I tried to talk E into going down to SubFest – the big carnival thing on base – on Saturday night but then he reminded me that actually, we HATE things like that. No parking, crowds, the kind of trashy people who don’t say “excuse me” when they knock your funnel cake out of your hands and force me to yell “Were you raised in a barn?!” at them. In other news, I am approximately 85 years old. Get off my lawn.

So instead, we skipped dinner in exchange for a trip to Cows & Cones, an adorable little farm with delicious ice cream and lots of animals – the perfect toddler date night.

Baby Caroline says "Girl, what is wrong with your hair?!"

I swear her face made out of molding clay.

He liked looking at the cows from far away the best.

Animal picture credit goes to E, who is taking a photography class as an elective

Evan calls them "sheep-baa", with the word and the sound as one thing. I don't discourage it.

The cow says moo, the sheep says baaa! Three singing pigs say LA LA LA!

I may have taken 45 pictures of the different colored chickens. I'm a little obsessed.

I told her if she walked, she could have ice cream. She tried reeeeeally hard.

I don't even care what those horizontal stripes are doing to my hips - it's like wearing a well-ventelated nightgown in public. SO COMFY.

On Caroline:
America’s Sweetheart Onesie – Gymboree
Birdy print skirt – Uff Da Designs

On Little Evan:
Shirt – Hand me down
Shorts – Osh Kosh
Shoes – Converse
Toddlers are extremely hard to photograph when they don’t want to be photographed

On Mama:
Nursing Tank – Target
Dress – Old Navy
Fake Wayfarers – Target
Necklace – Allora Handmade
Flippy floppies – Ancient and ratty but I love them

And for the record, I had delicious watermelon sherbet (which I shared with the toddler) and E had a sundae with white chocolate raspberry ice cream, caramel sauce & whipped cream. He wins.

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 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.

You have seen boats advertised on television and on the Internet, but can’t find a legitimate platform to search for a boat ?  Try searching at Zeboats it features lots of boats currently for sale on the market in your area. Good tip, do  some research before purchasing a boat. You can find out everything you need to know by visiting their website.. They are always open to questions and will be glad to discuss the details of their product with you. So if you are ready to buy a boat, go ahead and check it out.

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.

We are having quite a weekend, and by quite a weekend I mean dragging 2 kids all over New England doing a crap ton of shopping for house redecorating type stuff. I didn’t want to commit to furniture for this house if there was a chance we might be moving in the fall, but unfortunately E didn’t get the promotion he was hoping for and we’re here for at least another year. Which is bad for his career but good for our finances – selling right now would be a nightmare. But since we’re NOT moving we suddenly have a little extra money and a lot of extra motivation to spruce things up.

Also, new furniture always fits, unlike the jeans I tried on at Target last week. And even if I end up regretting the new rug we bought it won’t be as much as I regret the big heavy bangs I keep thinking about cutting myself. I’m so bored with this long, straight, boring mop on my head. It’s a true code red hair emergency around here. Someone hide the scissors.

Here’s what we all wore during Saturday’s shopping adventures:

Evan:

Shirt – Target

Pants – Hand me downs, I think they’re a brand from Walmart

Caroline:

Jammies – Carter’s (yeah, she slept ALL day so I didn’t bother with real clothes)

Mama:

Shirt & Jeans – Target

Sweater – Old Navy

Headband – Gussy

Necklace – Tiffany & Co, a gift from E two Christmases ago that I know he thinks I never wear so I’m proving I TOTALLY DO

Flip flops – Some beach store a zillion years ago and I am SO EXCITED it was (almost) warm enough for them!

New hair color – Feria, Pure Diamond Blond. Meh. All it did was make my roots a little lighter.

Coat – ModCloth. Isn’t it GORGEOUS? It’s perfect for spring and just so incredibly well made I die with happiness every time I put it on. I’m now totally obsessed with stalking ModCloth’s sale section.

Today we’re going to the big fancy mall in Rhode Island just in case the Apple store happens to get in a new shipment of iPads (ahahahahaha) and because they have a Pottery Barn, a Williams-Sonoma AND a Restoration Hardware. I’m going to die and go to housewares heaven. They also have a Delia’s, but I’m officially too old to shop there anymore, right? My 16 year old self is crying a little.