Goa & Hampi (Take Two)

Punting on the Mandovi River

Enjoying the scenery. The weather was perfect.
Casino boats off the starboard bow.

Shaun making friends with the state of Gujurat. He really likes the attention he got here. I usually ignored it by taking pictures only.
Paradise indeed...or as close as it gets in India
Stupid humidity coupled with cheap camera. He really is in there.
Museum across the street from the chapel encasing the good Saint.
At the Mango Tree Restaurant. I couldn't resist. It appears that bed is under her but it's actually not. The only thing under her is a concrete floor.
A fake cashew fruit and nut, since it's not the proper season to see the real thing. One cashew per fruit; no wonder they are so expensive!
Spice Plantation in Goa...quintessential India!
Hampi 6 months later, with CLEAR skies

Ansel Adams does India

The sound of a lawnmower in the background actually made me homesick!


Trash!...let's just sit back and let the picture tell the story.
Eat your heart out Michelle Obama!
Junk purchased on the trip

Felt Flower Pillow

Here is my new pillow. Love. Saw this on Craftaholics Anonymous in March and my cousin Jill sent me the felt to make it. She loves me like that. I had to do a spectrum once I saw all the pretty colors, but I didn't have enough to arrange them in a square.

I used two felt circles of each color, and sewed them on with yellow embroidery thread and french knots. Then, I sewed the entire pillowcase by hand. I really felt for people in the olden days who had to do all their sewing by hand. Embroidery is one thing, but hemming, well... Anyway, it was one long piece of fabric. I hemmed each short end, overlapped them on the back, and sewed up the side seams. It didn't take as long as I feared, and maybe my hand stitching is getting more even. Maybe.

The Three Little Pigs Activities

Here is an activity to go along with the story of The Three Little Pigs. We checked this book out from the library and Maggie was very interested in it. Then I told an exaggerated, musical version, and she became even more interested.

My story-telling skills must be pretty awesome. If you know this story, tell it yourself rather than reading it, because it's fun. The words we use are "Little pig, little pig, please let me in!" "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin!" And you can sing Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? And even hum Peter & the Wolf if you're so inclined. Anyway.

Here is the Three Little Pigs activity Tasha did with her kids. They built houses using toothpicks (straw), pretzel sticks (sticks) and square cereal pieces (bricks). As you can see, Madeline's edible building materials didn't make it to the page.

I gave Maggie some strings of yellow embroidery thread, toothpicks, and rectangles of red scrapbooking paper. She drew each house, then I put the glue on and she laid down her building materials. She didn't have quite enough "bricks" so she made a couple of her own.

There is a Richard Scarry DVD in my closet waiting for a gift-giving opportunity, and I think this story might be on it. Maggie will be in love.

Shared at For the Kids Friday and It's Playtime!

Maggie of Many Talents

A couple older videos of Maggie. Oh, just guess what she's doing in the first one. Oh, and you can hear my annoying Indian music cell phone ring.

Juggling water, apparently.

Here's one from March where I sneaked up on Maggie while she was playing. Just before I started taking the video, Piggies and Horsie are on their way to the cabin. Apparently an accident ensues because soon enough, "Oh no! He died!"

Ice Block O' Fun

Maggie helped me make a giant block of ice filled with smaller, colored ice cubes, shells, and the only water animal toys we had.

An orange alligator, a goose and a duck. Sad, huh?

I gave the kids a squirt bottle of warm water and a salt shaker to try to dig their toys out. They had fun playing and it occupied them for quite a while. Shaking the salt was their favorite part. This is the only action shot I got.

Got the idea for this activity from Counting Coconuts.

Photo Nature Scavenger Hunt

One of the things I want to do this summer is let Maggie play with the camera more. We did a photo scavenger hunt outside today. She was too busy holding her binoculars to use the camera, but she did obligingly push the button.

Our list included rocks, leaves and flowers of different colors, a clover, a bug, a feather, a bird, a seed, a nut (had to count the coconuts being sold on the street), a shell (the sand in the playground is actually from the beach...) etc.

Halfway around the building, as we were examining the sand brought up by some busy ants, Maggie exclaimed, "I know! There's sand at the playground!"

Goa: Park Hyatt Resort

Pirate Ship Playground

Pool

Dalton drinking a poolside pina colada.

Restaurants