..SouthAsiaRocks..

 During the Diwali holidays, the kiddos had off almost a week of school.  So, us and some of our friends went on a getaway!  We went just a little outside of the city to another state and stayed at a fun resort.   Look at the view from our room!  Fun hunh?  Aashini and Diya got to play a lot with their buddies Sanjana and Sandeep :)  The kiddos had a great time on the outside play area :)  The boys spent most of their time playing sports! haha!  They played Badminton (pictured below), Tennis, Water Polo and Cricket at any chance they got! :)  They played ALL day long! haha!  The hotel also had an indoor play area.  They kids had a lot of fun at that one too :)  It had a crazy slide that was super steep and fast!  They usually ended up sliding across the floor  a few feet after they slid off :) haha!  We all tried the slide too :) haha!  There were fountains and water ever...

Wednesday was Diwali  :)  It's an exciting time of year.  For those in America, think of Christmas season... lights, people out shopping and buying things, stores (and markets) full of sales and fun things to buy for loved ones, special TV shows for the holidays, etc...  Diwali is a 5 day holiday but Wednesday (the 3rd day of Diwali) is what people usually refer to as "Diwali".   The first day of Diwali is called Dhantaras.  During this day people honor and worship Lakshmi (the goddess of Wealth).  Purchasing new things - especially in the form of a precious metals like gold or silver - is said to bring good luck and wealth to your family and household for the next year.  The more precious metals and more money you spend, the more luck and wealth you will have.   This is what one store in our little "mall" looked like (there are only a few stores in the mall open now - it's a new mall)... it was PACKED out!  I had so much fun in ...

We didn't do very much for Diwali this year, just hung out with our neighbors and watched their fireworks :) haha! (that's the cheap way to do it :) haha!) It looks like Christmas everywhere! Everyone had lights up everywhere. Our flat is the one with the pink lights :) One house down from us has just been re-built, so they celebrated like crazy this year. They bought tons of the huge sky firecrackers (like in the pic below). It's funny how anyone can buy those here. In America I think you have to have a permit and an firetruck or something around in order to have that kind of firework :) haha! Anyway, they had a whole show of fireworks! Our street was crazy this year (usually it's a little boring) :) Tusshar wasn't expecting this one :) haha! Adam and I took turns standing on our balcony and being downstairs (because the kiddos were upstairs asleep - yeah, they slept through all the crazy fireworks without even waking up once!!!) Here's a pic of a firewo...