This should really be another installment of Pictures I Forgot About but I have words to say about Chowder Days. I LOVE CHOWDER DAYS. It’s one of the few things we’ve actually managed to do as a family for several years in a row now, so I’m calling it an official tradition. The weather this year was amazing and Caroline magically got over her fear of boats so we got to ride the water taxi and I got to take some pictures. It was surprisingly un-crowded for an event – not at all like the one time we tried to go to the wooden boat show and couldn’t find parking within 2 miles – so the kids could run around and try the old fashioned games and play on the boats. There was a minor meltdown involving whether or not Evan was going to participate in pumpkin painting, but he got over it pretty fast and made a “sea monster” gourd. It’s still sitting on my window sill.

Apple fritters

Spicy crab and corn chowder. It was delicious. E had the lobster bisque, which is the only kind of soup he likes.

Shipyard beer at the shipyard!

These things crack me up.

I bought that dress at the consignment store in Mystic – it was $12, which was half price, which was probably 1/4 of the original price. It’s designer toddler-wear.

For a kid who is refusing to go into the building and participate in craft time he looks surprisingly cheerful.

Change of heart, he DOES like painting!

The gingers attempt croquet on the great lawn

I say old chap, nice swing!

It’s been a full month since Chowder Days and these pictures are actually bumming me out. We’re well past the go-out-on-the-water-without-coats stage of fall and into the brown-brown-and-more-brown stage. I’m cold and I don’t like it.

I have a pain in my right side that I don’t THINK is an internal organ exploding, but if it could be. What I’m saying is, if you don’t see me on Facebook or Instagram at all tomorrow, maybe text me?

Sunday:

Devil’s Hopyard – either it was named after the time the devil was seen jumping around in the pools at the bottom of the falls or after a landowner named Dobble who had a farm near there.

It’s very warm.

A two photo shoot kind of day

Monday:

He takes his Christmas gift list circling very seriously.

CUDDLE TIME

Tuesday:

MOMMY THERE’S A MAN IN THE TANK WITH THE FISHES

Aquarium date with some of our favorite people

Bacon, caramelized onions, tomato, blue cheese on sour dough. JEALOUS?

Wednesday:

I can’t remember WHY I put the kitchen stools in our bedroom but the gingers enjoy them.

Special Helper Day

I like pretending that is my house.

Thursday:

GOODNIGHT CAROLINE

We have a train table he never plays with at home. But the one at the library is THE BEST.

The cat found her spot on the new couch

Friday:

I think she has her princesses mixed up.

Showing off his art at my parent-teacher conference

My kids are weird.

Saturday:

They spent the full length of a movie like this. Unfortunately the movie was Equestria Girls.

TV, screaming toddler, Facebook…and I wonder why it takes me FOREVER to get things done.

Fall in a cookie – pumpkin, hazelnut spread, butterscotch chips. Unfortunately I don’t really like butterscotch and E doesn’t like pumpkin, so we can’t tell if these are actually delicious.

I secretly just want to sleep all day tomorrow, but we’re doing more fun stuff instead. Maybe I can sleep all day on the second of never. I’ve got a date with the elliptical trainer on Tuesday and that’s almost as good as napping. Especially because of the massage bed afterwards.

The weather cooled off this week, but all that seemed to do was make our skies even more gorgeous than usual. I had a bunch of work and Caroline had a couple of really grumpy days, so the week both flew by and seemed to last fooooooorevvvvvvveeeeerrrrrrr.

Sunday:

Halloween at the aquarium

Sunday couch naps

Take, move, import, edit, export, edit, repeat

Monday:

Shopping buddies – Caroline and Fluffy the Beluga Whale

Spoiled rotten 2 year old

But really, she’s too cute not to spoil.

Tuesday:

BOOM. Immunity!

I want them alllllllll

Cheesy Ginger

Wednesday:

Waiting for the bus always makes him look like a big kid

POWER RECLINERS! They pick you up and put you down.

Reading in bed, 2013 version

Thursday:

Reading the furniture catalog in the car. She says we need MORE couches.

