1st Grade Field Trip Part II - Traffic Control Center

The Bangalore Traffic Control Center happens to be at a police station, well guarded!

I was surprised to see how efficient the center was considering how chaotic Bangalore traffic can be.






You go Tiger!

1st Grade Field Trip Part I - Bangalore Light Rail

I have so much fun going on these school field trips, not only do the teachers need a helping hand but I get to see things I wouldn't ordinarily see.

Ever since we moved to Bangalore we have slooowly seen the emergence of a light rail system. It still isn't functional but now there is a sample train available for touring.






Ooooh, all the places we'll go!

It's Fall!

I was craving some pumpkin bread so Annika helped me make some pumpkin pulp for bread/pie and gather seeds for roasting.

But before I pressure cooked the pumpkin Annika insisted we take a slight detour and make a jack-o-lantern.

Cute!

Annika is no longer a Disney Princess

There was a time when Annika was all about the Disney Princesses and the color pink. Now that she's nearly 8 she's over it with a vengeance.

One weekend she needed to go to a friend's house at the other end of the neighborhood and was resisting because she didn't want to walk. I told her to take her bike and that's usually what she does. She said no, she'd just walk instead.

I asked her why she wouldn't take her bike and she said it's because it has princesses all over it. So I suggested she paint it...

Before


work in progress

Where to plant the roses?

For teacher appreciation the kids and I stopped at a local nursery and bought a few blooming plants to give to the teachers. While there I bought three little plants for myself. I left them on the front porch until I could buy some "mud" (soil) for some planters I have on my deck.

The gardener saw the plans sitting there for a couple of days and planted them for me...

...in the middle of the lawn.

What??

Blogger has been down

I haven't been able to sign in to Blogger for nearly a month!
Here's what we've been up to!

Annika lost another tooth

Annika has been working on this tooth for the last week. It finally came out tonight. It will be nice to not have the 15 minute updates.

In all the excitement August wanted to show us how his teeth are growing in.

Ganesh Chaturthi

Auggie picking his Ganesha

Annika browsing for her Ganesha


Tiny kitty at the Ganesha stall


The statue I chose


The kids and their statues

Kids chose a statue for Gopi

Gopi will take his Ganesha home and perform a proper pooja before he puts his in the lake

Village Ganesha pooja

A family out for a festive evening

Ganeshas converging at the lake



Almost to the lake



A crane lowers the large statues into the lake


Auggie enjoying his last few minutes with his Ganesha

Since I was alone with the kids in this massive, pushing crowd of devotees I had them each hold an end of my pashmina and told them DON'T LET GO! A small person could really get lost in a place like this.


Auggie hands over his statue

The man in the middle is submerging August's statue


Until next year Ganesha... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Homemade pretzels

I had a hankerin' for some warm, chewy, salty pretzels but I've never seen them here so I went to the internet to find out how to make them.

They're not very pretty but they fit the bill. They were great warm out of the oven but cold and day-old, not so much.

The recipe required the pretzels to be cooked at 550' and my little micro/convection oven couldn't get that high so I set it to the highest I could and cooked them a little longer.

Next I want to try making the small, thin, crunchy ones.

Water... now with H2O!!

Gotta get me some!

Ganesha is coming!

He's starting to pop up everywhere! So excited!