Chris • Masshole Mommy

Attack of the Ginormous Peanut Butter Cups

Jun 172013

Peanut butter and chocolate is my all-time favorite combination in the world. I’m not sure who first thought to dip their chocolate bar into a jar of Skippy, but let’s just say that they are a genius. Plain and simple.

This past weekend, Chris and I spent the weekend in Newport, RI, which is one of our favorite weekend getaway locations. It’s only about a 45 minute ride from where we live and there is so much to do there. One thing we always do when we’re down there is to stop a massive peanut butter cup. There are a couple of fudge/candy shops down there that sell them and this time around, we actually bought two – one each.

Just so you have a frame of reference, here I am holding one in my hand:

Door Holding Etiquette 101 – From a Guy’s Perspective

Jun 142013

Hi Masshole Mommy readers! Chris here again with another guest post. I am here to set the record and establish some guidelines for door holding.

How long should a person hold a door open for an individual behind them?

There are a lot of factors to consider here. Are they you manager? Your friend? Are they handicapped? Are they cute? Your nemesis? Are you in a rush? Also, you have to take into consideration the distance between you and the person behind you.

Strawberry Pickin’

Jun 102013

Yesterday Chris and I took the boys strawberry picking. Since strawberry picking season only lasts for three or four weeks around here, and it was a gorgeous day, we decided to knock it out for this year.

We went to a place called Spring Rain Farm in East Taunton, MA, which is where we usually go because they have a decent sized strawberry patch there. After a while, the gruesome twosome went in separate directions and had at it. Continue reading »

Playground Fun

Jun 032013

Yesterday, we planned on going to the beach for the first time (of many) this season. We were all excited when we woke up and it was about 80 degrees and the sun was shining. So, we packed up all of our paraphernalia and off we went. We usually hit up this beach in the next town over (Wareham, MA) because 1. it’s free to park there in the public lot if you get there early enough to get a space and 2. it’s close. I’m lucky that I only live about 20 minutes from Cape Cod, so it takes almost no time to get to the coast.

Anyways, off we went (around 8 am) and as we drove up 495 towards the cape, we saw some ominous looking clouds in that direction. Sure as shit, they were right over the beach and not only that – the temperature dropped about 15 degrees. And mind you, we were only about 15 minutes away from our house. It was 66 degrees at the beach and thank god I always keep a hoodie in my car because I was frozen.

When we pulled into the parking lot, we decided we’d still head down to the water so that the boys could dig for a little while, but I kid you not, as soon as we opened the trunk, it started to sprinkle. Ugh. It only lasted for a minute or so, but we decided to call it and we loaded back into the car to figure out plan b.

On the way to the beach, we passed this cool looking playground, so we decided to stop there for a little while.

Ice Cream For Dinner

Jun 022013

Summer has officially hit us here in Massachusetts and by that I mean that the past few days have been 90 degrees or warmer. Last night, we decided that it would be a perfect night to have ice cream for dinner – so that’s what we did.

There’s really no shortage of delicious ice cream places around us, but there is a new one in the next town over that we figured we’d try out. Actually I had already tried it one night after zumba, but I figured that it didn’t count since I ate the ice cream immediately following a workout, so the calories were canceled out…..right? Continue reading »

A Morning at the Buttonwood Zoo (New Bedford, MA)

May 232013

Where we live there are several small zoos, and the gruesome twosome and I are frequent visitors. We have a membership to one and with our membership, we get into the other one (in Attleboro, MA) for free – so when the nice weather hits, we make the rounds. The Buttonwood Zoo in New Bedford is awesome. Like I said, it’s small, so you can blow through it in about an hour – or make the day out of it if you want to pack a picnic lunch and participate in some of the activities they have going on throughout the day.

Chris and I took the boys for the first time this spring a couple of weeks ago and they were psyched to get back there.

Our first stop is almost always the bears.

And then we head to the elephants. Continue reading »

A Walk in the Park

May 192013

When the weather gets nice around here, my family are regulars at our local state park: Massasoit State Park in Taunton, MA. We all love to hike the wooded trails and go exploring. It’s finally started to warm up enough that we can make it to the park on the weekends and we went for the first time this year about two weeks ago.

Why I Will Never Fly United Airlines Again

May 172013

When we went to San Diego, we booked our entire trip through Expedia. It is the second time I’ve booked through them (I booked our NYC trip in January through them) and we found that since we needed flights, a rental car and a hotel for this trip, it was much easier to book it all in one place. I’ve been very happy with both trips that I booked through them and will definitely use them again.

Anyway, when we booked the trip and selected our flights, we were given the option to select our seats right then and there. Since I wanted to make sure I sat with both boys and Chris was on the aisle across from us, I chose to select my seats instead of leaving it to chance.

