Hooray, A Wedding!

Weddings in my family are anything but normal. 

Anything.

This month we had one of the best weddings I've ever been to. And I personally love weddings, so I decided to compile a list while giving you the components of uncle Terrence and aunty Nitya's wedding.

Steps to having the 'MOST FUN' wedding ever:

My uncle Terrence and aunt Nitya had their wedding in Connecticut, fulfilling the first step: 

1. Do not have the wedding close to home. Make it fun with a commute. 

Now, not being able to drive, this is the most fun way to have a wedding because it means that: 

-everyone gets to eat out instead of eating at home

-you get to sightsee nearby

-you get to stay at a hotel

-everyone stays in a single place instead of going home after the wedding ends

-lots of family bonding

    

2. Hotels are fun. But only if they have a swimming pool.

This is definitely one of the important ones. I love staying at hotels for weddings because everyone is just so close together the whole time. And don't have your wedding at a hotel without a swimming pool, you're just wasting money.

  3. Let there be dancing.

The best weddings don't just have dancing, they have DANCING. This means that all men, women and children are on the dance floor until midnight at least. Dancing includes a couple of organized dances and then an open dance floor and DJ for the rest of the night. Terrence and Nitya had both and they were amazing!

  

4. The wedding must go past midnight.

Uncle Terrence and Aunty Nitya's wedding ended at midnight, but we roamed the hotel until 2 am.

 5. Henna is a must.

Unless everyone attending the wedding is wearing white, go for henna. There were a lot of stains, but in the end it was worth it.

  6. Cool wedding entrances? Uh, yes!

This wedding party's entrance was fantastic. Let's just say that the flashing sunglasses made a HUGE impact :)

7. Adorable wedding party

Rohan had this one covered. 

All in all, weddings are an amazing experience for everyone involved. Our family just has a lot of fun with them, the dancing and the ceremony. Can't wait for the next one! (Sonya, we are bringing home the prize for you!)

Miss Graduate

I graduated!

After a long 5 years with all these kids, we are all separating. 

It was a sad ceremony, but I think that we all enjoyed it as well. It has been an amazing journey and I am going to miss them all an unimaginable amount, but I wish them all nothing but success in the future. 

Thanksgiving and My Birthday

So, I know that you all hate me for not uploading and slacking off on my blog, but I hope that you'll forgive me because I have so much stuff to tell you.

SO I AM SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY.

I have just lost touch with my blog in between Thanksgiving and Christmas and studying for my High School Entrance Exam. But in the next two (or maybe even three!) posts, I will chronicle everything that occured while I was absent from my blog!

So, here is the first post, THANKSGIVING and MY BIRTHDAY!!

This is Neil and Kiren eating popcorn and watching a movie on the laptop while  Mom was cleaning up. I thought they looked pretty cute, all cuddled up under the sheets!

So, Thanksgiving was held at my house this year, so we had pretty much EVERYONE at our house, which is always loads and loads of fun! The day before Thanksgiving was my birthday, so I had that to celebrate as well. 

Mom made dinner the day before Thanksgiving to celebrate my birthday, the day of Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving, so she was pretty tired afterwards! 

I made my Chocolate-Nutella Macarons for my birthday, and I took a lot of mouthwatering pictures as well!

Yummy!

Nutella; The filling

The macaron shells!

The finished macarons.

A few of the macaron shells didn't come out right, so I had to eat them instead!

Here's a portion of the gang that came for my birthday:

We ate Polenta Sausage Lasagna, bruschetta and blue cheese apple salad. It was so delicious! My birthday cake was Tiramisu, my favorite!

From Neil and Kiren I got a Chicago Bulls jersey that I love!

I don't have any pictures from Thanksgiving, (Don't ask me why :) but I can assure you that it was loads and loads of fun. The turkey was perfect, and we enjoyed each other's company. 

Here are some pictures of the day after afterwards:

All of us dancing to Just Dance 3!

Neil and Tiya playing with the car downstairs.

So, I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving! Comment below on what you did!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds: Two Ways

For about 2 years now, we have had a tradition of using the seeds from the pumpkins we carved to make roasted pumpkin seeds. This year, I was a little adventurous and made up two new recipes:

The far left and right bowls are Olive Oil and Salt. The middle is the Sweet Halloween Pumpkin Seeds

Olive Oil and Salt Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1. Rinse the seeds in water in a colander. Discard of the orang-ey pumpkin insides. 
2. Put the seeds on the baking sheet and roast in oven for 30 minutes to dry them up.
3. Remove them from the sheet and place them in a bowl. 
4. Toss with desired amount of salt and olive oil
5. Place back onto baking sheet and into the oven for 10 minutes of until golden brown.

