Biren and Kristen's Universe

June was a pretty fun month for the girls. Two out of the three theme parks we visited this year were visited in June. As you may already know, we went to Sesame Place earlier in the month, and just last weekend, wrapping up June, we went to Story Land. It was our second annual pilgrimage to North Conway, NH with our good friends, the Kings. Last year, you might recall we stayed one night at the Adventure Suites... This year, we decided to rent a house and make it a two night stay. It was actually cheaper to do this, and we got an extra night. The place is owned by acquaintances of mine, and we can't say enough about the place. It was the perfect place for us. Very nice accommodations, and I recommend it to anyone looking to stay up in that area.

Kinda funny story, the house has an old gondola in the basement with a ski racer mannequin in it. The girls saw him and referred to him as "the man", and constantly wanted to see him all weekend. So for us, it was a great bribe... "you can go see the man if you finish eating your supper"... "you can go see the man tomorrow if you stay in your beds and go to sleep"... On the flip side, Grace was a little afraid of "the man" at first, and the opposite bribery worked on her... "Eat your supper, or I'm gonna take you down to see the man"...

Story Land allows you to buy tickets after 2pm (or 3pm in July/August) to enjoy the park for the remaining three hours that it's open and also come back another day for free. So we took advantage of that and spent a couple hours at the park Monday evening, and then planned on going back Tuesday for the day before driving back home. We were able to hit almost every ride that Monday evening, which was great! As it turns out, the next day, Kath would get sick with a raging fever forcing us to leave after just a couple of rides and some lunch. So it turned out to be a really good thing we got in almost all the rides we wanted to get on the day before. The long weekend was really fun, and we can't wait to go back next year with the Kings.

So Kath was basically sick for the next couple days, followed by Karina being sick for a couple days, followed by me and Kris being sick for a couple days. This past Thursday night, I had gotten Lady GaGa tickets as a gift for Kris' birthday, and unfortunately it was near the height of our sickness... We still muscled our way into the city and enjoyed the show. Speaking of Kris' birthday, that just happens to be today! Happy Birthday Kris!

The day before we left for Story Land, we went to Kris' cousin Phil's house. It was Phil and Bonnie's (his wife) 12th annual luau... They had two big inflatable water slides and a nice swing set outside. It was a beautiful day, and while the girls played in the pool at the bottom of the slide, they were terrified of the slide itself. Kris sent each of the girls down the slide once, but that was about it because they didn't like it. We also got to see Monica, Kris' cousin Russ' wife, and Fiona and Maeve, their daughters. Russ and family just returned to MA after living and working in Germany for a couple of years. The party was a lot of fun, and we were happy to have finally made it to the infamous shindig

Going back a little further, a little bit before the Story Land/Luau shenanigans, Kris took the girls up to Hampton Beach to spend a day at the beach with Jen and Grace. The girls have been very iffy at the beach in the past, but this time they did really great and had a fun time. They didn't cry getting close to the water, and even stepped in the water a little bit. Before, we couldn't even stand in the water ourselves while holding them! They had a lot of fun running around in the sand playing with their best pal Grace.

Yesterday, since Kris and I were finally feeling a little better and it was such a nice day out... we decided to head on over to Grammy and Papa's house for a cookout and to enjoy the pool on the very hot day... not to mention it was the fourth of July, so a cookout was definitely in order. The girls are growing more and more comfortable with the pool with each visit, and yesterday they were even stepping down the first couple steps of the pool by themselves, holding on to the railing. They were very careful the entire time, which was nice to see...that they weren't being reckless around the pool. Both girls were even swimming around the pool with their inflatable tubes. Seeing as how it's supposed to be in the 90s this whole week, chances are the girls will be back at the pool this week while I'm at work.

Finally, I will conclude with a potty update... Up until last night, Karina had a perfect record for a number of weeks... going without an accident (number one or two)... unfortunately, last night she had an accident (number 1) during a tantrum she was throwing. It might've been our fault, as we were trying to keep them up so they could watch the fireworks on TV. In the end, neither of them could make it that late and were having major meltdowns (Kath also peed herself around the same time). So they went to bed, and I taped the fireworks, and they watched them twice today. Kath continues to have poop accidents, and has an approximately 85-90% success rate with peeing. She unfortunately still seems to have pee accidents almost daily. We're really glad that at least Karina is basically 100% potty trained, because it would be really difficult to be dealing with two accident prone toddlers in this house.

Alright, that's about it... here are all the pics of the events referenced above

[Luau Photos]
[Story Land Photos]
[June Photos]
[Fourth of July Photos]

Well, as you've all probably noticed, I've been posting a little less than usual... I think I'm gonna start posting photos on a monthly basis, mostly because we're just not taking as many photos as we used to, so no point putting up ten photos a week, or something. So below you'll find a link to all the photos taken in May (and yes, I know I'm almost halfway into June haha).

We had a pretty good May... we had brunch with Mickey/Minnie, we hosted a Cinco De Mayo party, we visited Sesame Place, and Dada/Dida came to visit the girls, at which point we also celebrated Dida's birthday. At the very end of May, the girls even snuck in their first trip of the season to the pool at Grammy and Papa's house. The girls have been up to all kinds of shenanigans, some of which is evidenced in the video below.

