A busy day in the life of Jr.

It was a case of bad planning. Daddy committing to take Jr. to a parade in Los Gatos with the school band without knowing that her dance school annual day program was on the same day!

She insisted on going to the parade inspite of the rain. Really didn't want to take a chance with the rain and get sick again, but you cannot deny a 10 year old when she begs. So off we went, and got wet in the rain and I had the added pleasure of walking back a mile and a half with a camera and saxophone hanging from my neck!

She thought it was worth it!

 This position of neck down and playing an alto-sax within a poncho had consequences for the second part of the day..

 The place was colorful and it was nice for folks who were sitting in shelter watching the parade.. not so for the kids or parents running alongside taking pictures!

 Came back home and had exactly one hour to get ready for her dance performance. We had a lot of help in the dressing up from our family friend and the end result was ?

Daddy tearing up seeing Jr. all grown up. This is the first time she is wearing the traditional dance dress instead of a paavaadai!

Had to rotate the picture by 15 degrees to make her look straight. She could not hold her neck straight..

She looked great. Just had to dance well..

She did all the steps well. The hands were good. The feet did their job, but...

She went through the motions. There was simply no smile. Even hindi movie heroines who are forced to dance in front of villains before the climax have better smiles than Jr.'s and that got her to face mommy's wrath for a good hour!

and daddy's advice session as well.. Daddy learnt early on in his ballroom dancing days that even if you falter with your footwork, a smile goes a long way with the judges! Granted this was not a competition and there were no judges but when your parents and extended family get to watch it in photos and video... there has to be a smile!

Next year, there will be a calendar system in the house that avoids such conflicts and doesn't push the kids to such extremes.. 

and we will have a smile before, at and after the performance! 

Sometimes I think we push our kids too much but then again, we got a lot more excercise compared to Jr. and the little one because we played outdoors all the time instead of sit in front of an iPad.

All said and done.. she did break our heart being sooo cute.

Finished Bangles

San is sick and that meant engaging the kids "quietly". When faced with such challenges, daddy always capitualates to doing whatever the kids want in order to satisfy the "quietness spec".

We finished the Banlges project in a little under 2 hours. 

Here is the final result in HDR..

It is sunny outside but downright chilly to the point where we might be starting serial art projects today.

Here is to a happy Deepavali to everyone!

My darling daughters, may Art, Math and Science light up your life the way the diwali lights and firecrakers light up dark and cold November nights! 

Kids crafts

The kids have been celebrating their brithday multiple times.. with classmates, family, family friends, grandparents only special, dinner at their favorite restaurant on their actual birthday etc. 

Here is a photo from yet another celebration at home!

Wish I had lighting like this at the bowling lanes...

They got  many gifts most of which are arts and crafts stuff. 

Jr. loved this dairy which she promptly bling-ed (guessing that is the right term for it?) 

Today they started working on decorative bangles where you do the decorating yourself. After 30 minutes of going nowhere, they asked me to come help. They were trying to "glue" the ribbons to the plastic bangle and the whole thing was a big mess.  So I asked them to wash the bangles and start from scratch. 

Me : Where is the instructions? 

LO : We threw it out!

Me : GO and GET it, NOW!

Jr. : Here it is. 

Me : (after reading the instruction and figuring out that you are supposed to start with the double side sticky tape before doing anything with glue). You have not even opened this packet with the tape! Why?

Jr. : We don't need the tape.

Me : Says "who?" It says here in the instructions that you have to start with the tape.. why didnt you read the instructions?

LO : It has TOO MANY WORDS!  Who will read that many words. It is not simple instructions!

We finally did restart the project and they did a great job of following the instructions step by step. 

This is what happens when your kids get used to EULA's which run pages long and they just get used to clicking "I agree" on the one hand and have instructions that are "Step 1: sticky tape. Step 2: wrap Step 3: Glue".. 

Today my job is done in this house. Have taught kids something very important.

Always start with the instruction manual!