Pumpkin Patching

Do pumpkin patches even exist anymore?  Last year we went to a “pumpkin patch” and it was really just a farm that had some pumpkins on a table.  They offered some other kiddie activities but it wasn’t a patch like I envisioned (and perhaps my assumption stems from Charlie Brown).

This year I was determined to go to a better “patch”.  Lots of local parents recommended this particular farm so we decided to check it out this past Sunday.  And again, it was a farm with a TON of kiddie activities but their pumpkins were all in bins in a tent.  Really?  Where is a damn patch around here?

Here are some pics from the farm.  It was actually pretty cute and they definitely catered to entertaining small kids.  I’d go back but I still want to find an actual patch.

They had a mini maze and Annmarie LOVED it:

You could sort of feed goats (but they were separated by 2 layers of fence. This was probably to protect the children AND the goats. Annmarie definitely wanted to get closer.

There was a mini tractor pull thing. Jeremy rode in the cart with AM because he was sure she would just jump out of it (something she tends to do if she is “done” with something):

There were little play areas that I likened to Thunderdome. Small children are rough with each other!:

There was a slide (and it took several attempts to try to get Annmarie to realize that she couldn’t walk up the slide portion…):

And of course the obligatory insert your head into these photo op things:

Lastly – we tried to get her to pick some pumpkins. She went for ones she couldn’t lift at first:

But then found one more her size…

And I’ll end this pointless photo post with a rare photo of Annmarie actually participating and embracing the belly photo. This was taken on Monday. I am 28 weeks along…

Shutterfly Blog Promotion – Winners

Hi all – I know I said I’d announce the winners of the Shutterfly promotion code for 25 free holiday cards on Monday and clearly that didn’t happen.  I was out in Utah until yesterday visiting with family and attending my grandfather’s funeral.

Okay – not to be all debbie downer on you guys but out of the whopping 9 comments I received (and let me tell you, I was pretty excited to have more than 3 readers) – here are the winners based on numbers generated out of random.org.

Winner 1 – Jaime

Winner 2 – Mary Daiger Mullins

Winner 3 - MonsteRawr

 

Thank you all for commenting!  I’ll be e-mailing the winners the promotion code.

Pumpkin Patch (Mommy Monday)

Annmarie is a little crawling speed demon. She has figured out how to crawl across the rugs, hardwood floors and kitchen tiles. She’s also managed to seamlessly go from sitting to crawling and back to sitting. I am now worried that she’ll be pulling herself up to standing soon (and that we will discover this when she is hanging out of her crib).

She has 4 teeth coming in on top. They’ve all broken through the gums but haven’t come in completely.

Guys – I can’t handle this growth. And as crazy as it sounds, you really understand your own mortality when you can clearly see a little human being grow and develop every day. I want my baby to stay a baby. And ohmygod… I’ve turned into my mother.

This past weekend we went to a fake pumpkin patch. I say fake because it was really just a farm that had like 4 palates of pumpkins. I think the place was known for its corn maze but I was really hoping for more. We went to this place because I bought a Living Social deal but we were pretty underwhelmed. You know who else was not into it? Annmarie. I think during the first year of a baby’s life, the parents make a big deal out of holidays and outings because it is their baby’s “first” anything… But they’re too young to understand or enjoy any of it.

But what kind of parent would I be if I didn’t snap 100+ pictures of Annmarie’s first pumpkin patch visit?

She would rather hang in her stroller and read.

Did you know this about donkeys?

Obligatory dorky family photo!

Happy!

Thug life.

On the hayride. She hates having socks (or anything) on her feet so she is always trying to pull them off.

In the corn maze admiring the corn stalks. Actually, she’s trying to determine if she wants to try to eat it (and she tried).

Looking Into My Future

I had the pleasure of going to a Renaissance Festival this past weekend. Don’t have a Renn Fest in your area? Let me break it down for you:
- Lots of junk food (and foods on sticks… like mac and cheese on a stick)
- Lots of drinking (cider, beer)
- Lots of fantastic people watching (people who love to dress and speak in Renn Fest-y times)

We go every year mostly to hang with our good friends, eat junk food and people watch.

I didn’t take any pictures of the Renn Fest regulars (I can’t believe I didn’t!) but here are some pics from the festival:

I changed Annmarie’s diaper in the trunk of the car:

She can’t resist trying to eat anything she can get her hands on:

My friend’s purchased a little faux fox tail for their baby boy and dad won him this little wooden heart (by throwing a frickin’ AX at a target!):

While at the Renn Fest, a friend of mine talked me into going to the palm/tarot card reader. I’ve been to a psychic before (and she was fah-reaky! she knew a lot about my past… I mean, SPECIFICS that shocked me) but don’t usually waste my money. But my friend loved this woman and really wanted to go.