The sky when we got to the evening photo session

The sky when we left the evening photo session

Friday:

First winter coat day of the season

Apparently when you don’t feel well, wearing your clothes like this helps you feel better.

Looooooooooooong work week

Saturday:

Hay ride, cider and donuts sponsored by Caroline’s preschool

Another beautiful evening sky

LOOK AT MY FACE MOMMY TAKE A PICTURE

If you see me online this week – especially if I ask you for Candy Crush lives – tell me GET BACK TO WORK. I need to stop cleaning up photos on my computer and clean up my kitchen. And put away laundry. And meal plan. And find something to do with this extra couch that is blocking my front door.  Although if I get a quiet minute to take a nap I might do that instead. SO TIRED.

Is it possible I could be nesting even though I’m not pregnant? Maybe it’s less nesting and more getting ready for winter hibernation. I’ve been living on a steady diet of HGTV while I edit photos, and nothing makes me hate my own (pretty nice) house than watching people turn their horrible basements into super useful space. Why can’t someone do that to MY basement?! It’s disgusting! The before and afters would be amazing!

The current first floor makeover started when E moved our cheap, old, Walmart desk downstairs so I could carve out an “office” corner for my business stuff. Need a lamp for one ugly desk was the gateway drug to a Target trip, which lead to a HomeGoods trip, which lead to an Ikea catalog with half the pages marked and a Pinterest board full of links to more furniture than I could ever fit in my house.

Last weekend I went shopping alone to “just look” for a little tiny couch to put in the living room. I didn’t end up finding the couch of my dreams, but that didn’t stop me from dragging the rest of my family out at 7 pm to look at the couch I DID find. It’s probably for the best I couldn’t find the one I wanted – I’m not sure a white tufted fabric couch is the right thing for a room that is currently full of surfaces the children are allowed to write on. The tan microfiber that was delivered yesterday will DEFINITELY survive more Play-Doh mishaps.

Part of the deal when E agreed to come look at “my” couch was we would also look for “his” new couch, which was basically the total opposite of that white one I had in mind. Think of the ugliest, most ridiculous man-couch you can. Now make it a) bigger b) uglier and c) add more cup holders. THAT is the couch he wanted. If a dozen cows didn’t have to die to cover his own personal reclining seat with built in beer fridge, he was NO INTERESTED.

Fortunately, our budget couldn’t support that couch, so it is NOT what I am sitting on while I write this. Unfortunately, the store’s huge sale item that weekend was a big, squishy sectional complete with cup holders and power recliners at each end, so that IS what I am sitting on. I’m not going to lie…it’s pretty comfortable. And this cup holder is very convenient for my Diet Coke. And it’s nice that it takes up basically the ENTIRE ROOM so we had to move most of the toys upstairs and I have most of my house back. The kids are both old enough that I can send them upstairs to play without me and I only have to occasionally shout at them to stop hitting each other. It’s pretty amazing to go from having 3 seats in this room to at least 7…and that’s not counting MY couch in front of the fireplace. A couch in front of the fireplace! For sitting on while drinking mulled wine and eating sparkling brie bites and having adult conversation without the TV on!

That will probably happen once. Right after we put the Christmas tree up. Then someone will say “We should watch Love Actually!” and we’ll move back to the giant ugly couch and that will be that. But when we have people over, there will be SO MANY PLACES TO SIT DOWN!

I realize I just wrote 500 words about two couches and I’ve posted no pictures, but that’s because I’m not done with the rearranging and redecorating. Plus I haven’t finished cleaning the old couch to put on Craigslist, so we actually have THREE couches in two small-ish rooms. I’ll be sure to do an underwhelming reveal if I ever get this part of the house set up the way I want – but I sort of suspect we’ll get busy and never actually sell the old couch or move this bookcase that’s basically blocking a doorway or buy a coffee table or patch the holes in the walls. So for now, just IMAGINE I live in a Pinterest-looking classy yet casual house. That’s what I’m doing.