Ek hazaaro me meri behna hai

Today is Raksha Bandhan - a festival to celebrate the pious bond between a brother and a sister. Sisters tie rakhi to their brothers and brothers promise to always stand by their sisters through thick and thin, protecting them against all odds throughout their lives. Well, I have my own questions regarding this. Why should brothers only take the responsibility of standing by their sisters? Shouldn't sisters too make a promise to be there for their brothers and stand by them? What about those girls who don't have a brother? Does that mean they should get a feeling that since they don't have a brother so no one will be there for them?

Having a daughter and a son in a family is indeed an ideal combination. But we never ever wanted our girls to grow up feeling the need of having a brother in their lives. They should have such a strong bond that they don't feel the need of having anyone else in their lives. Anvesha and Anvika don't have a brother, but that does not mean they cannot celebrate Raksha Bandhan. Right from the time Anvika was born we have been celebrating Rakhi with them. It's not about feminism, it's basically questioning the meaning of the festival itself. It's not about a brother protecting his sister, rather siblings protecting each other. 

So on this special day, Anvesha and Anvika tied Rakhi to each other- making a promise that they will protect each other throughout their lives. 

Having or not having a brother doesn't really matter. What matters the most is the special bond that siblings share and grow up knowing that their sibling will stand by them no matter what. And it's that promise that we celebrate as Rakhi.

Quack Quack Party

My butterfly # 2 turned two last week. "Quack quack" was amongst the first few words that she learnt to speak and this girl would jump with joy seeing the ducks at the pond every time we went to feed the ducks. So this year we decided to have a ducky theme for her second birthday party. I absolutely loooovvveeeed putting this theme together and give it a final look. I am so glad it turned out the way I had imagined. Anvika was so thrilled to see all the duckies on her birthday.

To begin with I first made the backdrop frame from pvc pipes. The overall theme was yellow and blue and the whole party decor involved so many DIYs. I absolutely love hosting kids birthday parties. It gives me so much satisfaction seeing my girls' expression when they see the final outcome. I will continue to host the perfect theme parties for my girls year after year. Yes, they will grow up soon and will no longer need me to host their birthday party. They might be even embarrassed to see me around, so thats the reason I want to enjoy this phase of life where I have a say in deciding the theme and overall look.

Here's the final look of the cake backdrop. I think I did a decent job in putting it all together.

Anvika has a collection of duckies in all shape and sizes and we made good use of them on her birthday. We hosted the party at Ebright Creek park. It was a fun filled afternoon. Here's the birthday girl in her lovely red dress.

She was a little overwhelmed seeing so many people and it took us a while to get few good pictures of her.

Finally the birthday cake :)

For the goody bags I decided to give a wooden birdhouse to the kiddos as a thank you gesture

 which they could paint. By the way, these goody bags were decorated keeping the theme in mind :)

The kids loved the bubble machine as there were gazillion of bubbles to pop.

Here's some pinata fun.....

Thanks to everyone who took out time to attend Anvika's birthday party and a very very happy birthday to my darling Anvika.  I absolutely love quacking with you:)

Happy Birthday my Butterfly # 2- ANVIKA

Dear Anvika,

A very happy birthday to you my love. You've been with us for 2 yrs now and I really can't imagine our life without you.  You live by your name, ANVIKA, meaning powerful and complete. You are the perfect kick of happiness and spice to our lives.  You are bossy- yes you are!! Even though you boss around your big sister, pull her hair, even bite her at at times and forcefully sit on her car seat instead of your own, we love you all the more sweetheart.

Here are few things I never want to forget about you. I never want to forget how you smell when you sleep- a mix of baby and a little girl- of sweetness and a little dirt. I never want to forget the way you say, "okay" when we ask you to do something, or the way you wrap you arms around me to hug me. I even don't want to forget the way you will hit and push your big sister- Anvesha and then act like you did not do anything wrong. I never want to forget the fact that you are your sister's tail. You want to do everything that your sister does. All this adds up to the sister bond that you girls share- really.

You are my fearless fighter and I know for sure you are going to light up the world on fire and I will be there to cheer you in every step.

A very happy 2nd birthday to my butterfly # 2. This song is especially for you

Fun with Legos

Anvesha has found a new love for LEGOS these days. Actually she loves knocking down all the things we build with legos, but as long as she is having fun, I really don't care how she plays with them. I remember we had been to Legoland with Anvesha when she was 2 year old. At that time she didn't understand much about legos. Anvika has started to play with legos too and seems to be occupied with it for a fairly long time. She loves to play with Mega blocks as well. I really wish both my girls benefit from lego play some day.

