POTD: Hershey Fun

I'm at a two day conference at the Hershey Hotel.  Jana and Oliver tagged along - they are spending today at Hershey Park and hanging out around the pool at the hotel tomorrow. 

Just got word from Jana that Oliver is having a blast.  No surprise - this fire engine carousel is his favorite!

A Perfect SSC Sunday

After the birthday party, we headed up to the bungalow.  On Sunday morning, my mom came up and joined us.  For Oliver & Devon, it felt like an eternity waiting for Omi to show up with the munchkins at 10am!  We'd already had an entire day's worth of adventures trying to keeping them entertained while we waited!  

Bentley & Preston's Joint Birthday Party

We were back in Jersey this weekend for another weekend of cousin fun!  On Saturday we were at Bentley (3) and Preston's (1) birthday party.  It was the first time all 7 cousins were together since Maultaschen making in late November.  The big kids (we call them the BOND cousins: Bentley, Oliver, Nathan, Devon) had a blast riding around on the Quad and Lightening McQueen car.  We stuck around after the party cleared out and the boys continued to have fun in the backyard.  As luck would have it, the weather got better with every passing hour.   It's amazing that Preston is just 3 weeks older the twins (we refer to the 3 of them as the PAL cousins: Preston, Alex Lukas).  He's so much bigger than them, he eats all kinds of solid food, and is walking!  You'd think the difference was more like 3 months when they are together. 

11 Month Photos

I better get these out quick - the babies TURN ONE in just two weeks - eek!

The stickers last for mere seconds these days.  Good thing there's only one sticker left to go!  Stories to follow with 1 year old photos....

Memorial Day Weekend

We enjoyed a nice long weekend at the bungalow.  We hadn't officially opened the bungalow yet, since the kitchen was being redone this Spring (done just in time for us to use it this weekend), so a bit of elbow grease was involved before we could kick back and relax.  Brrrr!!!  It was freezing cold the first night and felt a lot more like September than the kick-off to summer.  The big boys had fun on their bikes, playing with water, and playing with gravel.  The babies loved the freedom of the empty deck to play on.  Alex especially loved playing with water and the tunnel to crawl through.  Pauline had been in Manhattan fort the weekend and joined us on Monday.

Enjoying our fabulous deck!

classic Oliver expression!

Babies in their SSC stroller - they love watching Oliver & Devon play

Visit from Pauline!

Pauline visited us for almost two weeks and everyone really enjoyed her visit.  Since some of her au pair friends are still in the city, she also had a chance to go out with them as well.  She took Oliver to soccer class, got some one-on-one time with the babies, went out for drinks with me, joined Adam & Oliver strawberry picking, and got to go shopping & enjoy the city....  It was a really nice visit. 

Our Boys

Here are some cute photos of the boys together... Oliver's not exactly overflowing with love for the babies that are constantly playing with his stuff, but we've seen some definite improvement recently.  Hopefully, it continues to get better this summer.  They are darn cute!

Brotherly Love!

I'm overdue with 11month old photos...  in the meantime, here's a cute Twin-story:  The babies can climb up the stairs now.  We actually found this out in a pretty scary way.  While I was out, Adam took Lukas up to the babies' bedroom to change a diaper, leaving Alex (& Oliver?) down on the first floor.  All of the sudden, Alex was pulling on his pants!  Eek!  His first time up the steps had been an unchaperoned trip!  So... we had to buy another babygate for the steps going up.  Oliver was never much interested in the steps, and since there were three adults (us + Jana), it was never really an issue - someone always had an eye on him.  

Alex is a faster climber, so when they climb up the steps, he is always out in front.  He is constantly looking back to check on Lukas' progress.  When he gets to the top, he looks down the steps and watches Lukas climb.  Then, Alex claps for him when Lukas reaches the top - super cute!

Mother's Day weekend in Jersey

A bit late on this post....  We were in Jersey for Mother's Day weekend.  We celebrated my dad's 65th birthday on Friday night (no photos, surprisingly), Nicole's birthday on Saturday, and hung out at the club on Sunday.  For various reasons, we decided to stay in a hotel for this visit and we really loved it - Nicole's employee rate for a suite and a comp'd adjoining room certainly sweetened the deal!  The highlights of the hotel experience for Oliver were getting to ride on the luggage cart and playing (not swimming, mind you) at the pool.  I have to say, the luggage cart was a favorite of mine as well --   so much easier than lugging bags, pack & plays, etc up and down the stairs!  I was also a very big fan of Mother's Day brunch!  

On Sunday, we hung at the bungalow.  The kitchen hadn't been completely renovated, so I couldn't open the bungalow for the season this weekend, as we had hoped.  My mom's cousins were there - family we don't see very often, so I saw lots of second (third, second-twice-removed?) cousins, some of which I see less than once a year.  The best part... lots of people that wanted to hold the babies!