May also happens to be the month we started potty training the girls... and by we, I mean mostly Kris. Kris has been doing an amazing job really getting the girls to use the potty... Since they're just learning, they've absolutely had many accidents, but they're becoming less frequent. The girls are actually doing pretty well with it, and I am very anxiously looking forward to the day we are DONE with diapers. It's only been a few weeks of training so far, so we have a little ways to go before the girls will be total pros, but we're headed in the right direction. Exciting times

For anyone interested in how we're doing it, we bought two Baby Bjorn potties for the girls, and we offer them a treat for every successful trip to the potty. A treat being a little bite sized Snicker's or Kit Kat. We had tried to do it with stickers before, and while they always wanted the stickers, it was nowhere near the motivation a little candy is... they really look forward to that piece of candy (imagine that), so it's been working pretty well.

We're also teaching them to wipe, throw the toilet paper into the toilet, and flush. They love flushing the toilet, so the whole process is going very well. Karina even had her first poop on the potty on Friday! They're basically in undies all day except during naps and sleeping at night... and also if we go out, we don't want any accidents while in a store or something.

Alright, those are the major updates... I leave you with the aforementioned video of shenanigans...

Somersaults and Other Madness

[May 2010 Photos]

After a lot of Disney related stuff going on of late, we switched gears and took the girls to see some of their favorite characters at Sesame Place. We made a long weekend of it driving down Friday and spending the weekend with our friends Ushir and Susan (along with their two sons Evan and Aaron). Ush's cousin Parimal also came along with his wife Tina, son Sahil and daughter Rhea. Going out for dinners with the 12 of us was quite a scene, but we managed pretty well.

We spent all day Saturday over at Sesame Place, which is mostly a water park. We decided we would knock out the few "dry" rides they had first, and then head over to our scheduled lunch with Big Bird and Friends before wrapping up the majority of the day at the various water rides. We started the day with your standard rides... the tea cups, the flying fish (which was like the Dumbo ride at Disney), and the balloon ride (which was essentially the same as the flying fish but balloons that you ride in). The girls did just fine on those, which is a relief since we'll be at Storyland in a few weeks, which will be a lot of those kinds of rides.

Next was lunch with Big Bird and friends (Elmo, Cookie Monster, Zoe, Bert, and Ernie). The girls got to meet each and every one of them, which was real nice. They really enjoyed seeing everyone, and we got some nice pics of them giving hugs and high fives to them all. In between going table to table meeting all the kids, the characters did little performances to further entertain everyone. It was a pretty nice little lunch, and we were happy we signed up for it.

After lunch, we got the girls changed into their bathing suits and hit all the water rides. The girls enjoyed the teeny tiny tidal pool, water slides, and even the lazy river. They just laid on their tube as we slowly went down the lazy river. The girls are doing much better with their fear of the water... the tidal pool was basically mostly ankle deep, so they loved that area, and just kept splashing each other and anyone else that came near them. They never liked it when water fell on their head, but other than that they did real well with the water.

We wrapped things up with a walk down a replica of Sesame Street itself. It was a long day, but well worth it. We all had a fantastic time, and actually look forward to going back next year.

[Sesame Place Photos]

Earlier this week, we finally got our new fence put in. I had installed some deer fencing before for Homer, but he kept chewing through it, or digging under it and getting out. After many failed attempts to deter him, we finally decided to tear it down and get a real wooden one put in. The fence looks fantastic, and Homer absolutely loves running around freely down there. Unfortunately, he's still very much a digger, so we still have to watch him, as he's already dug some big holes near the edge of the fence, which if we let him continue, he could eventually walk right under the fence. We've noticed he doesn't dig anywhere there's grass, so we're gonna throw down some grass seed in all the dirt areas, and hopefully soon enough, he won't bother. Regardless, we're very happy with the fence, and so is Homer.

Yesterday, we headed on down to the James' residence to celebrate Max's birthday! Li'l guy turned two, and the girls had a blast at the party. It was such a great day, we were able to be outside the whole time. I have to also acknowledge Julie's amazing Elmo cupcakes. Those suckers were so freaking delicious! Karina enjoyed eating Elmo's eyeballs (chocolate chips) the most! They party was a really fun time, though. It's great at this age now, you can just let them run around and have fun, and not really have to chase them around. So it was much more relaxing for Kris and I too. Last year, the girls wouldn't stop eating rocks haha!

Earlier this morning, we went to a restaurant that does character breakfasts every other weekend. Today, Mickey and Minnie were scheduled to be there, so we had decided a couple weeks ago to make a reservation and go. We invited Jen, Steve, and Grace to come along as we thought it'd be fun to go together. The girls had a great time and were very well behaved. Minnie was the first to come over to our table, and both girls went right over to her and even stood next to her for pictures. A little later, however, when Mickey came over, Kath was a little scared and didn't want me to put her down... But Reeny, the usual scaredy cat, was fine, and went right over to him. Not sure why Kath was frightened by Mickey... Oh well, at least she didn't cry. As far as the breakfast itself goes, it was a buffet, so there was a ton of food including an omelet station to choose from. We were pretty stuffed by the end of our "adventure".

This past Saturday, Kris and I decided to kick off the summer with a Cinco de Mayo themed cookout. We had a fantastic turnout! So many friends, and so many kids of all ages to partake in the fun. We even had a pinata for the kids to take turns whacking. Ultimately, as you can imagine, it was the older kids that took care of it, allowing everyone to fight for the candy guts. The girls and the other younger kids still had fun hitting it with a stick. Most of the party was spent outside by the swing set, since it was such a beautiful day. Everything went really great, and we had a blast hosting the shindig. We got to see a lot of people we hadn't seen in quite a while, so it was really nice. All of the kids seemed to have a really fun time too, which was great!






Thanks to Eleanor, I have a TON of photos from the party. Please click the link below to see them all! But before you get to that, I will leave you with a video of the girls playing with their Stand N Spin, er Sit N Spin...

Stand N Spin

Cinco De Mayo Party Photos
End of April Photos