Party time.

As always, the birthday just flew away before I could blink. First year was celebrated with all the hoopla, Second year was quiet with just the 3 of us and a visit to the zoo and this year, just some close friends who came home. With 14 adults and 6 kids, we all had our share of fun. We ordered Pizza. But I felt so guilty that I was nt making anything for my little girls birthday party that I ended up making Garlic Bread, Aloo Chole Chaat, Salad and Kulfi for dessert. And I just barely pulled it off as even this tired me out completely and I spent the whole day yesterday lying in bed! And of course, I totally forgot to take the huge bowl of salad out of the fridge for the party so ended up eating salad for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner yesterday!! ;)

It was a colorful party as it did nt have a theme. Flowery "Happy Birthday" Banner and pink and white decorations. Colorful balloons. A few Dora decorations left over from last years party(the one my sister threw in the US). I also made Paper crowns for the kids. Since I had only white and blue sheets, the crowns were well.. blue and white! :) Ashu stamped the crowns with Mickey Mouse, Minnie,.. stamps in pink and blue colors because we had stamp pads only in those colors! I had bought some gift bags from the US which had beautiful illustrations of children's stories - Jack and the bean stalk, Goldilocks, etc... So those were used for return gift bags which contained a Mickey Mouse puzzle and a small bag with assortment of cookies and chocolates. I also printed out some coloring pages and tied the pages together to make it like a book and threw in a pack of Winnie the Pooh crayons as well which kept the kids occupied for like five whole minutes! ;) And most importantly, the cake. It was a chocolate cake with yellow frosting with animal fondants. Ashu asked for a crocodile, elephant, penguin, dog, cat and a lion. So they were there. The party could nt be any more uncoordinated!! (Do I pass, Kiran?)

Ashu wore a pretty pink frock which my in laws had given her last year. She was all excited about the party but when the guests started arriving and gave her the gifts, she refused to take it from them and turned her head and ran away. So I had to shamelessly accept gifts on her behalf! How much ever I pleaded her to, she did nt accept one gift! I don't understand this one! She was running around and playing with the kids but got really sleepy by 8 pm. Thankfully we wound up around 9.30. But of course, she was nt sleepy anymore as we were opening gifts. She has received loads of nice and interesting gifts. I always end up giving books or puzzles or clothes for the kids. So it was nice to see that there are actually interesting toys too! Like the Dora blocks, a small toy bath tub with pumping action and all(!!), clock, etc...

We had bought a laptop for Ashu in the US. I knew Ashu would like it but did nt know that she would fall in love with it! She saw one when we went to Sundars house last month and Junior generously shared hers with Ashu and she was hooked. That's when we decided to buy one for Ashus birthday. When we gave it to her yesterday afternoon, she was all teeth. She figured out the ABC game, some mouse game, tunes, etc... all by herself and started playing with it. Did nt keep it down even for minute. Then for the first time in her life, she asked for the laptop before going to sleep and hugged it to sleep!! She has never even hugged me to sleep, for crying out loud! All of yesterday, she was playing with it and I suspect shes *this* close to saying Google! Because she says things like "Amma, let me open my laptop and find out how to put these Dora blocks", "Amma, let me open my laptop and ask where my puzzle is", etc... And shes also avenging us for the torture we committed by not letting her touch our laptops for the past 3 years! She says "This is my laptop. Don't touch it!", "Im doing office work Appa. Don't talk to me", etc... Lets see how long this love lasts!

My sis and bil bought her the five disc DVD boxed set of the complete series of Planet Earth. We are half way through the first DVD and needless to say, its AMAZING. Ashu is talking about how the white wolf chased and hunted the baby caribou and ate it like a bad boy to anyone who would listen while Hd is wondering what a caribou is! I just read that the US version of this series is narrated by Sigourney Weaver. Thank God this DVD is not. I cant listen to anyone other than David Attenborough when it comes to these wildlife programmes. What a voice!

So thus ended another year. Sigh! And now she is 1,2,3 years old!

ps.
Thank you each and every one of you for the warm wishes you sent Ashu's way. Shes blessed to have all of you in her life.