Visiting Drumlin Farm

Few weeks ago  we visited the Drumlin Farm in Lincoln. The weather was nice, the sun was out and we could hear the birds chirping.  It is so weird, I missed the sound of birds so much this winter, once spring set in I put up the bird feeder, one of the first things that I did.  Now I get to see the birds feed or mainly fight with each other as they peck the seeds from the feeder.

Back to Drumlin farm, this is a working farm, but obviously when we went they had hardly started seeding. The trees were waking  up from the deep winter slumber and the leaves had just started to sprout. Once we got the tickets, we got into the farmland. There were  different sections for farm animals. The first section that we went to was for the sheep and their babies. There were so many baby lambs, some of the lambs were just born days before. They were so pretty to look at but gosh were they stinky. But Nonu didn’t mind. He had a ball pointing them out and running from stall to stall.

Next we saw some of the rescued birds  – the ones that wouldn’t have survived in wild. There was a blind owl, a hawk with an amputated wing, and few other injured birds. I felt so bad for those birds, hurt and injured  and now forced to spend their life in captivity because of no fault of theirs. It’s just their destiny, if you think about it – isn’t it the same in our lives too, there are so many times we suffer because of no fault of ours, it’s just circumstances.  Again, if you spin it in a positive light, aren’t these birds lucky that they were found, and brought here. They have a safe sanctuary where they will be rehabilitated instead of just  being left to die in the wild.  Dark thoughts, were running in my mind, walking through the farm.

After spending much time visiting the birds, we walked over to the hen / rooster area. I didn’t even know there were so many breeds. It was a good learning experience and the new-born chicks were so adorable to look at.

Next we stopped to see the pigs, I know some people find them cute, but I have never found them anything other than icky. Then they were the goats and the cows, all lazing around, just chewing and them some more chewing the grass. There was this one cow, which was lying down just next to the fence and didn’t mind us touching him feeling his soft skin.

We also saw a rickety-rackety tractor and Nonu loved it, we literally had to force him to leave because there were other kids waiting to sit on it.  There are multiple trails to walk around, green grass to laze around, tons of spots for an impromptu picnic, a nice way to spend the afternoon.

One the way back we stopped at an ice cream place and had some delicious ice cream. It was, one of the very first times when Nonu asked to get him an ice cream cone. Typically he never enjoys them, he might take a bite here or there but never really want one. I guess, even though I don’t want it, he is growing up.  As they say the days are long but the years are short.  Was so glad to spend this beautiful day, enjoying the beautiful weather, at a wonderful place. !!!

Charleston Chronicles Continues

Read the first installment here of the Charleston visit

One of the things that I wanted to do in Charleston was visit a plantation. Charleston is known for its plantations, and there were tons to choose from. We decided to go to Magnolia plantation, just because it seemed like a place that all of us would enjoy and there were tons of activities. We reached there in the morning and by the way getting in is expensive. Everything has its own ticket but in the end we decided to talk the bulk ticket that lets us do everything that the place has to offer, so that we can spend the entire day there. Our first visit was the Slave Cabins. There are four cabins preserved from 1800’s and as you take a look you feel miserable for they way the were treated. First of all you kidnap or catch them as animals and bring them to this unknown land, the docent told us the misery they face on their journey and almost half of them die en route and then you sell them as cattle, without any care of their families and make them work day in and day out – and then don’t even give them basic necessities. It’s appalling the way human beings treat their fellow mates just because of the color of the skin and the language they speak. Looking at all that you feel grateful for all that you have now, at the least you have the freedom to live your life on your own terms.

After an hour of introspection at the slave cabins, we went to the petting zoo. There were goats and chickens and deer that you could feed and peacocks strutting around in all their glory. Nonu had a great time running around and feeding the animals and petting them.

Then it was time for the ‘Nature Train’ that took us around the plantation, and the driver told us stories about all the creatures and the plants – the Spanish moss (which is neither Spanish nor moss) or the green duckweed floating on the reservoirs. We also saw couple of turtles, herons and egrets. My son enjoyed spotting these and we saw also few alligators lazing around, all in all it felt good to spend the time outdoors pointing out the birds and animals. We also took the boat tour, which showed us the water landscape, little different from the nature tour. However the boat tour takes you through all the rice fields and they explain the way the rice was grown and how the slaves had to manually let the water flow from one section to another while the land was infested by alligators and sometimes snakes. It’s a good spot to enjoy the cool breeze on a hot summer day, taking in all that nature has to offer and listening to the history.

