When I went to Boston a couple weeks ago for the Red Sox family focus group thing, one of the ideas we bloggers had was an earlier, kid-friendly game. Activities for the kids, cheap food, and maybe a big sign that says “WARNING: CHILDREN’S SECTION” so no one gave us dirty looks when our kid talked through the whole thing. It turns out that’s already an event, called Futures at Fenway, and the team generously offered us tickets so we could attend. I wasn’t sure we’d last the whole 9 innings and I was pretty sure I’d spend most of my time walking around with a very bored 2-year-old and I wouldn’t see much of the game, but I love love love Fenway so we made plans to go anyway.

It turns out my children LIKE baseball. OK, maybe they mostly like popcorn and peanuts and giant sodas ($7.50 plus free refills! Best deal ever!) and getting to sit in my lap. But that translated into watching the whole 8 1/2 innings (We won!) from our seats. I didn’t even have to resort to letting them watch Disney Jr on my phone. It was a good game too – it wasn’t the Red Sox, but the Sea Dogs, their affiliate team. That means these guys are still hoping to get noticed by the major leagues and so they try really, really hard. They run even if it looks like an easy out at first, they FLING themselves across the field for diving catches, they strike out instead of always taking the walk. It was exciting! It was tons of fun! It was a long day for a 2.5 year old and there might have been a tiiiiiiny bit of whining and crying but it was one of the best family days we’ve ever had. I felt relaxed almost the whole time – and when was the last time I said that about a summer afternoon at a crowded public event with two small children?

I was going to write a whole paragraph about how sports – even just a vague awareness that your grandfather really loved golf, explained you ball data and made you watch it on TV in the summers when you were visiting – can mean a lot to a kid. But there seems to be a lot of dust in here and my eyes are, uh, watering quite a bit, so I’ll just say I hope Evan and Caroline have great memories of our visits to Fenway and that we can make it a summer tradition.

p.s. The event had a TON of stuff that was kid friendly – the zoo and the aquarium had animals there, Kidz Bop did a concert after the game and a meet-and-greet, the players signed autographs, a bounce house – plus the concessions were half priced. We enjoyed the eating and the bounce house, but the kids did so great in our seats we didn’t really NEED all the distractions. I would highly recommend it for families.

Disclaimer: The PR team for the Red Sox left us tickets at will-call so we could attend. No other compensation was provided. Tickets for the event started at just $5, so trust me when I say they didn’t pay for me to talk about the event. 

We got to Sunflowers for Wishes every year, and this year might have been the best so far. Even though we got rained on. Hard. Which was totally my fault because I insisted on trying for just a couple more photos.

The fields where the sunflowers bloom is one of the most popular photoshoot spots in Connecticut – we must have seen more than a dozen people with their fancy cameras and bags trying to pose families in the sunflower field…without getting all the other photographers and families in their shot. I know in theory a huge field of sunflowers SOUNDS like a gorgeous spot for photos, in reality it’s less romantic. Sunflowers are a lot taller than kids, so posing them in the sunflowers just shows up as posing in a forest of green stalks. The outside of the field is all bright sun. There are TONS OF PEOPLE and you can only Photoshop out so much. Plus if you bribe your kids with ice cream, they’re either whining to go get it now now now or a sticky mess from already eating it.

I am sure there are photographers who get amazing, dreamy, fabulous pictures. I am not that talented yet – plus I went with my kids to, you know, have a good time while they were open instead of waiting until 8 pm for the magic hour light. But I do think looking back on my previous years at Buttonwood is a great example of how far I’ve come:

Sunflowers 2012 – Just a few pictures

Sunflowers 2011 – Evan and Tiny Fat Baby Caroline

Sunflowers 2010 – Avert your eyes from my terrible Picasa photo effects!

So…yeah. Improvement!

Mooing like a cow is hilarious.

Baby cows!!

Pay no attention to the horrible gash on his left eye. He banged it on the couch (????)

Caroline, look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Show me your eyes!

Team Sunflower, roll out!

When we got home, E asked why our daughter was wearing a bag.

Strawberry cheesecake

My precioussssssss…

This is her “Why am I sitting on this quilt when it is raining on me?” face.

Hiding from the downpour. It was an impressive amount of rain. p.s. He had blue cotton candy ice cream.

P.S. I changed some of the settings on my computer to try and get more accurate color and brightness calibration but until I get a real colorimeter my photos might look too bright/weird.  I promise I’m fixing it!

Last Tuesday the kids and I headed up to East Hartford for a fun blogger playdate sponsored by Hood Ice Cream and their new Harvey Bars. If you live in New England you’ve probably seen their commercials (Who put the bar in the bar-di-bar-di-bar…)(It’s actually pretty cute) but I hadn’t seen them at my grocery store yet so I was excited to give them a try.

It was 90+ degrees which I think is perfect weather for ice cream. Especially free ice cream.

A++++ will buy again. The kids loved the cookies and cream but the toffee crunch was amaaaazing.

It was also great to see some of the Connecticut bloggers I’ve met over the past year again, plus put actual faces to the names I see online. Everyone was so nice and Evan declared at least five kids to be his new best friend. Even Caroline had a good time blowing bubbles for a “baby friend.”

The question was: Who wants fore ice cream??

The Hood Company was founded here in Connecticut and has been making ice cream for more than 100 years. The Harvey Bar is named after Harvey Perley Hood, who started the company and always wore a bow tie (it’s the tie on the bar wrapper a cute tribute?) We love local companies, plus we love ice cream, so it was a great event for us. Thanks to Hood, Shift Communications and Julie for inviting us!

I was invited to the Hood Playdate by Julie, who is in my local Facebook group. We receives snacks, ice cream, and coupons in exchange for attending, with no obligation to share our experience.