Happy Birthday Wogs!

Happy Birthday Paul! Today is Paul's 31st birthday. We decided to throw a big bash at the new place to celebrate, well, the new place, my 30th birthday and Paul's 31st birthday. Paul and I had a nice morning. We woke up and decided to go to for breakfast at Tertulia. Now, I had prepared the appetizers and salads for the party the day before. I even baked a carrot cake as well as a coconut cake for the party. I left the cakes to cool on the kitchen island and was planning to ice the cakes after breakfast. However, we are watching Maggie this weekend and forgot that she is a little taller than Lily. When we returned home from breakfast, we witnessed a disaster in the kitchen. Maggie had managed to eat 1/4 of each layer from the coconut and carrot cakes respectively. It is still under debate as to whether Lily convinced Maggie to steal the cakes. So, it was back to baking quickly before the party. You cannot have a party without a proper birthday cake! It was a lovely evening in which all of our friends came together to celebrate with us.

Here I am lighting the candles on Paul's birthday cake! Uh oh...I do not have 31!

I tried to have Paul blow out the candles after we sang "Happy Birthday" but I accidentally put the cake under the fan . . . so the candles blew out before Paul could get to them.

Paul enjoys a slice of carrot and coconut cake, but he says carrot cake is still the winner.

"Hey, Bindi can you cut a smaller piece?" Ha! (She cuts the tiniest pieces of cake!)

Mieke, Kris, Dieter, Tomas and Ann-Sofie having a good time!

Matt contemplates whether Raymond will solve the Rubix cube tonight.

Ann-Sofie, me, Mieke and Bindi clowning around . . . The night winds down and we had some last laughs with Loveena and Jason.

Maggie and Lily nap after their exciting, exhausting cake thieving day!

Happy Birthday Paul!

Disha Institute

On each Monday afternoon, I go with Ann-Sofie to the Disha Institute to play with the children and help teach them some basic English. Today, we decided to bake them cake as a treat for studying very hard on their exams this past week. I left home at 10:30 am in order to bake 40 little cakes and help prepare the day's lesson.


Here is our first batch of cupcakes. Notice how small the oven/microwave is in comparison to those at home.

Ann-Sofie holding the cupcakes . . .

This is the Belgian children's cookbook we used for the cake recipe, it is so easy to use even I am able follow Flemish instructions . . .

By 2 pm the cakes were finished as well as flashcards we prepared to teach the children European and Asian geography. Off we go to Disha . . .

We arrive at Disha and quickly realize that the children are quite tired from exams and do not feel like learning geography. So we instead decide to teach them the Makerena dance.

After the Makerena dance, we go outside to play musical chairs to, of course, the Makerena. Here we are explaining the instructions to the game.
And they are off . . .
Vijay does not race to his chair fast enough, so he is the first to remove his chair . . .
A little one watches the big children have fun playing musical chairs . . .
Since I was taking photos, Laxmi helps me pause the music while the game is in play.
The children are quite hungry from musical chairs, so we decide to take a 5 minute "cake" break. They all enjoy their little treats.

After the snack is finished, they decide to teach us cricket. We played cricked for about 45 minutes, and then head home for the evening, leaving behind the exhausted children to enjoy their dinner.