Valentine's 2014!

We had a jam-packed Valentine's this year!  We celebrated with Ba with some yummy Edible Arrangements she brought!  We had two back-to-back Valentine's parties: Krish's play group party at home and then his class Valentine's party right after that.  After his class party, we went next door to Taco Diner for dinner, and Krish bumped into his classmate, Nicole, there.  She was so excited to see him; it was adorable!  Neil and I tease that Krish had a more festive Valentine's than anyone, complete with an evening date and all!

Valentine's with Ba!

Boys enjoying yummy Edible Arrangements fruit with Ba!

Our Play Group Valentine's Party!

Martha Stewart-inspired cupcake display!

Mamas and kids distributing Valentines

Handmade mailboxes for the kids, made by their mamas!

Group picture time!
Luke, Krish, Cameron, Reese, Camilla, Soumia, and Jack

Huddling around for some Valentines heart candy!

Party favors!

Krish's homemade crayon heart Valentines!  He was so proud
to give them to his friends!

Beautiful long-stem roses from Neil along with Valentines decor!

Krish's Primrose Class Valentine's Party and dinner with Nicole after!

Krish's class enjoying their party snacks and treats!

Best buds, Krish and Siddharth, and their brothers!

Valentine's dinner with his classmate, Nicole! Cuties!

Mama's photo shoot!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Krish's Valentine's Craft Projects! (Mama is a happy Mama!)

Since February was initially a lot colder than January, we stayed indoors more and had more time to work on arts and crafts projects.  In fact, it absolutely made my day when Krish voluntarily asked if he could do a painting art project one cold afternoon while we were at home.  I was thrilled and set up a paint station for him right away!  He decided to make a Valentine's painting for Daddy while he was at work.  We used a pinterest-insipired idea we used last year to shape an empty toilet-paper roll into a heart-shaped stamp.  Krish created many paintings using the heart stamp, finger paint, and watercolors that afternoon, and he looked like he really enjoyed it!

Krish hard at work on his art project for Daddy while...

Arjun enjoyed one of his favorite snacks, homemade guacamole!

This year, we also wanted to make our Valentines at home, so we used another pinterest idea to make heart-shaped crayons in silicon, heart cupcake molds with all our old crayons stubs!  Krish really liked this project and watching him enjoy arts and crafts so much really puts a smile on my face!  Besides being fun to work on and neat to turn one everyday, household item into a completely new creation, it seemed to bring Krish lots of pride to have handmade his Valentines for his friends all by himself at home!  He is all about doing things all by himself these days!  My little boy is becoming such a big boy now!

Krish peeling the wrapper off his old crayon.

Now he's breaking it into smaller pieces to make colorful
heart crayons.

Mama wants to get in on the project too!

Love doing crafts with my little man!

Colorful crayon pieces in the molds before they go into the oven.

Baked at 230 degrees for 15 minutes.

My big boy removing the crayons from the molds all by
himself after about 10 minutes of cooling.

Mama then made some dichromatic ones later that night.

Finished product!

Krish's completed Valentines for his play group buddies
and neighbors!
He even wrote their names and his name on the back!

What a wonderful project we got to work on together!  I'm so happy that Krish is interested in craft projects (in addition to sports), and I get the chance to do my hobby with my little man!

La Villita Park

Since February has been so cold and snowy, we were very fortunate to get some milder winter weather in January to enjoy the outdoors.  Almost every weekend the temperature was in the high 50s or low 60s and just perfect.  When Nani and Tricia Masi came to visit, we took the boys across the street to one of their favorite parks: the La Villita Elementary School play ground!  It is only available to play in on the weekends or after 6 pm on the weekdays since the students use it during the day.  Krish had a blast riding his bike there while Arjun enjoyed being pushed on his bike.  Krish and Tricia Masi particularly had fun sliding down the big, steep slide!

Arjun had fun climbing on the fort with Nani!

In the evening after the boys went to sleep, Daddy and Mama enjoyed a night out and delicious homemade Italian meal made by newly engaged Kim and Vishal!

Teddy Bear Park and Patrizio's!

He was so excited to see this giant teddy bear cub.  I feel like he was saying,
"I love Teddy!"

A couple weekends ago, Nani and Tricia Masi came to visit, and we enjoyed a beautiful day outdoors at the Teddy Bear Park in Highland Park.  It is a scenic park that runs along Turtle Creek with three giant teddy bear sculptures, a Mama and two cubs, located at the other end of a quaint wooden bridge that crosses the creek.  The mansions of Highland Park line the creek, and it is a picturesque hidden gem in the city of Dallas.  I stumbled upon this place while reading one of Dallas' Children magazines ages ago and was excited to finally take the family there, especially since Arjun loves, loves, loves teddy bears!  I am hoping to take his one year old pictures there too one of these days with all the homemade decor I made for his first birthday party.  

