India

India has probably been our favorite country. We've watched a few Bollywood movies, really expended our palates, and had a lot of fun with our own "Holi" festival. We returned for our South Florida excursion somewhat refreshed and jump in. We cooked various Indian dishes for almost 2 weeks. Many we liked, others not so much but we did learn a lot of Vegetarian cooking. So of our favorites were Butter Chicken, Goobi Aloo, Kachumber salad, and coconut rice.

Chickpea Curry

 Th e most fun this we did is celebrate the 1st day of Spring with our own "Holi" Festival. In India they celebrate the end of the dry season on the 1 st day of Spring with Holi. Holi actauly means "fire" and in India huge bonfires burn symbolizes the burning away of the old to make way for the new. It rained here so no bonfire, but the day after the bonfires are burned is "the Day of Colors". It is the day when you can let you hair down in India and be silly ( kinda of like our April Fools). Huge gatherings occur where rice based color poweders and water are thrown and sprayed on anyone walking by as a blessing for the new year. Smearing someone in the brightest colors is showing love and your wishes for the greatest blessings on that person. So my kids really enjoyed being allowed to mess each other up.

We made our own "colors" Using cornstarch and gel food coloring. It takes a few days so you need to plan ahead... Make your own Holi colors

We started the day with trying our hands at Rangoli Art... it lasted 10 min max.....

Then it was time to spread the blessings of Springtime......

We also took a field trip to local India buffet for lunch where the kids proceeded to try a little bit of everything on the buffet. Hulk really like Tikki Masala. Ying and Yang liked these Zucchini fritters and Spicy/Sweet chicken. Grandma came along for the Adventures as Daddy had had enough Indian food....

So this has little to do really with India, but its more of a proud Mom moment.... Hulk has been a very different kid from my olders to teach. I didn't do home school K and 1 st with the girls. My girls could read and write before Kindergarten and sort of competed with each other to see who could do more. It just sort of happened. Hulk has needed a much more laid back approach to reading and writing. Its working but internally I have had to struggle with the need for him to " be further ahead". So when he showed me this I had my "ah ha" moment from the Lord that I am doing the right thing for his unique creation. This is his first real original writing. Four colors is a true triumph, but so is his first real sentence... God is real!

Resources for India:

Pintrest Pages with recipes and crafts: