Turtles at Mahendra Prakash

While we were in Udaipur we stayed at the Mahendra Prakash Hotel. There were three reasons why we really liked this hotel. Reason number one was that they served us really good banana lassies and Evan got fresh chocolate milkshakes (although the first one he got had banana in it!).

The second reason was the pool. It was pretty big, blue and had cool water in it. It was hot in Rajasthan so Mom and Dad liked swimming in the pool too!

The best reason was the turtles! There were three of them living in the hotel's yard. We think they were a Mama turtle and her 2 babies. We had fun playing with them and even had some our stuffed animals, Newt and Nibbles riding them!

The turtles were a nice break from walking around and looking at temples and palaces. There are lots of temples and palaces in India!

Indian Block Printing

We learned about Indian Block printing in a town called, Sanganer, near Jaipur. The block printing man at the company, Sakshi is very famous. His picture is in the "Lonely Planet" travel book!

Block printing is how colourful fabric has been made in India for a very long time. The fabric-makers use cotton and silk. The dye colours they use are natural. Colours are made from things like: buttermilk (yellow), banana leaves (green), sugarcane (red) and metal rust (black).

The artists carve pictures and designs in wooden blocks. There are many different designs! Evan chose 2 elephants, and Audrey chose a peacock. You dip the block in a pad of ink, and then press it on the cloth. You can do this several times with different blocks on the same spot to add differnent colors. The fabric can then be dyed any color as well!

Check out our finished artwork. These are now framed and hanging in our bedroom here in Noida! Pretty cool, huh?

Easter at the Embassy

We got to go to the US Embassy in New Delhi for an Easter Egg Hunt! The Embassy is part of America so while we were there it was almost like being back home. There was even an American flag flying. Evan and Audrey each had a basket for collecting eggs. We saw kids there from all over the US. We got to play games with them all morning. In the Easter Egg hunt we even found a special golden egg so we got a special prize (a calico bunny rabbit!). We each ran in an egg carry race, a sack race and a three legged race. Mom and Dad had to run in the three-legged races with us. One of the best parts was the frosted sugar cookies... they reminded us of Quack's bakery back in Austin. We like those cookies. Mmm.

Happy Easter!

April Fools?

It may be April Fools Day in the United States, but in India it's just the first day of the new school year. Audrey is now starting Class III (3rd Grade) and Evan is starting Class II (2nd Grade). Woo-Hoo!

The school year in India runs from April - March.