During spring break this year, we – the whole circus that is my family – got to spend a super fun day at Foxwoods. They always do a ton of kid activities for spring vacation and this year I was lucky enough to be invited to a special blogger day that included visiting the Treehouse Arcade, seeing Clifford the Big Red Dog on stage and a delicious meal at California Pizza Kitchen. And there were cupcakes.

For children who only discovered video games 4 months ago and have only been to Chuck E Cheese twice in their life, my kids have an unnatural love of arcade games. They are terrible at them. Really, really bad. If E didn’t “help” a little, we would end up with a total of about 17 tickets which works out to three-fourths of a bouncy ball in the prize store. But armed with a loaded card and pointed towards the games, all three had a great time in the Treehouse Arcade.

Things I don’t love: shooting games. Things my husband and son LOOOOOOVE: shooting games.

Look, it’s Evan’s first swag bag! He was so excited they gave him a free bag he didn’t even look in it until we needed to find out cupcake coupons several hours later.

This game simulated being attacked by giant spiders. Linc did not love the spiders.

I also stick out my tongue while I am concentrating very hard.

After we turned in our (virtual) tickets for prizes (including plenty of snacks), we headed over to the Fox Theater for the Clifford Show. It was a musical, which all the kids loved, and had just enough audience participation that they stayed interested the whole time. Since the theater was full of parents with small children I didn’t even feel bad when Linc started screeching in joy when Clifford grew from a hand puppet to a giant two-person sized dog, or when he wouldn’t stay in his seat and bounced back and forth between E and I pointing frantically at the stage like, “GUYS DO YOU EVEN SEE THIS? THAT DOG IS HUGE!”

After the show, we got to meet a medium-sized Clifford at the step and repeat in the lobby. I’ll admit Evan and Caroline were a little bummed they didn’t get to meet giant Clifford, but they still enjoyed their hugs and autographed cast pictures.

Linc wasn’t quiiiiiiite sure about Clifford (although I am writing this with him sitting next to me and he’s SO EXCITED about this picture, obviously it’s a happy memory instead of a nightmare) but he didn’t completely freak out. That’s success when you’re talking about people dresses as character.

After the meet and greet, we went straight over to California Pizza Kitchen for some dinner. Back when we first moved to Connecticut, long before we had kids, E and I lived in the town right next to the casino and used to go to CPK for dinner alllllllll the time. Their hummus and warm pita is the best, the free table bread is amazing, and if we each ordered a personal pizza we had enough to take home for leftovers. But we’ve only been maybe once in the last seven years so it was a special treat to be back.

Evan and Linc ordered mac and cheese and Caroline ordered a kid pizza. Only Linc had leftovers, which we took home and Evan at for breakfast the next day (because carbs + dairy is always an appropriate breakfast). E got his favorite club pizza and I got the Thai chicken, which is the best kind. CPK was very family friendly and our waitress was quick to refill the chocolate milks, which is almost all it takes for us to enjoy a fairly peaceful meal.

After dinner we walked over to Cake by Franck to pick up our Clifford cupcakes. I could have spent much, much longer in that shop, looking at the desserts and making up reasons I definitely needed to buy ALL of them right at that moment, but the kids wanted to grab and go so we took our cake home. Well, Evan did, Caroline’s was gone by the time we hit the parking garage.

It was a lovely way to spend the day together as a family, I’m so glad E was able to come and enjoy it with us. Big thanks to the team at Foxwoods for their generosity and the invitation. When we get to do fun stuff like this I’m always super grateful that the internet is still a fun place to hang out and my blog has stayed alive for as long as it has.

I keep thinking I must be getting close to my 3 year anniversary of these posts, but I am too lazy to actually do the math in my head. This week has been exhausting in a good way (work!!) and a bad way (when did my children go deaf??????) and next week looks exhausting too (NO REALLY, WHY ARE THEY DEAF????) so basic math is one of those things I can’t be bothered to care about. I really am just that lazy and stupid.

Sunday:

My very make-shift newborn set up in a client’s apartment. I’m pretty proud of my fake-studio skills.

BABY FEVER: LEVEL CODE DOUBLE RED ACHIEVED

Dancing to the band at Hot Summer Fun on the roof of the Mohegan Sun parking garage

Monday:

One of those Top 10 for Kids is probably a bad idea.

Surreptitious grilled cheese eating

For someone who BEGGED for mac and cheese, that face is not happy enough

Tuesday:

She said her first day of school sign says “Caroline goes to big girl school”

A pumpkin mocha iced latte, that’s what

Hand stamping some thank you cards to go in my fancy professional type photographer packaging

Protecting Brutus from a thunder storm

Then we went to the beach…

Then we went to the country….

Wednesday:

…so it’s not surprising Wednesday looks like this….

…and this. (They both went to school Wednesday and I went to work, there are just no iPhone photos.)

Thursday:

The definition of “partly cloudy” – and pretty good for a family session

Greek food, get in my face

Sun-streaking

Friday:

Because that’s what stickers are for.

The pavilion at Rocky Neck all opened up for a wedding

Well done Connecticut (with an assist by Long Island in the background)

Saturday:

Model poses

She would ride the carousel ALL DAY if they let her

I promised him a bouncy house but it was gone, so I finally FINALLY bought him the light up bubble gun he’s asked for at every fair and carnival and festival and parade we’ve been to for the last year.

We successfully ate ALL THE THINGS this weekend, so I’m totally stuffed and feel like I could sleep for a million years. Considering it’s 6 pm on Sunday and Caroline just put herself to bed, I think the feeling extends to the whole family. Even E, I guess, although we’ve literally only seen him for 15 minutes since Tuesday, so who knows. I’m hoping next week gives us a little more family time, even if there is less deliciousness.

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).

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.

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.

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

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:

But we found plenty of cool stuff too:

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.

black & blue mojito

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.

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! (more…)

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

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!

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.