We then went for a house tour, there was nothing spectacular about the house, you can miss that tour if you don’t have the time. However the gardens were beautiful. I have heard spring is the best time to visit when the azalea plants are in bloom, well we toured in summer the gardens were still pretty awesome probably not magnificent as in spring but for amateur gardener like me, it was a treat to the eyes.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Audubon Swamp, which is a diverse world of its own. Because of the board walks you actually walk over the swamp and not near it. We saw alligators lazing around and tons of other wildlife, and somehow it felt like we were the only ones exploring the swamp on that day, as we didn’t see a single soul the two or odd hours we were there. The huge cypress trees with their knees jutting out and the old oak trees with the Spanish moss dangling on and the boardwalk that seems to go for miles all make out for an interesting evening. We had a great time and tons of pictures to enjoy for years to come.

The next day was our last day at Charleston and the plan was to explore as much as possible, with late evening flight, we had the entire day to take in the history. Our first stop was the Angel Oak Tree, a tree that has stood tall for more than 1400 years or so. A tree that has seen it all from the native Americans, to slavery and the current world, I so wished that it could talk, think about the stories we would hear. With its canopy spreading over for hundreds of yards, its limbs weighed down by its weight and age, its’ a sight to behold, I tried my best to get the complete tree in one frame but couldn’t. There is nothing in that park to see, except the tree, but I would think anything would dwarf under the sheer glory and magnificence of “The Tree”.

We had multiple other attractions to visit, however it was so hot that we wanted to stay indoors. So we decided to go to the Children’s Museum and were pleasantly surprised. We have been to couple of such museums, and in most of them there are tons of exhibits, but not here, however the exhibits in here had such different themes that my son had a blast. From the rookie planes that you could maneuver to water activity, where I am not kidding, he spent an hour just pouring water from one bucket to another, they had this cloud exhibit, that rained on the kids, that was a total hit. I guess the best part was the pirate ship where there were jails to lock up errant pirates and even dress up outfits, and then the grocery store. I don’t know what is with kids, why do they find things that you would anyway have to do as they grow up like grocery shopping interesting, I have no idea but he had a ball of time, carting away the items to the check out lane and then actually scanning them and bagging them in grocery bags. And to top it all they had a medieval castle with dragons, old kitchen and royal quarters. The idea was to spend just an hour or so, however we ended up spending close to three hours in the museum and even afterwards Nonu didn’t want to leave, and he talked about the fun he had for days to come. All in all a must visit if you have preschoolers.

Since we had few hours to kill, we went to the King Street Shopping District, it was a combination of high-end and boutique stores. And then it was time to bid adieu to Charleston, with tons of pictures, and loads of memories, we were going back happy that we decided to visit and soak in the history of the South. I want to come again already because there is no dearth of history and places to visit.

Charleston Chronicles

Early in June, we took a family vacation to Charleston. The plan was to spend three days there, enjoy the southern hospitality, warm weather and gorge on some yummy food, while feasting on the beautiful architecture and Charleston didn’t disappoint on any of these fronts. Well hold on to your seats, let me walk you through some of the highlights of our trip.

Saturday morning, after Nonu’s soccer class we boarded the direct flight from Boston, and landed in Charleston by 6 p.m. or so. After checking in, we decided to go to the Waterfront Park. It was pretty nice out there, with the wind blowing on your face, beautiful fountains lit up turning the area magical. The best thing at the park or so I thought were the huge family sized swings, I realized later after spending three days in Charleston, that porch swings are common feature in Charleston houses, I loved them so much that I am planning to get one for my house to. How does it matter that, we don’t live in the south, we can still like them and want one for us? Ok, enough digression.

We waited half an hour or so, hoping some one would get up and we could sway on the huge swings but no such luck. Other than that, we enjoyed the park, Charleston harbor is beautiful, after a long day of traveling, this was a perfect place to relax and take in the sites of ships and sailboats sailing. Walking around for an hour or so, we were starving and decided to go to a nearby pizza place where we gorged on pizzas, bread sticks and even some zucchini fries. The zucchini fries were a last-minute order and it didn’t turn out as delicious as I expected it to be, well you win some and lose some .

