Posts Tagged ‘fun’

Halloween 2015

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

We had another mild-weather Halloween here in Connecticut. It’s sort of unfair that my New England children have never known the joy of wearing their winter coats UNDER their Halloween costumes while freezing to death for some candy. We had friends over for an hour of trick or treating followed by an hour and a half of handing out candy, because that part is just as good and you feet don’t get as tired.

The kids got enough loot that they don’t actually CARE about all the candy, so it’s been consolidated and will be rationed out until I end up eating most of it. I wish there had been fewer Whoppers (ew) and more Midnight Milky Ways (yum), but more than enough of it is high quality to make it a successful Halloween all around. If you recognize the shark in these photos, it was Evan’s costume from last year, lent to a friend who was SUPER excited about it. Everyone’s costumes this year were amazing (they were all from Chasing Fireflies, which is why. All the monies, but so awesome).

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Our neighbors were projecting Hotel Transylvania onto the side of their garage. Two thumbs up.

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My Week(261) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, November 1st, 2015

So it’s November now, which is fine, we’re fine, it’s all fine. Except that in 6 weeks I promised Caroline I would throw her a Nutcracker-themed 5th birthday party and two weeks after that is Christmas and then it will be 2016 and  OMG. Let’s just focus on this past (excellent) week.

Sunday:

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Getting as much costume time as possible this week

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I got my first RocksBox! I’m really loving wearing fancy jewelry. My affiliate code good for 1 free month is bebehblogxoxo, if you’re interested in trying it out.

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I brought Dorothy to help at a photo session and she charmed a farm dog, OF COURSE.

Monday:

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NO PICTURES PLEASE (He’s kidding, he was an excellent photo subject)

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DELIGHTED with our fake gravestones

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HELP I’M BEING MAULED BY A NURSING LION

Tuesday:

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I think he’s judging my hair.

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Every day

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Linc has a HUGE crush on all the tiny ballerinas

Wednesday:

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Now he’s judging Aldi for being a weird grocery store

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I might have been a LITTLE early with the reindeer leggings but WHATEVER

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Helping himself to Caroline’s uneaten lunch. Caroline now BUYS her lunch.

Thursday:

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OUTSIIIIIIDE

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OOOOOOUTSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE

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Not happy to be inside, sorting wraps

Friday:

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Definitely my kid

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LOBSTER TWINS

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A scary monster/vampire

Saturday:

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SO PROUD of her first trophy

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Totally normal

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Letting the kids hand out the candy so I can sit and drink my wine #excellentmomming

I did NOT watch the Walking Dead tonight, because my husband is forcing me to watch The Packers embarrass themselves all over the teevee, so I’m going to do the smart thing and pass the hell out. I’m going to make the end of daylight savings work FOR me instead of against me. Fingers crossed all the kids are on board with than plan. They should be, right? Kids are totes reasonable about that kind of thing.

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. 

My Week(259) in iPhone Photos

Monday, October 19th, 2015

I read a thing the other day that said October is for photographer what April is for accountants. It’s absolutely true. I love being busy but this time of year Ginger Snaps sort of takes over my life and I’m working constantly to keep on top of my editing. What I’m saying is, this post (and probably every other post until Christmas) is late.

Sunday:

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They could do this for hours

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Church fashion (and cookies)

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Caroline’s scarecrow is named Olivia and is truly terrifying

Monday:

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I am unable to do anything but sing Home on the Range when I see these photos

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Linc has already perfected his photobomb skills

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They did this for a good 10 minutes straight

Tuesday:

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Rainbow – and a super high tide – at Bluff Point

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No nap grumpy pants has to come to the bus stop

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THERE’S the nap. At 5 pm.

Wednesday:

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Shopping for tunic tops to match my crazy leggings

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Swinging

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Great sunset! Too bad it happened 10 minutes into soccer practice.

Thursday:

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Elf baby

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Post swim fashion choices

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He is convinced this is his new chair

Friday:

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We’re about 2 weeks away from pitch-black morning bus stop

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Both of these toddlers were pretty pleased with themselves

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That corner of his blanket is SO GROSS

Saturday:

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I can’t remember the last time I was actually outside and happy to see sunrise

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Dadding like a boss

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The most amusing part of our casino date night was this glitter alllllllll over the floor of the women’s room

I have like a billion phone photos I didn’t post this week, just because no one needs to see EVERY kind of beer I drank at Oktoberfest or ALL the corn maze selfies. But if you like these posts and don’t follow me on Instagram, you should do that. I try not to repeat stuff, so my feed over there is generally better than these.

Now I’m going to try to edit three photo sessions AND clean my house while Linc hangs on my knees and begs me to help him put a hat on so he can rip it off over and over and over. I’m optimistic.

Columbus Day Weekend Fun

Friday, October 16th, 2015

We had absolutely STUNNING weather last weekend here in Connecticut. It was perfect for my photography business mini sessions and perfect for doing all the fall things and perfect for making me feel like Connecticut is a kick-ass place to live. IT’S A JOY JUST TO BE ALIIIIIIIVE.

On our lovely free Monday (you’re still a jerk Columbus, but I do enjoy a day off) we spent the morning at Creamery Brook Bison Farm taking part in a Walktober event with friends. They’re open on weekends in the fall for tours and I highly recommend it. They had a feeding and petting zoo as well as a chance to meet the bison up close.

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In the afternoon we went to Buttonwoods for their corn maze and fall fun. It’s a tradition! We did both sides of the corn maze, the hay ride, the cow train, the hay tower and the kids went nuts in the corn pit. We all came home with pants full of corn and a zillion pictures. Don’t worry, Linc really liked the corn pit, even when we were pouring it on his head. He ate more than his share. Mmmm…roughage.

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