Red Sox Moms honor Fathers Day

Red Sox Moms honor Fathers Day – with Baseball! What else?

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We went to the Red Sox game on Father’s Day. For the first time as a family, thanks to The Red Sox Foundation and Red Sox Moms. I’m super proud to be connected to the Red Sox Foundation in this way. And we were SUPER excited to get the invitation to go to the game.

We are season ticket holders to the Red Sox. Now before you get all “Well excuuuuuse me , Miss Fancy Pants.” We have the 10th Man Plan which they offered for only a limited number of years. My husband bought them the day after the Aaron Boone fiasco in 2003. Nobody had any faith in them. We got them for a song. We get ten pairs of tickets every season. Our seats are not in the bleachers but they’re also not behind home plate. That’s not me wearing those yellow headphones ;-)

So we can only go together or take one kid at a time. But most of the time my husband uses them as a business expense to either take or give to clients. I hadn’t been to a game in years. My youngest, now four hadn’t been at all. His brother and sister had both been write a few time by the time they were four. But Little has a peanut allergy and we were petrified to take him. The invitation came in and I talked with my husband about it and we felt more comfortable taking him as a team for his first game in case anything went wrong. So it was settled.

Father’s Day at the Ballpark!

Very first Red Sox game. We of course have trained him well  to already to have a distaste for the guys from New York.

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It is an amazing feat to have your kids last for an entire baseball game. This place helped A LOT! It’s the Red Sox Kid Nation Clubhouse. We JUST missed Wally and his father as we were coming in. :-(

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That’s where Wally would have sat, so the kids had it to themselves.

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The boys getting some batting practice in on the Wii!

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My girl making a Wally fan to bring back to our seats.

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My kids were smitten with the magician in the Kids club. They spent the most time with him.

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A few fun games to win small prizes. Kids LOVE prizes!

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All three kids lasted the whole game thanks to the Red Sox Kid Nation Club House and some well placed snacks and ice cream. We had so much fun!

And here we are A Red Sox Family!

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Long Island Trip in Photos

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Birthday Party Double Header

Yeah, you read that right. We had a Birthday Party Double header over the weekend. Just in case you don’t get it, I want to be clear. We didn’t have two birthday parties in one. We had two birthday parties in one day. One right after the other. Yep.

My kids, as you know, have birthdays very close to each other. We had the 8 year old’s a few weeks ago. A simple pizza movie night. For the other two we had to wait for the grass to grow. And yeah, you heard that right too. We were waiting for the grass to grow.

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We have a very difficult time getting grass to grow in our backyard.  It has a lot to do with drainage, or something. I don’t know. But I’ve been pushing for sod for the last 3 years and he, the husband, keeps just trying to grow grass. It’s crazymaking. In his defense we have to completely redo the side and backyard and buying sod for one year makes very little sense. But, now it’s been three years….so…

All my 4 year old wanted to do was have Lightening McQueen races around the backyard. That’s IT. That’s all he wanted.

So we waited.

His birthday passed and it began to get close to the 6 year old’s birthday. So now we need to have two parties that need to happen, and fast. I feel like we need to have them before the end of school crazy starts. So now we’re a week away from Memorial Day weekend. The grass is looking not half bad, so I say “Let’s just have them both on the same day. An hour in between!” Shockingly, husband thinks this is a great idea. “YES! Let’s just get it done!”

That day, I send invitations because it’s a week away. If I’m being honest I will tell you that I kinda hoped having it on the holiday weekend would reduce the numbers. I also hoped the late notice would mean people already had plans But you know what happens when you’re awful like that. EVERYBODY can come. Yep that’s right.

So we had a Cars Party and a Fancy Purple & Pink party (that’s a thing right?). I hurriedly jumped on Amazon Prime and bought all the goodies like this super cute pinwheel craft and paper strawsumbrellas, and flower mason jar lids for the girls’ drinks. I borrowed a tent, because of course it was supposed to rain (again that’s what happens when you’re awful). Then we rented some low kid tables and called it a day.

And what a day it was. It wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but it sure was fun! The kids were all so great. Everyone was well behaved and had fun. AND it didn’t actually rain on the parties. It rained just before the first one and then not again. I really couldn’t have asked for more.

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And he got his Lightening McQueen race…

 

 

 

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My new favorite snack – Chocolate Candy Sunflower Seeds

This was meant to be  Wordless Wednesday of sorts but I just have to speak!

I still love my roasted chickpeas, but for a sweet treat? A chocolate treat? I love these little bits of yum so much. And all natural?! Well, I don’t know how all natural gelatin is, maybe someone else can speak to that. But no artificial colors or flavors. Yes please.

Behold the Chocolate candy covered sunflower seed!
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Trader Joe’s makes them as well, but they are not quite as yummy as these ones from my local favorite, Russo’s. So if you’re local that’s where you should head. (Their hummus is the best around as well, imho ;-)

Snack on.

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So I clicked a Facebook Ad and was pleasantly, um, uplifted

It’s like Stitch Fix for your Boobs!

Does anyone really click on those ads? Anyone?

A year ago I think my answer would have been “Hell NO!” But two weeks ago I saw one that caught my eye. It was a beautiful bra. I know right? A bra? Really? That’s what gets you? Well boobs are awesome! Who doesn’t like boobies? Food and fun all rolled into one :-)

I digress. I clicked the ad. I did! It was for a company called True & Co.

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So here’s the uplifted part.

