Can you believe I’ve done this nonsense for 250 weeks? Caroline wasn’t even BORN when I did the first one. So I suppose I can’t even think about quitting, despite the fact that I can barely remember to do them. This one is late and I had to check my dates three times because it’s so hard to believe a week ago we were still on vacation. Real life happens SO FAST.

Sunday:

Evan is doubtful that 3 people in a one person kayak is wise.

Linc loves vacation

Caroline is ALWAYS ready for more pictures

Monday:

If you look hard enough, you can almost see New York down the river

I liked the reflection in the back of that tanker

Linc is happy to see all his stuff again

Tuesday:

Caroline is writing a song

Grumpy pants needed a walk to get ready for bed

I really, really love this front porch.

Wednesday:

The zoo was so fun.

I will never get tired of these photos.

I had three ladies tell me they liked my hair and none of them even notice I was nursing a baby.

Thursday:

Lunch at Quincy Market should always involve a lobster roll

Boston Children’s Museum

Linc was over Boston (and I was over my poor choice of shirt on a 90 degree day)

Friday:

SUPER COOL PRESS EVENT POST COMING SOON

I was really good at juggling, if my really good you mean terrible

Red Lantern at Foxwoods = ORDER ALL THE SUSHI

Saturday:

They must have bought those water bottles at Target. Poor confused children.

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaap

What? I’m hungry.

I forgot I had Virginia vacation photos to post, plus I have the post about our fun date at Foxwoods, so as long as I don’t die of heatstroke (we’re on day 5 or 6 of 90 degrees plus) I’ll have more new blog stuff up soon.

I am suffering from a severe case of OMFG WHY ISN’T IT WARMER OUTSIDE YET. It’s making me hate everything.

Sunday:

We bought a children’s museum membership basically JUST for this thing

Caroline says this hat is totally her style

Evan takes checkers very seriously

Monday:

I bought a new rug

Go away Mommy

LASHES

Tuesday:

Baby in a cage with a sister to entertain him = I can get stuff done

Meeting the fishes

Caroline said he needed to be more stylish

Wednesday:

I had to put the baby in a stroller, so I put a wrap over him.

Giant boxes are the best part of childhood

Possibly regretting the demo he just did in the dining room because now he HAS to build that bench I asked for (stay tuned…)

Thursday:

Reading her horse book to her horses

Attitude for days

Officially the cutest Tula

Friday:

THERE IS A SKUNK IN THIS PICTURE

She wanted to participate in our babywearing meetup

It snows for TWO DAYS

Saturday:

Helping with the bench

Pizza picnic

Then THIS happened and decided I needed more babies immediately

I am seriously having a hard time caring about anything right now because I’m so done with winter. If I could open the front door and let the kids play on the porch I would be SO READY to do some spring cleaning but since it’s 28 degrees out I just want to go take a nap. And I don’t want to cook anything. Or go anywhere. Or talk to anyone. Or blog about anything.

The kids and I are all playing hooky tomorrow because half day + appointments + cranky baby = too much of a mess to handle. I’m hoping it resets everyone’s attitude because we ALL need it.

This post is late and I got less than 3 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours and I barely remember how I got home from the airport last night and Caroline is sitting on my lap with her slightly terrifying My Little Pony Equestria Girl introducing her to all the princess dolls and I have 5 photo sessions to edit so what I’m saying is if this post makes none sense don’t be surprised.

Sunday:

Princess Pirate Butterfly Caroline’s new best friend, the Dragon Ice Cream dragon

Evan defends his family against a zombie puppet

Sleepy, smudgy butterfly

Who knew a Kohl’s parking lot could be so inspiring?

Monday:

I don’t even know.

Sand castles on our deserted beach

About 20 seconds later Caroline and her friends smashed them all.

Tuesday:

They’re having a mini-conference on how best to beg me for that candy on the counter

Cleaning and trying out my headphones for an upcoming post

Shooties. Verdict after wearing them all weekend: Wise choice! Very comfortable for high heels, lots of compliments, only felt slightly like I have hooves.

Wednesday:

Who is this huge person going to preschool and where is my baby?

Another stunning fall day in Connecticut (Town Hall)

Watching Monsters University (again! We saw it in the theater!) with the kids

Thursday:

I took a picture of my parking garage level/number to I didn’t have to remember when I can back at 1 am Monday. BRILLIANT. Worked perfectly.

Boston!

Random MARTA station in Georgia where my friend Miranda picked me up!

Friday:

Average attention span in 2012: 8 SECONDS. Now you know why we needed a session on writing engaging content.

All cleaned up for dinner with my other Minute Clinic bloggers at Type A

The crazy cab ride was worth it to get to this place. AMAAAAAAZING.

Saturday:

In case you were wondering, THAT is an Equestria Girl. I managed to snag one when they were breaking down the booth on Sunday.

My next DIY, obvs.

Atlanta was really pretty

Step 1 in getting back to my real life: write down all the stuff on the calendar I’ve been ignoring because it was “in October” and “October is a really long time from now”.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh <–  the sound I just made looking at the stack of papers from the kids’ schools talking about open house nights and PTO meetings and pizza parties. Back to work!

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.

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. 

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

Sunday:

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

Caroline is destined for music videos with lots of mind machines

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

Monday:

I’ve never actually seen the state capitol before

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

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:

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

HUGS

We love the sunflowers

Wednesday:

Really excited for gymnastics

Playdates make me hungry, and this was super delicious

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

Thursday:

Grocery store in the pouring rain

Destroying the house and having pillow fights in the pouring rain

Watching Thor in the pouring rain

Friday:

Princess Sadface returns

Five kids under a table.

Despite that face, the rainbow ice was delicious.

Saturday:

Home run!!

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

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.