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.

This edition of Steppin’ Out could also be called “All we did on Saturday was drive around and look at the price of rocks but Suzanne got a remote for her camera and also a new shirt so she took pictures anyways.”

But that’s not quite as catchy.

On Mama:

Headband – Allora Handmade
Black tank – H&M
Flowered shirt – Target
Jeans – Target
Sunglasses – The Dollar Store

Tell me the truth, the shirt’s pretty ugly, right? I think the pattern came right off my grandmother’s couch. Not even the good living room couch – the lumpy basement couch. Target also had it in blue, which was definitely less couchy, but I own TONS of blue and thought this would be a nice change. I think I was wrong.

On Caroline:

Cardigan & Dress – Old Navy
Amber teething necklace – Local (out of business) baby store

That sponsored post I did for Old Navy this week was to promote their 30% off baby & toddler sale (plus the 15% off coupon!). So of course when we were at the mall Friday for Stroller Strides I went to check it out. Both kids now have a few new things for summer. I’m such a sucker for a sale.

Little Evan was also adorable at some point, but peed through his diaper during nap and then…his father dressed him. Let’s just say he would have fit right in at Bayview with Zack and the gang – tapered jeans, popped color and all. I did not take a picture.

We suffer from a chronic case of good intentions but no follow through around here. So many plans, so little actually going places and doing things. But one of the nice things about having memberships at Mystic Seaport and Mystic Aquarium is we can go whenever and stay for however long we want. Baby having a fit? Time to go! Weather gets bad? We’ll come back some other day! Crap-ton of people who don’t understand how to not stand around yapping in the middle of the walkway and make me want to scrape out my own eyeballs with an ice pick? The walkway will still be there on a weekday! I can keep my eyes! Which is good, because they are usefully to me!

So on Saturday we celebrated yet another day of nice weather by taking Little Evan to see the boats. BOAT BOAT BOAT BOAT BOAT BOAT. The Seaport is a really nice place – especially on days like yesterday when it was practically deserted – but it is definitely a TWO PARENT ACTIVITY. There’s nothing like hundreds and hundreds of feet of open, non-guard-railed waterfront with a 6 or 7 foot drop into the river to keep you on your toes, especially with a toddler who wants to be AS CLOSE TO THE BOATS as possible.

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Including the boats that do not actually belong to the Seaport but are just docked there by people who own giant boats and probably wouldn’t appreciate a 2 year old showing up in their cabins shouting “HAI! HAI! BOAT! MAMA! DADA!” in their faces. So it takes both E and myself to watch him and still remain an appropriately responsible distance from the stroller so no one reports us for child abandonment.

And hey, we were in public! So everyone wore clothes.

On Little Evan:

Shirt – Gymboree, last season
Pants – Gymboree, this season
Sandals – Old Navy

On Mama:

Shirt – Goodwill, tag says ELLE
Jeans – Target
Sweater – Gap, purchased on clearance in 1998
Earrings – Gift from my sister, purchased in Costa Rica
Giant sticker on my boob – Member entrance sticker for the Seaport. Classy.

Shoes – Target, 50% off! I’ve been eying these for MONTHS, trying to decide if they were worth $20 or if I should wait for them to go on sale, as all Target shoes do. I waited. Now I’m just sorry I didn’t buy them in the other colors.

Also, if you look closely you can see my totally gross toenail on my left foot. Little Evan threw a bottle of carpet cleaner at me in the store and it landed right on my nail. It bled for hours and now it’s all blue and gray and black and it’s totally going to fall off. AREN’T YOU GLAD I POINTED THAT OUT TO YOU?

On Caroline:

Romper – Gift, tag says Hartstrings
Leggings – BabyLegs
Socks – Who the hell knows, hand-me-downs

More pictures from our fun day:

These swans are building a nest right on the main waterfront. They’re going to be really sorry when the seaport gets busy in a few weeks. But it was super cool to watch!

Little Evan steering the Amistad. Yeah, the one from the movie.

Hanging toddlers over the edge of giant scaffolding! Good times!!

I think Caroline might be interested in starting solids sooner rather than later. And for the record, NOT PEPSI. Lemonade.

Why yes, I DID dress my baby in a nautical themed outfit for the Seaport. Also, the amber teething necklace is once again working like a CHAMP, as evidenced by the happy, silly baby.

Dreaming of the day he can finally escape his horrible, mean parents for a life at sea.

Wheeeee! Date Night! Pretty good way to turn 29, even if we didn’t manage to stay up late enough to celebrate my birthday’s arrival at midnight. Please enjoy checking out your reflecting in the shine off my face in this picture taken with a flash:

On E:
Sweater: American Eagle
Jeans: Levi’s
Shoes: No idea, and E’s answer is “I dunno, they’re SHOES”
Cologne: Aqua Di Gio, which, if you could smell it through my computer screen, would make you want to make out with him immediately.

On Me:
Dress: Charlotte Russe
Jeans: Old Navy
Heels: Nine West
Sweater: Walmart (yeah, I said it)
Rosette Necklace: Allora Handmade
Bag: Epiphanie camera bag – my birthday present!

I think the dress needed a belt, but it was so comfortable I couldn’t bring myself to care if it made me look sort of wide. Also, I am sort of wide. But it’s not like anyone cared what I was wearing – they were all too busy admiring my GORGEOUS new camera bag. SO GORGEOUS. And I don’t know if you can tell (and I doubt you spend enough time examining pictures of my head to notice) but I dyed my hair for the second time this month. The last color wasn’t blond enough but THIS color isn’t pale enough. I think my mistake is I keep picking shades labeled “natural extra light blond” or “natural pale yellow blond” or “natural sort of reddish blond even though the picture on the box is not at all red”. What I really want is a whiter blond, like a less dramatic Gwen Stefani, but I’m soooo scared of the boxes labeled “cool” or “ash”. I don’t know why. It’s not like I couldn’t just dye it again if I hate it – and it would probably be better to START with the most dramatic color so I don’t end up frying the crap out of it dying it every month.

It is amazing how much I both LOVE and HATE dying my hair.

Today I am rocking the dry shampoo AND the headband, along with worn-in jeans and a sweatshirt so I can go do a little child-free shopping in comfort. I might swing by Goodwill (the closest thing we have to a real thrift store) later and see if they’ve stocked anything worth rescuing so the next time I do a Steppin’ Out I can wear something “vintage”. I feel so left out with my retail store bought clothes.

I hope you had a fantastic Saturday too! For more Steppin’ Out fun, go check out the links at Harper’s Happenings!