Other than some delays, we flew American Airlines to California and there were no other issues. But on the way home, that’s a different story.

Here are the three boys on their way into San Diego International on the day we left:

So, on our way home, we flew United Airlines and when we arrived at the airport in San Diego, we checked in at kiosk like we were told and proceeded through security to our gate. I’m not sure what made him look at the tickets, but about 30 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave, Chris told me we had a problem. My heart sank. Continue reading »

At the Pool…..Again!

May 162013

It was our last night in San Diego, we wanted to spend it with family, so we invited ourselves over to their place (not that they minded) so that the boys could swim and we could all cook out for dinner. Chris, the gruesome twosome and I had spent the entire day at SeaWorld and we figured that would be a nice way to spend the evening.

First of all, the pool area was gorgeous. They are so lucky that they are able to swim there every single day.

The gruesome twosome had SO much fun! Continue reading »

Ponch or John?

May 152013

On our recent visit to San Diego, we stayed in a hotel that included a continental breakfast. Especially when we travel with the kids, Chris and I tend to look for hotels that offer breakfast since it helps cut down on food costs a little bit. I have to say that the breakfast at our hotel was kind of lame, but hey – it was free, so I suppose you get what you pay for.

Anyways, in the breakfast area at the hotel, there were five or six tables, but there was one in the back with a C.H.I.P.S. statue next to it, and you know the boys wanted to sit at that table every single day.

Our Day at SeaWorld San Diego (Part Two)

May 142013

Yesterday I told you about our morning at SeaWorld, but since we were able to squeeze so much into the day, I wasn’t able to get it all into one post. So, here’s how we spent the rest of our day.

Once we were done at the Turtle Reef, we headed over to see the dolphins at Dolphin Point. When we arrived, there were several dolphins and trainers in the water & the dolphins were doing tricks. A minute or two after we got there, the dolphins made a huge splash and we got all wet, so we left. Water doesn’t mix well with my hair (keratin) and I didn’t want to get wet again…..

So we headed for the Skytower ride.

Spending the Day at SeaWorld San Diego (Part One)

May 132013

On our recent trip to San Diego, we thought it would be fun to bring the boys to SeaWorld. They’ve seen the commercials for it and have both been asking to go – so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to take them. On Saturday, I told you about our amazing breakfast with Shamu (FYI – that costs extra), and as we were finishing up, we came across this guy holding a hawk. The boys were fascinated and headed right over him to ask some questions & of course, have their picture taken.

Mightly cool, right?

As we were walking away from Shamu’s pool area, an announcement came over a loud speaker that the Sea Lion show was starting in a few minutes, so we decided to take in the show before we went to any of the exhibits. Continue reading »

Breakfast With Shamu

May 122013

Before we left for San Diego, Chris and I decided that we had wanted to take the boys to Sea World. They’ve both seen commercials for it at one time or another and have both expressed interest in going. I figured that our trip to California would be the perfect time to go. I was looking at their website (before we left) because I wanted to see what exactly was in the park so that I could try to plan ahead a little. I noticed a tab on the site that was called “Dine & Shop” and I clicked on it to see what kind of food options they had. Immediately the words “Dining with Shamu” caught my eye. When I looked further, I found out that we could make reservations for either breakfast or lunch with Shamu, in which guests get to dine (buffet style) poolside while the killer whales do some tricks and swim around. How awesome is that?

After looking at both menus, I decided that I needed to book Breakfast with Shamu. The lunch menu actually sounded really good, but I have a picker eater in my midst, I thought my son would eat more from the breakfast menu than the lunch menu.

First off let me say that I am SO glad that I made reservations for this. It was awesome. First, I wanted to show you some of the pictures I took during breakfast and then I will give you the details.

Splash Mountain – You Either Love it or you Hate it

May 102013

At Disneyland, Chris took the boys on Splash Mountain. I won’t go on it, so I parked my ass on a bench and ate an insanely delicious, two foot long churro while they went on.

In case you’re unaware, Splash Mountain is one of those rides in which they snap a picture of you on the way down the gigantic drop. I insisted that Chris purchase the picture after the ride because the last time they went on the one in Florida, the picture was classic. This time, they are all making almost identical faces and yes, I bought it.

It was well worth the $20!

Our Day at Disneyland – Part 2

May 092013

If you read my post yesterday, you already know that we go to Disney World in Orlando every year. My boys have been there four times and their fifth is coming up in October. Whenever we go, the Magic Kingdom is always our first stop and Pirates of the Caribbean is always our first ride. It’s tradition. So, in keeping with tradition, our first ride at Disneyland was, of course, Pirates of the Caribbean.

