Thanks for the wishes! The party went well. We had to move indoors as it was just too hot out. But other than that, everything went as planned. Everyone loved the food, the kids enjoyed a lot, the adults enjoyed too. Mehul's playroom was the main playground for the kids and by the evening it looked like a tornado had gone through! LOL In the evening as the guests started leaving, the neighbor's kids came right back outside and played on the bouncy. I was so happy to see it getting used as well.

I have so many pictures to post but no time this week. Mummy papa are leaving on Monday - 15th October. Yes, Already!! We are going to miss them but Mehul will miss them the most. It will be hard on him for a while. He looks for papa first thing in the morning. It doesn't help that he is supposed to be transitioned to the next class (Gard 3) starting tuesday. We're going to talk with the Director tomorrow when we go to drop him and try to delay the transitioning. Normally we wouldn't do that but seeing that he hasn't been regular in the daycare for almost 2 months and starting to be fussy when we do leave him there, it's necessary.

We have taken Friday and Monday off to do something fun with them. We might get to some of the touristy places still left to visit or might just stay and spend the last days with them at home. Sunday, we have a block party in the neighborhood - the first one in this new community so we have to be there as well. I think I signed up for salad and trash bags. Hopefully this will be our last busy weekend for a while. I miss my stitching and scrapping.

Planning a party

For the little one. He's turning 3 in less than 10 days! Actually, there will be a smaller party at the daycare on the day of, and a bigger party at home where close friends and neighbors are invited the following weekend.

I made the invitation card for the party last night. That's pretty much the progress as of now. Oh, and we got the bouncy for the kids from a friend. *Now* I'm getting excited about the party. So far, DH and I were planning on making this birthday a quiet one with just the daycare kids to celebrate at a location other than his daycare (something like Yucky Cheese), but then thought that since my parents are here we should do something. It won't be a big celebration like his first birthday (in India), but fun nonetheless. We don't even know that many people here LOL!


Now I need to come up with 2 sets of return gifts, order Cake for the party, cupcakes for the daycare, food and drinks for party at home, tables & chairs to put in the yard, and a million things I'm forgetting! Oh, and the dresses for M (and me)! I feel a panic attack is coming. Yeah, now it feels like a party.

Tired

Party is in 4 hours. I want to take a nap. That's saying a lot since I'm not a nap person. I don't nap, I sleep.
Everything is done, except the last minute things like making the rice pulao, placing snacks in the oven to reheat, adding dressing to the salads, heating naan, etc. I have made 2 salads, Burnt Corn Salad, and Potato Chickpeas Salad. Latter would be served along with snacks for a healthy alternative.

Oh, and a lot of cleaning is left. DH has gone out to get my Taco Bell fix so that I can get going again. LOL. He had cleaned the upstairs this morning, now we'll do the downstairs after lunch.

I did one LO yesterday. I had asked Carrie on the stitching BB for using the awesome Seahorse picture she had shown us, for a LO. I really love looking at this picture. Just had to scrap it. She was so sweet to give me permission to use it :) Thanks, Carrie.


Credits:
Photograph: Carrie
Background paper: Michelle Coleman's Chelsey's Dream
Striped paper: Michelle Coleman's Savoir Faire
Red paper: Buddhini's Elegance
Stamp behind red paper: Jason Gaylor's freebie
Swirly Metallic stamp: Vicki Stegall
Stitching: Gina Miller
Torn edges: Ztampf Ultimate Torn Pack
Paper used for torn strip: Michelle Coleman

Many thoughts

This isn't going to be a coherent entry :) (Like it is ever. Huh)

First off, Thanks for the comments on the new look. I can't take credit for the new title "Expression Alley" though. While watching TV and creating the new header, I started thinking along the lines of "Expressing". This blog is all about expressing, afterall. Expressing in written form, or in art in the way of scrapping or stitching.

First thought was "Express Lane". Created the header and asked DH what he thinks. He said "Huh? This doesn't make any sense and makes me think of Grocery Store Express Checkout Lane." LOL! I said that this is where I express my thoughts, so it is *my* Express Lane. He said it still makes him think of the checkout lanes. Dumped it. Next thing he said was "Expression Alley". Bingo. My first thought was it's something out of Harry Potter. Diagon Alley, Expression Alley. Love it. I LOVE Harry Potter. So, that was it. The design was all mine. At first, I had Mehul and my picture in there too, but after rearranging things around, I liked this version best :)

Calendars. Again, I can't take credit for those either. They are quick pages by Ztampf. LOVE them. All I had to do was slide the photos in, and add the text. I had received a coupon from DigiShopTalk on my Birthday for 50% off Ztampf products, plus, they had a sale going on so the calendars were already marked down. I got them for about $2.00 I think. I ordered a bunch of stuff.

