We decided to have a birthday party for Ryan. His actual birthday is July 12th, but since we were back home for the summer we figured the little guy needed a party with his "friends". I am not taking anything away from the day at the river with Nana and Popo because Ryan talks about it all the time.
So here I go doing what I do best....become a total control freak. First thing first, find a place to have the party. Being here we don't have a lot of places to choose from so we opted for a place called Vanilla (
http://www.vanillaplace.com/). It is the closest thing we have here to a gymboree.
Next was the decorations,that was a no brainer...
MICKEY MOUSE !!!!Luckily, I stopped at Party City before coming back. I then realized I needed balloons, a face painter and a jumping balloon so I call on my trusty sidekick "Mustafa" (our old driver). He jumped at the change to do anything for Ryan so he made a couple of calls and everything was set. Out went the invitations and 16 kids RSVP that they were coming. The big day finally came. The party was set from 4 to 7 so at 2 I decided to head to the venue and make sure everything was under control (Remember I am a control freak). I just about lost it....NOBODY was were. I called Mustafa and wondered where he was (had my trusty sidekick finally let me down)......NO WAY! He was picking up the balloons himself. So around 3 the jumping castle was up and balloons were being blown up so I left to pick up the cake and get ready. At 4pm we returned to Vanilla and waited for guests, and waited and waited...after all this is India and nothing starts on time here. The first guest showed up at 4:30...Hurray Cameron! After that they started arriving one right after another and the party was well under way. As you can see from the pictures, this could have been a UN meeting. We had kids from all parts of the world (Finland,Sweden,Colombia,India,US,Korea,Denmark) it was like having our own "It's a Small World".
Please enjoy the slideshow, I am not going to bore you with commentary on each photo.
The party was a hit and Ryan had a blast. Parents commented on what a great party it was....so another birthday party under my belt and at least I have until January before the next one.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE BOY !!!!!!!!
On a different note.........................the girls changed the design. ENJOY !!!!!
These past couple of days I have seen some amazing stuff. I only thought Indians were good at fixing computer problems and making tea.
First of all, as promised....our new design.
This will be the last one for a while. Remember from our Lord Ganesh post it is time for him to go into the water, but I will blog about that later.
Now, I want you to take a look at these sculptures.....
These were made by the pastery chef at one of the local 5-Star hotels and he just recently won a gold medal and "Best Pastry Chef", in southern India, award. Not only did this individual do well, but the hotel was awarded "Best Hotel" in Southern India by a panel of international judges. I can actually say this place has the best chefs in town since we eat there at least once a week and now they have the award to prove it.
Martha Stewart eat your heart out..........
All I can really say about today is that I did absolutely nothing. As my Nana (grandmother) would say....The life of Riley. I really never understood what that meant until today.
It started out this morning with my last PTA meeting at Treasurer. Just to give you some background, this PTA was more political than this years upcoming election. (Joni, I thought I had left PGSA, but it followed me to India :o)). After the new board was elected and the meeting was over me and my three good friends decided to go for coffee at 10:30.
So, a Phillipino, a Sri Lankan, an Oregeonian and a Texan all walk into a restuarant.......No this is not start of a bad joke!!!! But the beginning of a long day.....We get to the restraurant and starting discussing what had happened during the meeting, we even went as far as taking out our crystal balls and started predicting the future. By the time we new it, the resturant started setting up for lunch, this was 12:00. We has just finished our coffee and figured we are here we might as well eat. So we ordered our lunch and kept talking and discussing life. We talked and talked and talked until we realized it was 3:00, time for us to head to school to pick up the kids. I say my day was not productive, but sometimes just hanging out with friends is more fullfilling than running a million errands.
I see it as four different views, four different cultures, but 1 group of friends trying to live in India one day at a time.
To all my friends in Texas, new and old, I hope Hurricane Ike takes a detour. Please stay safe
On a different note, I am sorry to say that our design has not changed. By dont worry, there is one in the making....
I am sure y'all (yup, still have the Texas slang) think how lucky I am to have domestic help.
Well....think again. They are like having grown children, you have to tell them step by step how to do things over and over. I somtimes think to myself, "it probably would be a lot quicker if I just did it myself", but then I hear Ben in the back of my mind saying...."we are helping the Indian ecomony". It sounds like I dont appreciate Easwari, our housekeeper, but don't get me wrong, I totally value her when the dishes are stacked in the sink, laundry is piled high and the floors need mopping. I know, I know, I sound like a total snob, but just to let you know she is the best paid housekeeper in our apartment building.
Now that I finished bagging on the poor lady, let me give her kudos. Today our dryer decided not work (not surprising in India) so Easwari decided to make a make-shift clothes line.
As you can see we started with towels and later she moved to shirts. Thankfully she is waiting for the dryer to be fixed before doing the unmentionables. When I came home and saw this, I thought I was out camping with my family... I sure was missing home!
Easwari was a little surprised that I was ok with clothes hanging on a rope in Ryan's room, little does she know this is how I grew up. I gave her the proper credit for thinking out of the box and told her how well she did. She was soooo happy, it was as if I put a GOLD STAR next to her name on the refrigerator. The rest of the day she had a little pep in her step and confidence in her face. Like I said....it is like having another child.
As promised our new design........
Carissa and Easwari trying to stay between the lines.
Nieveta and Kalpana (Easwari's daughters) working on the design. Nieveta drew the design with chalk first then they starting filling it in with color. It took them about 2 hours to complete. What a way for two teenage girls to spend a Friday night. This design will stay until Monday so you will have to stay tuned and see what is to come.
Have a Great Weekend!
We all decided to get in on the action....
There was a parade of people/neighborhoods with their Ganesh strolling down the road they were dancing, playing music, throwing flower pedals into the crowd and it wouldn't be India if there were not fireworks involved. Even though you could not see them the noise was enough.
