From Wikipedia: The Big E, also known as The Eastern States Exposition, is billed as “New England’s Great State fair”. The Big E serves as the de facto state fair for all six of the New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Each of the New England states is prominently represented at the fair. The Big E is the sixth largest agricultural fair in the country, and the largest in New England.

From my experience: A huge ass fair where people lose their damn minds and stand in line for hours for a baked potato. Also, giant slurpies, beer, fried things, horses, crazy people, rides of questionable safety, good times.

We went on Friday, which was a Good Idea because although it was busy it wasn’t unable-to-move busy like it was last year on a Saturday. The weather was fantastic and the kids were 99% angels and even Mr. I Don’t Wanna Go There Are People There And I Hate People had a pretty good time.

Each state has a building showcasing the best stuff from their area. Maple things and seafood are in all of them.

What is this, a carousel for ANTS?

Best baby ever. We just fed her kettle corn the whole time and she barely made a peep.

No corndog no!!! Oh wait, that looks delicious. NOM NOM NOM.

I had the veggie platter for lunch and called it a healthy choice because it wasn't fried butter.

Duck Quack Quack

To make the day even more extra awesome, we met up with one of my long-time internet friends Leah (long time meaning since before I had any kids at all and her oldest kid was only a teeny weeny baby), who normally lives in Chicago but was visiting her family in Massachusetts. Little Evan immediately decided her son Calder was his new best friend, which meant he was allowed to borrow his dinosaur toy. Calder was too busy feeding popcorn to Caroline and sucking down the rest of my slurpie to care, so they got along GREAT.

Dinosaur RAWR

Driving buddies

This ride went WAY TOO FAST around the corners. Obviously Evan is terrified.

Choo choo train

Hey girl.

The boys practically mowed down the ticket taker carnie to be the first ones on and secure their spot in the engine. Calder then invited a cute little girl to sit with them. Mad skills for a 3 1/2 year old.

Hands up the whole time. This kid is fearless.

Isn't it nice when people you know online turn out to be awesome in real life too?

At one point, Leah had to go get some poutine (because, obviously) and I watched her sleeping baby and Calder. When he asked where his mom went I said “To get some food. You just stay here with the random person your mama met on the interet.” “Ok” said Calder. The people in line with us looked a little more concerned, but they must have thought I was joking. AHAHAHA jokes on them!

I love you Big E. See you next year!

So I was just linking to last year’s post about our trip and awwwwwwing over Baby Evan looking like a baby when I noticed I wore the same boots last time. I wonder if I came home and thought “Wow, those were a POOR CHOICE. Next year I’m wearing sneakers!” Because that’s what I thought this year. I win at forgetting things. Wait, what was I saying?

Turns out there might be just a FEW benefits to having a friend who owns a vineyard. Like, for example, free tickets to her fall wine festival. Unfortunately, both my guys were a little grumpy and the place was PACKED so we didn’t stay too long. Little Evan kept running away through the throngs of drunks shouting that he wanted “Lemonade! Lemonade! Now Mama!” and trying to grab people’s wine out of their hands. (I guess calling my nightly glass of Reisling “Mama’s Special Lemonade” was a poor choice.)

There’s nothing that ruins a great glass of Cabernet Franc faster than having to wrestle a screaming toddler to the ground. I think the appropriate wine pairing for 2-year-old is GIANT BOX. But even with all four hands full, E and I managed to snap a few pictures.

How many babies does it take to rip Daddy's glasses off his face?

I love how they look so much alike even though it's just the back of their heads

A nice cold Riesling makes a great teether

And here’s what we wore. I’m not thrilled with my outfit, but it was the first time all week I wore something besides stretchy pants so I felt it needed some documentation. I am very excited boots and jeans and scarves, but not so much of how sweaters make my arms look. Time for some more push-ups, I think.

Little Evan:
Shirt & pants – Old Navy
Shoes – Target

Caroline:
Head to toe – Carter’s (all from a hand-me-down box)

Mama:
Sweater – Target
Tank – Express
Purse – Kate Spade
Necklace – Bought in Paris at a street market (don’t I sound FANCY???)

They also have a tiny kitten heel. They are FORMAL moccasins.

Shoes – SteinMart
Jeans – Courtesy of the Lee Denim booth at BlogHer. I love the color and the stretch, but I should have gone with a slightly lower rise. I swear there are NO JEANS anywhere in the world that fit me correctly, especially after 2 kids. All my mushy bits get strangled and my butt is sadly flat looking. I miss my old butt.

Because I’m too poor for real Louboutins and don’t really wear that much red anyways.