I am really happy how quickly I got done with the calendars. I'd been thinking about doing some sort of calendars for some time, and then I saw Erin's. WOW! (Sidenote: I am excited about her calendars. Can't wait to hear about the reaction they receive.) I wanted to do them, but was concerned about the shipping to India (which is where they're going). I wanted them to be ready to use, and didn't want to spend a whole lot ;) They are basically 4x6 photo size, front is the calendar and the back is the photo card, and they are laminated together. They came out to be $2.50 each! I got 15 done. Now, that's cheap!

One word of advice about Laminating at Staples. They charge separately for cutting the laminated sheets. We had used the big size sheets and inserted 5 calendars per sheet. They charge $2.00 for each piece they cut out! This does not include the cost of laminating. They hadn't told us this before, so we got a discount and got charged for 10 cuts instead of 15. We have a paper cutter and may even have cut it ourself if we had known. But, it's still cheap I think.

Holiday Cards. Got them out of the way too for the most part. I'm waiting on some addresses. My sister has just moved one month back, and my SIL too has recently moved. Got the rest sent already. I can't wait for their reactions. ATC cards are mailed out too. Now, I can rest easy.

Concluding thought. There is a party at our place this Saturday. Some of our friends couldn't attend the last one, so this one's for them! About 15 people excluding us. Menu has changed a little bit from the last time, but most main dishes have stayed the same. I'm trying to cut down the # of dishes that require cooking the day of. LOL. That wasn't fun!

Can I write an entry without a LO to show? Nope. Here it is.

Wishes Do Come True

Credits:
Just about everything from Lisa Whitney's ScrapArtist Apprentice kit "A Beautiful Mess". I got it for $2.00 (How come everything in this entry is $2.00?? That's mind boggling.) while the contest was going on.
Also used Steph Krush's Paper Tear.
I used Gina Miller's Fun with Fibers Pack 1 to create the twisty tie. Can you guess how much they're for?? LOL!

Birthday Photos

And finally, some birthday photos. Mehul had 2 parties, one at the daycare, and another one at home a couple of weeks later. The daycare party was on October 4th, his birthday. Sene reminded me about the other party photos, here they are.

Daycare Birthday

Playing outside with the balloon

Favorite Gift - Elmo's Workbench

On the 4th, at home. We decorated a cheesecake!

On the 22nd, we had the 2 Parties in 1 celebration.

And finally, a LO.


*Credits added Nov. 06 2006*
Credits:
Everything from Diamante Designs The Necessaties collection. They are unavailable rightnow, but this collection will be made available again at The Digi Shoppe.
I made the scissors from a photoshop brush and Diamante's paper. Cool huh?

Tired

The party went very, very well :) Couldn't have been better. Everyone LOVED the food. They said it was like 'Wedding Food' which is the best compliment anyone could get! Everything was done on time, and I even had some time to relax before the guests started arriving. But, somehow we had postponed wrapping up the party favor gifts long enough that there wasn't enough time to do that in the end. That's okay, the kids care less about the packing, and more about the stuff ;) BTW, we decided to get the age appropriate puzzle cards for the kids.

I have never received so many compliments on my cooking {blush} I was ecstatic. About 25 people attended, but there was way too much food. My friend M stayed back and helped me clean up afterwards, which was great. We were so busy enjoying the party, we forgot to take pictures! Our regular camera backup friend, N, had to leave early and we didn't think of giving someone else the camera LOL We did get pictures of the cake cutting.

Okay, now that you're sick of hearing about the party, no more party talk until the next month ;) Today I stayed home to rest. I'm exhausted. There is enough food in the freezer for a week, which is great since I can't stand any more cooking LOL

I might do a LO today, or pick up stitching. Or, I might organize my stitching stash.

Happy Diwali!

Today is Diwali. I usually make a Rangoli and put up the lights outside, but this year I can't. I'm busy preparing for the party tomorrow. Plus, I don't know where the lights are. We'll put them up on Christmas :)

We're Online

We got the phoneline. Finally! My home is no longer an Internet, Phone Free Retreat! LOL.

Party

Party prep is in progress. I have done some dishes and will do a couple more more today. Rest will be done tomorrow. The items that are prepared, or bought_and_need_no _prep are in silver.

Starters
Small Samosa/Chutney
Sausage
BelPuri
Nachos/Salsa
Jaljira
Dry Fruits Tray
Paneer w/ Chalmasala

Kids Menu
Chowmein

Main Course
Shahi Paneer
Chicken Makhani (Take out)
Bhartha
Chole
Raita w/ Bhalle
Tricolor Rice
Roti
Crunchy Salad
Papad

Dessert
Nemo Cake!
Kheer
Icecream

Drinks
Sprite
Diet Coke
Whiskey
White Wine
Red Wine
Beer
Tea

Party Plans

We are planning the Birthday and House Warming Party this Sunday. We figured, since it's the same group that would be coming to both, we'd club them together into one party. I did't want people to feel obligated to come to two of our parties and give us two gifts, so now they don't have to :-) We don't know a whole lot of people here, so it's just going to be bunch of our family friends in this party. We do have another group of friends that we do potlucks with, and they would come in another party we'd throw the next month as one of them is going to India this month.