The city has seen so much history that one can spend days exploring the city, however we did not have days, so for the second day, I had purchased tickets for horse carriage ride through the historic downtown of Charleston.  Downtown is divided into three zones and the route your horse carriage takes is decided by the city. Every carriage has to stop at a booth and a guy there gives a token to show the route they will take. So, it might so happen that every time you take a carriage ride you could chance upon different houses. Our guide was witty and very knowledge able of the history, the horse was called ‘Facebook’ and was a nine-year old rescue. Nonu was very excited to go on a horse carriage ride and at the end even got a chance to pet the horse. That made his day.

As far as mine, the beautiful architecture with their outstanding gardens and porches and almost all of them sporting porch swings made me swoon. Every other house, to call some of these as “house” would be injustice, – they were mansions, with ornate doors and balustrades and windows with arches that asks you to notice them. I must have clicked so many pictures and kept thinking how beautiful the interior rooms will be and so wished that I could feast my eyes on them. Another thing that was common was almost all the houses had topmost floor smaller in length to the remaining sections and with either tiny or no windows, I initially thought it was the attic but the guide told me that many times the house slaves lived there, they worked for you day and night, you let them live in your mansions, but you don’t even give them room to stand straight in their sleeping quarters. Just makes one think what kind of miserable life they led.

Like all tourists, we then visited the Old City Market, consisting of 4 blocks of street shops, vendors selling everything from baskets to souvenirs to paintings to food items. Charleston is known for the handmade sweetgrass baskets. It’s a long process and you get to see the work they put into it, as you stroll around the market, very interesting to see them being weaved, we bought a small one as a souvenir. Another unique thing that we ate was the dried okra chips. I had never had that before, it was very different, crispy, crunchy like chip and very addictive. Since, I love window-shopping, even though some of the items were pricey it was fun to walk around, peer at the unique items, and just breathe in the moment.

Afternoon it was pouring cats and dogs so, we spent close to an hour standing at someone’s porch that opened to the sidewalk, waiting for the rain to pass, fortunately the house was empty and no one minded us standing there like stray cats. As the rain didn’t subside, we decided to go to USS Yorktown CV 10 – a World War II US aircraft carrier. My husband loves to look at planes and this had tons of them, besides the forecast called for rain for another hour or so, it seemed like a good way to avoid the rain. However by the time we reached the last tickets for the day were already sold, and we couldn’t go In. I felt bad that we couldn’t go inside, however we were lucky that by then the rain had stopped and we walked around Patriots Park where they had model of Vietnam Air Base and few other army / naval vehicles that we could look at. This park also served as a backdrop to Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge – which is a cable-stayed suspension bridge over the Cooper River, looked eerily similar to the Zakim bridge in Boston, so much so that my 4-year-old also pointed that out. We drove over this bridge on the way to Patriots Park but this was a perfect photo opportunity.

By then, it was time to eat and we found this unique place called Fuel, this was gas station which they converted into a restaurant, and they had some unique and delicious items that we gorged on. From fried plantains, to crispy corn fritters to the black bean burger, everything was a hit. And the ambience was pretty cool too. All in all a great place to munch and relax and enjoy some good vegetarian food.

As it was still sunny outside, we decided to end the day by walking up the historic Battery Park, it’s a great place and I am glad that we decided to visit, the antebellum mansions lining up the harbor, was a treat to the eyes. What a joy to wake up every day to the beautiful sight of harbor !! The light breeze from the harbor, the beautiful promenade was a great ending to our day.

This post is already long so , come back again for another installment on Charleston.

Making most of the warmer weather

One of my goals this year has been to make more memories. So, for birthdays, or other occasions instead of material gifts I am trying to plan things or events that would bring us together and we can remember them as years pass by. I agree it takes effort but then I actually remember them as months or years go by, So for the hubby’s birthday this year, I bought Red Sox Vs. Texas Rangers tickets to Fenway for April. We had not been to Fenway before and this seemed like a great way to spend a spring evening. And it turned out to be a memorable day except I would have really loved it if it would have been a little warmer.