Sweet Halloween Pumpkin Seeds

1. Rinse the seeds in water in a colander. Discard of the orang-ey pumpkin insides. 
2. Put the seeds on the baking sheet and roast in oven for 30 minutes to dry them up.
3. Remove them from the sheet and place them in a bowl. 
4. Toss with a little bit of water, and desired amounts of cinnamon, brown sugar and raw sugar
5. Place back onto baking sheet and into the oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy!

It's That Time of Year Again: Halloween

So, it seems like the Halloween season is creeping up on us again!!

There is so much to tell you guys!

First order of business: volleyball

The volleyball season ended with a bang this Thursday.

Our team, the Redhawks, placed first in our FVCC 8th grade division, losing only on game during the regular season. We have been in first place for 4 years in a row!!

Second order of business: Halloween costumes

This year I went as a nerd, just using some of the cute things that I have in my closet.

I used my white sweater, plaid skirt, knee-high socks and mom's shoes. (I'm not wearing the socks in the costume.)

Kiren is a witch and Neil is a ninja. I'll have pictures of them for you after trick or treating.

Third order of business: Pumpkin Carvings

We carved our pumpkins today!!

My cat pumpkin

I did a cat, Neil did a scary face and Kiren did ghosts.


Otherwise, not much this week.
Here are some pictures:

Frozen grapes have always been my favorite treats. You just freeze and then eat! Neil  had added water to them, and I thought they looked cool. What do you guys think??

Just store bought pound cake, chocolate sauce and some raspberries. Yum!!!
 

Rohan's Baptism

Over the weekend, we all went to Rohan's baptism. Rohan is just around 6 months old, and he is the sweetest, most smiley baby I have ever met. I haven't seen him cry yet. After the baptism, we went to the reception, which was held at a building with a FAB-ulous view. So we had to have a photo shoot.



Later, when the party was winding down, Neil and his buddy Kenneth had some fun with the ceiling decor. Doesn't he look handsome??

Easter 2012

This Easter was alot of fun. Yesterday I set up an Easter egg hunt ouside for the kids. Neil won one of the special prizes. Everone got these really cut cookies from a bakery near our house. Today I was bored so Neil, Kiren and I made a chain that counts down the days to India (fyi we are on day 66.) Every day has a good deed and every ten days there is a piece of candy.

Sorry that it is on the side. I can't turn it.

Hope everone had a great Easter!!

Spring Break

As soon as spring break started, it seemed like the winter weather came back. It got a lot chillier over the weekend, so we are all cooped up indoors. This spring break is mostly prime time to shop for clothes for  India. This week has been fairly boring, but it allows us to catch up on things I've been slacking on. Like my blog. How have your weeks been going?

Ciao,
Yuna

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Every year I bring Valentines for my class, but this year I made them extra special. I made a crossword puzzle (which I thought was going to be extremely hard, but it wasn't, thanks to Discovery Puzzle Maker. Oh silly brain, you and your expectations.) using their nicknames. .Then I taped and rolled it up on a pencil like a scroll. They go with some erasers (cupcakes for the girls and mini frogs for the boys) I got at Target. I'll upload some pictures of them soon.

I am really excited to see The Hunger Games movies, because I loved books 1 and 2 in the series. Book three was good, but the ending was suck-ish. For books with so much adventure, I was wishing the ending was a bit better.

Well, thats all. Hope that all of your Januaries ( that is probably not spelled right, but I have better things to do than to look up how to spell the plural form of January. You know what it means.) were filled with excitement.

Oh!!! And I wanted to say that I made it to 1000 views about a week and a half ago. Thanks for all your continual support!

SNOW!!!!

Well, it's oficially winter, and there's no way to avoid it now.
 Today we got our first major snowfall. We were really excited, and as soon as we got home Neil and Kiren went out to play.  The roads are really slick and we are hoping it won't turn to ice. Maybe we'll get a day off from school tomorrow.....

Sorry about the window glare, but I refuse to exit the house.

My Neilu is Turning 10!!!

For those who don't know who Neil is, he is my baby brother. Well.... technically not a baby anymore (*cringe*). He is turning *10* tomorrow!
My Letter To Neil

Dearest Neilu,

      Happy Birthday Neil! 10 years! I can't believe it! You are the sweetest child I have ever met. You have so much love and care for others. So many of the other younger children look up to you. You put your mind to things, a trait that I have always envied. You never leave a task half-done. You look for the sun hiding behind the clouds and the rainbows after the rain. Even though you annoy me, smell up the bathroom with your 'boy-soap', and fight with me all the time, know that I love you sooo much.

                                                           Stay sweet, Darling,
                                                                              Your Big Sis, Yuna-corn/Yuna-brow