Homemade cupcakes, handmade gifts and a flash party

There is something unique and special about receiving an hand crafted gift how much ever small or simple it may be.  To know that, it is created specially for you  with lot of care and thoughtfulness  makes you feel special and loved.  

My daughter who is very creative makes such gifts for her friends on their birthdays. They get together to make homemade cakes , simple montages, collages , scrap book etc.,

Only this time it was her turn and what a surprise it was!

  This would be her last year at school and so we asked her many times if she wanted to throw a  party for her friends on her birthday. She was clear that she did not want  a party but wanted to donate money to an oldage home run by Ramana Maharishi trust which she visited last year @ Hosur.  So, we decided to have a quiet family celebration. 

 Her bro  who woke her up at the stroke of 12  was the first to wish her. I and her dad woke her up early in the morning at 6 to the aroma of homemade chocolate cup cakes.It did not match her Melanie's aunty's Chocolate haven cakes which have fondants and are very expensive but the cup cakes were edible and were gone in a trice and yes she loved it.  Wishes and blessings  from her grand parents, grand aunts, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends etc followed...... all called  her over phone  except her close friend of 12 years who studied with her from Grade 1.

                                     Home baked eggless whole wheat cup cakes


As is tradition,  we decided to have a temple visit and a family outing and dinner.  We started the day with a visit to the temple.  At the temple, we paid for the 'annadanam' for oct 2nd  and drove back home.  The outing was planned for evening  since she had weekend coaching classes to attend in the noon. She also had loads to study for her term exams and her coaching homework to do. That is how our weekends have been this year, very inactive socially, thanks to her board exam preparations.  we have no weekend outings or travel schedules planned as her study plans are hectic and the school works even during vacations. 

 We returned home to get into our  weekend routine when I got a call from her best friend V, enquiring if we were at home.  The phone call alerted me and I  immediately started my party work thinking that i will have 2 of her friends for lunch.

30 minutes from then, not 2 but  12 of her friends surprised  us with their presence.  The party began with  birthday wishes, birthday bump, a beautifully made biscuit cake  by her friend V and a handmade timeline book  with colored handmade sheets, lgifts and lot of gupshup.

                 

It was a  surprise for her because it not only included her school mates but also two of her close apartment friends. The two girls had co-ordinated with her school friends to give her a birthday surprise.

The whole house turned into a flash party zone with 12 teens.  All these while, my husband and I were thinking how to entertain the children, i was prepared to handle 6 but suddenly preparing for 12 would need some planning and to boot it was almost lunch time.  Soon after, two more of her school mates who stayed close by came in.

We now had to take the call. 14 teens cannot be entertained suddenly for a  party at home  and so we told my daughter to host the party at a nearby Chinese restaurant and forego her coaching class.

What was  supposed to be a quiet family celebration turned out to be huge party for my dot who turned 17 yesterday, an unplanned party at that.   A day for her to remember and for us too. 

Anything  I write about this 17 year old whom i have known for extra 9 months, and you will be reading  a proud mama's thoughts, I will spare you that and rest my post here:)

 My dot( in pink and white)  and  her best friend of 12 years V( in blue)  on their school sports day Dec 2004 . Chief guest Sania Mirza soon after  her Wimbledon junior win.

The scrap book which has her time line from the year of her birth till date.  There are lovely quotes about her , and describes her values  along with printouts of her photos taken from her birth. totalling 12 pages. 

                   

BTW, in my previous post, my hit stats should read 1,30,000+, By mistake i added an extra zero( i have edited it now) . Hope you guys overlooked that.

(will ETA cake photos)

Celebrating .................:)

 YOU ….........yes…. You, my blog readers on my blogoversary.

Somewhere in 2007 when I signed into blogger.com, I was a total novice. I simply signed in and started fidgeting around. I have already written about it in my blog history in my 100^th post. It was around Sept 2009 that i took to active blogging,  What started off  playfully  into something which I was clueless about  has reached 4 years.