So I went. I couldn’t decide if I wanted my palm read or my cards read (palms give a more high-level personality type reading whereas tarot cards are more immediate timeframes with specifics). She said she could do a little of both so I went for both.

We started with the cards and the first thing she said was that I was indecisive (gee – you think? was it the fact that I couldn’t choose between cards and palms an indicator?).

My cards were very career focused (boring!) but she noted that I’m currently learning a new skill. And this “skill” would help me in my career. She also said that I have been fearing a big loss but that I have nothing to worry about.

When she went to my palm, she noted that I worry too much. She also said I have specific standards for things and oftentimes take the, “I’ll just do it myself!” attitude because I don’t think anyone can meet my standards. She also noted that I have a bad temper. She also said that I’m a romantic (lady, you really missed the mark on that one).

I asked her about children (not mentioning that I already had one). She said she definitely saw 1 but that she sees me as being surrounded by kids. They’re not all mine (phew!). She said I’ll have 2.

My analysis?

New skill I’m learning? SEWING (sort of). I got the machine for my birthday. I’ve taken it out of the box. I’ve unsuccessfully threaded the bobbin and tried to sew a line on a rag. I’m getting there.

Surrounded by kids?

I’m totally going to be a children’s clothing designer. I mean, what other conclusion is there?   (Jeremy is probably shaking his head right now)

Have you ever been to a psychic?

I Feel Like a Halloweenie

I used to love Halloween.  I loved dressing up and going out. 

But over the last couple of years – I have found myself feeling incredibly cheap, lazy and uncreative.  Not that I was ever super creative or spending lots of cash on costumes previously.

Some friends are having a Halloween party and they made constumes mandatory.  Last year, we totally bailed on Halloween and just went to a friend’s house and sat around.  The year before I busted out one of my mom’s old 70s dresses and was basically just… her.  A 70s disco loving Korean.

This photo doesn’t do the dress justice.  It was a full length dress.  And yes, that is Jeremy’s real chest hair.

The year before I was Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt but I think only 2 people actually “got it”.  Plus I didn’t really go above and beyond in that costume making department.

Yes, I totally half-assed it.  I know.  And Jeremy was the 2nd amendment.

The year before that, Jeremy and I wore matching cow costumes just because I thought it would be funny to be a cow.  It actually ended up being a little creepy.  Apparently the udders invited a lot of people to have their hands near my crotch.

I couldn’t find a full length cow shot… but you all know what these costumes look like.

The year before that, I was an Indian girl.  It was my ode to Cher and her half breed song but that was just too difficult to explain to anyone.  So I just said I was Pocahontas.

Jeremy was Officer Dangle from Reno 911.  As you can see – his costumes tend to be funnier than mine.

The year before that, I was Velma from Scooby Doo.  But without the rest of the Scooby gang, I spent the whole night saying, “I’m not a librarian.”  (I couldn’t find a picture).

Aaaanywho – this year.  While I enjoy a good, funny costume – I just have nothing in me.  I went to the Halloween store last night in my old neck of the woods and oy – what a traumatizing experience.  My old neck of the woods is known for its abundance of white trash.  I don’t mean trailor trash – I mean “Teen Mom”, “Jersey Shore”, and other terrible teen show trash.  Oh and there are a lot of car dealerships in the area.

I was hoping for some inspiration but instead I was presented with overpriced, cheaply made and super slutty costumes.

I refuse to paint my belly.  The idea of walking around in a crop top all night just doesn’t appeal to me.  Some ideas I’ve tossed around are…

• Having a baby appear to be crawling out of my belly (like Alien but with a baby).  This would require doll parts, glue, blood and craftiness.  I’m tired just thinking about it.
• Christine O’Donnell.  I laughed myself silly thinking about wearing a dress suit (like I have for work) with a witch hat and a campaign button.  But upon telling people of this idea, I got a lot of, “who is Christine O’Donnell?”
• Lady Gaga in her meat dress.  I thought I could get away with pinning a bunch of pictures of meat all over me (so I’d be sort of half assing it).  I especially thought this was funny because I’m a vegetarian (but apparently I only find myself funny).
• Mr. Potatohead.  This was the only inspiration I gathered from the Halloween store… a children’s Mr. Potatohead costume.  I figured it worked with my current figure but again requires me to go buy supplies and muster some craftiness.

