What's In A Name?

Apparently a lot. V is into "Pretend play" a lot these days and he expects every one in the house to call him by his 'charecter' name the day he is playing it. God forbid we call him Vikram. We will then be given a short lecture on why he is what he is that day and so we should not call him Vikram if we need him for something. Thought I would share some of the names/charecters for your entertainment :)

Police Officer Man Vikram (Do not ask me why/what)

Pirate Boat Vikram (what is wrong with me just calling him Pirate Vikram?)

Yoda Vikram

The Stig (From the show Top Gear on BBC)

Karate Master

Chef Vikram (This is my favorite for obvious reasons :))

Truck Driver

And a recent addition. This might be the weirdest thing:). Patient Vikram. Oh yeah, he made me the doctor and him the patient. Here's some proof for ya'll;)

Missed Oppurtunity

I was at our local outlet mall today. What else would I do on a long weekend ;). I was trying on some shoes when this girl came by and says while passing by, "Hi, just wanted to say hi because I saw you at Nordstrom Rack yesterday and thought it was funny I see you again in Saks today". Before my "Hi, how are you" ended she walked away. She was a desi too and probably felt weird at herself for coming and saying hi.

Now here I am kicking myself for not talking more to her. It happened so fast that I was trying to collect my thoughts before she left. Dang, should have had a conversation and made friends with her, considering I have none in this desert and it definitely looked like we both have similar taste in clothes/shoes;). Oh well, may be I will see her in Nordstrom Rack again :).

Four Years - A Truckin' Birthday

V turned 4 today. We had a small party for him at local Imagination Avenue. It was super fun. I tried to do a truck theme this time. Hand made the truck invitations since I couldn't find anything that was to my liking. For the favor bag, I made some crayons at home using candy molds. They are pretty easy to make. It takes time to peel all the paper of the crayons :). Using a double boiler, melted all the crayons, poured them into molds and then off to the freezer for 30 minutes they go and you get this:

If you want to do this, make sure you get crayola crayons or any good ones. I did one batch with Crayola and one with a pack I picked up from local dollar store. The dollar store ones have less wax and so they came out a little "muddy" and took a long time to melt. Crayola ones were fast and easy to make. For the cement truck, I melted silver color crayons and used a brush to paint the cement bin and wheels :). Boys got small spider man and bob the builder bags with crayons, truck and candy. Girls got some fun flower bags with crayons, horse carriage and candy. I did think about keeping trucks in their bag too but I know these kids and they would have hated me for it :).

V had a lot of fun and was psyched about the the party and the fact that everyone was there for him. I made a truck cake from scratch. Last year I cheated and used cake mix from box :), but this year I slaved into making a chocolate cake from scratch and did a 3D truck cake using small and big bread loaf pans. I also made some chocolate cars at home so as to make it look a bit like transporter truck :). Wheels are oreo cookies and the cables and exhausts are twizzlers and head lights are candy :). It took 5 hours but I am so impressed with it and so is V:).



I made individual car cakes (Using a cars cup cake pan) for kids. I let the kids add the icing and sprinkles :)


He also received a package via FedEx yesterday and the fact that FedEx guy came to our house got him so excited. Prabu's parents sent him a gift. you can see the excitement in his face opening it :)


It was a fun day with lot of family and friends. Here is my little brat :)

Can You Make Me A Truck Momma?

V's birthday is coming up in a week. Last year was a Fire Truck themed party (Not because he was obsessed with fire trucks back then, but just because I did not have time to plan it better). This year, I decided to do it a bit better and see what he is really into. Boy oh Boy! He is into trucks. Not monster trucks or fire trucks. The big rigs, Semi trailer trucks, Flat bed trucks and car transporter truck. Mind you he gave me a lesson on those differences and apparently bike transporter trucks are not as fun as car transporters. So I decided to do a truck themed party. I looked all over Google and it's mother for anything truck related which would be useful for a kid's birthday party. Nada. You see, no one is as weird as my brat so it's hard:).

So I decided to make the invitations myself. Took me close to 2 weeks to come up with half way decent prototype. And another week to actually make them (Cutting head, body, wheels and cables is hard work ya'll). Here is the sample (The pic you see on the truck is V holding steering wheel. It's a cropped shot of him at the pumpkin picking)



Another reason it got delayed was because I got distracted and ended up making him a "garage" out of cardboard.



I think by now V figured I can "make" things. So today we were at the toy store and he saw a yellow transporter truck and played with it for a bit. Before going to bed he says, "Can you make me a transporter truck momma, please?". I told him I will see what I can do and that I am not sure if I can make a truck. But what the heck. I had the cardboard and a glue gun. I can't wait to see his reaction :). Presenting a weird (a bit crappy too probably but I ain't complaining much) transporter truck (made with some cardboard, steering wheel, ribbon spools, pencils and some hot glue). I will let him pick which cars he wants to use in it or I can make some new cars ;).