The weather was close to 60 F and the game was in the afternoon, so I didn’t think it would be that cold. However, boy was I misled by the forecast. It was so windy out there that we were miserable and sat most of the time huddled with our hands in our pocket and hugging our jackets. I guess the blame should lay with us for not planning for it completely. The next day I spoke to few of my colleagues about that and they said that’s the norm at Fenway. The wind currents are really strong out there and one should always go with blankets and be ready in complete winter attire in spring. Well that’s to remember for next time. But other than that, it was perfect.

Red Sox won the game, we had a great view of the Fenway Park and the players, I did some shopping at the Red Sox store, for the first time I own a team t-shirt and I love to flaunt it all the time. And one of my best pals told me that she was expecting a baby, so it was a great day all in all. This was nothing to do with the game or the place but since she told me when I was there, it just added to the overall happiness. I am planning to do this once every year, watch a ball game and spend time together. For next year though I will look for tickets in late spring or early summer.

So, come Mother’s Day weekend, I decided that we should celebrate it some way or the other. In my house, I am the one who plans vacations and day trips and weekend events. Everyone else just goes by the flow. I plan the vacations considering everything else that is going along. That’s how it has been for so long. So, I had purchased this Groupon for a weekend in Cape months back, and we decided to redeem it during Mother’s Day.

This hotel was in Eastham. When I called up to confirm reservations, the manager out there, told me that you would find the door unlocked to your room and the key will be underneath the door mat. When I had booked I knew the motel was old and not updated, because for 2 nights we hardly paid anything but this sounded to me a little home run organization with little customer service.

When I reached there, as expected the motel looked old and not updated, and as told earlier, I looked for the key under the doormat, but that was not the case and neither was the door unlocked.Obviously the office was closed and no one picked up the phone on calling the calling number. I understand it was pretty late – around 10 pm, however we had driven 2 hours after work and this was not a good start to our vacation. After repeat calling multiple times, someone picked up and very calmly said, sorry we will come and give you the keys. Just like that no explanation or even a heartfelt apology for the trouble caused.

The other thing was the beds were really old and clunky, and the room smelled – I thought it felt like smoke but it was a non-smoking room. However one thing that I had to mention they had left on the bed a wine bottle and the bicycle coupons that were the part of the Groupon deal. So, they did keep that part of the deal without any reminders. And I guess in hindsight I shouldn’t have booked that not because we didn’t have a great time, just that we would have had even better mini getaway if the accommodations were more comfortable. My hubby has allergies and they seemed to have a flared up a little, making him a little uncomfortable.

The next morning we woke up to rain and drizzle and decided to postpone our bike rides and just go for a nice drive to Provincetown, the town at the tip of Cape Cod. That weekend, Ragnar was on in Cape Cod and it was great to see the runners and their awesome painted vans, running and cheering their team mates. It’s something I want to do, probably few years down the line, lets see, I need to find awesome running buddies now.

Race Point Beach is pretty famous in Provincetown, so that was our first stop. There were not many people around as it was still cold to get into the water. It was a nice beach, probably we will have to visit during summer.

Then we decided to take a stroll by the Commercial Street. There were some eclectic shops out there and I loved window shopping. There was this shop that had tons of unique idols of Buddha, I loved them, so I bought one in blue color.

There was this store that had ‘air plants’ displayed in unique containers. They didn’t allow me to take pictures but the ideas were incredible. I also bought my first air plant.

Then we went to see the Pilgrim Monument. It was nice, nothing spectacular but we did spend quality time hanging out by the garden next it. On our way back to the motel we stopped at Nauset Light house, which is a functioning lighthouse. It was serene and calm and other than us there were just another couple, totally isolated. I wish we could have gone up the light house but still we had fun. Since there were no cars, Nonu could just run around the place without any worries.

Less than quarter of a mile from Nauset Light, we have the Three Sisters Lighthouse, these are just for people to take a look and take pictures. They are called “Three Sisters” because when they were operational they looked like women wearing a white dress and with black hats from the sea.

And this place was still deserted, I guess since its hidden, it looks like lighthouse cottages and people just don’t come to visit. Nonu actually thought three sisters lived there and went to the doors of each of the light houses, and knocked to check – whether the sister was still there. So, innocent and so cute. Wish I could stop the days here !!

For dinner we went to this South African restaurant called Karoo in Eastham, again Yelp helped us in finding the place. They had very interesting menu with quite lot vegetarian options. The ambience was great, and the decorations were very African, and the food was awesome. Funnily they provided us a dictionary along with the menu explaining some of the items in the menu. That was very helpful and humorous too. The menu included Pakoras and chutneys, which I was surprised to see because that is an Indian dish. All in all a very delicious dinner.

Next day we rented the bikes and took to the Eastham trails. I was biking after 2 years and very excited. We tried the bike seat for Nonu, but his legs were left dangling, and it was risky, so we had to take the trailer. He was very comfortable in that but I guess a little more weight than expected for my hubby to lug around. We biked the Cape Cod bike path – and it was a beautiful trail and totally picturesque. It used be a part of railroad but now the tracks are gone and we have amazing trails there.

We biked close to 16 miles or so, and took a break for some yum ice cream. There were so many people taking advantage of a beautiful day, running, and biking or just walking and soaking up the sun. It was a great way to spend Mother’s Day.

New Orleans here we come

For the last few years, every year three of my girl friends from my college days with their families go on a vacation or meet at someone’s place for a weekend or so. This year we decided that a girl’s weekend is what we actually need.

After days of planning and spending time on conference calls and more phone calls and text messages we decided on New Orleans as ‘the spot’ for a girl’s weekend. Before we agreed on it, it took us equal amount of time to decide on a weekend that worked‐since all of us are busy at work, have project implementations, and then there were family commitments. Also all four of us based in different parts of US, and deciding a place that worked for all of us was a challenge.  We must have spent a gazillion dollars on the tickets, for comparison purposes, the cost for my one ticket to NOLA was more than my family’s three summer tickets to Charleston in South Carolina.

We had taken a day off on Friday to make it an extended weekend. My flight was from Boston to Houston where I was going to meet my friend V for the next leg of the journey.  I felt a little sad on Friday morning as it was the first time I won’t be available to tuck Nonu in bed for 2 consecutive nights.  From the time he was born, I had a never spent a night apart with him. However, it was also true that nothing could dampen my excitement that finally I will be meeting my girls and that too sans the kids and hubbies, and in New Orleans, the party central town of the south. I was feeling two different emotions at the same time. Kind of normal isn’t it ??

We reached NOLA around 2 pm on a Friday afternoon and took a cab to the hotel.  Since the check in was later in the day, we just left our bags with the concierge and took off to the French Market.  On the way we were very surprised to see bars selling to-go cups of alcoholic drink of your choice. How can one refuse an offer of that? So we both picked up some yummy cocktails – mine was something in peach flavor with tons of vodka in it.

We did some window shopping in French Market and then went to Café Du Monde for their famous beignets. And they were really delicious !!  We ended up placing another order of those beignets after gobbling the first one in seconds. With warm coffee they tasted really out of this world. Now I can also attest to the fact to why everyone who visits NOLA tells you that need to eat those beignets. I am one of those converts too.

We then walked back to the hotel to meet another one of my friend “S” who was flying from CT. The plan was to go to a hookah place for the evening before going to the famous Bourbon Street.  Once we were all decked up and ready we went in search of a Hookah place. After lot of “yelping” (Yup, it’s a word now) and walking around the streets lost we finally found “Attiki Bar and Grill”. It seemed like a nice place and the ambience and even the menu looked very interesting. There we ordered a mango hookah and some more cocktails and some yummy appetizers and we talked and drank and ate some more falafel and another round of cocktails later we decided to get out. I honestly don’t remember what all me talked about just that the topics kept flowing and hours passed. Isn’t that how it happens with your best pals?

Bourbon Street was calling our name, where the party was on in full swing. People were just walking around with drinks in their hands, cacophony of music in the background, people dancing on the roads and shots and drinks just being sold on the street.  This was the first time; I had seen a place like that. I have bar-hopped and pub hopped before but this was a totally different atmosphere.

