Posts Tagged ‘food’

My Week(262) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, November 8th, 2015

Alternate title: The first week after the time change so all my photos are dark and blurry because I haven’t gotten used to the sun setting at 4:30. I’m going to schedule a nice, colorful, sunny photo post to go up tomorrow morning because this is too depressing to leave at the top of the blog for long.

Sunday:

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They both love this

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OMINOUS ORCHARD IS OMINOUS

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Putting the kids to work making a pie they refused to eat

Monday:

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Toddlers on the loose

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Riding the dog like a small horse is frowned upon in this establishment!

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Stupid time change

Tuesday:

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Why look at fish when you can hang out in the aquarium reading area?

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$3 worth of dead fish make the stingrays way more fun

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The force is strong with this one

Wednesday:

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He’s plotting how to knock the largest number of things off the shelves

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While the sun is up the weather is GORGEOUS

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Poor ear infection girl

Thursday:

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Matching leggings 4 life

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MUCH needed nap time

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Super ambitious sewing plans (so far so good)

Friday:

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Wearing two babies instead of one

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Suspicious baby is suspicious

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Sleeping like he’s posed for a newborn photo

Saturday:

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Weirdos

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Bacon crackers. So simple. so delicious.

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Playing cards is my favorite

I was really confused when I realized today is November 8th, which means November is 1/4th over already. HOW is that POSSIBLE? As ready as I am for Christmas decorating, I’m not actually ready for Christmas. I still have to plan Thanksgiving and Caroline’s birthday, schedule our family pictures, order Christmas cards, and buy all the presents. Plus E has a bunch of travel for work, which means I’ll be doing it alone. At least that means I can have cereal for dinner along with the kids.

Oktoberfest Fun at Foxwoods (Date Night!!)

Thursday, October 22nd, 2015

Sometimes, just because I have this blog thing, really cool stuff happens. Last week, that cool stuff was a special press event at Foxwoods to help celebrate Oktoberfest.

Even better than being invited was getting to tell my husband that we were going to drink free beer all afternoon. Plus bowling! Because who doesn’t love bowling?!

There was a beer expert to tell us about what we were tasting. He said they went out of their way to find cool, rare and probably unheard of beers for us to taste. I have to say, they did a great job with “unusual”. There was one beer that they described as “sour”, which was the biggest understatement ever. It was like drinking pickle juice. Luckily, I’ve considered drinking pickle juice in the past so I mostly liked it? Mostly. The beer expert also told us it was made in a brewery that is literally never cleaned. Never. They don’t sweep or dust or shoo away the spiders, so you get all that great dirt and spider parts in your tasty sour beer.

Like I said, “unusual” = accomplished.

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This one was extremely normal and fine and I liked it.

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Gueuze was the sour pickle one

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Social media-ers gotta soical media, even while eating pretzels

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This one was FANTASTIC. It was beer mixed with cherry liquor and tasted exactly like a cherry coke.

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I would like to state for the record I had nothing to do with that. Especially because 10 seconds later it fell over. Bloggers + 6 glasses of beer = poor choices.

After the drinking they encouraged us to “explore”, which to us obviously meant “play some blackjack”. We…did not win, but one of the other bloggers got $1,000 off a slot machine! Then we wandered around and checked out the updates. I hadn’t actually been to parts of Foxwoods in a couple years (Even though we saw the show a few weeks ago and I took the kids to the outlets earlier this month). It’s a HUGE place. They’ve updated the main shopping drag completely – it used to be very Vegasy with fake storefronts and cobblestones. Now it is all modern glass and wood and angles and soooooo fancy.

E and I walked over to Fox Tower to check out the new tattoo parlor, but before we made it he got a work call and stopped walking and talked about work stuff instead of paying attention to me. So I took his picture. This is his work call face.

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And this is one of the views out the window. The leaves are about 2 weeks away from peak color right now, it’s going to be STUNNING.

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Then we headed over to High Rollers, the bowling lanes. I knew in theory that they were there. I’ve definitely thought about going in the past. But for some reason we’ve never actually made it down there.

It is FANCY. I really really really wish there had been a place like this open pre-kids because I would have been a regular. It’s basically the opposite of every other bowling alley I’ve ever been in. It did not smell like smoke, it wasn’t dirty or old, the service was incredible. What kind of bowling alley has chandeliers, big screen tvs, and kale pancetta salads on their menu? High Rollers.

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That is a TERRIBLE picture of me, but I felt I needed to include my squinty bowling face for accuracy. I am willing the pins to all fall over. AND IT WORKS – I won a prize for being the first person to roll a strike. BOOYAH.

After bowling, we went back to Cedar’s Steakhouse for our Oktoberfest-inspired dinner and deli meats. German food is meats, meats and more meats, so obviously our meal featured some classics. And more beer. Of course. (For the record, even though I was the invited media person – SO FANCY – and E was my +1, he did 90% of the drinking. Because I am a nice wife who knows he likes beer more than I do.)

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I never get tired of being called “press”, not matter now untrue it is.

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This was my favorite part. That mustard was on our pretzels during the beer tasting too, and it was SO good.

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I love being reminded that Foxwoods is RIGHT THERE, 10 minutes from the house, and a great spot for date night. I love date night. I do not go on enough date nights and I think we should fix that. It helps that we found a great babysitter my kids love and who swears Lincoln wasn’t a disaster at all while we were gone. I think she’s lying but lying is almost as good as him not being a disaster, so…. See you again soon, Foxwoods!

