortified that I actually gave this answer but here you go:

This week’s #VlogMoms question, What makes you giggle? came from Rajean Blomquist fromBecause I Said So. Find out what makes other #VlogMoms giggle by following the links and join us!

Filed Under: Whitney's Blog Tagged With: #vlogmoms

Less Than 2 Inches of Snow But Look What My Kids Did

February 12, 2012 By Whitney Leave a Comment

My kids have just been ITCHING for some snow to fall this winter. Of course the most snow we’ve had was on Halloween when we had a freak storm that dropped a couple of inches.

Since then, we’ve had a whole lot of not much going on here in Philly. But this weekend we got a little bit of a dusting – about an inch overnight Friday night and another dusting during the day Saturday.

My enterprising kids decided they would make do with what fell. It took them hours but this is what they built:

You can imagine what happens if you happen to walk by this “fort,” right? Gotta love it. I don’t have the heart to tell them that it’s supposed to be 55 on Tuesday…