As evidenced by the pictures and video, Arjun of course loved the park and teddy bear sculptures, and I'm sure he looks forward to going back again soon!  He is such a cute little bear himself!

After enjoying the sculptures, the boys played with the dogs at the park and tossed the football around with Daddy and Tanya Masi.  After Nani and Tricia Masi left to go back to Houston, the rest of us stopped by Highland Village to eat some yummy Italian food and pizza on the patio at Patrizio's.  This is where we discovered Arjun's love for pizza as well!

Super Bowl XLVIII

This year, Krish had his first real Super Bowl experience as a huge sports fan, and we only wished it would have been a more exciting game for him to watch.  He was rooting for the Broncos, so good thing he went to bed at half time!  Nonetheless, his anticipation leading up to the big game was exciting for the whole family.

Ever since he watched the Cowboys game at the stadium, he's been asking Daddy and I to tell him play-by-play "stories" of specific games before he goes to bed.  For instance, he's asked to hear the Cowboys vs. Eagles game countless times, and Daddy always spins it at the end to have the Cowboys win.  (Recently, Mommy has been asked to give a play-by-play of a Dallas Stars hockey game!  Given that I know nothing about hockey, I make up most of it but try to keep the terminology as accurate as possible.  One of these days now, he's going to know more than me and figure it all out!)

Back to football, Daddy always starts his stories out as: "Football Sunday: Game of the Week!"  So Krish had been chanting for the past week, "Superbowl Sunday: Game of the Year!"  And since we all like Peyton Manning, Krish had been excited to cheer for the Broncos.  Fortunately, he didn't take their loss as hard as Daddy takes Cowboys losses, and the overall experience seemed highly enjoyable for him!

Go Broncos!

Our Little Sports Fan!

Since this past NFL football season, Krish has taken an immense interest in competitive and professional sports!  Daddy couldn't be prouder of his little boy!  Although football is his favorite, he also loves golf, basketball, baseball, hockey, ice skating, and even cricket!  He is not only into the sports, but his favorite teams as well.  Of course he is a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan, Dallas Mavericks fan (Mommy sometimes tries to swing him in the direction of the Rockets), Texas Rangers fan, and even a Dallas Stars fan (ever since he started ice skating).  He loves to root for Daddy's favorite teams which is how he became Dallas sports' number one fan.  He even saw a cricket match at Ba and Dada's house and asked Ba who Dada would be rooting for: India of course!  Thus, he is now India's cricket team's number one fan as well!  I asked him if he was ready to go home and the response I got was, "No, I'm watching the cricket match" (!?!)  I cannot believe how big of a sports fan he has become at such a young age.  It is impressive!  During the holidays I even asked him if he wanted to come toy shopping, and he said he would rather watch the Dallas Cowboys game all by himself.  Daddy wasn't even home!
Since he has become such a huge sports fan, Daddy and Dada have enjoyed taking Krish to watch the live games.  So far, he has been to a Texas Rangers game over the summer, a Dallas Cowboys game (final clincher agains the Eagles), and a Dallas Mavericks game.  He had the time of his life at every one of them!  He was even sick at the Cowboys game but refused to leave early.  Now, he is asking to go watch a Dallas Stars hockey game!

Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles, AT&T Stadtium: December 29, 2013 to claim the NFC East Division Title

C'mon Cowboys!!

Sock monkey Rina Masi made for Krish to take
to the game!

Dallas Mavericks vs. Detroit Pistons, American Airlines Center: Sunday, January 26, 2014

Enjoying the Mavs game with Dada and Daddy!

Go Mavs!

What is also impressive about his passion towards sports is that he asks and knows a significant number of players' and teams' names.  He even wants to know their jersey numbers!  He knows every single NFL football team name and is working on their divisions.  He is now learning all the basketball team names as well.  His favorite football players are of course all the Cowboys: Tony Romo, Dez Bryant, Demarco Murray, Jason Witten, Miles Austin, Demarcus Ware, and Cole Beasley!  He also likes Peyton Manning, thanks to his parents, and is looking forward to cheering for the Broncos during the Super Bowl!  His favorite Mavericks player is of course Dirk Nowitzki, and his favorite Rangers player is Adrian Beltre.

Of course we know what theme to expect for Krish's upcoming 4th birthday party: Dallas Cowboys and Football!  He couldn't be more excited!