Disclaimer: I was invited to this special press event at Foxwoods that included beer, bowling, food and a $50 gift card to do some shopping (I spent it at the toy store buying Legos for Evan and coloring books for Caroline, because even at a fancy press event I am still a mom). No other compensation was provided and no one told me I had to write this post. In fact, you can’t even go to Foxwoods and order that beer because it was just for our fancy thing, so I’m…not really sure why they invited me?! Hey, I’m not going to question it too much. It was super fun and I hope they invite me to more things. 

Have I Mentioned I Love Fall?

Tuesday, October 6th, 2015

On Sunday morning, we participated in the Mystic Pirate Invasion. We did it last year too and the kids had a blast, Maybe next year I will plan ahead and find them pirate costumes that fit instead of cobbling together dress up from the last 4 years. They got a ton of treasure (candy + beads + plastic gem stones) and I got my 10,000 steps. Linc was strapped to my back (in our pirate/kraken themed carrier, obvs) the whole time, his pirate outfit went mostly unnoticed.

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Look! Linc is in a picture!

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Scary pirate faces.

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Caroline felt is was VERY important that puppy come with us. The child-sized baby carrier was supposed to just be a toy but now it means I don’t end up carrying around the thing she insisted we bring and then loses/drops/wants me to hold. TOTALLY worth $30.

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After we ran home and switched to regular person clothes, we headed to WeLiKit ice cream for their 25th anniversary celebration. A friend told me about the ice cream stand over the summer and I have to agree it is some of the BEST ice cream I’ve ever had. And what can be better than a waffle cone that is so fresh it’s still soft and warm when you eat it? It was a tiny bit on the chilly side for ice cream, but the kids did so much running around and general shenaniganery they were plenty warm.

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Watching the waffle cone making. Obviously an ice cream stand is the best place to also buy beef.

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Indian pudding, my new favorite flavor. It’s molasses and corn meal and if you think that sounds gross we can’t be friends.

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p.s. They also sell clam fritters and chowder. Does it sound like the perfect place or what?!

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And because I was so happy to be outside after a week of rain, I talked Caroline into playing model for a few minutes. I bought a set of Lightroom presets from Mastin Labs. They’re based on film (remember film????) and while I’m not going to switch over to ALL Mastin, all the time they are gorgeous. I love what they do to greens and shadows. The ones in her tutu were taken in the parking lot of Scotland town hall. The rest were in my yard.

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Best Weekend Of The Year (Part 2)

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

Some of my weekend plans got derailed because the US Navy doesn’t actually believe skipping work to attend the Eastern States Exposition (aka The Big E) is a priority. They are obviously wrong, but that doesn’t change the fact that they wouldn’t let E go. But there was still plenty of weekend fun had by all.

Greek Food Festival:

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One of the best parts about the Greek Food Festival is that we can walk there.

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Linc ate more than anyone else (besides me).

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Caroline was pouting, so Evan went to cheer her up.

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Still loving our Joovy TooQool, even the 6 year old wants to ride in it.

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Those things are called pineapple ground cherries and are actually delicious.

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I wish I had taken more photos, there was so much cute stuff, but it was unexpectedly warm and I had a squirmy baby on my back and a 4 year old who needed to get to soccer practice.

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I bought her that chair.

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Norwich Auto Show:

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A tiny train set on the train set! It moved and everything.

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Slightly terrifying. Evan declined to go anywhere near them.

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The handmade blanket that matches the car is amazing.

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Poor Linc hangs out on my back, so he never gets to be in photos.

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In the back of an old Chicago police car.

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Mystic Garlic Festival:

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Garlic ranch fries and clam fritters

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Bacon & cheddar hush puppies that actually melted in my mouth.

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We still haven’t even gone apple or pumpkin picking yet, on any hayrides, to any corn mazes, or any of the other fun fall stuff. Technically fall starts tomorrow though, so we have time!

My Week(255) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, September 20th, 2015

Once again I DID a lot more stuff than my photos show. When I have my big girl camera with me I have a hard time remembering to use my phone to also take photos so you get a lot of babywearing selfies in this post.

Sunday:

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When you are a grumpy mess by 7 am, you get to hold your blankie even when you’re wrapped

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Monkey see, monkey do

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Caroline looks like she’s about to fly right off that swing

Monday:

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Airplane watching

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He rode the whole way in the stroller, but is too tired to walk 10 steps to the car

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They have a case of the Monday’s

Tuesday:

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That’s a really brave fishing spot

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Little boy in the big woods

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He really, really loves my wallet?

Wednesday:

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His first time ever in the mall playground, poor deprived child

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WATCH OUT IT’S A BOUNTY HUNTER

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We’ve been eating a lot of pasta salad

Thursday:

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He’s not a huge selfie fan

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STILL NOT A FAN

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Sqeeeeeezing out one more beach day

Friday:

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He loves traffic

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Editing is fun again, because I get to do it kid-free during nap time

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AND I can edit while watching EXCELLENT MOVIES

Saturday:

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He kept trying to play peek-a-boo behind the chain link.

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OH GOODY WE’RE DOING SOCCER AGAIN

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She wouldn’t even let me wash it off before bed

This week is our first full week with EVERYTHING: Judo, ballet, swim and soccer. It’s good and bad. I like keeping the kids really busy even in after-school hours because if they’re doing an activity then they’re not staring at the ipad or the tv. But when they get really tired they’re walking time bombs of tears and disappointment. We’re still working on the balance, especially because our weekends have also been really full. Maybe once the weather isn’t so fantastic we’ll stay inside and all take naps on Saturdays.