Occasionally Chic: Celebrate Life

Showing posts with label Celebrate Life. Show all posts

It's hard to tell if we were celebrating the beginning of Summer break or the end of school year. Sixth grade is certainly a tad bit tougher than fifth. Getting used to lockers, going from class to class on time, piano practice, show choir (watch Glee, if you want to know more about show choir), the GT courses and getting straight A's throughout the entire year. Did I forget waking up at 5:45 every single morning by herself and getting to the bus stop on time? She also won the "Stride for Excellence" award in Choir. After seeing her performance in the Disney show, we have no doubt she deserved it. She rocked the stage like a star.

Friday was the last day of school. Riya created the invitations herself from old scrap-booking sheets. She picked the guest list, passed out the invites and the girls text'ed her back their response. I was glad I let her pick the guest list instead of suggesting kids.

You hear constant chit chatter but they all turn silent the minute you walk in. Now that's a sign they are all grown up. The girls certainly knew how to have fun. Lots of music, sing-alongs, karaoke, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the girls enjoy the play set we have in our backyard with the tiny slide and swings.

One of the girls brought some peaches from her neighbor's backyard. These peaches need no Melba. They had that melt in the mouth goodness. Food for the party was baked pasta, make your own ice-cream sundae, sweet potato fries and chocolate covered strawberry.

The highlight of the day was "Project Ambush". The girls walked over to a boy's (their classmate) house who lived in our neighborhood. My daughter knocked on his door with the rest of the pack hidden behind the bushes. They wanted to get back at him, for what ever reason. The kid was not at home but at his friend's house (again in our neighborhood). His mom volunteered to bring him and his friends. The girls literally pounced on the poor boys chasing them down. I am not sure, if the parent's of the boy will be our friends anymore, but I sure got the "Best Mom" for being an accomplish in their mission.

As far as my son's school year was concerned, he sure has mastered the art of journal writing. His exerts were mostly synopsis of the popular television show "Ninjago" with the occasional "I am happy when I spend time with my mom and dad" type sentences to keep us happy when we read his journal.

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Time Square, New York

Whether you choose to watch the ball dropping from your television or live; Times Square, NYC is synonymous with New Year's Eve. For the 104th time, the ball will drop on the night of the 31st**. Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and others are performing this year**.

On a personal note, 2011 was good and went by too fast. Usually I host the New Year's Eve party. How ever, I was tempted to grab the very first invite I received. A friend of mine from school is hosting it and the theme is Casino Night, with evening entertainment provided by the guests. The girls (aka us) are performing the song from "Rang De Basanti". We took the steps from the flash mob performance in Mumbai CST station for the same song. Much to the ridicule of my kids and husband, we have been "practicing" for the performance.

Each family usually performs a dance or a spoof of a movie scene. I am looking at either "Yamma Yamma", a song from the movie Shaan or something related to the latest rage "Kolaveri Di". Any other ideas ...let me know.

** source : TimesSquare Official Website.

2011 at a Glance

Song Of The Year - Kolaveri Di, a Tamil song from no where (sung by an actor, Dhanush and music by a new music director) gained immense popularity by means of posting and re-posting on FB, twitter and other social media sites. It made headlines in one of the top Indian newspapers, The Hindu and finally found its way to being named 'Top Song of 2011' by CNN. Is Grammys the next for Kolaveri Di?

Times Person Of The Year : "The Protestor". This is my personal favorite. People all over the world stood up to things bigger than themselves and rocked those in power. Aptly awarded by Times.

Word Of The Year : Humble Brag. The urban dictionary defines it as bragging about something with out either realizing it or doing it subliminally. Most face book messages and blog posts are humble brags by nature. An exaggerated example would be "I am so tired of waiting in the line for the David Letterman show".

See any trend there? All of the above are driven by people. There is so much information out there on blogs, FB and twitter on things like home decor to scripting apple apps to parenting choices. It is tough not to become copycats and blindly follow what others are doing. What works for one in personal life, friendship, parenting, relationship or career may never be the right choice for you. Make your own rules, even if its copied or inspired; tweak it to suit you and where you are at, in life. Leaving you with a simple yet profound thought from the genius of the century.