Ugh – so help me out guys!  Inspire me.  What are YOU dressing up as for Halloween?

And do you sit in a dark house on Halloween to avoid the hoards of trick-or-treaters too… or is that just me?

B’More Aware of HIV… the failed Living Red Ribbon experiment

Applications like Facebook and Twitter have made it so that I don’t actually talk to any of my friends anymore.  As a person who is a bit averse to long phone chatters, this is awesome.  And while I feel more connected to my friends, I also feel more disconnected.  But I digress – what I’m trying to say is that my good friend, Geoff, tweeted about the B’More Aware of HIV event at the Inner Harbor this past Saturday where Baltimore was going to attempt to set a Guinness Book of World Records for the largest living red ribbon.

Baltimore has successfully set this type of record before when they got enough people to create the largest Human Smiley face.  Sadly – it appears only 250 people showed up so I doubt that it would be a difficult record to break.

However, Geoff and I are total famewhores and wanted to be apart of record-setting history!  We planned to our excursion to the Inner Harbor. 

We got there at what felt like the ass-crack of dawn (okay – so it was only like 9am but still… it was SATURDAY).  On the way to Rash Field, we passed this gentleman playing the ukulele.  We thought he was just a street performer but he claimed to the bachelor of a bachelor party.  He said his friends made him wear the large child’s Mario costume and play for lunch money.  Geoff thinks he’s full of bs because what kind of lame-ass bachelor party is that?

We registered for the event and noticed that the crowds were rather… dismal.  But it was early.  We checked out the schedule of events and were quite dismayed that the picture would not be taken until 11:30am.  We had over 2 hours to kill! 

We did a lot of people watching, lots of chatting, some random shopping and posing with things like tourists.

We went back to Rash Field around 10:45am and decided just to check out what they had to offer.  I was stoked to see that Starbucks was there so I scooped up some free coffee cake, lemon cake and banana nut bread (I didn’t eat it all… just the banana nut bread and it was awesome).  When I said that I was starving and pregnant, the nice ladies were quick to hand me tons of bread.  One lady turned to Geoff and said, “Here – take some too.  I’m sure you have sympathy pregnancy symptoms.” 

I didn’t hear her say it but it definitely took Geoff a minute to understand that the lady thought he was my baby’s daddy. 

We sat through some grandstanding by some politicians.  I learned that Maryland is ranked 4th in the US for reported HIV cases and Baltimore City is ranked 5th in “major cities” with HIV.  Cah-razy.

As a part of registering, we all received these lovely placards (that had the stats I mentioned above printed on the back).  We were supposed to hold them up for the picture (because they sure as shit did not provide people with red shirts like we assumed they would).  We were told they needed over 3000 people to break the record.

As we all lined up to form the ribbon, I looked around at the very thin crowd. 

While I’m not always great at estimating the number of people in a location, this sure as shit was not 3000 people.  After the picture was taken, they announced that they needed 3000 people but that only 565 people participated.  We weren’t even CLOSE!  Ouch!

I blame Baltimore’s pitiful marketing campaign for this event.  I didn’t even know about it until Friday because Geoff tweeted it.  For a Mayor that is on Twitter, you’d think Baltimore would have a handle on promoting these events on social networks. 

I guess we won’t be autographing anyone’s Guiness Book of World Records anytime soon.

Fun with Maternity Pictures

Our very good friends Ian & Katie are having a baby any day now.  I offered to snap some maternity pictures for them before the big day and was delighted that they accepted — mostly because I am by no means a professional.  I just have a DSLR camera and like to pretend I’m good at it.  The same goes for Jeremy (although I hate to admit that he usually ends up with THE perfect shot amongst a set of 100).

We shot the pictures at the end of June on a beautiful day in Baltimore.  We’re still going through them and editing as necessary (one day I’ll actually learn the proper lighting and camera settings needed for the perfect shot) but I wanted to share a few of the ones that I absolutely adored.

Oh How I Love Massages

I’m kind of a strange person.

I am not a big hugger.  I hate the fake cheek kissing that has become so normal these days.  I am not affectionate.  I get uncomfortable when people get too close to me (outside of my husband).

However… I love getting massages.  LOVE. IT.

Everytime I get a massage, I vow to make it a somewhat regular thing and never follow through.  A part of it is the hassle of going to a spa (this is also why I didn’t cut my hair for nearly 2 years).  Another part is the expense.

