~~ Nitya's Blog ~~

You wonder and wonder all the way
When will that day come called your Birthday

You wait and wait for it to come
Those days you feel so glum

You know your birthday will come - no doubt

When the wind blows, you feel your candles blown out
You look all around for the cake, but cakes have to be baked

But now everyone will say WoW
Because its your Happy Birthday right NoW!

Bindu Aunty had us all do a group dance for the Maitry Onam function. Here I am with my buddies, enjoying Mazha Mani Mukile....

Every year, all Yahoos get together and have fun at their summer party. This year's party was called Camp Yahoo. My family drove to Camp Yahoo, with the family of my friend, Archa. Archa's mommy, Bindu Aunty also works at Yahoo with my dad. Once we got there, my dad registered us and all of us got wrist bands. On our way in, we were very surprised to see a man who was 14 feet tall. He actually was not that tall. He was just walking on stilts tied to his feet.

We walked into a big building which carried a lot of food. There was a little mountain inside the building, with bumps on them for climbing. My dad & I stood in line to check out rock climbing. We waited & waited for our turn, but when we reached the front of the line, they stopped the rock climbing because something was not working right. So we went back and had our food. We ate pasta and mushroom and fruits and corn and corn bread. We also had dumplings which I enjoyed the most. Then we took part in a game of bingo. And I won!

We went out of the building for some real fun. My mom noticed some bubbles in the air and showed them to us. Some of the bubbles were as huge as a suitcase. It was cute to see Anika baby sitting in Dileep Uncle's arms and trying to catch the bubbles. We then got some attractive popsicles. We could gobble up whatever we saw because they were all free. Chinnu and Archa and Anika(Archa's little sister) and I got popcicles and ice creams.

Futher along, we saw an animal balloon maker. Archa wanted a dragon fly. I picked a butterfly. Anika got a kitty cat adn Chinnu got a puppy. Mine stayed the most, without popping. We then got into a line, waiting for face painting. An artist gave me a surprisingly beautiful flower that was blue and had green leaves. My dad had his face painted with a fierce dinosaur, which chewed when my dad opened his mouth. Anika got a heart in her hand and Chinnu got a rainbow.

There were many stalls there, where you can play games and earn prizes. I played tic tac toe and won two white Bengal tigers. The fair was coming to a close and so they started giving away the prices for free. We joyfully got as many as we could hold. We dropped Archa's family at their house and drove back to ours with lot of baloons. It was a day of great fun and I can't wait for next year's Yahoo summer party!!.

Dear Appu Cheta,
Acha, Amma, Chinnu & I wish you a very happy B'Day. I wish you could come here to America one day and see how it is like. And I hope we wont fight when you come. Make the best wish you can and I hope it will come true. I hope you are having a wonderful time there with Nimmi. I really enjoyed reading your blog, but did not see anything new. Hope you will write often. Here is a poem I wrote for your Birthday. It is about the stars.

Stars, When I see you up there, it is quite a sight.
Stars, When I see you up there on this beautiful night.
Stars, Don't you fall to the ground
Stars, That will make quite a sound.
Stars, When I see you up there, you are always there for me.
Stars, When I see you up there, you always protect me.

Love, Nitu.

Here is me singing on Talents Day at my school.

My sweet little sister Chinnu singing the Alphabets song

The largest turtles don't walk on land. These are Sea Turtles. They swim slow. Divers find them under the ocean, sleeping below ship wrecks. Turtles are reptiles. Long ago, most turtles used to be on land. Their shells became flatter and their legs became flippers to make swimming easier. That happened about a million years ago. Not all turtles can hide their heads inside their shells. Leatherback turtles are huge. They can grow as big as a bath tub. Males almost never come out of the water. The females only lay eggs in dry holes. Sometimes, the eggs bounce because they are rubbery. The babies don't come out of the hole until it is night. Sea turtles don't cry when they are sad. They only cry when they want to take salt out of their eyes.

Lions are the second largest Cats. Lions live in all places in the Northern Hemisphere. There are two types of Lions - Asian and African. The Lion is the only Cat which does not have spots or stripes. Groups of Lions are called Prides. Females hunt the food and the male eats it first. New borns are only about three pounds. The females live longer than males. Male lions have mane, but females don't.

Me singing Swati Tirunal Kriti.

My favorite pet is a horse because it can run fast and it has a beautiful mane.
Their colors are very pretty and their babies are so cute.They eat apples and carrots.
They love to sleep in hay. They have mane, easy to comb. They have hoofs, easy to clean.
They don't smell bad. They have short fur, beautiful ears and strong legs.
They have nice tails. Horses are so so NICE.. and FUN...!!!!

This Christmas break, we decided to go on a road trip to Las Vegas, Death Valley and Lake Tahoe. We packed up and loaded our van. Me and my little sister packed up too. My uncle and aunt were visiting and there was also my cousin sister, Chellu. My great uncle and family also joined us in the trip. They came in another car. It was a 9 hour drive. We stayed at a house in Vegas. When we got to the house it was chilly outside.We stayed there for 2 days.

There was even a pool at the house ! The very first day we swam and swam until 7.00,and then spent some fun time in the hot tub.

Then we went to see the big hotels in the Vegas Strip. I was amazed to see the dancing fountains in front of the Bellagio. We took lots of pictures. The next day we went to see the lions at MGM. The lion cubs - they were so cute. We enjoyed watching them play with their trainer and with the balls and toys. In the evening while the older people went for a show, me and my mommy and sister spent time at the Shark Reef aquarium in the hotel called Mandalay Bay.My great uncle and aunt also came with us.

The next day we we went to Death Valley. we got a small hotel. In every room there were two beds. Playing in the sand dunes was so much fun, but I was running so fast and fell down on the sand stones. It hurt a little, but I did not cry, because I am brave and not a cry baby. While we were playing, the full moon started rising up. It was so beautiful, we started to take pictures.

The next day we went to Lake Tahoe. There we went to a snow place! but there was only hard snow! So we went to another place were kids can play. My dad rented a snow mobile and we all took turns riding it. It was so much fun. Then we rented tobogans and went up a small hill and came sliding down. It was awesome. My little sissy rode with my dad in a tobogan. I went alone like a big girl. Then we went to a restaurant on the way and had hot soup....which was yummmy.... After playing in the snow some more we drove back home.

I felt very good and happy taking this trip because when I had school, I had to work a lot. All I did on the trip was play and have fun. I wish I do not have to go back to school at all.