Playing with legos can be fun and educational. It opens up their creative side and builds concentration as well. It can keep a child quiet for hours- total bliss!!! When I was a kid we never had legos. But I remember going to my friends home and playing with legos. All I did was build a house- the same house over and over again. But it's completely different now. You can build so many things with these tiny bricks with a little imagination and plenty of patience.

Lego certainly is a fantastic toy. It's amusement potential is infinite, but not all kids like to play with them. It has taken me a while to get Anvesha to like legos. With summer break these days, we spend a lot of time doing legos and creating different things. She does a great job making something by looking at the instructions, but I want her to get imaginative and make a something unique. We WILL get there some day.

This is today's lego project.

So whenever I am stuck with what to buy as a birthday present for anyone, LEGOS are a safe bet. You can NEVER go wrong with legos :)

Berry Picking

It's just the onset of summer and week one of the summer break. Everyday is a new experience for us and though exhausting for me, but full of action for Anvesha. By the way, we gracefully survived week 1 of summer break.. Yayyyyyy!!!!

This weekend we went for strawberry picking with few of our friends. It was a fun filled afternoon and we collected around 6 Lb of strawberries. It was a perfect day for picking berries, by which I mean that it was neither too hot nor too cold.

We collected these super sweet and juicy strawberries, although the kids ate a lot right from the strawberry bushes :)

There are many reasons to take the kids to strawberry picking. First and foremost, its fun:) It's so important to get out as a family and the fact that strawberry picking pulls you and kids away from television is an added bonus. Life is crazy, chaotic and fast paced. Getting out at the farm, smelling the ripe, juicy berries and getting your hands dirty at the farm is indeed worth it. 

The strawberries are cheaper at the farm. We don't have to pay the added cost of  someone else picking, packing and shelving the produce. I am AMAZED at how much more delicious our freshly picked strawberries were as compared to the ones we get at any store for which I may have paid a fortune so far.

It was fun teaching Anvesha where food comes from. U pick farms are fun ways of educating kids about about farming. Anvika is too young to understand all this, but she had her own share of fun at the farm.

And finally here is the team with all of their hard work at the farm 

Anvesha's last day of preschool

Anvesha's last day of preschool was today- June 19th 2018.  She really enjoyed her 3 years of preschool with Miss Riddhi whom she absolutely adores. I can't believe my little girl's preschool has ended and she will be starting kindergarten in September this year. I now have a preschool graduate!!

Like all milestones, this too was a cause for celebration. I had planned an year end party at our place and the kids had a blast. Here are the pics of last Saturday.

I think a child's first teacher holds a special place in the child's heart. Here is a pic of Anvesha with her preschool teacher- Miss Riddhi.

Can't help but compare the first day and the last day of preschool pic of Anvesha. Gosh !! she has changed so much- physically, emotionally and in so many other ways. I really miss my baby now.

When my little girl started preschool she was 3 yrs old and the youngest one in the class. She cried everytime I used to drop her off at school and when I came to pick her up. It's funny how life comes to a full circle. Today, at the last day of her preschool, she was all smiles.... and I was the one with tears in my eyes.

I have no idea how I am going the survive her first day of kindergarten ( read big school ) in September. But before that, we have a long summer break and will make the very best of it.

Happy Summer !!

Anvesha's piano recital

When I was growing up, we were not an "I love you" family. We certainly found this affection lovely. Not that we didn't love each other, but maybe these words were considered to be so obvious that repeating them would sound like an overkill. Love was seen in every hard earned compliment, the yummy meals that my mom made for us after having a long day at work, or for that matter having a pineapple pastry at Krishna Bakrey @ Mall Road every time we used to go there. 

I was thinking about all this at my daughter's piano recital on Saturday. I have always wanted Anvesha to have a hobby and even better if it was in the field of music. Maybe I carried this from my childhood when we didn't get to go in music lessons as the focus was more on academics instead of inculcating a hobby. It has been almost 10 months Anvesha has been learning piano and I see so much progress in her. The house is always full of compliments mixed in with few off key versions of songs every time she plays her piano. 

This end of year recital, she was to play " Ice cream song", "Little gray pony", "Partner Play". "Mister Moon" and my favorite, "Two little robins". As the event got closer, they were playing better and better each day and this made me so proud. On the day of the recital, as I watched Anvesha practice her songs, it showed the hard work of all the Saturday mornings we have been going for piano lessons. I didn't see any hint of nervousness on her face and she appeared more than confident. It was just me- I was more nervous than her. 

When it was her turn for her solo recital, she was to play "Two little robins"- well at least that's what she told me, I was surprised to hear her play " Little gray pony". Her fingers have become more fine tuned than they were couple of months back and I am so proud of her. 

              

At the end of the recital I may have told her 2-3 times that I loved her and I intend to say that to my girls 10,0000 more times in their lives. But, my parents were right too. You don't need to say the words- sometimes one note is more than sufficient.