Claire's Birthday Party!

Claire had a great one year Birthday party! We had a Halloween/ pool party to celebrate!

Josh was right in his element grilling up some meat for the fun event! We were pretty lucky to have a grill come with the house, grills are not easy to come by here in India.

Here is part of the party spread. It was quite an adventure trying to make all the dishes I wanted to, it can be a challenge sometimes finding the ingredients for things that I would like to make.

We are still loving India! Sadly we have not had the chance to travel around India as much as I would like, but it looks like we will get that chance once the kids have a break from school for a week in October.

Claire has been walking everywhere, she is at the point where she hardly even wants us to carry her anymore. I love that she is such a cute little walker, but it does make it rough when she wants to walk at her slow little baby pace. Brittany has been so cute with her! She acts like a little mother warning her sisters on what to do and not to do with her.

  The girls are loving the school here! They have all made new friends from all over the world! They have also been enjoying their after school activities, Megan soccer, Brittany ballet and Halee tennis. Brittany says she likes ballet, but says the only reason she started was so she can do the splits and says she is disappointed that they have not learned that yet. Megan as always loves soccer, but feels a little intimidated by the fact that she is the only girl. Halee likes tennis, but is really looking forward to swim team starting in October.

 We spend a good amount of time on the road, an hour to school and back twice a day and whatever errands I can squeeze in between that. Its sometimes hard because Josh and I share a car and there are days when I have to pick him up right after getting the girls from school. So my hour trip turns into a two hour plus trip. But, that just makes us spend more quality time together, so really it could be considered a good thing.

I love how welcoming and sweet everyone here is! Its nice because although we may work for different companies and may not make the same amount of money, we are all here trying to figure out the India experience together.

 I am so excited to finally get my blog up and running! Having never done this before, I was a little apprehensive.

 So far things are going great here in India! There are of coarse a few things I don't necessarily enjoy about it, but I could probably say the same for anywhere else I have lived. A few of my biggest challenges have been... finding places to buy groceries, learning what the new names are for foods I am familiar with and trying to communicate exactly what it is I am looking for. Although many people do speak some English, they still have a hard time with my accent as I do with theirs. A few of the things I love about it are... I have a maid, it is almost always sunny, I have a pool and I get to learn about a whole new culture!

 Later tonight Josh is going to start the journey to Germany so he can pick Halee up! I would have gone myself, but they charge half a ticket price to travel internationally with an infant! I so can't wait to get Halee here! I am also really excited about getting Megan and Brittany here, but sadly they wont join us until the end of the month. It will be sooo nice to have all of us back together again. What a roller coaster ride this whole getting everyone to India event has been!

 Yesterday I had a chance to go to a playgroup and meet a bunch of ex pats that live in the area as well! It was so nice to meet such an amazing group of women! I feel lucky to know I have the chance to make some good friends so early on.

 Claire has been adjusting well to the area. I am a little sad/glad to say she has made fast friends with the maid.. I was a little heartbroken the other day when I was playing with Claire and the maid just had to walk by for her to go crawling and fussing after her. Oh well, at least she likes her(;

 Josh really wants us to get a cook, but next to running errands and caring for Claire, having a Maid has made me feel somewhat useless, so I am hesitant about it. Of coarse the only reason he wants one, is so she can teach me some Indian cooking techniques. Finding a cook is somewhat of a challenge though, because nobody really uses the internet to its full advantage, so finding one is pretty much just word of mouth. I have heard a rumor that an ex pat is moving from the area, so her cook should be available in October. I guess we will see where that goes.

 Josh seems to really like living here. He seems to enjoy his job position , his coworkers and just the area in general.

 I am going to do my best to keep this blog current so we can keep everyone up to date.