Posts Tagged ‘casino’

Connecticut – As Much Fun As You Can Fit In One Weekend

Thursday, June 14th, 2012


It’s kind of hilarious that this post is sponsored by Connecticut Tourism, since my entire blog could pretty much be seen as a commercial for Connecticut Tourism. Between trips to the aquarium, the seaport, parks, and various bodies of water all I do is post about the fun we have living here. I’m constantly amazed at how much there is to do in an hour radius of my house. I’ve lived here 7 years and I’m still discovering new places and activities all the time!

A few months ago, my friend Erin said “Hey, so I’m getting four days off over Memorial Day weekend, would it be cool if I came up to visit you?” and I say “It would be THE COOLEST.” I warned her two kids kind of put a damper on the crazy, carefree, childless life she was used to but she assured me she loved my ginger babies and would be happy to hang out doing ginger baby-friendly stuff. Luckily, we managed to do plenty of things that were fun for EVERYONE – although I needed 18 hours of sleep and a diet of nothing but carrot sticks to recover from SO MUCH FUN.

Here’s a quick (but extremely picture heavy) rundown of all the things we did over Memorial Day weekend. I PROMISE it’s worth at least scrolling through so you can check out the giveaway at the bottom: Saturday morning we drove down to Mystic where we walked around looking at shops, watched the drawbridge go up and down and ate delicious ice cream at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream(I highly recommend the lemon custard with shaved chocolate).

mystic connecticut drawbridge

mystic drawbridge ice cream

whale statue mystic connecticut

mystic river

Memorial Day Weekend mystical toys connecticut On the way home we stopped at two local vineyards – Stonington Vineyards and Maugle Sierra Vineyards- for wine tastings. E kindly volunteered to make wise choices and be DD so Erin and I could try all the wines. I came home with three bottles, include the most delicious Riesling ever.

stonington vineyards connecticut

stonington vineyards connecticut

stonington vineyards connecticut

stonington vineyards connecticut

stonington vineyards connecticut

maugle sierra vineyard connecticut

maugle sierra vineyard connecticut

In the evening, we took the stroller and walked down to the Norwich waterfront where the Rotary Club was having a carnival. My daredevil son enjoyed half a dozen rides while Erin and Caroline and I enjoyed a delicious fried dough.

carnival connecticut

norwich carnival rollercoaster

norwich carnival connecticut

norwich carnival connecticut

*That tall thing in the distance is Mohegan Sun Casino*

norwich carnival connecticut

norwich carnival connecticut fried dough

On Sunday, I took Erin to the Jewett City Flea Market, which is in a huge old mill building. We wandered around looking for treasures and wondering WHO exactly is going to buy something like this:

terrifying ventriliquist dummy

But we found plenty of cool stuff too:

jewett city flea market connecticut

jewett city flea market connecticut

jewett city flea market connecticut

jewett city flea market connecticut

jewett city flea market connecticut

jewett city flea market connecticut

On Sunday evening our awesome baby sitter came over to put the kids to bed so all the grown ups could get dinner and drinks at Mohegan Sun. We had dinner at Sol Toro Tequila Grill and spiked milk shakes at Bobby’s Burger Place. Then we played craps and tried a few slot machines until we decided we’d lost enough money. I always feel so glamorous at the casino, even if I’m playing penny slots.

mohegan sun connecticut

mohegan sun connecticut

black & blue mojito

mohegan sun connecticut

mohegan sun connecticut bobby flay's burger

mohegan sun connecticut bobby flay's burger

mohegan sun connecticut

mohegan sun connecticut

After sleeping in for a little bit on Monday we went out for family brunch and then walked down to the green where the town was having Memorial Day festivities – and my kids got to see a zillion firetrucks.

old tymes restaurant brunch

old tymes restaurant brunch

Even reliving all that as I was writing it was exhausting. We did a lot! And we only did a TINY bit of the stuff we could have done – we didn’t go out on the boat, or to the beach, or to the Nautilus Museum, or Mystic Aquarium or Seaport, or any of the other vineyards, or go get fresh seafood, or down to Clinton for antiques and outlet shopping.

Which Connecticut destination would you like to visit? Leave a comment below and you will be entered into a sweepstakes from BlogHer to win $1,000 to help you plan your trip!Advertisement (more…)

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Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

For a “short” week, this week felt insanely long.

Sunday:

Yes, flea market vendor, that insanely creep disembodied head DEFINITELY makes me want to buy that hat.

Spiked milkshakes are the best invention since regular milkshakes

Playing poker at home is much less expensive.

Monday:

Spying on the neighbors

No pictures during breakfast, Mommy.

She totally thinks she can read

Tuesday:

Yes, that looks safe.

I think Caroline totally looks like Sal

So far, I like it.