Since this was the time of firsts, we decided to go to a Strip Club. I have never been to one and there is nothing like doing something crazy with your girlfriends. We walked in and found that Club was practically empty.  The one thing that we all noticed together was the confidence of these girls, the way they were able to sway and pole dance or prance around practically naked and be assured and proud of their bodies.  That was pretty amazing to watch and probably learn from them.  We watched few more dances and then walked out.

The night was still young so then we bar hopped some more and went to few dance clubs and danced to our hearts content. It’s been a while since I went dancing with my friends and within minutes we were churning out both new and classic moves. Few more gello shots and we danced like no one was watching and in a way it was true, everyone was in their own happy world laughing, dancing, drinking and making merry. By then it was close to 1 a.m, our legs were killing us and we had to head back to the hotel to welcome the last one from our group, who was flying from California and was going to land after midnight.   A shout out to a very good Indian cabbie, who understood our slurred speech took us to our hotel and did not charge us a ridiculous amount and on the way also stopped at 24 hr diner that sold some vegetarian food.

I will continue the story in another blog post. Stay tuned !!

 

Valentine Day Special

Last year, for Valentine’s Day, I had totally forgotten to send goodie bags with my son to his daycare, who was then a toddler. When he came home laden with cards/chocolates that the other kids had brought, I felt miserable and my mommy guilt just hit the roof. This time, I wanted to make up for it, so I had purchased goodie bags way earlier than 14th February rolled in. I also had some erasers that I was planning to send along with it.

However, I wanted to send something more and as usual I waited till the last-minute to decide on it. I wanted to send something that Nonu had made himself, and something that other kids could use or play, and but nothing seemed to click. So the day before Valentine’s Day, I was at Michaels trying to see if there was anything that could be crafted in the last-minute with the help of preschooler

And voila, I found these stick puppets that were all pre-cut and we just had to stick them together in a format, something that Nonu would love to do. So after dinner we sat down to make puppets. In addition, I had bought some cards in which Rishi wrote his name with lot of help from his mom.

Stick puppets all ready

Individual items in every goodie bag

There were 21 kids in his day care, so we ended up making 22 bags. I also sent one for my cutie because I wanted him to have a puppet too when all the other kids got one. In the evening when we picked him, he was very happy, couldn’t show off all the little trinkets of love that he had collected from his friends.

And finally how did I fare on VD? Pretty well I would say. !!!

Showing off my Valentine Day gift

Smolak Farms

The last couple of years, one of the customary weekend visits, have always been to one of the farms where we walk around the pumpkin patch, drink some apple cider, take a hay ride, have some fun at the corn maize and come home with the prettiest pumpkin. One of the sites that I obsessively follow had listed Smolak farms as one of the great farms to visit for a day or an afternoon.

This place is located in North Andover, a small town approximately 45 mins or so from the hustle bustle of downtown Boston. The roads that lead to this farm take us through some nice picturesque spots where the leaves were on their peak glory. It was a long drive albeit a beautiful one, with winding roads and some beautiful houses.  One of my favorite pastimes is “house watching” and trying to find the best exterior feature of every house. Again I would advise doing this only if you are in the passenger side and not driving.

The moment we reached there, Nonu saw the Bouncy castle and wanted out of the car at that instant. Actually, just a week before we were invited to one of my friends’ son birthday party and they had a big bouncy house, that was the first time Nonu had seen one and he had loads of fun jumping and falling and getting up and so on. So, he was pretty excited to get on it again this time After getting tickets, we took him to the animal farm just next to the bouncy house. There were turkeys, peacocks, roosters, goat and some chicken, they all were in cages, we couldn’t touch them but we could obviously feed them. And the little guy had a ball feeding them or attempting to feed them.

In one corner, there was a donut eating competition. The donuts are tied to a string and then hang it on a bar and the participants are supposed to eat it without touching them with their hands, just their mouths. It was so funny to see the kids attempt to do that, twirling and twirling just so that they could take a bite of the offending donut. Nonu was too young to understand the rules or play, probably in a few years; we could be one of the parents taking a video and trying to egg him on to eat that slippery donut and win the contest.