Anyhow, the meal. I am preparing everything myself. Yep, I'm crazy enough to do that. We started planning the menu last night. So far, this is what I've got. If you're reading this AND are coming to the party, all I have to say is Bring Your Appetite!

Starters
Small Samosa/Chutney
Sausage
BelPuri
Nachos/Salsa
Jaljira
Dry Fruits Tray
Paneer w/ Chalmasala

Kids Menu
Chowmein

Main Course
Mutter Paneer
Chicken Makhani
Bhartha
Rajma or Chole
Raita w/ Bhalle
Jeera Rice (or, Tricolor Rice)
Roti
Salad (??)
Papad

Dessert
Cake!
Kheer
Icecream

Drinks
Sprite
Diet Coke
Whiskey
White Wine
Red Wine
Beer
Tea

Am I missing something? What else do you have in an India Buffet style party?

We have to decide the party favors, I'm thinking separate items for boys and girls. If you have any ideas, please post.

Here is the invitation I just whipped up in like 30 minutes. So unlike me, but we're short on time! It had to go today. We don't have a theme this time. So, I just added whatever felt appropriate. The address has been blanked out but it goes below the line.

Let's rewind

I'm so pooped today. Yesterday, I had to do a lot of running around to get all the things ready for his party. We had gotten most of the stuff beforehand, but had to pick up the balloons (can't do that in advance, right), and the cupcakes. I got off work at lunchtime. The cupcakes were specially prepared for us (by Wegmen's; their staff is so helpful) with Red and Yellow icing. Did I mention the two stores are at the opposite ends from my house? Anyhow, I picked both up and went home to relax a bit and have lunch. Prepared a salad quickly. I was going to eat cake later in the day so didn't have a big lunch.
Girish was stuck in a meeting at the last moment, but thankfully it ended right on time. He came home around 2:25. When we reached the daycare, our little angel was fast asleep, along with a lot of other little angels. I took a picture, ofcourse. The kids had already started waking up. I set the table and put the food out.
Miss O. had to wake Mehul up, as it was around 2:45 and he had already napped for more than 2.5 hours. He opened his eyes, looked at me and Daddy. We totally expected he'd scream with joy and say Mamma and come running to me. Nope. He said "Emmo" looking at the balloons. Completely ignored us. Nice to know he remembers Elmo.
One of the kids has a lot of allergies, so he couldn't have anything we brought. Poor C. He was looking at the other kids, sitting at a different table. I felt so bad for him. Miss J. said sorry to him twice while serving him his food :(

The kids in the other class were peeking in. They were so excited to see the balloons. A lot of them started singing Happy Birthday!

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun to see all the kids. They sang Happy Birthday, ate and had a great time. I took a lot of pictures. Still have to resize them. We also took pictures of the house at daytime. Maybe I'll make one huge post with them.

We also did a quiet little cake and candle party at home. Mehul and I decorated a cheesecake (yep). Then, he was given his gifts. He was so excited about the first one, he didn't open the rest Hehe. It is the Elmo's Workbench as seen on Gina's Blog. It's the best thing. He was quite the carpenter last night! I literally had to peel him off the floor to go to bed. This morning, he was at it again. We'll open the rest of the presents today!

Elmo Wins!

Mehul has decided he loves Elmo best. So, Elmo it is. Some of the items we got are these. Besides these, there were some other party favors like stickers, swirly straw, crazy ball, etc. Each kid will also get an Elmo mylar balloon. Hope they like them!

Curious George, or Elmo? Or, Finding Nemo?

These are the themes I'm trying to decide for Mehul's 2nd birthday party. He'll have 2 parties, one at the daycare with Cupcakes and juice boxes, and another at home next weekend (or the weekend after). I'm thinking of doing the daycare party with a theme. Although, I might do both with different themes. Wouldn't be the first time I changed my mind at the last minute.

The daycare has strict policy about food, though. They don't allow cake or candles. Only cupcakes, with an ingredients label on it, so I can't make them (I was contemplating that). Now, if we can decide on the theme, we'll get the items tonight or tomorrow night. Friday and Saturday will be *very busy* days. I'm not announcing anything on my blog because it's a surprise for some people. Shhhhh.....

Back to the themes - At first, his favorite character was Elmo. Loved Elmo. Still does. I remember we took his singing 'emmo' doll on our vacation to India. He danced when emmo sang.

Nemo - DH's SUV has a DVD player, he watches Nemo all the time when he's in the car. When he gets into my car, he's instantly disappointed that 'mooomie' isn't there. He saw moomie at the aquarium and was pretty excited.

Curious George - Recent addiction. We let him watch the cartoon on WETA when he sits down for breakfast. Now, when we put him on the chair, he demands 'Geoge'. It's cute.

The daycare party will be at 3PM on his birthday. That is the time everyone gets a second snack after the afternoon nap. I bet he'll be excited to see Mommy and Daddy drop in the daycare with food!

The other party will be at home, with lots of family friends and their kids. I have his dress for this party. Too cute. I don't know what I'm wearing for this one yet. Plenty of time to figure out :)