Wednesday:

They think this is the world's widest balance beam

They think this is the world's widest balance beam

The Very Tired Three Year Old

Jumping off the couch into a pile of pillows is all fun until someone cracks their head open

Thursday:

Matching ginger swings

Mommy truth: Nothing makes shopping easier than two kids sitting nicely in a single cart.

Caroline, Queen of the Nile

Friday:

Stroller ride: Yur doin it rong

Practicing boating safety, even on the pretend boat in the seaport

Walking through the past with friends

Saturday:

Rainy morning relaxing

This is how adventures (or nightmares) start

Reading one of our garage sale finds

Today’s weather was terrible but tomorrow is supposed to be much better so I’m hoping to still squeeze in some weekend fun – or at least a little grilling on the patio. Now I’ve got to go let Jillian kick my butt for 20 minutes to make up for the delicious post-cheeseburger frosty I just inhaled.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

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Steppin’ Out: Fancy Casino Night

Monday, May 28th, 2012

So this weekend my friend Erin visited and we went…well…everywhere. I’ve got a super cool giveaway coming up from Connecticut Tourism so I’m saving three dozen (or maybe slightly more) of the photos for that post but I have a VERY pressing question for you today:

Formal shorts – A Thing or Not A Thing????

Close up of my shorts

On Suzanne:

Shirt: Dress Barn
Shorts: Old Navy
Shoes: ModCloth
Purse: Jason Wu for Target
Necklace: Target

I didn’t actually ask Erin to give me a rundown of her entire outfit because that would have been sort of weird. So maybe she can tell us where she got that really cute dress in the comments.

I told E I was going to wear formal shorts and he laughed at me. I say they’re just as good as a skirt except more comfortable with less of a chance of accidentally flashing my underwear when I fall off my RIDICULOUS shoes.

Either way, I like them. Unfortunately they were not lucky formal shorts. Stupid magic unicorn slot machine took all my money. True story.

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Sunday, April 10th, 2011

PREPARE FOR THE ATTACK OF THE 2ND BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

Sunday:

BJ's run for party supplies

I glued these to toothpicks, to make sharp pointy things the kids wanted to play with. Genius.

I tried out my cake recipe and disovered piping adorable swirls of frosting onto cupcakes is a lot harder than it looks

Monday:

My kitchen counters became ground zero for all the junk I needed to put away

I went to Joann's and did NOT buy the fancy bedazzler. It took a lot of will power.

Balloons for Little Evan's birthday photos

Tuesday:

I made a quick birthday shirt for Little Evan to wear to Stroller Strides

Celebrating his birthday by crawling under his dog instead of letting me take his picture

And then Little Evan refused to sit in his stroller for a picture. At least Caroline is still forced to pose for me.

Wednesday:

When you're 2, Mommy lets you play on her iPad. Sometimes. With a lot of supervision.

We went to Target & got Starbucks - Evan gets a cup of whipped cream so he doesn't feel left out

Caroline reminds me she lives here too by being adorable

Playing with his new Color Wonder finger paints. NON-TOXIC finger paints. Because yeah, he ate some.

Thursday:

The baking aisle is fascinating

His new favorite word is "Messsssss!" so he makes them just to say it

My parents came into town for the party & took us out to dinner. Little Evan was super well behaved.

Friday:

I tried to find a polka dot shirt/dress for the party and discovered I am WAY too old for Forever 21. Apparently 29 is when you stop being 21 forever.

He's blurry because he didn't stand still the ENTIRE DAY. No nap either.

We finally got the crib up in Caroline's nursery so she can actually sleep there (someday)

Saturday (Part 1):

It's a good think I started baking at 8 am because I frosted the cake at 1:45 - the party started at 2.

The remains of my cake, after the party. It was delicious.

Birthday spoils. We have such amazing and generous friends and family!

Saturday (Part 2):

My folks watched the kids so E and I could have a date night, so we went to Mohegan Sun Casino (5 minutes from our house)

This is The Atrium, the martini bar in the middle of the casino. The whole place is so gorgeous. (This pic is SOOC and by C I mean iPhone)

My 2 favorite kinds of food - fancy and Mexican - from Sol Toro

Our winnings! Ok, not really. We broke exactly even after an hour and a half of blackjack. That totally counts as a win though.

The casino also has Krispy Kreme. Best place ever? I THINK SO. I had a lemon-filled.

The week was totally crazy but Saturday was SO much fun it was all worth it. Celebrating 2 years of being a mommy (because, really, that’s what a huge birthday is when your kid is 2) followed by grown up fun (for the first time since I became a mommy) made for the best day ever. Even if E and I were both totally exhausted and came home at 10:30 to crash. I am so grateful to my parents & my Aunt Susan who came up to help. But now the crazy time is over and I cannot even describe to you how much sitting down and laziness will be occurring around here today. SO MUCH SITTING DOWN.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

 

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