In addition to hay ride, for the little ones there was a wagon ride. Nonu sat in one of the wagons all alone, and waved goodbye at us. After the wagon ride, we finally took him the bouncy castle, and boy he had fun. He seemed to be the youngest among the kids jumping inside, but that didn’t deter him from trying to jump and keep up the energy. And when the allotted slot got over, he was the last kid to get out, trying to squeeze in every bit of fun possible.

Finally, we went to pumpkin patch and tried to take some customary pictures, where my son refused to even pose for one because he was busy running around and trying to touch every pumpkin. We finally chose the one that he thought was the best. Every day he is growing up so much, enjoying new experiences, learning new things, making himself independent, and turning into little boy that I am so proud of and can’t believe that just couple of years he needed me for everything, now he is going off to have his own experiences which I am not even part of.

Father’s Day

Father’s Day has come and gone and I never told you guys how we celebrated it this year. This year, we got the DH a black Fedora hat and the Bose noise-cancelling headphones for Father’s Day. Why did I get the hat? Because, couple of weeks ago, in one of the malls, I had seen him admiring the hat. I don’t know how many times he would wear it, but he absolutely loved it and wore it the entire day. We already had the Bose headphones, but somehow they were lost when we went to India in April, so bought another pair. Also, this time Rishi made some cards for his dad at the daycare. They are so freaking awesome, if I say so myself. He made two cards – one has his handprints and the second one has his foot print

I have a friend who stays like 2 hours away and we decided that we will celebrate Father’s Day together. We decided that we will go to Six Flags in Springfield and have a great time together. We did. !!! We reached there by noon. It was so funny that both of us were one hour late, we had initially planned to be there by 11 but by the time I left home it was already 10.30 and I call her to tell that we would be late, and she says that she is going to be late too!!! So it all worked out. We had planned that both the father-son pair will wear similar outfits. My son and DH wore similar checked shirts and shorts while my friend’s son and hubby wore polo shirt and beige shorts and they looked so cute together.

We reached there, got tickets, and the first thing we did is get lunch. I know, eating before going on rides, doesn’t sound like good advice but we were so hungry that nothing mattered. After some yummy pizzas and diaper change for the babies, we decided to go on the rides. The plan was the boys go for the rides, while we moms chat and look after the babies and then we switch sides. The first ride was the Mother of all rides – Superman – the roller coaster that blows your mind away. It is less than a minute ride but within that minute you face intense speeds, drops, lots of negative and positive g-forces and thrills that keep you asking for more.

We also took the both the little boys in the kiddie zone and had some fun with them. My son like his train ride so much that he was not willing to get out .We did one of the train rides like three times, the things we do to keep our babies happy. Later in the evening to we went to Hurricane Harbor which is a water park within Six flags. We did a couple of rides there and then took the babies in the water. The water was pretty cold in the children’s play area so we didn’t spend a lot of time there.

We ended the day by going to a local Indian restaurant and had some amazing food and good conversation A very good way to celebrate any day ..!!

Sharing some very cute pics of the father – son pair

Cooking Together

I will show you the way

Car ride with dads - Fathers Day special

Memories never to forget

This was the last day of our vacation in India. I am all packing, running around just to ensure that we don’t forget anything. Everyone is sad with the prospect that we wouldn’t be seeing each other for a long time. Mom and dad were especially dreading the fact that they won’t be there to watch the antics of their grandson. Oh how he is going to grow up and we wouldn’t know him !

The only person who is unaware about the whole situation is Rishi. He is just playing around, pulling things being naughty. So he was sitting next to me playing with the “kajal box”. I didn’t mind him playing with that because I had checked to see that the lid is really tight and though he won’t be able to open it. And I knew he couldn’t swallow that nor would he choke on it.

So he was sitting beside me, playing with this small box, and 5 minutes or so later he just screams. While I was not paying attention, he has managed to open the box, smear the contents of it all over his hand and he can’t understand why his hand has turned all black. And all I could think was, I was so glad that he hadn’t rubbed his hands all over his face. And I honestly couldn’t stop laughing, I was laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes.

Then mom saw all this, and she just knew what to do. So, we rubbed oil all over his hand and then wiped it clean, and then used a soap to scrub the mess in his hand. All the while all of us were just laughing our hearts out. Poor Rishi just didn’t get the joke !



Showing off his work




Cleaning the mess