Anurag's eighth

Anurag is now 8 years old! His cake (like last year) was baked by Mihika and Kabir. Anu insisted on a small party so he could spend most of his time with his two special friends from school. Dada-dadi were here from Udaipur and nana-nani had flown in from Ahmedabad.

Goodbye Vindhya!

We moved out of our home for the past 5 years (C-181, Vindhya) and into our new home across the street two days ago. While the new home is very spacious in comparison, there is no doubt that we will miss our Vindhya days and our home nestled between beautiful trees on all sides.
We take beautiful memories with us and leave behind these "footprints" in the Vindhya garden.
(kids project using stepping stone mosaic material)

TEN!

Kabir turned 10 this week. What a lucky child to be able to celebrate his special day with both sets of grandparents! And of course, with many many friends...

Panchgani: First school trip

Kabir's went for his first-ever overnight school trip to Panchgani last month (3 days 2 nights away). His excitement knew no bounds.

Saurabh's 40th

 

Anurag's 7th birthday

Anurag turned 7 a few weeks ago. We had a small party at home with his close friends.

4 down

As it turns out, all four had to be taken out by the dentist so far. Fortunately, Anurag loves his dentist who gives him Rs 20 after each extraction to buy icecream!

Milestone

Today was a milestone day as both kids finally started going to the same school! Anurag graduated from kindergarten at Peace Montessori last week and started Grade 1 at Pawar Public School (PPS). Kabir also agreed to move from his current school (KV) to join grade IV in PPS. They will now be out for a big part of the day: 7:30am to 3:15pm including the commute time. Its going to take us a while to get used to this.

More pics from Anu's 6th birthday

Kabir's 8th birthday

There were high expectations to be met for Kabir's 8th birthday. Both Kabir and his friends asked for another treasure hunt this year. We did a few variations though, and the kids had a blast. We started with Bingo, followed by a game where the kids had to plan and present a skit using all the props that were given to them. We made three teams and each team did a brilliant job (check out one of the videos below)! The final game was a combination of scavenger hunt and treasure hunt where the kids first hunted for various objects such as bird feathers, coloured rocks, bird nests, fruit trees etc and finally followed a map that led them to their final clues to a puzzle which they had to solve. Cake with puri-bhaji and pasta sealed the deal!

The trainer wheels come off for Anu!

We were treated to a special surprise on Sunday. When the boys returned home in the evening after their evening playtime, they announced that Anu has learnt to ride the bicycle with the trainer wheels off! He tried a friend's bicycle that doesn't have the trainer wheels. Apparently Kabir supported the cycle for some time and then let it go....Anurag just kept going and even managed to turn the cycle back. He's been on a roll since then. Interestingly he's been riding his own cycle with only one of the training wheels on for some time now (because of parents who are too lazy to get the other wheel repaired).

We've promised him a new cycle soon - his overdue 5th birthday present!

New academic year begins

Kabir started Class III today and Anurag started his new school - Peace Montessori. School will go on for a month before summer vacation starts. Its a bigger change for Anurag since its a change of school. We plan to have him go to the new school for a year before he joins Kabir in KV in first standard. He would have been one of the youngest kids in his class in KV had he joined this year (being March born), so we decided to have him wait out for a year.
Today was his first day and he settled in quickly. There was a car washing activity in school which certainly helped him like the new school. The tricky part is going to be the pick/drop logistical routine for us, which we need to deal with for this year.

Anu in his new school went I went to pick him up today

Anu's 5th!

Celebrated at home with friends and family (including both sets of grand parents). Special surprise was a visit by Bhatta and Sonya from Portland.