Posts Tagged ‘baseball’

My Week(244) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, July 5th, 2015

Hello. It is summer.

Sunday:

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Morning lap naps because we have no where to be

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Sports!

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She’s very good at selfies

Monday:

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Our Mystic day started at the aquarium

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Then I tied my baby to a chair to eat grilled cheese…

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Then Caroline decorated a whale at the seaport

Tuesday:

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I’M A BIG KID

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LOOK AT ME BEING BIG

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Being a big kid is exhausting

Wednesday:

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That whale is definitely trying to eat her

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Caroline thinks sitting is boring

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LINC THINKS SITTING IS VERY EXCITING

Thursday:

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Bed stealer

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Perfect

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One Caroline to push 3 babies. She’s got it.

Friday:

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So grown

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Evan is doing is presentation about Seaport Camp and explaining his picture looks like that because he “only works in black and sometimes very very dark gray”.

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Babies do not have good table manners

Saturday (Happy Fourth!!):

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The Mayflower!! Linc is unimpressed because he knows it’s a replica.

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Matching dresses are awesome

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We stayed up waaaaaaay too late

And on that note, I am going to bed. The weekend was fun but exhausting and NO ONE has taken a real nap in more than a week. I need at least 6 hours of sleep in a row if I have any chance of functioning this week. Good night!

Take Us Out To The Ball Game

Thursday, July 2nd, 2015

I love minor league baseball. I mean, I love major league baseball too, if I get to actually go to the game in person. But major league baseball games are a) expensive b) far away and c) expensive, so I mostly stick to local minor league games. Our team here in town has changed names at least 3 times since we’ve lived here. First they were the Gators (maybe?), then they were The Defenders (I’m sure about that one), now they are the Connecticut Tigers. I appreciate that they make it family friendly. And cheap. Sitting in the first row right on the 3rd base line make the game much more fun for the big kids.

Poor Linc though. Baseball stadiums aren’t exactly baby-friendly, especially for a baby who just started walking and climbing steps. I felt like I spent most of the game wrestling an angry, wet badger. He did seem to like the baseball food, which kept him partially entertained. I mean, who doesn’t like licking the salt off of soft-baked pretzels?

After the game the kids got to run the bases, which they thought was neat. At the end they each got a coupon for free Ben & Jerry’s, which I think is neat, because I can make them share one scoop while I eat the other. Win win.

Photographic proof of our fun and/or eating:

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Running away…

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Linc thought this game was super fun.

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I think that mascot was hitting on my husband.

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Linc also thought this was a fun game (despite his face not looking so fun).

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Futures At Fenway

Tuesday, July 30th, 2013

When I went to Boston a couple weeks ago for the Red Sox family focus group thing, one of the ideas we bloggers had was an earlier, kid-friendly game. Activities for the kids, cheap food, and maybe a big sign that says “WARNING: CHILDREN’S SECTION” so no one gave us dirty looks when our kid talked through the whole thing. It turns out that’s already an event, called Futures at Fenway, and the team generously offered us tickets so we could attend. I wasn’t sure we’d last the whole 9 innings and I was pretty sure I’d spend most of my time walking around with a very bored 2-year-old and I wouldn’t see much of the game, but I love love love Fenway so we made plans to go anyway.

It turns out my children LIKE baseball. OK, maybe they mostly like popcorn and peanuts and giant sodas ($7.50 plus free refills! Best deal ever!) and getting to sit in my lap. But that translated into watching the whole 8 1/2 innings (We won!) from our seats. I didn’t even have to resort to letting them watch Disney Jr on my phone. It was a good game too – it wasn’t the Red Sox, but the Sea Dogs, their affiliate team. That means these guys are still hoping to get noticed by the major leagues and so they try really, really hard. They run even if it looks like an easy out at first, they FLING themselves across the field for diving catches, they strike out instead of always taking the walk. It was exciting! It was tons of fun! It was a long day for a 2.5 year old and there might have been a tiiiiiiny bit of whining and crying but it was one of the best family days we’ve ever had. I felt relaxed almost the whole time – and when was the last time I said that about a summer afternoon at a crowded public event with two small children?

I was going to write a whole paragraph about how sports – even just a vague awareness that your grandfather really loved golf, explained you ball data and made you watch it on TV in the summers when you were visiting – can mean a lot to a kid. But there seems to be a lot of dust in here and my eyes are, uh, watering quite a bit, so I’ll just say I hope Evan and Caroline have great memories of our visits to Fenway and that we can make it a summer tradition.

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p.s. The event had a TON of stuff that was kid friendly – the zoo and the aquarium had animals there, Kidz Bop did a concert after the game and a meet-and-greet, the players signed autographs, a bounce house – plus the concessions were half priced. We enjoyed the eating and the bounce house, but the kids did so great in our seats we didn’t really NEED all the distractions. I would highly recommend it for families.