I have been wearing the same bra every day for the past 10 months or so. I am not even kidding. It gets washed, sometimes. But really, the same bra. Every day. Because it is the most, um, uplifting bra I own.

I got it last year at the outlets in North Conway, NH. Our annual trip up north to Storyland. The perfect time to buy a bra you say. Why of course!

I go in to the bra outlet, Hanes, Bali, Warner, something. I look around at literally thousands of bras. My boobs have been a 36DD, a 34C, a 32B, and really everything in between. Reduction surgery, 3 pregnancies, 3 babies nursed, 14.5% body fat and then back up. Lots of sizes. I think everything has finally settled, down (ahem). Meanwhile I have about 20 bras that I never wear from all these different periods of my life that just sort of fit.

A crazy old lady (and I mean that with much respect, but still. I call ’em like I see ’em) asks if I need help and then proceeds to feel me up. I don’t have much shame after having three kids, but still.

The end result of that chance encounter in a fitting room was a bra that fit pretty well. I got two, but for some reason only ever wear the nude one, not the pretty purple one?? Go figure.

So back to the ad. I should really get a new bra right? That one is pretty, I think to myself. So I click True & Co. ad to see what it’s all about. I figured at the very least I could do a little review for True & Co for the ole blog here.

The site asks me if I want to take a fit quiz. Sure I have a few minutes to procrastinate. I answer 15 questions about the boobage. They make suggestions. I pick out 3 bras and they pick out two. 3-5 business days later a pretty package of bras arrived.

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At first try on it seemed like every one of them fit. I was pretty floored. I tried them on again the next day and one didn’t fit. Still 4/5 ain’t bad. I ended up keeping 2 and sending two that fit back for reasons other than fit. (One was too sheer and the other was a strapless and I already have one. Does a mom of three really need two strapless bras to hang out in the school pick up/drop off line?!)

This is not an ad of any kind. I paid for my bras. However if you check out the site please do use the link above or this one here   – it’s a referral link. And then if you buy anything I may get a free bra someday. Woot!

I just thought you all would like to know about it. It’s like Stitch Fix for your boobs!! At home try on is free you pay for what you keep. Send back anything else. I mean trying on bras is like trying on swimsuits – UGH! Who wants to spend your no kid time doing that. Becasue you certianly can’t do it with the littles. I may or may not have had to run after someone in an ill fitting bra in the dressing room before. Someone just give me a few, or five, that might work and let me try them on at home!

Just in case you all have been wearing the same old gnarly bras for a year too. Just me? No? Yes? You don’t have to tell me it’s okay :-) Just go get a new bra already wouldya!

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Why we are a CSA kinda family.

We missed the signup for the CSA last year and we were pretty bummed. So when the email came in…I was ON IT! Basically I bought all of our vegetables that we’ll be eating this summer in January. Bizarro, right?

I had my doubts about a CSA at first. It felt slighty elitist is a strange way. Well, not so strange because it’s not cheap. Also, our CSA is located in a very wealthy town. “Going off to Weston to pick up our expensive organic vegetables that someone picked just for us dahling. Ta ta!” is how it felt, at first.

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Then the vegetables came in to the house and it was overwhelming. Some I’d never heard of. Others I was sure I didn’t like. I had to wash it all. I had to put it away and organize it so it wouldn’t go to waste. It took some doing.

But then some weird things started happening. My daughter started to ask “When are we going to the farm, mama?” My oldest son would ask “What week will the ‘zipper peas’ be ready to pick?”.  My youngest son, who was always napping the first year would whine “Why don’t IIIIIIIIIIIIII get to go the faaaaaaaaarm?”

They wanted to go. They wanted to pick. They want to play in the fields. They wanted to talk about the farm and the vegetables and the flowers and the animals. So much of what our kids learn doesn’t come from a lesson at school, but experiences outside the classroom. Shared experiences with siblings about weird vegetables and honey bees. Lessons from mom about how she learned to pick cucumbers from Papa when she was little.

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My Dad was an organic farmer way before Whole Foods was around. We would eat the beans right off the plant when were kids. That garden was our playground. It wasn’t huge mind you, but the yield was enough for all of us and some of the neighbors. I can’t recreate that in the postage stamp of a yard I have now, but I can take them to a farm every week.

Then, more weird things. All those vegetables that at first I was like “Aw, hell no!” Well now they have a place at our table all summer. I figured it out! The farm helps with tastings at pick up. Those tasting helped the kids to like both cabbage and radishes.

Here’s the thing about a CSA to all those who would say “you can just by those vegetables at the grocery store you know.” Yes, I know.

But I wouldn’t. I really wouldn’t. And neither would you if you’re honest. Would you really walk in to the grocery store and say “Hey – I think I’ll buy some Tatsoi today.” No, no you wouldn’t.

Also I did the math, it works out to be about the same as buying it at the market. But you get so. much. more. Because of my experiences with the Four Hour Body and a Whole Food Detox, we have been trying to eat a more whole food diet in our house. And then there’s pesticides, and Monsanto, and being able to eat LOCAL. A CSA just makes sense, for us.

Now we have not one, but two, spaces planted in our tiny yard. One for vegetables and one for flowers. We may not get anything to put on the table out of them, but the kids couldn’t be happier tending to them. My son won’t eat chicken nuggets, but he will eat cole slaw. So there’s that too.

My youngest finally gets to go the the faaaaaaaaaarm this year. I can’t wait to see what his siblings show him and what he discovers there!

 

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