The trick is to find shoes with a) leather soles (as opposed to rubber or some other synthetic) and b) the right shape. The bottom needs to have a distinct edge, so you can paint just the sole.

Supplies:

Small amount of paint (I bought 2 colors but only used the blue for these shoes), cute but sort of boring pair of shoes (these Hollywould for Target, bought on clearance years ago but only worn once or twice), sandpaper, trim roller, small brush, acrylic sealant (meant for wood, found near the stain at the hardware store).

A note about the paint: You could probably use any paint you happened to have – this is from the hardware store, the kind you get mixed at the counter, but you could probably use craft store acrylics too. The important part is sealing it.

1. Wash off the bottoms really really well.
2. Sand the whole surface down so the paint sticks better.
3. Use a trim roller to get good, even coverage without any brush marks. The roller also lets you get right to all the edges without accidentally painting the side of your shoe too. Use a small brush to do the heel and along any of the spots you can’t reach with the roller.  I used 2 coats of paint and felt like that was enough coverage. Wait at least a few hours for it to be totally dry – I waited overnight.
4. With a wide brush, give the soles a coat of polycrylic sealant. The directions call for 3 coats, so I did all three, with a light sanding in between. Wait for them to dry completely. Sand it just a little more so it’s not too slippery – you don’t want to fall on your face.

5. Wear your cute new shoes.

Remember, you’re using paint, not magic dirt-repelling fairy dust. They’re still going to scuff and get less pretty if you wear them outside. The good news is you can sand off some of the crud pretty easily or repaint them for a special occasion.

My plan was to wear my adorable new shoes for BlogHer, but all the advice I’ve read recommends comfort over style. So if you see a girl limping around barefoot and CARRYING her patent leather heels with bright blue bottoms, come say “Hi”. And also “Wow, you sure are dumb.”

Every summer Connecticut has an “Open House Day” where tons of parks and sites across the state waive their entrance fees. And every single year I see the signs start to go up in town (there’s a historic home turned museum I drive past at least twice a day) and I think “Oh that will be FUN. Let’s go somewhere! It’s free! I like history!” And then every year on the Sunday AFTER Open House Day I think “Crap. Well, sitting on the couch was nice, too.”

But this year I marked my calendar set up a reminder in my iPhone, gave E a 24 hour warning that Saturday was a GO PLACES day, Google-mapped our route (turn right on Roue 85, drive straight for 40 minutes, turn left into parking area) and off we went to Gillette Castle.

I’ll spare you a history lesson on the castle, but Wikipedia can help you out here and here if you’re interested. Let me just say NONE of these pictures really do justice to how cool it is in person.

There are 47 wooden doors like this in the castle and they are all different. The design up the center is really part of a giant lock. Even the light switches and widow hinges were made of wood like this.

Despite being a successful actor and a brilliant inventor, Gillette was the early 1900’s version of a crazy cat lady. He built in spots for them to lounge, installed chicken wire under his furniture so the cats didn’t accidentally burn themselves on the radiators, and collected tons of tiny cat figurines. I’m guessing if he was alive today he’d be a regular contributor to I Can Has Cheezburger.

On Caroline:

Onesie – Carter’s
Leggings with attached skirt – Hand me down, tag missing

On Little Evan:

Shirt – Hand me down (it says “My grandparents don’t spoil me, they’re just very accommodating”
Jeans – Target
Sandals – Old Navy

On Mama:

Shoes – Target
Jeans – Old Navy
Shirt – Old Navy
Shrug – handknit by me
Earrings – BailyBelle on Etsy

A closer look at the cute leather earrings, although it looks like she doesn’t have them in the shop anymore:

And one more pic of my husband, since I can’t seem to post enough of those.

This is what we looked like for the FIRST half of Saturday:

On Caroline:

Dress – hand me down, tag says Circo from Target
Leggings – Splendid Little for Target

On Mama:

Shirt – Calypso for Target
Skirt – Target
Nursing tank – Target (wow I’m boring)
Flip Flops – old and unnamed
Felt poppy headband – Uff Da Designs

Super pale and sort of squishy, but at least decent for human eyes.

And this is what we looked like for the SECOND half of Saturday:

On Evan:
Shirt – Hand me down, untagged
Shorts – Carter’s
Boots – Target
Tiny Shovel – Target

On Mama:
Nursing Tank – Target
Blank Tank – Hanes men’s undershirt
Shorts – Target
Bandana – Stolen from someone in college
Big person shovel – Ace Hardware

Still super pale and squish but now also saggy and dirt covered. As Little Evan would say: MESS!!!!

The digging continues. Anyone want to come over and help? I can promise lots of beer and burgers on an awesome new patio, but you don’t get paid until Friday. What, no takers? I’m shocked.