Disclaimer: The PR team for the Red Sox left us tickets at will-call so we could attend. No other compensation was provided. Tickets for the event started at just $5, so trust me when I say they didn’t pay for me to talk about the event. 

My Week(143) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, July 28th, 2013

Our week was busy, except for when it wasn’t because of the pouring rain and flash floods. But mostly busy.

Sunday:

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I mean, I only have three doll houses, why not buy another one? (I did not)

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Caroline is destined for music videos with lots of mind machines

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I appreciate how the trees on the point hide most of the nuclear power plant. More scenic.

Monday:

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I’ve never actually seen the state capitol before

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Confucius say: Give a man $120 and he will give you an LLC.

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Sometimes I take pictures of stuff I want to remember to keep on my phone, but then I forgot to leave them on my phone.

Tuesday:

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The local tax office is located in part of an old TB hospital.

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HUGS

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We love the sunflowers

Wednesday:

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Really excited for gymnastics

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Playdates make me hungry, and this was super delicious

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I told Evan he is my photography assistant, and he said that means he has to push the stroller.

Thursday:

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Grocery store in the pouring rain

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Destroying the house and having pillow fights in the pouring rain

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Watching Thor in the pouring rain

Friday:

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Princess Sadface returns

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Five kids under a table.

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Despite that face, the rainbow ice was delicious.

Saturday:

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Home run!!

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I never should have showed her how the front-facing camera works.

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Restarted C25K. This time I am determined to finish.

The urgency to do as many things and have as much fun as possible before summer is over has hit. I was actually grateful for a rainy miserable day to stay home and relax (even though we ended up having friends over and totally wearing out my kids). July is almost over and August is going to FLY by and then Evan starts 5 days a week morning pre-k, which I am both totally ready and not at all ready for. They grow up so fast, etc etc, but I’m looking forward to a new stage where I have a lot more time to focus on things I love (especially photography) instead of just being Mommy.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Friday, June 28th, 2013

Right before the kids and I took off for our road trip, I got an email that said “Boston Red Sox Invite You to a Game at Fenway Park” in the subject line. I almost, almost deleted it, since obviously it must be spam. I am so very glad I didn’t.

I have no idea how I ended up on a list of “thought leaders” in New England, but because they stumbled over my blog somehow the marketing department for the Red Sox invited me and my family up to the park for a tour, a game and a focus group to talk about what would make us more likely to come back.

The whole thing was so professional, I almost cringe at the fact I even there. I wore flip flops and brought my four year old. No one else had their kid there (I asked! They said beforehand it was OK!) and he was kind of…a four year old. There was an agenda and a white board and notepads.  It was a small group. There was a seat marked with my name and blog name on a printed and branded place marker. They had individual bottles of Perrier for us while we chatted about family events at Fenway and their Kid Nation program. Perrier is way above my class level. It was 90 degrees and my Spanx were the only thing keeping me from literally melting into a puddle on the floor, but there I was, unable to shut up. I ramble when I’m nervous (shocking, I’m sure) and in the moment my brain seemed to think all my ideas were BRILLIANT. Gah. Gaaaaaaaaah.

Luckily I must not have totally embarrassed myself, since they sent a follow up email and invited us back to the Futures at Fenway event coming up in July. At the focus group we discussed in detail what sort of things we’d like to see at a family day event…and then POOF! Turns out that event is ALREADY SCHEDULED. And has been for the past eight years. I probably should have known about that already. Oops?

The real best part of the whole thing was the ballpark tour. I’m not the world’s greatest Red Sox fan (and if you are, feel free to hate me for being invited to this thing when you weren’t), but I am a huge nut about history and Fenway is all about history. Getting to walk around the park when it was empty, visit all the fancy and private levels, see the framed jerseys going all the way back to the very first one with actual red socks printed on it…it was amazing. Especially because I got to bring E and Evan. I choked up a little just editing my photos from the day – they don’t get to spend a lot of time together doing father-son stuff, but what can be a better memory than Evan’s first trip to Fenway? Magical, for real.

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Look at that empty, empty field!

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There are vintage-style and exposed brick signs everywhere in the park. I love the way they make it FEEL like a historic place.

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Some of the fancy memorabilia in the uber-swanky season ticket holder club.

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So, so, so, SO many food choices in the park.

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I had to bribe him with one of those smooshed pennies to sit next to Wally.

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The view from on the field.

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Discussing batting practice.

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Hello Rockies. Sorry not sorry you lost this game!

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Watching the actual game (we only got to stay a few innings)

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Delivered right to my seat, hot and delicious

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I’m a little obsessed with the way the light-up boards for the scores and stats all use green backgrounds, so they match the rest of the stadium. Plus the graphics have fake drop-shadows, so they look just like the old hand-operated score board (That they still use! There are guys in there!)

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PACKED stadium on a Tuesday night!

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Goodnight Fenway! See you again soon!