Weekend in New York

Our friends, Dantu & Gowri, had a precious baby boy, Neil, two months ago. Here he is:

Is he adorable or what?! Look at the hair! Gowri & Dantu decided to have a pooja for Neil this past weekend, so we packed up and headed to NY.

We started out Friday after work. We picked Maya & Suri up and hit the road. Maya decided to cry for an hour or so telling me she wanted me to hold her. Um, yeah-that's going to happen. So, we made a pit stop at the Kennebunkport rest area for french fries-does the trick every time. Perfect angels after that! Amazing! We stopped and had dinner in Massachusetts, then put the girls' pajamas on and hit the road again. They slept the rest of the way! That is the great thing about driving at night! The best part was all day at daycare they were telling everybody that they were "sleeping in the car tonight". I made sure they knew we weren't homeless-just taking a trip! We arrived at Gowri & Dantu's house around 11:30 pm. We saw Neil, then talked for a while before going to bed.

Saturday morning, we woke up and had breakfast. Gowri's parents are visiting from India and her mother definitely kept us well-fed! We're talking authentic South Indian vegetarian food-it doesn't get better than that!
We had idli and sambar for breakfast.

 Then, we went to New Jersey to see Nithya, a friend of Anand's who he hadn't seen in 10 years! Nithya's wife & son were in India, so we weren't able to meet them but will definitely visit them again. Suri slept on the way:

Nithya had a class until early afternoon and we ended up arriving a bit early, so I saw a Wegman's across the road and decided we should go in and pick up some snacks to keep the girls occupied. Here they are driving their Wegman's car! Suri looks mad-not sure why!

Well, while we were walking out of the store, I looked over and saw a police officer standing behind our SUV. Apparently, some guy hit us when he was parking. The bumper was messed up, but his car was much worse. Here is our bumper:

Nithya met us in the parking lot, then we went back to his apartment. We talked for a while and then decided to go have an early dinner. We went here and had a buffet. My favorite was the Malai Kofta:

Yum! Here are Anand & Nithya reminiscing:

 We went back to Nithya's-Maya fell asleep on the way, so her new buddy carried her!

We chatted for a while, then headed back to Gowri & Dantu's. When we arrived, more guests had arrived and Maya & Suri made a new friend, Sanvi. Sanvi is 4 years old and is absolutely adorable. She met us at the door, held out her hand and said "Hi. I'm Sanvi. What's your name?". SO cute!

The girls spent time coloring and I about freaked out when Maya told me "Momma-I made an H". I looked down and sure enough-she made an "H"!

My child is a genius, what can I say?! I asked Suri if she could make an "H" and she said yes:

WOW! We have 2 geniuses on our hands! I guess they take after their mother...ha ha!!
We put the little smartypants' to bed, then we went to bed. We were up early Sunday morning for the pooja as it started at 8:30. Here are Maya, Suri, and Sanvi all ready for the big event and eating bagels:

Here are some pictures from the pooja:
Mommy & Daddy!

It was a beautiful pooja. Then, it was time for lunch. Where do I begin?! Seriously...idli, sambar, rasam, kosambari, lemon rice, mango pickle, green beans & coconut, cabbage & coconut, and Puran Poli. I'm sure I'm not remembering everything, but it was fantastic!
Here are some pictures of the kids playing:

And us:

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with friends, catching up, and cuddling that baby! He is so sweet-such a quiet little guy!
Monday morning, we woke up, had breakfast and started packing up for the drive home. The girls played on the swings while I packed. Dantu had already left for work, so we said our goodbyes to Gowri, her parents, and Baby Neil!
We headed out and made our usual stop-Bombay Market in Nanuet for Indian groceries. Then, we stopped in Connecticut at one of our favorite places, Trader Joe's! We're supposedly getting one in Maine-SO excited! Then, we stopped for dinner at Five Guys. We wanted someplace kid-friendly and I saw the sign. I had heard of Five Guys, but neither of us had been to one. The french fries were seriously heaven.

SO unhealthy, but so good. Aahhhhhh...........definitely not an every day, or even every month kind of thing!
Then, we were back on the road. We stopped at a rest area in New Hampshire so the girls could run around and stretch their legs for a bit. We played duck, duck, goose and tag and then we hit the road again. And no trip past the New Hampshire border is complete without stopping here:

We walked around and I found this:

I've been wanting to try it! And that was all we ended up with.
I took a few pictures of the girls:

And we were on our way home! We arrived home safely at 10:00. It was a great trip, we had a great time with friends, the weather was beautiful, good food-can't wait to do it again!