8th birthday

The eight birthday was a sports themed one.
Extremely convenient because the cricket party was conducted by the husband and the other stuff like football was self conducted by the kids. The baseball and badminton did not happen though.

We did a quick IPL quiz downloaded five minutes before the party. The kids answered everything. Except two questions for which they said they had not seen "that" match!. Smart

The cake was butterscotch (which the cake shop claimed as chocolate which we had ordered) decorated with green sprinkles, a pitch, toothpick stumps, cream bat and ball.
We proposed that they add chocolate dolls- 13 players and the children picked a player each after the cake was cut.

The snacks were the usual fare- chips, juice and cake along with Maggi Noodles.

We had a small dinner afterwards.
The return gifts were the books Diary of a cricket God and Diary of a Soccer star bought off landmarkonthenet.com

Beating the Heat This Summer

The Sun

The Sand

and  The Surf 

Sea Food

 At the famous Martin's corner with Live Band playing

 Living it up in the pool

 Driving through scenic highway

 Idling at the balcony of the resort

 making grand sand castles

 collecting beach treasures

 going for a safari

What more could I ask to beat the summer heat... Go Goa!

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Kiddy Room Redone

The Room with the hot wheels bed sheet as the inner bed sheet

Study Tables 

Seated on the new chairs...check the car mat

To solve the problem of which table belongs to whom...there pictures in the sliding glass case

A closer look at the tiny shelf in the tables

The Ben 10 dustbin

Colour boxes, Pencil boxes and endless number of crayons, pencils, color pencils

The Ben 10 figure welcomes at the entrance

Cycling

On December 7th we removed the balancing wheels and started training the kids...I guess I was more scared to leave them rather than them. I was more worried because they did not know how to prevent a fall.

Ths first thing what I taught them was how to prevent a fall... just place your legs and brake.

The next step (usually this is the last step people learn) was how to start the cycle by yourself.

and of course, there was the mandatory running behind them holding the cycle while they attepted to balance.

Another thing what I did, against common practice was to remove both balancing wheels at the same time, instead of removing them one by one. I always felt it caused more problem in learning to balance by giving them a false sense of security on one side and they sort of compensate by leaning over that side and when they fall, they fall badly.

So as of yesterday, they are cycling. Tejas is more of a pro than Ojas who has serious focusing problems methinks!

Diwali Lights

This time I didn't do too much. Just the bare minimal.
The kids were not so scared of the crackers. Tejas handled the sparklers well. But Ojas was tentative. He fell over a candle too, thankfully he fell in such a way that the candle came between his legs.

Meanwhile, some kids in the building were following the green diwali. So they did not light crackers. Which to my mind is a very welcome initiative.

Terracotta lamp- new release this Diwali- one that I have been wanting for a long time

The Gharaunda

Lazy/ Safe way of lighting sparklers- Line up the sparklers in the soil and light them up and watch them sparkle

Floating lamps in urli of flowers

Lanterns

Floating lamps again

Sent from my Nokia phone

Class Rules

So Tejas made his class rules on his own.

1. Do not play in class

2. Do not run in class

3. Do not stamp on the books

4 Do not fight in the class

5. Do not fart in class

6. Do not lie in the classroom

7. Always share (this one not in picture..was an after thought after the pic was taken)

Independence Day Celebrations

As usual, we organised a host of events in the building complex to celebrate Independence Day. The challenge for us was to again get a totally new set of events for across age groups.

Painting/ Sudoko for kids Cycling race for tiny tots- Since Ojas. Tejas' cycles were out of order they had to use borrowed stuff. Tejas managed with someone's cycle without 1 balancing wheel and got a prize also.

Filling bottle with water. Ofcourse Ojas & Tejas got prizes as they are thorough with this activity in their daily life

potato gathering race.

Biscuit eating race- this is one race which Tejas walked out. Ojas had a tough time because he is such a slow eater. Yet he managed to get a prize

For older kids we had a series of events like- arranging newspapers in order, making a paper boat, solving a jumble and blowing balloons. Balancing paper cups filled with water on the palms and on the head for the final round

Leading a blindfolded partner to a certain object without touching

rangoli competition

For adults we had challenging events like memory contest- display objects and then after 20 minutes they have to recall and write what they saw. Series of questions to be answered like- telling teh colors of the rainbow in 2 languages, name 7 brands/ flavours etc, name 7 residents with their flat numbers- basically 7 was the number because the building completes 7 years.

team events like- making a paper cup tower

Sari folding for men

Gift wrapping a book with 1 hand of self and 1 hand of partner

The Kipling Cafe for a Date

Last weekend, the kids had to go to a birthday party. And we decided that we could use this as an opportunity and go on a date, leaving the kids behind to rock the party. A first for the kids- readily agreeing to be left behind, perhaps because this was their classmate's birthday party and they didn't need me to sit around.

We went to Kipling Cafe situated on ECR. A nice place tucked in between the bunglows right at the end of a road. Blink and you miss it. No boards, no signs. Thsi place serves continental and Thai and is ideal for a quiet lunch or a small dinner party.
Varied Seating arrangements all over the place

Huts for private seating ...

Rustic chairs in the lawn..

Outdoor hut has its own pankha on the thatched ceiling

Wheel Barrow for the rustic look

Wooden salt -pepper shakers

Boneless chiken cooked in Thai style with rice. Was enough for 2 having eaten a nice serving of calorific kalamari and fried onion rings