Back in March, a lovely blogger posted a contest on her page.  She was recently licensed as a masseuse and was giving away 2 free massages.  Obviously I entered and I was pleasantly surprised that I won!  And it took me nearly 2 months to cash it in!

So if you live in Baltimore, I highly recommend that you set up an appointment with Claire Taylor.  She operates out of her adorable row home near Patterson Park (but also out of a spa in Hampden).  She also has a frequent customer deal (when you purchase X amount of massages, you get one 50% off).  I will definitely be returning… especially at the end of June.  June is setting up to be an incredibly hectic month for me with the BAZILLION home repairs that are about to take place.

Also – you should check out Claire’s blog.  She posts lots of cute finds on Etsy, fun art finds and great fashion finds.

Shower Season

I have hit the shower season… and I’m not talking about rain here.

There are a number of weddings coming soon as well as babies!  So that means bridal and baby showers are all around.

2 weeks ago, I attended to shower of my good friend’s future sister-in-law.  And I realized that I haven’t gotten sick of wedding stuff yet (despite being married for 3 years).  I still love all the little details and games that go into showers.  I think people should just host these type of parties more often.

… graduation from graduate school shower.

… finishing p90x shower.

… hooray its Friday shower.

You get the point.  Anywho – here are some pics from the shower…

Kristin made these fantastic favors – chocolate covered pretzel sticks. It was a shame that it was so frickin’ hot that day because these bitches melted so quickly outside. But they were still delicious.

The shower was hosted at a restaurant in Cockeysville:

Shower details that I love…

In lieu of a guestbook, the bride’s sister made this adorable heart cutouts and attached them to pipe cleaners. The guests were instructed to write a piece of marriage advice for the couple and then place them in the vase. So cute.

Games!

My pal snapped some photos of the bride & groom “emoting” (it is our favorite thing to do. You have everyone stand for a photo then yell some crazy emotion or situation and have the people react or “emote” and snap the photo quickly. Try it – it is a lot of fun). Guests had to match the picture with the emotion.

One of my favorite games is “toilet paper bride“.

The “bride” on the left looks like she’s wearing an adult diaper… but she’s actually supposed to be in a wedding bikini.

Our bride is in the center.  Her look?  Las Vegas Drunk Wedding.  She’s a stripper getting hitched!

And we won! Team Photo:

I have no idea what the team is “emoting” (well actually only the bride and my friend are emoting)… so let’s guess. 

What emotion/situation are they displaying above?

Karaoke Fun

As I blogged about before, we celebrated my pal’s dirty 30th birthday by singing terrible karaoke in Federal Hill.

Unfortunately the bar was lacking in Hall & Oates choices (I was really hoping for You Make My Dreams and was very disappointed) but I think we more than made up for it with a variety of other terrible (and awesome) songs.

There aren’t a ton of pictures from that night but I thought I’d share 2 (courtesy of Meredith and Terri).

First off – the bar was sort of quiet in terms of karaoke participants so at one point, I think I was singing several songs back to back.  And by singing, I was more like YELLING the lyrics but whatever. 

One of my absolute favorite songs to sing is “Islands in the Stream” (Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers).  Can you guess whose part I sing?  Kenny f’n Rogers.  I’m not sure how or when this was established but anytime I sing a male/female duet with Kristin – I get stuck singing the guy’s part.   This happens with any song from Grease and the fantastic Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow song “Picture”. 

I apparently give off a man vibe.

Anywho.

Singing as Kenny Rogers despite not actually being a dude.

When “We Built This City” (by Starship) came up – this was probably the third song in a row that I was singing.  And I was heckled!  2 douchebags proclaimed, “oh god – you again?  You’re killing us!”

That would probably explain why this picture below has me looking confused as opposed to singing anything.  I was pretty peeved because I was singing fucking karaoke… not trying out for American Idol.

We don't actually look like we're singing anything. We look quite confused.

 At one point, one of the douchebags Kanye West’ed me and took the microphone and started giving a shout out to his buddy.  Um… what?  When he gave the microphone back I was sure to give the birthday girl a big shout out (much to her dismay).

But that dude really fucked up my karaoke mojo.  He pretty much killed my spirit and I stopped singing for the rest of the evening.

However, I think the entire bar was probaby happy to not have me butchering anymore songs and I was able to actually talk to people.  I didn’t really hang/chat with too many friends because I was too busy singing. 

Have you karaoked?