India - Week 1

On Jan. 14th we made our couch cushion, chair and pillow airplane and "flew to India"! We took our passports with us and potato stamped them.

The first thing we did was read a book about culture and lifestyle in India where we learned that some villages dress young boys up as girls to trick spirits and protect the boys. Of course we girls couldn't pass up an opportunity to do this! The boys were very good sports. It helped that they didn't have to do any jobs for the whole first week because girls do all the work for them while they study and read and eat the food we make.

The girls were very busy since on their own they decided to let the boys live like Indian boys and do their jobs for them. Kivi did her jobs and Eben's and Opal did her's and Jasper's - all of the laundry, sorting and putting it away! We learned that most people wash their clothes in the river and hang them to dry, and since our dryer wasn't drying well anyway, Kivi helped Opal hang dry the laundry. It was hung up all over the house.

We ate Naan and Khichada (which I meant to make for breakfast but it took too long) for lunch on the floor with our hands!

I made my own Chai Tea! It was quite a process and took tons of ingredients and realized it was just as cost effective and way easier to just buy Oregon Chai from Costco!

Eben and Kivi made Naan (although it didn't turn out very good).

Jasper and Mama made Paneer, an Indian cheese.

One day we had Tea at 5:30 instead of dinner, but we had enough food that it really was dinner for the little ones and Dada.

Eben and Kivi and Mama had "dinner" that night at 10:00 pm which is the time most Indian families eat - even the kids! We almost fell asleep during our little meal.

Our new schedule allows time for Berg, Jasper and Opal to spend time doing educational games on the ipad. Berg loves playing "Berg's puzzle game" as he calls it. Pella likes to encourage him, until she starts pushing buttons, then he's done having her "help". It has nothing to do with India, but they were so cute!

The last day of our first week we did Mehndi, henna drawing on our hands and feet, usually done for wedding ceremonies. These are Kivi's feet. Mama had a lot of fun drawing designs on all the bigs and middles! And since it was Saturday, they got to watch a movie while they waited for them to all dry.