There were a few slight differences between the ride in California and Florida, but basically it was pretty much the same.

Those of you who know me in real life know that the Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride in all of Disney. The one at Disneyland looks different than the on in Florida on the outside, but the ride was exactly the same on the inside. And it was all kinds of awesome.

At Disneyland, the Buzz Lightyear ride is called Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters and in Florida it’s called Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Whatever it’s called, it’s exactly the same and it’s wicked fun! If you’ve never been on it, it’s it’s like you’re inside a video game and have to shoot targets to get as many points as possible. Continue reading »

Our Day at Disneyland – Part 1

May 082013

Those of you that have been following along with my adventures for a while already know this, but I am a huge Disney fan. HUGE! We spend a week in Disney World every year (this year we’re going in October) and when we went to California a couple of weeks ago, there was no way I was going to leave the state without a trip to Disneyland. I had never been there before and I really wanted to see how the other half lived – HA!

What made the day even more awesome was that my sister in law, brother in law and nephew were joining us for the day. It was about an hour and a half ride from San Diego, so we picked up the others and set out early because we expected traffic. As much as I had hoped to be there when the park opened at 10 am, there was quite a bit more traffic than any of us expected, so we didn’t arrive until about 10:30. Such is life.

We parked in a lot up the street, bought our tickets right there, and caught a shuttle bus which took us right to the entrance of the park.

After a short ride, we had arrived. I have seen pictures online, but once I was there in person, I was really kind of surprised at how similar Disneyland is to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Florida. Of course there were some exceptions (the castle being the obvious one), but many of the rides and the layout were very much the same.

Anywho…..

Here is the gruesome twosome when we first arrived at the park. Continue reading »

The Footsie Wootsie

May 062013

A few years back when my mother in law visited the San Diego Zoo, she came back raving about this foot massager thingie that they had there. Apparently for the low, low price of just 25 cents, you could recharge your sore tootsies after a day of seemingly endless walking. The zoo is huge and if you spend the entire day there like we did, you end up walking miles and miles.

My brother in law also highly recommended this amazing contraption and informed Chris and I that the official name of it was the footsie wootsie. Clever.

Chris was busting a gut to give it a try and after we had been at the zoo for about two hours and hadn’t come across one yet, he asked one of the zoo employees where the nearest one was located. Yes, the guy laughed at us, but there was one relatively close by and we headed straight for it. Since we knew about the footsie wootsie in advance, I brought about $5 in quarters with me – just in case.

What you do it sit in the chair and there is a panel in which you put you feet on that vibrates for about a minute or so. As you can see by the look on Chris’s face, he clearly hated it. HA.

The boys got a kick out of it and all three of the boys did it three or four times each that first time.

Me? Continue reading »

The Birch Aquarium – La Jolla, CA

Apr 242013

On our second full day in California, we met up with my sister in law, brother in law and nephew at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. My in-laws are regulars there, so they thought it would be a fun place to visit while we were in the area – and they were right. The boys absolutely loved it there, and not to mention that they had many different marine animals on exhibit at The Birch Aquarium than what we’ve seen at the New England Aquarium in Boston or The Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT. It was an awesome day!

Here we all are outside the aquarium.

Once we got inside, the boys eels (and my brother in law) loved looking at the eels. They were one of the highlights of the day. Continue reading »

Medieval Manor

Dec 132011

I can’t believe that I’ve lived in this area for my entire life, but just went to the Medieval Manor in Boston for the first time this past weekend. It’s an interactive dinner and show set in the dark ages and it was a fricken blast. Throughout the night we were entertained by the King, the Minstrel, the Jester, an Oaf and a few Wenches who all put on quite a show filled with jokes and music. All of the performers (minus the king) were also the servers, so they had double duty. But since we were doing things dark ages style, meaning we had to eat all our food with our hands, the performers were able to just drop our food and go. I guess they didn’t have forks back then.

How I Met My Husband

Dec 092011

If there’s one question that I get asked more than any other, it’s “How did you meet your husband, Chris”?

Let me give you a little backstory first, though.

I had my second son on August 16, 2007 and he was delivered by c-section. I had several complications from the surgery and thanks to a visiting nurse who came to my house daily and a second surgical procedure, I was finally back to my old self about thirteen weeks after I had my son. Thirteen weeks!! It was a very long recovery and my ex-husband was ~~such a douche~~ anything but supportive and helpful during the time I was out of commission. Within a week or two of getting back on my feet, my husband left. Like as in moved out. We both mutually agreed that it wasn’t working out with us and it was for the best that we each go our seperate ways. That was in November of 2007.

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