For somebody whose enthusiasm or passion for anything in life  is only for a short term of 6 months or may be an year,  4 years  is too long a time. I am surprised, i have  sustained a hobby or interest for so long:)

This has been possible all thanks to you people  who are veteran bloggers who have  made interesting and more posts with many blogoversaries behind you. Without your  Motivation, inspiration and support  this  might not have been possible. So, last September 25^th  with 243 posts( excluding my cookery posts and my children’s creative photo posts) , I clock 4 years of active blogging.  

This blog, like I have mentioned before in my 100th post,  is my cocoon of warmth and so you will never find any negative posts or rants( may be 1 like the recent chennai express post). This was written initially for my children, which later drifted into other areas.  It is more of a happy space which I hope my children will  read 15 or 20 years from now and I hope the blog will serve as a  mulligatawny soup for their souls in their later years.   That  was the purpose. ( No chicken soup for we are veg :))

There have been days when words and thoughts have flowed easily, sometimes it has been hard to put a thought into words, some thoughts  are still languishing as drafts,  sometimes there would be zero motivation but somehow I have managed to push through and  post atleast 5 posts in a month on an average( except during vacations).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has encouraged with motivating words and  propagated positive vibes through your  intelligent comments. It means me a lot to me  that you take time out of your busy schedules, visit my space and leave interesting and insightful comments. I have already mentioned my lovely blog friends here in this post. Many of them have quit blogging  or have paused  for a while or are irregular. Meanwhile I would like to mention again a few of them  from that list and add a few names to the list whom I have known through blogposts.

Sowmya: Soulspace her blog, is a warm place I love going to. Her forte is storytelling and so one will find more of stories here in this  space along with some heartwarming posts. She is my first follower and so very special. Thank you, Sowmya.

Rama of (Time, time...I have all the time):Apart from armchair traveling through her posts, I love the  positive and uplifting posts she writes.  The stories she shares have depth and  are realistic.   Thank you, Rama.

Swapna Raghu Sanand: When I read her posts, I find her to be a mirror image of me -  a combo of traditional values  and modern values. A mom who records memories for her son through her lovely blog "petals" amongst many other labels like movie, book reviews and all that happens or affects her. Thank you, Swapna.

 Ramesh( Business musings): is a scholar blogger who writes business news much before popular media reports. The business  related posts he makes are interesting and beautifully articulated. His opinions on business issues are what I would like to call “ Business with human face”. Thank you Ramesh.

Shilpa Garg of( Rose is a rose is a rose): For me, she is Blogsville’s Wordsmith.  The ease with she writes short stories in Drabble 100, fiction 55er  or spine poetry at shortnotice speaks about her creativity and word flair.  She is another blog mommy who writes heartwarming posts, which  I am sure , her son will love reading them when he grows up. Her committment and dedication to challenges amaze me. Thank you, shilpa.

SG of shoot the breeze: is a blogger again who writes posts  that are news to me, most of them from the other side of the globe.  His posts will make you introspect and reflect on simple issues which you might not even consider worth giving a thought. His blog thoughts are worth pondering about. Thank you, SG.

And  also a huge thank you to Shachi, Renu, Anu  and all those who have found my blog worthy of blogrolling. Thank you for your support. Hope to interact more regularly with you all.

Thanks are due to indiblogger and Blogadda too. The prompts  that you throw up often helps me to dislodge all those sweet memories which are hidden in the crevices of my heart, Lest they be forgotten.  And many of your contests also help me to  introspect and some  help me to think creatively. 

Last but not the least my passive readers without whose support, the hit statistics of my blog would not have reached 1,30,000+    

It also feels nice to see my thoughts and views are picked up by search engines and linked to their sites. My post on Tranquebar was linked in  the Neemrana hotel site and they had the courtesy to inform me.  My previous post on  Ganesh utsav celebrations was picked up by a local ezine. One of my photos( narthelai) was used  in a leading tamil fortnightly. ‘Mangayar  malar’   in  their recent issue of 2013( 1-15). They must have found it on google images. 

 Apart from being therapeutic,  Blogging for me  has been a huge learning curve not just with writing but also technically. I can diversify  and make more improvements but I fear it will lose its warmth.    

 Thanks for the support People. I am honored to have you all here and hope to continue the journey with you all.