Kids learning Bicycle

A couple of days from now is our kids 2nd birthday for the year - no, we are not Chinese nor Koreans, who have 2 birthdays in a year - but it's a special one for our kids - what we call:
'the family birthday'.

It's not the day they were born (which is celebrated as their regular birthday), but this is a special day in our life, the day they came home.
We celebrate it each year as a family.

This year, we decided to gift them a bicycle each, as they have outgrown their tri-cycle and have been wanting one for several months now.
Theo's cycle ended up being a notch too high for him ... and he was struggling to get on with it. Fortunately for him, one of our family friends in the church, called up and said that they had a cycle which was not used much, and so they decided to give it to Theo - not knowing how disappointed Theo was for not being able to ride his.

Here, you see them riding their bicycles - took them a day or two perhaps to get on with it.
Theo had a few falls - but he is a natural risk-taker & tries a lot of stunts already ... and that's the only way he's going to learn.

Pictures from Goa

Scenery enroute to Goa at Karwar, Goa-Karnataka Border

Kids enjoying at the beach - it was our typical outing every evening from 5-7 pm)

The Quiet beaches in Goa awaiting the tourist season, even as the sun goes down!

Sun setting at the beach in Betal Batim












Lush green scene around Carmen's mums place





Kids with Granny!







No, believe me when I say, they are NOT
praying!
Carmen is giving a demo to her mum on how to use a cell phone, as the landline can get disrupted quite often in this remote place.

Caught them napping :-)

Off to Goa

While you read this, we are either busy packing for our annual trip to Goa or on the road or have already reached - depending on when you look at this.
It's the kids break from school for the Pooja holidays for the next 10 days.
I must admit, it's one of the pleasant times to visit Goa - not too hot.

We will be back on the 16th evening.
The kids are so looking forward to this trip .. pray that the late monsoons will not play spoilsport.
As we near Goa, we would be driving through the ghats, which is prone to landslide this time of the year.

One of the big stretches enroute to Goa is the NH-4, on which we will be for nearly 5 hrs., has a bad stretch for about 20 kms. which really slows things down ... with the roadwork under construction for a flyover, it's like a boat being tossed on the waves.
But I hear that the work now stands complete - hooray!
That would mean the trip would be cut short by approx. 30-45 mts.

We are hoping to leave by 6 am from Bangalore, so we could reach home in Goa by dusk.